Jesus' invisible return

poppers

I know the JWs claim that Jesus returned invisibly in 1914 (?) - what is this based on? How can they state that he returned; I mean if it was an INVISIBLE return then they are only stating a belief, right? Someone please educate this never-been-a-dub. It seems to me a lot hinges on this particular thing, and if it's only a belief how can they claim it really happened?

poppers

No takers, huh?

fullofdoubtnow

It's to do with a calculation they made from Daniels prophecy about the 7 times. According to them, the Gentile Times ended in 1914, and Jesus returned invisibly in the heavens to set up his messianic kingdom. It's a complex explanation, and a bit nonsensical really, as it is based on a wrong date for the destruction of Jerusalem, but there is some information on it at this link.

http://www.quotes-watchtower.co.uk/1914.html

I hope that helps.

poppers

So where was Jesus during that time prior to his "invisible return?" - and if it's an invisible return then they can't claim they actually KNOW that he returned, only believe it so based on biblical statements interpreted to reflect a BELEIF. It just doesn't make any logical sense.

hamsterbait

In Matthew 24 Jesus says not to believe those who say that "he is in the inner chambers" (meaning only the "initiates" know he is here).

Jehovah's Witlesses claim only they know he is here. Since they conform to the warning we should not follow them, any more than those warned against in Luke 21:8. Again it is only the witlesses that claim the due time is at hand for the end of the world.

Russell drew the "invisible" return out of his conjuring hat in 1874, after the predicted second coming in 1873 failed to materialize.

Amazingly, Rutherford claimed that the "WOrld has Ended" in the 20s, the end having come in 1914, invisibly to most people then alive.

The WTBTS claims that Babylon the Great fell in 1918, this must also be invisible, as the churches are still very much alive, and doing far more acts of christian charity every day than the WT in all its 140 years.

HB

GeddyLee

Actually there is more to it than that. They were actually proclaiming twenty years prior, that 1914 would be end of this system, and Jesus would come and destroy the nations. When nothing happened, they said he actually did come, but no one saw him, it was actually an invisible return. They changed their teaching to fit their nonsensical false propehcy.

Honesty

Deluded minds are prone to invisible sightings.

LtCmd.Lore

For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who don’t believe, no explanation is possible - An Old Saying

They don't need proof, they believe it and that's it. Even though it seems stupid to you and I that they think he came invisibly even though there is no proof. I think it just boils down to the fact that they WANT to believe it.

Norm

Well, imagine what a shock it was for his followers when Christ died.
But soon someone got the bright idea that he wasn't actually dead and the
rest of the story we know. The superstitious mind don't need reality. Reality
are only annoying and bothersome.

Norm

moggy lover

When CT Russell, who would eventually invent the religion that parades under the umbrella name of the Watchtower Society, was a young man in his early 20s, he "got religion" and as a result began to associate with a group of Second Adventists called the Allegheny Second Adventist Church.

The Second Adventists were originally a group of Bible believing fundamentalists led by ex-Baptist William Miller, who had come to believe that Christ would come again, physically and visibly, in 1834 at the latest. When this failed to happen, his movement fragmented into several smaller sects all of which proclaimed their Miller ancestry by subscribing the "Second Advent" name to their particular group. We have no record of how many groups that they finally ended up with, but we know of at least the "Second Advent Christian Church" "The Life and Advent Union" and the one that Russell was associated with. Another and the most sucessful, which has grown even larger than the WTS, was the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

The group that Russell was associated with came to the conclusion, mainly as a result of labyrinthtine biblical investigation, that Miller had been out in his calculations by a generation. Since to these simpletons a generation was a neat 40 years, which is not necessarily true according to the Bible, they concluded that THE date was 1834 + 40 = 1874. This was to be regarded as the final date for Christ's physical, visible return. So we know for a fact then that Russell's original belief was that Christ was to come again in a physical literal form. At the prescribed time, evidently in early October of that year, the faithful gathered on Brooklyn bridge, attired appropriately in white raiment, holding aloft palm branches, in anticipation. Russell was to deny, many years later, that he was ever there, but those present made written affidavites that he was.

When nothing happened for a second time many of these Second Advent groups fell apart, reduced to a dot on the Christian theological landscape. Russell, wealthy enrepeneur that he was, began his own "Bible study" group made up of his employees, tactful enough reason perhaps for them to acknowledge him as "pastor" We do not know what Russell taught at this time concerning the Second Advent, because we have no written records. But in January of 1876, 2 years after the supposed Second Coming, Russell came upon Nelson Barber one of the weightiest of Second Adventist luminaries, and he managed to convince Russell that their chronology was in fact correct. Jesus had returned in 1874.Using a new translation of the New Testament, new at least for that time, the Emphatic Diaglott, Barber showed Russell that the actual Greek word for Coming as used in Mattew 24:4, was "parousia" meaning "presence". So Christ was "present" since 1874, not that he was "coming". The trick was of course, that since no one could see Him, it was concluded that Christ must have come invisibly. Since Russell was a rich young punk [he was 24 years old at that time remember] who knew as much New Testament Greek as a Samarkhand camel trader, he swallowed the Barbour myth, hook, line, and sinker. To his dying day, Russell was to defend his "invisible" return of Christ in 1874. He insisted that he and his followers could "see" this phenomenon. Today the WTS admits that what Russell "saw" was unmitigated rubbish.

In 1926, when the 1874 date became untenable, the then WTS leader, JFR, in casual disregard of the theological integrity of his own beliefs, altered the doctrine to make it say that Christ had actually come invisibly in 1914. [Something that the WTS neglects to tell its followers is that this change was post-positive, not predictive] The current method of teaching this doctrine to new recruits is essentially unaltered since CTR's day, the sole exception being the different date. Because Christ came in 1914, and because no one saw Him, it therefore must mean that He came invisibly.

There is potentially a new doctrinal thrust that is in the offing for the WTS. Hitherto,ever since the time of CTR, it had been concluded that the return of Christ was to last a numerical generation. Despite the theological legerdemain of the WTS to stretch the meaning of "generation" to make it mean whatever they want it to mean, the WTS is faced with the problem of a long-lasting generation. Either they will have to invent a new date, which means that the 607 bc date is discontinued, or they will have to concede, as the Seventh Day Adventists eventually did, that the "invisible" presence is to last a long time.

By the way, the WTS does not teach that Christ actually did return in 1874,1914 or any other unspecified date in the future.. It seems strange to make such a statement, but it is true. Ask a WTS follower that if Christ is "present" here on earth, then who the hell is sitting at God's right hand right now. Hmmm? When Christ went up to heaven, He was never to return to the earth. If Christ is present here on earth AND in heaven, then he must be able to do something that jjjooober supposedly almighty, cannot do, and that is to be omnipresent.

The official theology of the WTS is that the only thing that Christ did in 1914, was to "turn his attention" to the earth. The actual belief of Christ coming again is taught, officially at least, to be be merely a metaphor. That dear reader, is the incredulous teaching of this ignorant group. Evidently till 1914 Christ was sitting and contemplating his navel, then in 1914 he lifted his gaze from his navel and peering down at the earth, managed to accomplish this magical sleight-of hand while all the time remaining sationery back in heaven.

So not only is the Second Coming invisible, its all symbolic anyway. It never literally happened.

Cheers

Jesus' invisible return

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