What Is Truth page 48.
Rutherford and 1914 "coming"
by Doug Mason 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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moggy lover
As TD has pointed out there was evidently a heightened state of flux in WT theology as an awareness was being felt that the 1874 date was clearly becoming untenable. JFR knew that something had to be done but.... what? He had plugged the 1874 date which such monotonous regularity that any retrenchment from it would obviously make him, as the spokesman for jhoover, look plainly ridiculous.
I believe he planned a retreat from the 1874 date, but with such an apparent display of theological legerdemain that the impression was created that in fact, no retreat had been undertaken!!
1 1929 was, we can determine with a fair degree of accuracy, the last time he mentioned the 1874 date
2 The 1930 GA article you referred to was the first tentative mention of the 1914 parousia, but in a context that would have lulled the suspicions of all but the most diligent of WT scrutiniers.
3 The quote from the 1932 booklet "What is truth"? was another surreptitious attempt to inject this new idea into the theological mainstream of the WTS, but again, in a context that belied its tremendous importance to the the average R&F member.
4 In the 30s JFR became obsessed with the idea of type/antitype and so contrived to focus attention on certain OT passages which he taught "foretold" the formation of the WTS. His books: "Light" [Vols 1 and 2] published in 1930, Vindication [vol 1] published in ' 31, "Preservation" Vindication" [vols 2 and 3] published in 32, "Preparation" published in 1933, "Jehovah" [1934] "Riches" [1936] "Enemies" [1937] and "Salvation" [1939], all had a common thread. This was that certain OT events were merely typical of greater occurrences in the 20th C all pointing to the WTS as God's exclusive channel of communication.
Probably the book that plumbed the depths of the absurd to the most ridiculous level was "Preservation" which attempted to show, with dogmatic assertiveness, that the Bible book of Ruth pictured two "classes" of WT followers then in evidence, with one of them, the "Ruth" class, poised to lead the WT followers triumphantly into the New World. It was in this maelstrom that JFR made his first forays into the new date of 1914 for the parousia.
5 I feel we can be certain that any pre-1929 reference to 1914 was not to the parousia, but to the end of the Gentile Times, which JFR did believe had occured in 1914. Most WT watchers, would assume that JFR believed then what the WTS believes now, that is, that the two events are framed into one date. He evidently did not.
Cheers
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cabasilas
"I am told that in "The Golden Age" magazine, 1930 page 503, Rutherford wrote: "Jesus has been present since 1914".
Anyone have a scan available?