Oompa,
You had asked me "When/where exactly did WT change the date of Christ’s presence (from 1874 to 1914)?"
I answered:
"According to the 'Proclaimers' book the date was changed to 1914 in 1943. The footnote on page 133 explains that the change is found in their 1943 book ‘The Truth Will Make You Free.’ – See also the footnote 38 on page 22 of "Captives of a Concept."
You said, "The footnote in the Proclaimers book does not state 1943 is when the change took place."
Although your are correct that the footnote doesn’t state that the change of date to 1914 was made in 1943, I know that this is what the footnote means. Here is why I say this:
The footnote is a specific reference the statement that "Russell came to be persuaded that Christ’s invisible presence had begun in 1874." After explaining some of the reasons for Russell’s flawed chronology that misled him to 1874, the footnote then says, "A clearer understanding of Biblical chronology was published in 1943, in the book, "The Truth Shall Make You Free."
What was the "clearer understanding" about the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence that was published in that book? The footnote doesn’t tell us. But that 1943 book it refers to does. The 1973 book, "God’s’ Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached" refers to that same book and says this: "In the year 1943 the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published the book ‘The Truth Shall Make You Free.’ It then explained how the Society’s better understanding of chronology "moved forward the end of six thousand years of man’s existence into the decade of the 1970’s. Naturally this did away with the year 1874 C.E. as the date of return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of his invisible presence or parousia." pp.209, 210
Unfortunately the Proclaimers footnote is written in such a way that what it is saying will not be noticed by most Witnesses. And that is that the Society didn’t change the date of Jesus’ "invisible presence" from 1874 to 1914 until 1943.
You made the point that that 1943 book is not the first time 1914 was identified as the change from 1874 to 1914. The point I make in the book is that "according to the Proclaimers book" that’s when the change was made. The Proclaimers book doesn't offer any other date earlier than 1943. And so that's the one I use in my book while acknowledging that this is "according to the Proclaimers book."
You went on to provide evidence indicating that Rutherford first began to connect 1914 with Jesus’ presence in the 1930’s. TD has provided several references, which seem to support your contention. I tried to cover that possibility in my footnote #38 when I acknowledged the following under a special NOTE:
NOTE: There is some evidence that Rutherford first mentioned 1914 as the beginning of Christ’s Second Coming in the 1930s. But the Proclaimers book doesn’t mention any date prior to 1943. Either way it wouldn’t make any difference because the change of date was made long after Jesus’ examination was over.
As far as the point I'm trying to make in the book is concerned it doesn't matter if the date was changed in the 1930's or 1940's. It was changed too late. They say Jesus' exam was over in 1919. The time to pass an exam is when it is given, not 10-20 years after it is over.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Don
