Leo, I was under the impression that the end of the Gentile times always MEANT the invisible return of Christ, according to WT doctrine. Of course, this is the impression I've been given. Do you have an old WT article stating otherwise? If so, please pass it on- I'd love to check it out! I just checked out the first article on the subject in the WTLIB and found this, but it only confirms what you've stated about what is believed TODAY but not necessarily what was believed by CT Russell;
"Although the end of the Gentile Times had been announced in publications by the Watch Tower Society for decades as due to fall in 1914, those earthly rulers were determined to resist the heavenly Messiah in taking over world domination. They kept making the most advanced preparations for international war. Yet, outwardly, 1914 started off peacefully. Then, on July 28 the nations plunged into war.
7 The installation of the Messiah as King at Jehovah’s right hand in that selfsame year marked the start of his invisible presence with respect to our earth."
Needless to say, with the "present truth" we now have based on statements like this one, it looks like a contradiction, does it not?
By the way, how do I italicize words in this forum? I'd rather italicize than all caps!
Double Standard/Contradictions compilation
by The Last Nephilim 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
The Last Nephilim
-
LtCmd.Lore
By the way, how do I italicize words in this forum? I'd rather italicize than all caps!
If you are using internet explorer, then just select the words you want to emphasize and click the little slanted "I" button. (Right between the Bold "B" and the Underlined "U")
If you are using firefox, then you'll have to surround it with the HTML tag for italics. Which are <i> and </i>
Like this: "I want to tell you something <i>very</i> important"
Will show up as: "I want to tell you something very important."
For bold, replace those with <b> and </b>.
For underline, replace those with <u> and </u>.
And for
strikeouttext replace those with <strike> and</strike>.And you can double them up:
Like this: "I want to tell you something <i><b><u>extremely</u></b></i> important"
Will show up as: "I want to tell you something extremelyimportant."
And make sure you have the little "Check here to use HTML formatting" button checked.
Lore - What.Would.Satan.Do?
-
oompa
Neph: but 13 pages later it said that since his knowing Barbour he'd predicted the date to be 1914!!! What happened to 1874???
Dang it Neph, next time post some quotes....now you have make me read page 73 five times looking for the info and it is all about Rutherford...what the hey.....where is this point dang it.....oompa
ps there are very clear passages in proclaimer book about russell and all teaching the end of the world and the rapture would occurin 1914 and nothing else....when it did not happem I think Rutherford got the bright idea that jesus came and everybody missed it....oompa
-
The Last Nephilim
Page 47, top of the page, first full sentence; "Barbour succeeded in convincing Russell that Christ's invisible presence had begun in 1874.*"
"*A clearer understanding of Bible chronology was published in later years. See Chapter 10, 'Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the Truth.'"
I'm trying to catch up with what is stated in Chapter 10, but so far it looks like they're saying that CT Russell is "off the hook" so to speak because that "evil" Barbour "convinced" or "persuaded" Russell that 1874 was Christ's return. I have yet to see a statement that Russell "discerned" or "concluded" that 1874 was the correct year. Looks like the ole' "pointing the finger and placing blame elsewhere" tactic of excusing a wrong prophecy by Russell.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I had always thought that we JWs always associated Christ's presence with the end of the Gentile times. Evidently this isn't the case, although I don't understand why Russell would have ever thought that the two would occur at different times.
Anyway, the other statement that appeared to me that contradicted the first one on page 47 is on page 60, halfway through the next-to-last paragraph; "Yet, from the time of his early association with Nelson Barbour, he was convinced that there was an accurate chronology, based on the Bible, and that it pointed to 1914 as the end of the Gentile Times."
I just wonder how "Bible scholars" such as Russell and Barbour would place the end of the Gentile times and the invisible return of Christ 40 years apart? At any rate, what I've read so far in Chapter 10 makes it clear that all JWs at that time (and evidently down to this day) have held on to the idea that there's something significant about 1914, although it took some years to apply meaning to that year that couldn't be easily proven wrong with the passing of time, hence the continual "new light" on the meaning of a "generation". They just REFUSE to let go of 1914!!! They're going to make it fit one way or another!!!