Eighty five years ago today, on Halloween of 1916, the founder, first president, and self-proclaimed jellyfish of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Charles Taze Russell passed from this mortal vale. Some believe that he met his Maker on that day. Others say that he met somebody else, and that it was somebody more commonly associated with the holiday.
At the time of his death, the self-appointed "God's Only True Channel" taught that:
1. The fall of Jerusalem occurred in 606 BC.
2. The "time of the end" began in 1799 AD.
3. Jesus returned in 1874 AD.
4. Something must have happened in 1914 AD, but it wasn't the end of organized religion and the start of Armageddon as had been predicted for the thirty five years leading up to that date.
5. The Watchtower chronology was validated by the measurements of the pyramids of Egypt, the railroads of Pennsylvania, and the beginning of the zodiacal Age of Aquarius. Oh, and that the predictions involved "God's dates, not ours."
6. Armageddon was expected at any time.
Flash forward to 2001.10.31, and we see that just about everything that Russell, the self-styled "Laodicean Messenger" of Revelation, has long been discarded. Well, all except that Armageddon is still expected at any time.
"Followers of followers, victims of victims."