by slimboyfat 50 Replies latest jw friends
Well they taught that Satan was expelled in 1918 when Then is The Finished Mystery of God was published in 1969, as I showed above.
I am sure they must have stated it elsewhere too, but I can't get my WT Library CD to work. And I can't find my Revelation book either, except our German copy which is a bit much for me especially at this time of night.
I've never heard that one before......to my knowledge, they've always said that Satan getting booted from heaven in 1914 and being 'hurled down to the earth' is what started World War I.
w92 5/1 p. 6 The 1914 Generation-Why Significant? "Until 1914, Satan had access to heaven. That situation changed with the setting up of God's Kingdom in 1914. "War broke out in heaven." (Revelation 12:7) Satan and his demons were defeated and cast down to the earth, with catastrophic effects on mankind."
w83 5/15 pp. 22-23 par. 5 The Glorious Work That Follows the Ride of the Horsemen: "...Revelation chapter 12 pictures what would follow the birth of the Kingdom of the first horseman in 1914: an invisible, superhuman war. "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled........n heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.'................That account places the blame for the first world war that claimed more than 8 million human lives from July 28, 1914, squarely upon the Devil and his demons."
I can't see them trying to say that Satan was cast out in 1918, because that's when the Great War was over and peace declared.
The teaching seems to have been that the war in heaven started in 1914, but that Satan wasn't finally expelled until 1918. In fact, at times, they have been even more exact than the mere year it seems:
The main one behind the shattering of Jehovah's holy ones was Satan the Devil, who claims possession of all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. (Matthew 4:8,9; Luke 4:5,6). In 1914, when Michael stood up, the war in heaven was begun to oust the Devil and his demons. He was defeated by Michael, and there is Scriptural reason to believe that by the time of the annual celebration of the Lord's evening meal on March 26, 1918, Satan the Devil was hurled down to the earth. Your Will Be Done On Earth, pages 331-2.
Notice how "there is Scriptural reason to believe" seems to mean "we are totally making this up" in this quote as usual.
The ouster of the "great dragon" and his demons from heaven was apparently fully accomplished by the end of World War I. According to Revelation 11:1, 2, the "holy city" was trampled on by the Gentile nations "for forty-two months," from autumn of 1914 to the spring of 1918.
"Fully accomplished" are the operative words in this quote. They do not take away from the ouster in the autumn of 1914. World War I began on 6/28/14 and ended on 11/11/18, a period of over four years. Freddy whimsically applied the forty-two months (3.5 years) of Revelation to some time within the World War I period. Don't try to figure it out beyond that. I doubt that Freddy could have explained it if challenged.
DNCall
This thread has really reminded me of how hard it is to interpret what is being taught in the Society's literature. I think it's because, on one hand, they want to give the impression that they've figured out Bible chronology and on the other hand, the fact that they're just guessing.
DNCall
I've tossed almost all of my old literature, but I have it the back of my brain that they taught that Satan knew the time was getting close and started WWI a couple of months early as a diversion from the upcoming end of the gentile times. I think this would have been in the old Truth book, which is what I would have been studying when I came in, 1973.
Excellent catch, Slim.
They waffle and wave so much that you really cannot definitively answer the question. Yet they always use phrases like "there is scriptural reason to believe" but do not include the "scriptural reasons."
No wonder I used to feel inadequate in field service and afraid someone would ask me a question I couldn't answer. I thought I was not "spiritual enough" to understand the "deep things."
Turns out, they kept changing the answer, and it all amounts to a "deep" pile of doo...........
It might be worth citing the original article that started this line of interpretation:
*** w25 3/1 pp. 69-73 Birth of the Nation ***
Michael, who is Christ the Lord, has been present since 1874, but he did not interfere with Satan. He remained silent until his right to rule had come. Satan’s right had expired in 1914....It is inconsistent to think that Jesus, the righteous One, would take his power to reign in heaven and permit the devil to remain there; and he did not. Both Satan and his angels, namely, his official family, his invisible joint-rulers, were hurled down to the earth. That fight must have begun in 1914. Just how long it lasted the Scriptures do not indicate....Do not the physical facts bear witness that since 1914 there has been a greater element of wickedness in the earth than ever before, and that this wickedness is on the increase? Crimes, wickedness indescribable, and ascribable to none other than the devil’s influence, have become a common thing in the past few years....
Satan and his official family must have been hurled out of heaven to the earth some time after 1914 and before 1918. After this battle, he must have been so dazed for some time that he did not realize what had happened to him. This is indicated by verse thirteen: "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth." This shows that it required for him some time to wake up to the fact. When he did arouse himself to this fact, he realized that the woman (Zion, God’s organization, which brought forth the new kingdom) still had some people in the earth; and he set about to persecute God’s organization on earth. Beginning in the Fall of 1917 (which is rcally the beginning of 1918) Satan began to marshal his forces to persecute those of God’s organization, Zion, pictured by the woman.
In the spring of the year 1918 this persecution became so great that many of the Lord’s children of Zion were imprisoned and some killed. The SOCIETY, doing the Lord’s work, was disrupted, its officers imprisoned, and the entire Church restrained and greatly discouraged. With the happening of these events, brought about by Satan and his earthly representatives, evidently Satan reasoned that he was rid of this pestiferous company that stood in his way and exposed his wickedness....
From 1878 to 1914 the people of Zion were expecting the birth of the new nation. At the same time the dragon stood by, waiting to devour whatsoever was born. In 1914 the birth of the nation occurred. In 1914 the war in heaven began, and Satan and his official family were thrown out of heaven. In 1918, after Satan recovered from his dazed condition, he set about to persecute the members of the Church on earth. In 1918 he caused the imprisonment of the officers of the SOCIETY and others. On March 26th, 1919, these were released from prison; and the Church (representing the woman) there fled into the wilderness for 1260 literal days. From March 27th, 1919, to September 8th, 1922, inclusive was exactly 1260 days, at the end of which period the remnant of the Church on earth makes a bald proclamation of its allegiance to the King and his kingdom, and announces its determination to begin and press the fight against Satan’s empire until it is excluded from the earth.
In short, the current view seems to be quite close to the one in 1925.
doesn't appear that they will be ditching 1914 anytime soon, otherwise they wouldn't be so lazy as to link some new lite to some soon to be old light, would they?
Nevertheless it is evident that this event closely followed the enthronement of Jesus Christ in heaven in 1914."
sidepoint - has anybody figured out how to disassemble the WTS CD ROM? Be cool to search for 'evidently' being used without evidence.
