Mr Eggnog said: (bold my repy--)
What "paradox"? There's no "Aha!" moment here. { there are plenty of paradoxes in the Bible- Jehoobah is a tricky God} If you thought that you could maybe go toe-to-toe with me on the Bible, you'd lose (modesty isn't one of my strongest virtues, but I'm working on this) { hello, Charlie Sheen- you have a friend} ,( and regarding the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, I have at times gotten a few of the years wrong myself, {tell that to your therapist} but as far as this bit of history is concerned, you're dead wrong here. {s end me a PM when you want to do a public debate on the Six Screens of the WatchTower- names and identies will be revealed} All of the men that preached the good news of the kingdom of God, all but the Lord Jesus Christ, who was resurrected, {opinion} died, and Jesus knew (speculation) that his apostles would all be dead when he indicated {speculation-after the fact} on Nisan 11, 33 AD, that Jerusalem would be trampled on by the nations "until the appointed times of the nations are fulfilled." (Luke 21:24) { no proof that Jesus ever said this}
Note that these appointed times weren't "fulfilled" or completed until the year 1914 {flawed- WT opinion- more WT fairly tales} , so it would be absurd {not if 1914 is wrong} for you to be suggesting here that the preaching campaign that had been underway since it began back in the year 29 AD { history reports lots of burning at the stakes campaigns,forced conversions, but no organized WT style kingdom preaching} began "early" when Jesus has been ruling {uproven opinion} over those of his anointed brothers {unproven WT dogma} that were called and chosen by God, {mere WT speculation} not just during the first century AD, mind you, but over those that were called and chosen by God from the second century AD onward, {opinion, not based on measureable facts} on through to the 20th century when it was Jesus officially began to invisibly {everything is invisible when it comes to WT facts} rule as king of the world in the midst of his enemies. {opinion-speculation} (Revelation 11:15; Psalm 110: 2) Although they could not have known {were you there?} what came to be revealed during the years that preceded the end of these "appointed times," { the only thing that was revealed were the delusions of WT leaders} they certainly knew {based on anecdotal, no-name author's Bible stories} Jesus to have been the Son of God {the Jews still say otherwise} and they were certainly teaching others {really? show me a non-JW PHD scholar/professor who supports that notion) to this effect well before the 19th century. {yawn- more speculation}
As a matter of fact, {here we go again- first comes the proof, then you can this term} @moshe, there were Quartodeciman churches during the second century AD that observed the Memorial of Jesus' death as had been done by Christians during the first century AD. {maybe that was the apostate group} The "Church Fathers" or "Apostolic Fathers" that lived during the second century AD -- Clement of Rome, Ignatius and Polycarp -- did not believe God to be a Trinity. {so what, neither do the Jews} In the 15th century, the Socinians denied the Trinity as did the Anabaptists. {yawn, hello God , show us what you are} There was an Anglican clergyman during the 19th century -- John Aquila Brown -- that back in 1823 wrote a publications called "Even -Tide," which pointed out that the Gentile Times would be fulfilled in either 1914 or 1918, so contrary to popular belief, Russell wasn't really the first one to break the case. {Russell stole his ideas from others and marketed the crap out of them- it proves nothing, except the dishonest character of Russell}
There were witnesses to Jehovah's praise {nice WT fairy tale- just show me a secular source for this notion!} way before Charles Russell and Nelson Barbour first began to herald Jesus' presence in 1874. Ok, they were wrong and were 40 years early, { Bingo and that is why everyone who had a brain left the WT building 100 years ago} but this wasn't unusual {true! false prophets are very common- and still are!} , for Jesus had related a parable back in 32 AD in which he pointed out that he would be going away for awhile "to a distant land to secure kingly power for himself," {upproven that Jesus spoke these words or what the original meaning was} because his apostles had wrongly imagined {whoa! If holy spirt failed them on this, then they could be wrong on EVERYTHING- imagined- isn't that the next thing to being crazy?Isn't that what you have been doing here- imagining?ha-ha-ha!!} that "the kingdom of God was going to display itself instantly." { people always get the wrong idea- just like 1975 was only in the minds of a few over eager JWs} (Luke 19:11, 12) Jesus said: "I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things" (Matthew 28:20), so there's no reason { I don't see anything happening- I conclude that Jesus has done nothing- he's dead} to conclude that followers of Jesus Christ weren't being called and chosen by God to become heirs of the heavenly kingdom before Pastor Russell came along. {another WT fairly tale- wanna see my leprecaun?) Of course, you are free to believe what you wish, {based on facts- you have brought nothing tangible to the show} but I think it to be ignorant {ignorant people believe what fools proffer as fact, without any asking for any facts} to conclude that Jesus wasn't "with" his followers through the centuries while these appointed times were running their course.
Joseph Rutherford only became the president of the WTS after Russell's death, so what difference does it make that Rutherford should be launching a preaching campaign about the king and his kingdom at an international convention held in Cedar Point, Ohio, back on September 5-13, 1922? I know you wrote "1919," but these years are what I have called "the political years," when Rutherford and seven others that had been incarcerated in the Atlanta Penitentiary for some nine months were finally released on bond. It was actually on September 8, 1922, when a banner displaying the words, "Advertise the King and Kingdom" were unveiled at this 1922 Cedar Point convention. { the Cedar point Convention's old light has been buried by the Current WT dogmas}
The convention to which you refer, the one that convened on September 1-8, 1919, wasn't an international convention, but, as I said above, I sometimes get dates wrong, too. I see no paradox. If you care to elaborate, I'll listen; maybe you meant to say something else, although it seems clear enough to me that scorn for Jehovah's organization {fools can claim anything- 99.9% of the world see JWs otherwise} is what drove you to point out an irony that even doesn't exist in this thread. {if only 1 (you) out of 100 think otherwise, then maybe you're glasses need cleaned) If instead you should decide not to pursue this thread, I'll be ok with that, too. Perhaps I should review some of your other posts here on JWN to see if this post of yours is just a fluke on my part, a bobble on your part, or if your posts are typically laced with ignorance and whimsy. {please do, while you are at it find that real, live,named WT person who is a bona fide Faithul Slave that you follow) I believe I've posted to a few of the same threads to which you have also posted in the past, and if I can find the time to review them, I will.
