Being shot in the Balkans always provokes a reaction.
"Blunders that led to World War"
by Jeffro 27 Replies latest watchtower bible
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rocketman
The article that Jeffro mentions at the outset does in fact suggest that there was a buildup to the War, that it did not just happen by surprise. I don't see how this can be interpreted as the Watchtower saying that the war just happened, with no run-up...
"By 1914, long-standing rivalries among European powers had stretched nerves taut and produced two opposing alliances"
"At the time, the area called the Balkans was a politically volatile region chafing under the sovereignty of the bigger powers, and it was rife with secret societies scheming for independence." - No mention of Balkan Wars, but it's not like the article passed the Balkans off as inconsequential.
" Furthermore, in the prewar years, “a great tidal wave of hypernationalism swept over Europe,” says the book Cooperation Under Anarchy. "
“Once the [Schlieffen] plan was set in motion, the system of military alliances almost assured a general European war,” says World Book Encyclopedia."
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Juan Viejo2
A very well produced TV series, "The Fall of Eagles," dramatizes the lead up to World War 1 quite well. Europe was owned by three major royal families and most of the major players were all married or cousins to each other. In spite of their blood relationships, they were constantly jockeying back and forth for more land and more power. They were all greedy bastards. There greed for more power finally led to their undoing. The people were tired of being the footstools to these autocrats and their culture of "everything belongs to the King." Some of these families literally believed that they were who they were and had the power they had because of God's will - an attitude that could be traced back in Christendom to Constantine and Charlemagne.
Events that led up to World War 1 began with the French Revolution. Students of history during the 1800s could envision what was going to happen sometime within the next 100 years. The 1800s were considered the "Age of Empires," as none of the kings of Europe were satisfied with just being Kings, they had to be "Emperors." To call yourself an Emperor you had to hold land outside of the boundaries of your own country. Thus the reason behind the war in 1914 becoming a "world war" as so many battles took place outside of Europe as kings tried to win or protect their far-away land holdings. Even the United States was in the process of "empire building."
The pressures of war were quite evident in the 1834-1914 80-year period. Like the Witnesses of the 20th century, they could claim that all of the signs were there: wars and rumors of war, great earthquakes, great famines, and a rise of lawlessness. Just like the JWs do today, preachers like Russell could use those events to support their prophetic teachings.
JV
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kepler
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Justitia Themis
I don't see how this can be interpreted as the Watchtower saying that the war just happened, with no run-up...
??? I'm not sure of your background or familiarity with JWs Rocketman, but the belief that WWI was unexpected is a cornerstone of JW dogma. When the WTBTS writes generally on the historical subject, it tracks closer to reality because it assumes, usually correctly, that most JWs will not make the link. When it writes about history as applied to them specifically, 1914, and whether they are God's channel, it twists the subject matter.
Here is one of the first things that appeared when I searched "WWI" on the Watchtower CDrom.
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g933/22p.10WhySuchEagerExpectationoftheNewWorld?***Near?
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If you are inclined to dismiss all of this as pie in the sky, too good to be true, pause again and reflect. In addition to the features of the composite sign of Christ Jesus’ presence, there is Bible chronology that pointed to 1914 as the beginning of his presence. Jehovah’s Witnesses published the date 1914 as a significant year in the development of Jehovah’s Kingdom rule of the earth, doing so in the WatchTower magazine of July 1879. Many historians and observers of world affairs have noted that the year 1914 ushered in an entirely different and significant period in human history, as the accompanying box indicates.
These are a few of the quotes from the "accompanying box."
The whole world really blew up about World War I and we still don’t know why. . . . Utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then everything blew up. We’ve been in a state of suspended animation ever since.”—Dr. Walker Percy, AmericanMedicalNews, November 21, 1977.
Everything would get better and better. This was the world I was born in. . . . Suddenly, unexpectedly, one morning in 1914 the whole thing came to an end.”—British statesman Harold Macmillan, TheNewYorkTimes, November 23, 1980.
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heathen
What I find interesting is the , history of oil, comedy show from robert newman and in it he explains the signifigance of the orient express and how bad the brits wanted a war so they could spoil germanys plans of getting oil from baghdad . Basically war is about corporate greed anyway you look at it. IMO
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transhuman68
In past publications Watchtower has inferred that World War I was an unexpected event that shattered the peace forever; in line with their flawed Bible eschatology, but the current article at Watchtower.org seems to be more realistic and factualthan what they have published previously. 98 years later, they are starting to get it right !
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Glander
As Jeff said, Fromkins book fills out the picture of those immediate events leading to war. WWI, in my opinion, caused the most cruel, wholesale loss of human life seen to date.
We who grew up with the Watchtower's version of ancient and modern history have had to un-learn it later. I remember elders who read the Babylon The Great book and felt like they were now scholars.
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transhuman68
For the inside story on WWI, Google- ' The Merchant of Death: Basil Zaharoff '
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bennyk
The Watch Tower Society is not known for its accuracy. Here is their claim:
5 From Bible chronology, Jehovah’s witnesses as far back as 1877 pointed to the year 1914 as one of great significance. The Watchtower as of March 1880 said: “‘The Times of the Gentiles’ extend to 1914, and the heavenly kingdom [of God] will not have full sway till then.” While they were not yet clear on just what the details would be, in the nearly four decades preceding 1914 they sounded the warning that the future for this present system would not be one of peace, security and prosperity for mankind, but that in 1914 the world would come to the greatest time of trouble ever. In 1897 the book The Battle of Armageddon, (at first entitled “The Day of Vengeance”) published by Jehovah’s witnesses, said that this trouble would be “more general and widespread, and more destructive, as the machinery of modern warfare signally suggests. Instead of being confined to one nation or province, its sweep will be over the whole world, especially the civilized world, Christendom.”
6 The momentous year of 1914 came, and with it World War I, the most widespread upheaval in history up to that time. It brought unprecedented slaughter, famine, pestilence and overthrow of governments. The world did not expect such horrible events as took place. But Jehovah’s witnesses did expect such things, and others acknowledged that they did. On August 30, 1914, the New York World said: “The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the ‘International Bible Students’ . . . have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914.‘Look out for 1914!’ has been the cry of the . . . evangelists.”
7 How could Jehovah’s witnesses have known so far in advance what world leaders themselves did not know? Only by God’s holy spirit making such prophetic truths known to them. True, some today claim that those events were not that hard to predict, since mankind has long known various troubles. But if those events were not hard to predict, then why were not all the politicians, religious leaders and economic experts doing so? Why were they telling the people the opposite? And why did they persecute Jehovah’s witnesses for telling things that were later seen to be the truth? ( The Watchtower 01. August1971 p.468 )
Here is what the Society actually printed regarding 1914 in their publication The Time is at Hand (1889):
How refreshing the prospect brought to view at the close of these seven times! Neither Israel nor the world of mankind represented by that people will longer be trodden down, oppressed and misruled by beastly Gentile powers. The Kingdom of God and his Christ will then be established in the earth, and Israel and all the world will be blessed under his rightful and righteous authority. […] True, it is expecting great things to claim, as we do, that within the coming twenty-six years all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved; but we are living in a special and peculiar time, the "Day of Jehovah," in which matters culminate quickly; and it is written, "A short work will the Lord make upon the earth." (See Vol. I, chap. xv.) In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished near the end of A.D. 1914. (p. 98f)
The final extinction of this counterfeit hierarchy, near the close of the "Day of wrath" and judgment already begun--which will close, as shown by the "Times of the Gentiles,"with the year A.D. 1914. (p.356)