The Christian Greek Scriptures are full of "the end will come soon" rhetoric. Those people believed their religious leaders and sacrificed their lives and the lives of their children for what they thought was from God. They hoped to be reunited with each other after death or to be among those Paul spoke of who would in effect escape death altogether by being raised to the heavens at the coming of the Lord.
They waited and waited. They sacrificed much and died horrific deaths. Paul spoke over and over of the joys that would shortly be theirs. They continued to wait, suffer and die.
Then "John" gets a revelation! Now, that "revelation" is not only impossible to understand but it also leaves the timing of the "end" more uncertain, a "mystery"!
_______________________________________________________________
Now comes the twentieth century. JWs are following THEIR religious leaders. Their leaders say the "end" is so near you can smell it! What should they do because now the "end" is near? Sacrifice, Sacrifice, Sacrifice! Sacrifice yourself and your children in behalf of the "Lord"! And they do. They die in Concentration Camps, they are beheaded, they are humiliated, they do not marry, they do not have children, they refuse transfusions, they go to prison for refusing alternative service in the military, etc. They sacrifice big time, just as the First Century Christians did.
"This must be the right course before God, after all it's what the early Christians did," are the words they comfort themselves with.
Now, also like the first century, the Watchtower is probably about to disclose its own "revelation": "The timing of the 'end' is unknowable and how could you think otherwise? That's why God has appointed us as your leaders to show you the error of your ways!"
_____________________________________________________________________
One day a monument should be erected for all those who thought they were dying for God when in reality they died for believing men! Good lives sacrificed for nothing.
IW