MISSING THE TARGET FOR 125 YEARS
The organization that more than 5 million Jehovah's Witnesses believe to be "God's channel" of communication to mankind, is strangely also the organization with a monumental record of failed predictions. After examining dozens of Watch Tower Society (WTS) predictions we failed to find a single one that was right.
The earliest publication shown in the WTS' Publication List is from 1877. It dogmatically stated that Christians would go to heaven in 1878 -- the next year. The authors were not willing to admit being one year in error. (1)
The WTS founder, Charles Taze Russell, did not give up easily. He was sure "the saints" would be raptured in 1881 (2). Later he determined by the length of the corridors in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh that they would be raptured in 1910. (3) The old end-of-the world date 1914 became a last resort. Russell's impressive predictions did not fail him there, either. Russell had predicted peace for 1914, that the long expected great European War should end that year.(4)
Russell was laid to rest in 1916, but his successor Rutherford did not fail to follow his prophetic lead. In 1918 church members by the millions would be slaughtered. In 1920 worldwide anarchy would occur. (5) The major date was 1925, but nothing happened then in an obvious way.(6)
"Judge" Rutherford was quite successful in "predicting" what had happened as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, but was less so with future events. After France was lost to Germany in 1940, the Judge stated that Britain also would fall to the Nazis.(7) The next year, only 'months' were left before Armageddon. (8) In this period the WTS also stated that men could never leave the Earth's atmosphere by rockets. (9) It also, later, stated that biologists were as far from proving evolution as were men from landing on the moon (hey, maybe one right after all?). (10) In 1942 the WTS leaders came to realize that World War II would also end (surprise!), and in the booklet titled Peace -- Can it Last? they answered no to the question in the title. The peace would be "very short-lived." (11) No surprise then, that what followed was among the longest periods in history without major wars!
Everyone knows what happened in 1975, which would have been the right time for God to end the world were His name Fred Franz. (12)
The cold war inspired the WTS' prophets to make numerous predictions. In 1991 the Soviet Union -- "the king of the north" of Daniel 11 -- ceased to exist despite the fact that the WTS had predicted it would invade country after country until the end. (13) The fact that the WTS understood this prophecy so well, proved they were the ones with wisdom, remember?
Pundits should take note of the Watch Tower Society. Its predictions are a remarkable compass to world events -- so long as you realize it is pointing south.
If anyone wonders why JWs are not allowed to play the lottery or bet, this list shows why: They would never be able to win anything, even if they were given a thousand years!
Footnotes:
1) Nelson Barbour and Charles Taze Russell: Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World, 1877, pages 84 and 124.
2) Zion's Watch Tower, December 1880.
3) Russell: Studies in the Scriptures Vol III -- Thy Kingdom Come, 1891, page 364. Versions issued before 1910.
4) This was stated in many of Russell's articles and books. One example is Zion's Watch Tower, July 15, 1894, page 226 (page 1677 in reprints), under the subtitle Can It Be Delayed Until 1914? which says: "But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." (emphasis in original)
5) Predictions about 1918, 1920 and 1925 (among others) can be found in Studies in the Scriptures VII -- The Finished Mystery, 1917. See pages 62, 64, 484, 485 and 513 for predictions about 1918. See pages 258 and 542 for predictions about 1920. Page 128 explained what should happen in 1925.
6) Joseph Rutherford: Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1920, pages 88 and 97; Watch Tower 6/15 1922; 4/1 1923.
7) Joseph Rutherford: Judge Rutherford Uncovers Fifth Column, July 1940 page 15: "At a public address in London, which was transmitted throughout the British Empire, and was delivered in 1938, I stated that the Nazis and Fascists were bent upon destroying the British Empire, and that that would be accomplished."
8) Watchtower 12/15 1941 page 288.
9) The Truth Shall Make You Free, 1943, page 285: "Man on earth can no more get rid of these demonic 'heavens' (the organization of wicked spirits) than man can by airplane or rockets or other means get up above the air envelope which is about our earthly globe and in which man breathes."
10) The booklet Evolution versus the New World, 1950, page 61, says: "So do not be stampeded in the name of science to worship at the altar of evolution. As Anthony Standen warns, science has become "the great Sacred Cow of our time." This scientist with a refreshingly uninfalted ego declares that the precise theory of evolution is "much farther from being proved than men are from flying to the moon."" (for a more informed look on the evolution/creation controversy, see talk.origins archive home page)
11) The 1942 booklet Peace -- Can It Last? says on page 26: "Once again we ask the leading question, "Peace -- Can It Last?" and God's definite answer is, No! Man-made peace under religion's "blessing" will be very short-lived, and political kings and rulers will not long enjoy it. The record says they "receive power as kings one hour with the beast." "One hour," with God, denotes a very brief time; and suddenly those ten horns and the beast will go into perdition, not peacefully, but violently, at the battle of Armageddon."
12) Life Everlasting - In Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966, pages 26-30; The Watchtower 7/15 1967 pages 446-7; 8/15 1968 page 499; 5/1 1975 page 285.
13) The book Your Will Be Done on Earth, 1958, was devoted mostly to speculations over the prophecies of Daniel. A more recent example of speculations over the cold war can be found in The Watchtower 11/1 1983 page 5: "How, though, does "the end" come? A fairly complete picture can be woven together from the threads of prophecy scattered throughout the Bible. To illustrate: As Daniel prophesied, the communist "king of the north" and the rival noncommunist "king of the south" are currently engaged in a struggle for world domination. What next? Daniel foresaw that the communist "king of the north" would forcibly seize control of valuable material resources, typified by "the gold," "the silver" and "all the desirable things."-Daniel 11:40-43."
- Jan