BluesBrother and others, my understanding is the the "work" that is spoken of ending (whether in "20th century" or in "our day"), was not the entire ministry work but rather only the missionary work. Such was always my thought, since I didn't read more into the sentence and its paragraph than what they specifically said. Note that the prior sentence ends in the phrase "missionary activity" and thus the word "work" in the last sentence of paragraph 12 is specifically referring to the missionary work. The subheading (that paragraph 12 falls under) is even called "Missionaries to the Nations". Likewise paragraph 13 is specifically about missionary work.
Does anyone have a copy of the Jan 1st 1989 Watchtower I can buy
by mickbobcat 17 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Disillusioned JW
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BluesBrother
I see what you mean, Diss JW . We always took it that it was referring to the Global Ministry that would, we were told, continue to the very end of the system. We used to use the scripture at Isaiah 6.11
“At this I said: “How long, O Jehovah?” Then he said:
“Until the cities crash in ruins without an inhabitant”
(NB. Nobody was thinking of Covid at that time ! )
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menrov
Diss JW, then why change the phrase? They changed it as it was meant to refer to the preaching work.
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Disillusioned JW
menrov, you might be right regarding the meaning for the change, or they changed it because they didn't want to limit how long they would still train people to become missionaries and still send out missionaries.
I think it is possible (at least slightly possible) that the phrase "20th century" was the wording of a PIMO at Bethel (done to cause problems for the WT) and that thus they changed it when the bound volumes came out.
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zachias
WT 1989 Jan 1st.
Witnessing will end by the 20th Century.
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silentlamb_silent_no_more
I take it you want the hard copy?
This is the digital copy of course.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/246314/1989-january-1-watchtower-download-single-bound -
BluesBrother
There is another quote that is still to be found on Watchtower On Line (wol.org) . This is the “Know Jehovah “ book
The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovahp. 216
"Shortly, within our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom."
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FFGhost
There is a post on this site, from many years ago, buried way back in the thousands or 10's or thousands of posts, that describes the GB at the time having a near apoplectic fit over that "in our twentieth century" phrase. Somehow it got past the proofreaders and into the millions of printed copies.
And then of course, inevitably, thousands of calls and letters poured into Bethel asking if this was a promise, if there really was a hard deadline of 11 years until Armageddon's start. Of course, they had to backpedal when replying to those calls and letters. Which was of course embarrassing, hence the near-apoplectic fit.
There's just so much stuff on this site, that thread would be virtually impossible to find now.