The Watchtower & Herald of Christs presence / The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah`s Kingdom- Why the change & when ?

by smiddy3 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  smiddy3

  I`m wondering just when and why the G.B.of JW`s made the change as they did to their official magazine.?

  At first they were advertising his presence long before they claim he actually arrived .

  1879 was the first WT wasn`t it ? And their advertising his presence ,when according to their beliefs he din`t actually arrive with his presence until 1914.?

  Then sometime down the track they change the heading of the magazine to The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah`s Kingdom dumping Jesus altogether ? Why ?

  Christians according to the New Testament / Christian Greek Scriptures as JW`s like to call it clearly state that they should be advertising the coming reign of Christ Jesus and his one thousand year reign.

  Which even now is still in the future .

  Christians were not given an assignment to advertise Jehovah`s kingdom in the N.T. or the C.G.S.

  If it could ever be called Jehovah`s Kingdom that would only be after the thousand year reign of Christ Jesus ended and he handed it back to his father ,which is still a long way off into the future .

  But that`s not what the NT / C.G.S. or the Gospels are all about , its the here and now about Jesus not Jehovah.
• 

  JeffT

  The magazine started out as "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence." It changed its name several times between 1909 and 1939 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watchtower). There was no governing body at that time. Most of the changes would have been Rutherford's doing.
  
• 

  Anders Andersen

  At first they were advertising his presence long before they claim he actually arrived .

  They believed Jesus came invisibly in 1874. The Watch Tower was first published in 1879.

  They announced something they believe had already happened, they just changed their failed beliefs down the road.

  (And even the 1874 doctrine was already the result of failed predictions!)

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses, see the section 'Early expectations'.
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Now I got myself curious and wanted to see if Watchtower ever said anything about this. And behold, a quote:

  From that understanding of matters, the “chaste virgin” class began going forth to meet the heavenly Bridegroom in the year 1874, as they believed him to have arrived in that year and to be from then on invisibly present. They felt that they were already living in the invisible presence of the Bridegroom. Due to this fact, when Charles T. Russell began publishing his own religious magazine in July of 1879, he published it under the title “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” He had already become familiar with Wilson’s The Emphatic Diaglott, which translated the Greek word pa·rou·siʹa as “presence,” not “coming,” in Matthew 24:3 and elsewhere. The new magazine was heralding Christ’s invisible presence as having begun in 1874. This presence was to continue until the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, when the Gentile nations would be destroyed and the remnant of the “chaste virgin” class would be glorified with their bridegroom in heaven by death and resurrection to life in the spirit. Thus the class pictured by the five wise virgins would enter through the door into the wedding.

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101973021?q=1874&p=par#h=14
  
• 

  TD

  The name changes reflect the gradual evolution of JW beliefs.

  The Bible Students / Jehovah's Witnesses taught clear up until the mid 1930's that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874.

  And it was not until the year 1925 that the concept of God's Kingdom as a physical, actual government was introduced.
  
• 

  eyeuse2badub

  I agree with JeffT

  In my morning musings I sometimes think about the odd name of the jw religion, “Jehovah’s witnesses”. It’s an odd name for a religion. To me, it certainly seems that the man that wanted to be called “judge”, Joe Rutherford, conjured up the name ‘Jehovah’s witnesses’, by himself, in order to make the wtbts HIS religion and to purposely set it apart from what he called ‘Christendom’ for no other reason than just to be ‘different’. Rutherford knew that controversy is what grabs the public’s attention, and unpredictability is what holds the public’s attention. He used a rather obscure Bible verse, Isaiah 43:10, found in the Hebrew Scriptures no less, on which to base the ‘name’ of (his) a Christian religion.

  So by substituting jehovah for jesus "the judge" created controversy.

  just saying!
• 

  Finkelstein

  Most likely due to the factual realization that nothing occurred in 1914 as its was once propagated by the WTS in the late 1800's, as the WTS first proclaimed that Christ had returned in 1874 and that 1914 was the year that Armageddon would most likely occur.

  Call it a reworking of old bullshit but still endeavored to enhance the sales of literature.

  I wonder why all the other hundreds of Christian denotations have never said anything about 1914 ? , oh yeah they dont have a publishing house operating at their core.
  
• 

  smiddy3

  The magazine started out as "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence." Very true JeffT and I always wondered why Russell named it such when he did.?

  And why was the word Zion dropped ? was it because it could be linked to the "Zionist" movement of the times ?