THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE UNITED NATIONS IN PROPHETIC SPECULATION
How is it that so many individuals through the centuries have found such a pleasure in playing the role of prophet, despite the fact that their prophecies so seldom come true? Regularly their predictions fail, yet they go on with prophesying. One important reason is, without doubt, that being regarded by others as equipped with remarkable, God-given insights and abilities may give a person a certain feeling of power and importance. Doubtless the temptation of having the "ego" strengthened in this way has produced many a false prophet.
Others may honestly feel that they are divinely guided to a correct understanding of the Biblical prophecies and are commissioned by God to act as his prophet by giving warnings to mankind and declaring things to come. In The Watchtower of April 1, 1972, pp. 197-200, the leaders of the Watch Tower Society lay claim to such a position for their movement as a whole:
- This "Prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian witnesses.
Numerous pamphlets and articles have been published recently attacking the Watch Tower Society for their many failed dates, such as 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, and 1975. The purpose here is not to present another variation on this theme.1 On the contrary, the intention is to discuss some of the few predictions that actually - at least in some respects— have come true. The most striking examples of these are those related to the formation and obvious failure of the two international peace organizations of our century, the League of Nations and the United Nations. The questions that will be answered are: How specific were these predictions? Did they clearly originate in the Watch Tower movement? Do they substantiate the prophetic claims of this movement?
As an indication of their prophetic ability, the Watch Tower writers, in the article "Making Known God's Prophetic Truths," published in The Watchtower of August 1, 1971, pp. 467ff., give the impression that, prior to the outbreak of the World War in 1914, well-nigh all except for the Witnesses took an optimistic view on the future, sensing that peace, not war lay ahead:
- The political, religious and commercial elements of this world widely accepted that view. However, Jehovah's witnesses held a view that was just the opposite! In the July 1879 issue of their official publication, The Watchtower (at that time known as Zion's Watch Tower) its readers were told: "God teaches in many Scriptures that a great time of trouble will come upon the nations."
- World War I stimulated the premillennialists to a tiptoe expectancy and also provided tantalizing fulfillment of some of their longings. The war itself came as no shock to these opponents of postmillennial optimism; they had not only looked toward the culmination of the age in Armageddon, but anticipated "wars and rumors of wars" as signs of the approaching end.
- We talk of disarmament, but we all know it is not coming. All our present peace plans will end in the most awful wars and conflicts this old world ever saw!
The Bible Students, as well as several millenarian expositors, had explained that the World War was the prelude to Armageddon.2 C.l. Scofield, the famous translator of The Scofield Reference Bible, thought in 1916 "that the war would be the death struggle of the present world system which would be succeeded by the Kingdom of God."3 When the war suddenly ended in 1918, this came as a nasty surprise to these experts on Bible prophecy. They explained that the period of peace would be very short and that Armageddon would surely come very soon. When, in 1919, the League of Nations appeared, they immediately predicted that this organization would fail and that it could just create a temporary interruption before Armageddon.
Watch Tower writers have often tried to give the impression that they, because of their prophetic insight, foresaw the failure of the League of Nations:
- When the League of Nations was established, some of the clergy of Christendom even hailed it as the "political expression of God's kingdom on earth." However, what were Jehovah's witnesses saying? Again, just the opposite! The March 1, 1919, issue of The Watch Tower declared: "Lasting relief to suffering humanity will come neither through human uplift nor through any league of nations, however desirable such an arrangement might be, but only through the power of Christ, . . ."4
Then Torrey went on to tell his audience that "the League of Nations can never achieve more than a temporary cessation in hostilities." 6 Dwight Wilson, too, points out that "at the close of the war, there was little optimism reflected concerning the peace treaties or the League of Nations. Our Hope (la millenarian periodical edited by Arno C. Gaebelein) had no hope that the League would prevent war." 7
Even more detailed predictions concerning the League of Nations were made by the two Bible commentators, C.F. Hogg and W.E. Vine, in their book, Touching the Coming of the Lord, published in London in 1919, shortly before the League was formed. They explained that the failure of the League of Nations was predicted in the Bible, at Revelation 17:12, 13:
- Such a League of Nations, for instance, as is proposed to-day as a panacea for national wrongs, not only has been foretold in Scripture as the last resource of international politics, but its failure has likewise been predicted. 8
- A corresponding vision was given to the Apostle John. He also saw a beast with ten horns, and the symbolism is again explained, but in greater detail: "The ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour (i.e. for a brief time). These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast," Rev. xvii.12,13. Obviously these ten kingdoms are contemporaneous. The potentates ruling over them agree to a certain policy in handing over their authority to a superior ruler. No such league has existed in human history as yet.
It is manifest, too, from this Scripture that the existence of the League will provide the opportunity for a man sufficiently strong to dominate the situation. 9
- Clearly, therefore, a league of nations is in view, and this is apparently to be the new form of the old empire.... We are not justified, however, in concluding that the territories of the League of Nations, indicated by the passages related to the ten horns of the beast, will necessarily be confined to the area which has just been under consideration [i.e. the areas of the earlier world empires]. Whatever the arrangement may be, the fact of the League will prepare the way for the government of the final and all-controlling despot. 10
Vine and Hogg were both associated with the "Open Brethren," a branch of the Plymouth Brethren (also known as the Darbyists). But the prophetic speculations attached to the League of Nations were very common among fundamentalist Christians in a number of denominations, for instance among the Baptists and Pentecostals. Dwight Wilson writes:
- The formation of the League of Nations produced immediate speculation. The following appeared in the Prophetic News and the Evangel (Pentecostal), and was reprinted in a collection which went through at least five editions: "The World War thus originated by demon teachings has produced the result predicted in Revelation 16:14. It has gathered together all the kings of the earth and of the whole world. It has gathered them into a league of nations which will become the preparation of the nations for Armageddon. The gathering or leaguing of the nations together is the signal that the end is in sigh:. The Peace Conference at Paris had unconsciously set the stage for Antichrist and Armageddon." 11
As was shown above, W.E. Vine, as early as 1919, identified the League of Nations with the "beast" in Revelation, chapter 17. This interpretation was not adopted by the Watch Tower Society until eleven years later, when it was presented in volume 2 of the work Light, published in 1930. In 1919 the Society still held the beast with the woman on its back described in Revelation, chapter 17, to be the pagan Roman empire, with the apostate Church of Rome "on its back." 13 This had been the prevalent Protestant interpretation of these figures ever since the Reformation in the sixteenth century. But in the second volume of Light the League of Nations was associated with this prophetic vision, exactly as Vine had done eleven years earlier. The "scarlet colored beast" (Rev. 17:3) was explained to be "The Hague International Peace Conference," formed in 1899. 14 This organization "functioned until the World War. It then went into the abyss and ceased to function. After the World War it came out of the abyss or pit and began to function again in the form of the League of Nations." 15 This understanding was prevalent until 1942 (see for instance the book Enemies 1937, pp. 283ff.), when it dawned upon the Watch Tower leaders that World War II would not develop into Armageddon either. Another interpretation of Revelation 17, therefore, became necessary.
It came also, in the booklet Peace - Can It Last?, founded upon a speech by the same name delivered by the President of the Society, Nathan H. Knorr, in the autumn of 1942. The Hague International Peace Conference was now completely excluded from the role list. The "beast" was at first the League of Nations. It went "into the abyss" in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II. But it would not remain there. Quoting Revelation 17:8, President Knorr predicted: "The association of worldly nations will rise again." 16
As all know, this prediction was fulfilled. But it was not difficult to make at that time. As Knorr himself pointed out in the same booklet (p. 21), plans of reviving the peace organization after the war were well on the way, the Axis Powers, Japan and Hungary having signed a "new League of Nations" already on November 20, 1940. In fact, the United Nations had already been formed, several months before Knorr's prediction, on January 1, 1942 at Washington D.C., with twenty-six nations signing a joint declaration on that date.17
Besides, Knorr's prediction was neither new nor unique. Other prophetic expositors had predicted the same thing - as much as two years earlier! Dwight Wilson refers, for example, to a prediction by the well known Bible expositor, Harry Rimmer: "Harry Rimmer in 1940 forecast a new League of Nations as a result of the war - and the rise of a universal dictator. The United Nations has arrived, but there is no dictator yet." 18
Thus, the Watch Tower Society can claim no priority on this or other predictions and prophetic applications attached to the League of Nations and the United Nations The same views were held by the millenarian fundamentalists in general at that time, who originated the predictions about the future of these peace organizations years before they were picked up by the Watch Tower Society. Fundamentalist Christians in general did not change their attitude towards the peace organization after World War II. They continued to regard it as the "beast", of Revelation 17 and - like the Watch Tower Society at that and like the "harlot" on its back as corrupt Christendom. 19 Sociologist Louis Gasper explains:
- The Fundamentalists literally believed that "the woman arrayed in purple and scarlet" in Revelation 17 prefigures the establishment of a corrupted, though colorful world church which would include the Catholics and Protestants. 20
- Although the fundamentalists were generally opposed to the United Nations and criticized it vehemently, they did not make any organized attempt to place pressure upon Congress to cause the withdrawal of the United States from it. Their opposition was usually expressed in the form of statements and resolutions which were adopted at frequent intervals to indicate their general disapproval of the United Nations. 21
CONCLUSION
The above examination has demonstrated that the views held by the Watch Tower Society about the international peace organizations are more "traditional" than most Jehovah's Witnesses believe. They are views that, more or less, have been shared by practically all fundamentalist Christians. The same holds true of the "predictions" of the future of these peace organizations presented by the Society: They were simply taken over from the fundamentalists. If some of these predictions seem to have been fulfilled, therefore, this does not prove anything as to the Society's ability to prophesy; it just proves that they are able to plagiarize. For this, no divine inspiration is needed. If these predictions were divinely originated, the leaders of the Watch Tower Society should be forced to conclude that God gave them to fundamentalist Christians outside the Watch Tower organization.
Carl Olof Jonsson
Notes
1 For a fair, balanced and scholarly discussion of these prophetic failures and their importance for the doctrinal and organizational development of the Watch Tower movement see Dr. Joseph F. Zygmunt's article "Prophetic Failure and Chiliastic Identity: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses," published in the American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 75, July 1969-May 1970 pp. 926 948.
2 Wilson, p. 37ff. The Watch Tower Nov. 1, 1914, pp. 327, 328.
3 Wilson, p 38.
4 The Watchtower, August I, 1971, p. 469.
5 Quoted by Ernest R. Sandeen in The Roots of Fundamentalism, London 1970, p,
235.
6 Sandeen p. 235.
7 Wilson, p. 56.
8 C.F. Hogg and W.E. Vine, Touching the Coming of the Lord, London 1919, p. 95.
9 Hogg and Vine, p. 96.
10 Hogg and Vine, pp. 118,120.
11 Wilson p. 81
12 See the booklet Peace - Can It Last? published by the Watchtower Society in 1942, p. 21.
13 See for example Studies in the Scriptures. Vol. Vll, first published in 1911, pp. 259, 263. The work went through several editions in the subsequent years.
14 Light, Vol. 2, 1930, p. 86.
15 Ibid, p. 94.
16 Peace - Can It Last? 1942. p. 21. The Watch Tower Society has open referred to this prediction as evidence of the prophetic ability of the organization. The Watchtower of 1960 p. 444, paragraph 19, claimed they made it, guided by Jehovah's spirit. Cf. also "Your Will Be Done On Earth, " 1958, p. 282; ''Babylon The Great has Fallen!" Cod's Kingdom Rules! 1963, p. 585; The Watchtower, Nov. 15, 1963, p. 696; The Watchtower, Feb. 15, 1967, p. 122 and the 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 203.
17 The A American A Annual for 1 944, p. 701, quoted in The Watchtower, Dec. I, 197 1, p. 723.
18 Wilson, p. 157. Rimmer's prediction is to be found on p. 83 of his book The Coming We and The Rise of Russia. Grand Rapids, 1940. That Harry Rimmer's writings were not unknown to the Society is seen from the fact that he has often been quoted in the Watch Tower public cations on other subjects. See for example the booklet Basis for Belief a New World, published in 1953, where three of Rimmer's works are quoted on pp. 23, 27, 37 and 44.
19 Since 1963 the Society identifies the "harlot" with On false religion. See "Babylon the Great Great pub 1963
20 Louis Gasper, 7hc Fundamentalist Movement 1930-lg55, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. 1981 treprint of the 1963 edition), pp. 49, 50
21 Gasper, p. 52.
My post above obviously was not my work. Mr. Johnson has here done a fine job tracing the history of this millenialist teaching. My only objection is the comment about the UN being an obvious failure. This betrays a misunderstanding that has been perpetuated by Millenialists about the chartered purpose and role of the U.N. It remains in principle the best forum for international dispute and convention. Time will tell if the people of the world see the need for international accountability, the U.N. may yet play a large role in ironing out this new world perspective.
As to the U.N. and the JWs, it seems to be the one element that holds the loyalties of many. It seems too coincedental and providential that religious zealotry is running head into the UN's agenda. The problem is that few understand that the interpretation of Bible passages is constantly revised to retain this sensation of present fullfillment. An honest look at the history of WT or other fundementalist interpretation of the Bible reveals that neither they nor anyone else predicted world developements any sooner than secular minded persons using only the news and common sense. In fact the negative predictions of Bible interpretors have been less accurate, ignoring the great advances in human rights, health, welfare, and colonialism.