The 24 Prophetic Failures of Watchtower's Most Heralded Date, 1914

FatFreek 2005

The year 1914 would be disappointing. Perhaps even more so than The Great Disappointment which happened some 70 years earlier at the hands of a a Baptist Preacher, William Miller. It placed target years of 1843 -- 1844 on the map of popularity. To throngs of anxious followers (Estimates of Miller's followers -- the Millerites -- vary between 50,000 and 500,000) it was supposed to be the second coming of Christ.

It, of course, failed.

Watch Tower's Charles Taze Russell hadn't even been born by the time Miller passed away in 1849. However, when Russell published The Watch Tower, Miller was still considered a Brother in the faith to Russell and Rutherford. Strangely, he was even called "Father Miller" in various Watch Towers as late as the mid 1920's. In order to merit such a title I can only suppose that Watch Tower principal’s degree of admiration for Miller was still high.

The year 1914, in my humble opinion, would be The Great Disappointment II. Russell, within pages of Zion's Watchtower proceeded to prime his readership with new signals of what would happen in, and just prior to, this new target year.

More snippets follow:

For full article, click following link.

Finkelstein

Good info Fatfreek

To hold into intellectual honesty, 1914 and the previous dates made by the WTS were really marketing tools to support the proliferation of literature to the public, that's why the WTS's leaders ( C Russell, J Rutherford ) did not seek backing support by actual bible theologians of their time.

Kind of like they uniquely and pretentiously cracked an obscure code written in Scripture ..........and what message they had to tell indeed.

They didn't accept Jesus's commandment and admonishment to his faithful followers to not set a time upon god's own sacred time, for even he didn't know of the time.

So in reality the WTS has been an active commercialized false Prophet for over 100 years.

FatFreek 2005

Good observations, Fink.

They didn't accept Jesus's commandment and admonishment to his faithful followers to not set a time upon god's own sacred time, for even he didn't know of the time.

Crazyguy

Not only was it a great disappointment for Russell but one of the greatest lies the WT since told. He wrote that Armageddon was going to come in 1914. The Wt then sometime in the twenties on write that Russell and those back then expect something great to happen, they implied they had an idea Jesus was coming but didn’t realize it was him installing his kingdom and he coming invisibly. They are and still state this crap to this day. Again Russell was confident that Armageddon was coming in 1914, he had already stated when Jesus came invisibly and when his heavenly kingdom was installed.

Half banana

It's interesting to get a new insight from your quotations FF: so Armageddon according to the Watchtower and Russell had begun in 1874 and was to finish by 1914. History has however proved all JW predictions wrong.

The fact of the matter is that the organisation which is now called JW org but in 1914 was under CT Russell's direction, believed that the year 1914 was the date by which the full influence of God's kingdom would take effect on Earth, i.e.paradise in the absence of God's enemies, this having already begun in the heavens in 1874.

The laughable thing is that the exact opposite happened; instead of world-wide peace in 1914, the First World War began. The modern Watchtower spin on the events of that time is pure deceiving claptrap.

JW leadership are masters at reinventing their past. Actually to tell the faithful today that they got 1914 right --as they do-- is an out and out falsehood-- but they have no conscience.

The JW governing body are so thoroughly deluded and arrogant that they think they have a divine right to lie, it's little wonder they want all of their old literature burned.

Finkelstein

The Watchtower Corporation (JWS) has contained itself in the spirit of the liar and deceiver (Satan) posing itself as god's faithful servant.

A lot people have awoken up to this regrettable fact.

This lying deceiving organization has killed thousands by instigating people to die rather to take a blood transfusion, vaccinations or even a organ transplants.

It has also broken apart millions of families aside from being a corrupt false prophet.

FatFreek 2005

I lived through the 1975 debacle but as I imagine and place myself (in my mind) in the shoes of a JW just before 1914 (like Benjamin in his letter to his deceased grandparents), I actually don't think that they are parallel.

Before 1914, the believers had far more numerous and concrete things to look forward to -- 24 of them. The 1975 folks were looking for an inferred event since WT never said anything definite. Of course WT admitted that their implications went too far.

Before 1914, as that table of quotations reveals, WT gave those folks definite events in their future. It would be interesting if we had statistics of the falling away of those years.

1914 WT was worse than 1975 WT.

Len Miller

FatFreek 2005

I decided, moments ago, to share my 14 page letter to my two sons. That was last April, one of my bucket list items.

I post the link to that thread here because that letter bears a striking resemblance to my original post re colporteur Benjamin's letter to his recently deceased grandparents. I think you'll see why.

Len Miller

Finkelstein

It pays to remember that 1975 was calculated from the supposed existence of mankind of 6000 years , a calculation expressed by the WTS twice before in its history.

Yup they inferred it which did pump up the organization's literature distribution numbers but of course they didn't honestly tell the truth after.

Remember lying and telling half truths is beneficial for the organization to keep it together.

In essence what it really was was a marketing scam hyped upon speculation and ignorance.

The 24 Prophetic Failures of Watchtower's Most Heralded Date, 1914

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