by peacefulpete 89 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Although the word, Parousia is not used, the first clear, unambiguous reference to 1914 as the year for Christ's second coming in The Watchtower appeared in the December 1 1933 issue on page 3:
There is a slightly earlier reference in a booklet (As Jonsson points out) but I don't have it (And so can't scan it)
"As time went on though , decades went by and in the late nineties I was concerned. I just could not see that we would pass into the twenty first century and still be in the old world . As that got closer I dared to think the unthinkable, and seriously asked myself whether it was really true, or just another religion of men ?
And here I am…."
I know great points exactly. Almost 23 years on now into the 21st century.
The Borg had to drum up some more dogma so they could finagle their way out of their web of confusion. I think of how they got caught lying in the 1989 WT study articles. Only to get called out on it by youtube activists years later.
You gotta wonder how those long time dubbies who invested 50 or 60 years into the Borg who come out of the 1960's or 1970's do not pick-up on these things. Or it's probably they just wait "on jehovah until he sorts it out''. It's probably the latter, due to the 'sunken cost fallacy'
"As time went on though , decades went by and in the late nineties I was concerned. I just could not see that we would pass into the twenty first century and still be in the old world . As that got closer I dared to think the unthinkable, and seriously asked myself whether it was really true, or just another religion of men ?
And here I am…."
Probably countless other JW's who share such a sentiment. Who are not sure or how to express such viewpoints. They have invested so much emotionally, and financially.
Like I was saying 'sunk cost fallacy.
or
Some people just want to remain ignorant.
Probably the former,,,,, most likely. Most JW's are NOT that stupid. Too much invested.
Raymond Franz's Crisis of Conscience deals with just about all of the dates that the WTS uses and has used. Here are quotes from just a few pages (revision 2004 of CoC):
Page 180: Issue of HERALD OF THE MORNING (C.T. Russell was an assitant editor) refers to the dates of 1843/4, 1874/8, and 1914 (when the 'Times of the Gentiles' end). Franz got the photocopy he used from the archives at Brooklyn.
Page 182: Russell, in the July 15, 1906 edition of The Watch Tower, tells of how he asked Nelson Barbour (the editor of the above issue of HOTM) to demonstrate the validity of 1874 as the date when Christ began to rule in heaven. He says "the evidence satisfied me. Being a person of positive convictions and fully consecrated to the Lord, I at once saw that the special times in which we live have an important bearing upon our duty and work as Christ's disciples; that, being in the time of harvest, the harvestwork should be done; and that present truth was the sickle by which the Lord would have us do a gathering and reaping work everywhere among his children."
Page 184, footnote 8: Refers to the book Prophecy, published in 1929. Pages 64,65 mentions 1874 as the date that Christ's invisible 'presence' began.
Page 184, footnote 9: Notes that the Cedar Point convention in 1922 is when the organization first began to shift the date of Christ's rule from 1878 to 1914.
Page 185: Refers to the January 1881 Watch Tower: "So, ours, [referring to the time of harvest] beginning in 1874 closes with the end of the "day of wrath' and end of the "times of the Gentiles,' 1914-- a similar and parallel period of 40 years."
Page 187: Quoting from the same January 1881 Watch Tower: "We shall now present what we adduce from the types and prophetic points as seeming to indicate the translation of the saints and closing of the door to the high calling by 1881."
Page 187: Quoting from Russell's 1889 book The Time Is At Hand, pages 239 and 247:
"Our Lord's presence as Bridegroom and Reaper was recognized during the first three and a half years, from A.D. 1874 to A.D. 1878. Since that time it has been emphatically manifest that the time had come in A.D. 1878 when kingly judgment should begin at the house of God."
"The year A.D. 1878, being the parelle of his assuming power and authority in the type, clearly marks the time for the actual assuming of power as King of kings, by our present, spiritual, invisible Lord-- the time of his taking to himself his great power to reign"
"...October, 1914, will witness the full end of Babylon, "as a great millstone cast into the sea," utterly destroyed as a system."
And so on. Like so many end-times prognosticators, Russell was convinced that these events were happening in his lifetime, or were centered around that period of time. Rutherford amplified this to an almost comical degree, making statements about 1918, 1920, and 1925, before he realized that his efforts were severely hurting recruitment and retaining of followers.
Franz covers a lot of it, using the WTS publications and almost always listing the magazine/book, along with the issues/pages in question. There's a lot of it there. Penton may have more, but I haven't yet read Apocalypse Delayed.
There is a slightly earlier reference in a booklet (As Jonsson points out) but I don't have it (And so can't scan it)
I take it back. I do have the booklet.
This is taken from the 1932 publication, What Is Truth? page 48. It is (AFAIK) the first, clear reference to 1914 as the year for Christ's second coming in JW literature.
TD
Thank you for both quotations.... that settles that 1914 was taught as early as 1932.
I wonder when the last mention was made of the 1874 second coming.
The Society may have made the switch from 1874 to 1914 in 1927. That is when they changed the start of the first resurrection from 1878 to 1918.
"One of the many enlightening truths that God now gave his witnesses was about the members of God's spiritual nation who had died physically. This was in 1927. In that year the witnesses understood that the dead spiritual Israelites had been raised in 1918 to life in heaven with Christ Jesus. It was an invisible resurrection, of course." From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained p.192
BUT of course, since Paradise.....Regained was published in 1958, I'm not sure how trustworthy their historical hindsight is.
Probably safe to conclude the early 1930s saw 1914 becoming official teaching.
I tried to read through this, but frankly, I've already wasted years on that 1914 bullshite and I just can't do it any more.
Tonus,
Prophecy, published in 1929. Pages 64,65 mentions 1874 as the date that Christ's invisible 'presence' began.
Thank you...again this points to the early 30s for the WTS switch of the parousia from 1874 to 1914.
I believe it was 1876 when Russell became convinced of the 1874 second coming. This means that the WTS taught the 1874 invisible presence for over 60 years, 38 in which Jesus was totally absent.
The Snarky Apologist youtube channel did an outstanding job refuting the Borg's doctrines. But they got slammed with copyright infringements some years ago.
They referred to Freddy Franz era books quite a bit if I can recall. Like the Proclaimers Book, Revelation Climax and Live Forever book.
