by peacefulpete 89 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
TD
The term second coming was stopped being used by JW many years ago as misnomer and replaced with return and invisible presence.
—Also, I don’t know if it is more accurate to say that in 1914, Jesus was given power rather than authority because JC had asserted before that all authority had been given to him. What do you think?
1914 Myth
Only your opinion. 1914 is scripturally possible as JW claim. So at the very least, it is arguable.
Fisherman:
1914 is scripturally possible as JW claim. So at the very least, it is arguable.
No, it is in fact completely debunked, even from the perspective of accepting the Bible as an accurate religious text. Every aspect of the claim, from the illogical mangling of what the Bible says about Babylon’s 70 years and the separate exile, to the errant numerology incorrectly associating the ‘gentile times’ with an unrelated period in Daniel, to the misrepresentation of Neo-Babylonian history (for which we have continuous records of every year of the established history), to the fraudulent revisionism of what the Bible Students expected would happen in 1914. All completely wrong.
Vanderhoven7:
I wonder when the last mention was made of the 1874 second coming.
The latest explicit reference to Jesus' coming in 1874 that I've found is from Prophecy (1929), page 65:
The Scriptural proof is that the second presence of the Lord Jesus Christ began in 1874 A.D.
But it seems that it was actually changed at least as early as 1931 in Rutherford's The Kingdom (1931), page 57:
The 1 June 1931 issue of The Watch Tower (page 166) also refers to "the second coming of the Lord in 1914".In 1914 the Lord Jesus came the second time, and in 1918 began to
gather together his faithful followers.
Where did the claim come from that it was only changed after Rutherford's death??
Thank you Jeffro....very early thirties it is.
Thank you Jeffro for clarifying this.
Fisherman
The term second coming was stopped being used by JW many years ago as misnomer and replaced with return and invisible presence.
I understand.
Russell (according to himself) adopted the idea of an invisible presence around 1876, so this has been a belief since well before Zion's Watch Tower. As he used them, the terms Second Advent, Second Coming and Second Presence were virtually interchangeable.
Jeffro,
Where did the claim come from that it was only changed after Rutherford's death??
The Proclaimers book says the change was made in 1944 for some strange reason. Since then it's become a piece of "tribal wisdom" in xJW circles.
(The only change I can see that happened in 1943/1944 was the adjustment from 606 to 607)
The fact that Jesus’ coming/presence in the Bible explicitly follows the ‘great tribulation’ still seems to elude JWs. In reality, the ‘great tribulation’ culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70CE and Jesus was expected to return shortly thereafter, within a generation of his ‘ministry’. They were wrong and that’s all.
TD:
The Proclaimers book says the change was made in 1944 for some strange reason. Since then it's become a piece of "tribal wisdom" in xJW circles.
The Watch Tower Society can’t be trusted with reporting their own history. 🤦♂️ Not really surprising though. Their 2014 effort at glossing over their history is even more thin on the subject and doesn’t suggest any specific year for the change. Their 1974 attempt suggested the change was made in 1943. But actually searching their old literature shows their official histories to be obviously wrong.
