Do you think that JW's will ever get rid of the 1914-doctrine?

jads

After awhile the JW's will have to do something about 1914 when it crumbles right before them. How long can they hold onto this Russell-invented doctrine?

Yizuman

Didn't they already moved the date from 1914 to 1935? Yiz

No Yizman, officially the WTS still holds to 1914. 1935 is the date the great crowd was identified (updated response). They have unanchored the people who were alive or were born in 1914 as the "generation" that had to still be living when the end came (most would e 90 years old now). Now the generation is just anyone alive between 1914 and the present which means the "end" is always moving out each year people are born and the "end" has not come yet.

If they stopped using 1914, then the date 1919, the one in which they said Jesus inspected the Christian religions and determined that only the JWs (at that time called Bible Students) were the only ones worshipping acceptably (according to the WTS) and gave all authority of the Christian congregation to them.

Blondie

seedy3

I think Blondie is quite correct, they will most likely hold n to the 1914 date, because unlike the 1874 date they locked themselves in making the claim that they were chosen in 1919 as the sole spokesman for God and Jesus. But as in the 1874 date they dropped it in a heartbeat when they discovered they couldn't really promote it, so it's hard to say how they will continue to handle 1914. See in 1914 and for still years later, they were still set 1874 as the date that Jesus returned, until about the mid 1920's if I recall. then they sort of phased 1874 out and replaced it with 1914. even after they had been supposedly chosen by God in 1919 (but I guess they never knew it till many years later).

Seedy

garybuss

Do you think that JW's will ever get rid of the 1914-doctrine?

Didn't they gut the date in 1995? What's left of any real worth? The meat is gone, just the cold potatoes left.

cornish

It is already happening,gradualy and has been for some time.

Rather than creating an upset and coming out boldly ,we were wrong,they have subtly mentioned 1914 less and less,for instance when was the date 1914 last in bold highligts on the front cover or as a study headline even?

And as our above poster states since 1995 the original real substance has gone already from the doctorine.

Look at the new study books for converts and compare it to the bold illustrations and language in the old 'Live Forever,' book.

As the oldies die out and naive newbies come in it will gradually get forgotten and hardly mentioned,,,,a far better method for damage limitation. If it does get dropped officially it would most likely probrably get mentioned mixed in with some wash language in the questions from readers tucked in the back of the magazine,but I doubt they will even need to do that ,it will just in time pale into insignificance just as other dates have that were once held in high esteme.

fearnotruth22

JWS nver get rif of any pillar deoctrines so bluntly, but little by little fraction by fraction just as a big ship turns ever so slowly until it changes its course to the opposit direction if the gt doesnt come as expected the date will fade away and some other explanation will becom fundamental.

Dansk

One should also remember how much store Watchtower puts into the year 607 BCE for the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. If it does away with 1914 then Watchtower has to concede that Carl Olof Jonsson, in his masterful book The Gentile Times Reconsidered, was right all along - and they disfellowshipped him years ago for daring to say the date 607 BCE, and thence 1914 CE, was in error.

Watchtower went to great lengths for decades to stress that seven gentile times equals 2,520 years, i.e. October 607 BCE - October, 1 BCE = 606 years. October, 1 BCE - October, 1914 CE = 1,914 years. 606 + 1914 = 2520 years.

If Watchtower scraps 1914 it MUST scrap 607 BCE. If it scraps 1914 it means its prophecy relating to the anointed is bogus and, therefore, the Governing Body is not whom they have been espousing all these years but is merely a group of old wrinklies who have caused untold suffering and death for countless millions.

1914 is the cornerstone date of Watchtower. If that date goes it will undermine the very foundations of its own death-dealing dogma. Trouble is, as has been pointed out, Watchtower slyly brings in "new light" once most of the hard core believers are very old and not likely to resist, or, better still (for them), dead! The young are more gullible.

Ian

GermanXJW

For some years I had the feeling that 1914 was mentioned less and less.

But now in 2004 I think they decided to stress it again. I think of the 120-period from Noah they mentioned close to 1914. And the recent Awake!-story of Alton Williams, the nuclear scientist who praised the 1914 calculation as "mathematically flawless". And in one of the most recent Watchtowers (2/15/2004?)they again promoted their 2,520years calculation at length.

At present, I do not think they are trying to get rid of it.

TD

I agree with Blondie and Dansk. If 1914 falls, so do 1918 and 1919. It is upon these dates that the JW leadership's sole claim to spiritual authority rests and that they will not relinquish.