by Schizm 83 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Even a broken clock is right once a day
Actually, it's right twice a day ...so even if the WTS was to get another (revised history) prediction right, two out of 120+ years of wrong predictions and changed doctrine isn't enough to convince me that they are privy to God's timeline of destruction for the world.
The 1914/WWI thing might be striking if Russell and Friends had prophesied that it would happen, or even simply that "something big" was going to happen. But they prophesied that the end would come, they'd go to heaven, the whole shmeer. That didn't happen. Something else did.
It's a foregone conclusion that SOMETHING was going to happen in 1914. Just like in 1913, and every other year of man's existence. A trick employed by sooth-sayers is to push you in the direction you're already going, so when you get there, you think they helped. "You're having money troubles, but your future is looking brighter." When this person gets a job, they think that "prophesy" was fulfilled. If the "prophet" had said, "You're going to meet a man named Tom that will give you a job as a support technician for AT&T", that would be more meaty. When you actually get a job from Larry bagging groceries at the Piggly-Wiggly, it would be a bit disengenuous of the "prophet" to claim, "I was close!"
Besides, this wasn't their first attempt. 1874 was also a "marked year", wasn't it? And 1875? And the turn of the century always gets people excited, so I imagine 1900 had some mystique around it. The chances that absolutely nothing would happen during any of the years pointed to is next to nothing. I'm not even comfortable calling it "lucky". Lucky would have been getting something big in 1874. By the time 1914 hit, it was approaching "inevitable".
Dave
A note of interest: The United States did not get involved in "The Great War" until 1917.
-B
The answer is that Armageddon did happen in 1914. Satan won, he kicked Jesus ass, big style. That's why nothing changed and why Jehovahs true organization, as it was at the time, has now lost it's way, because Jehovah was cast into the abyss, so it is directionless. Ole Satan is now having his wicked way with the harlot.
It's a possibility ?!
I see no more significance of the war of 1914 than any other except that the technology had advanced to the point that almost every nation could get involved due to this.
What prophetical significance did world war II have, it was a world war also?
Ken P.
"Studying God's Word, we have measured the 2520 years, the seven symbolic times, from that year 606 B.C. and have found that it reached down to October, 1914, as nearly as we were able to reckon. We did not say positively that this would be the year." (Watchtower, November 1, 1914, p. 325)
I seem to remember having read that Russell made the statement, "The gentile times have ended. The kings of earth have had their day!"
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TD,
What about the news report that said something like: The Bible Students for some time have been saying, "Look out for 1914". Didn't that show that a "time of trouble" was forcast for 1914?
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What about the news report that said something like: The Bible Students for some time have been saying, "Look out for 1914". Didn't that show that a "time of trouble" was forcast for 1914?
The Witnesses today reproduce that quote regularly and often in their literature. Don't confuse it with what Russell actually stated in his lectures and printed works throughout most of his career. A few brief excerpts:
The Time Is At Hand p. 98-99
"True, it is expecting great things to claim, as we do, that within the coming twenty-six years all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved; but we are living in a special and peculiar time, the "Day of Jehovah," in which matters culminate quickly; and it is written, "A short work will the Lord make upon the earth...."
"In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914."
p. 101
"Be not surprised, then, when in subsequent chapters we present proofs that the setting up of the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed out in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D. 1878, and that the "battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced. The gathering of the armies is plainly visible from the standpoint of God's Word."
The Watch Tower January 1, 1892 p. 19
"The Scriptures give unmistakable testimony to those who have full faith in its records, that there is a great time of trouble ahead of the present comparative calm in the world -- a trouble which will embroil all nations, overthrow all existing institutions, civil, social and religious, bring about a universal reign of anarchy and terror, and prostrate humanity in the very dust of despair, thus to make them ready to appreciate the power that will bring order out of that confusion and institute the new rule of righteousness. All this, the Scriptures show us, is to come to pass before the year 1914 (See MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. II, Chapter IV.) -- that is, within the next twenty-three years."
The Watch Tower July 15, 1894 p. 266
"Seventeen years ago people said, concerning the time features presented in Millennial Dawn, They seem reasonable in many respects, but surely no such radical changes could occur between now and the close of 1914: if you had proved that they would come about in a century or two, it would seem much more probable. What changes have since occurred, and what velocity is gained daily? 'The old is quickly passing and the new is coming in.' Now, in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They say that they do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain. We see no reason for changing the figures - nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble. We see no reason for changing from our opinion expressed in the view presented in the WATCH TOWER of January 15, '92. We advise that it be read again."
The Watch Tower September 15, 1901 p. 294
"The culmination of the trouble in October 1914 is clearly marked in the Scriptures;* and we are bound therefore to expect a beginning of that severe trouble not later than 1910; -- with severe spasms between now and then."
In fairness, it's true that as 1914 got closer and closer, Russell appeared to waiver and lose confidence. Witnesses today will sometimes present statements by Russell made just prior to 1914 where he allowed that everything he had expected might not come to pass before that year. These however are not indicative of what he had already taught for 30 odd years.
Big Tex,
Even a broken clock is right once a day
Actually, I think it's twice a day--a.m. and p.m.
Regards,
Ken
Edited to add:
Oops. Sorry undercover, I hadn't noticed we'd gone onto a third page...
KS
Making predictions...what does the WT say about it
How
Reliable the Predictions?The uncertainties of life make most people wish they could know the future. The occult promises such knowledge.
Sometimes it seems to work. A North Carolina witch predicted that a neighbor would die on a certain date. The woman did die on that date?a victim of alcohol and pill overdoses.
Noted astrologer Jeanne Dixon claims to have predicted President John Kennedy?s death in Dallas, Texas, in 1963?but she doesn?t say too much about her prediction that the Vietnam War would end in 1966. A group of scientists examining her overall record concluded that her predictions were no more accurate than those of any ordinary person making informed guesses.
Is the future being seen?or, are occultists merely in league with invisible forces who sometimes cause predictions to come true, and sometimes don?t?
***
Multiple Articles ***However, in spite of the ready availability of tea-leaf readers, palmists, astrologers and other types of fortune-tellers, most people do not seek out their predictions. Why?
For one thing, fortune-tellers are so often incorrect. And when they do claim accuracy, often their predictions are so vague and ambiguous as to permit application to just about any event.
***
g75 8/8 p. 4 Fortune-telling?Can It Really Help You? ***Of course, other methods of fortune-telling that are related to astrology (such as certain types of card reading and palmistry) are equally devoid of scientific basis. That is why the predictions of fortune-tellers are so often wrong.
"But they are not always wrong," someone may object. This is true. On occasion, some fortune-tellers have been amazingly accurate. But if their methods are not scientific, what accounts for this accuracy?
***
w81 5/1 p. 11 Insight on the News ***Not human predictions, but the inspired prophecies of God are what come true with unerring accuracy. (Isa. 46:9-11; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21) Hence, God?s Word condemns false foretellers of events.?Deut. 18:10-12.
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Multiple Articles ***Similar were the predictions from ancient pagan oracles. Greek writer Lucian says of a certain foreteller of events: "He delivered oracles, and gave divine responses, but with great prudence, and giving perplexed, doubtful, or obscure answers, according to the custom of oracles."
At times such oracles gave answers that could be understood in exactly opposite ways.
