Could The Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses survive the discarding of their 1914 doctrine?
The doctrine that in 1914 the End of the Gentile times took place, Jesus took up rule in heaven.
For some reason the JWs think the outbreak of World War I in 1914 is proof their prophetic calculations were correct.
And, three or four years after 1914, Jesus inspected all of Christendom, and chose the Bible Students to be his select people.
Rutherford was supplied with direction directly by angels and later, the Governing Body was directed by Holy Spirit, but at the same time they are not "inspired" (talk about holding two contradictory beliefs in your mind at the same time!)
So all of The Watchtower's authority comes from the 1914 doctrine, discard it, and you might as well discard The Watchtower.
All their talk through the years of doing God's Will and His Work will have been meaningless.
Their spirituality they talk about in The Watchtower and they believe they have through their study and works will also be nothing but an illusion.
Obviously, The Watchtower and everyone closely associated with it have too much invested in the 1914 doctrine for it to be discarded.....for now!
I predict that in the decades to come, less and less will be said about 1914....perhaps in 50 years the 1914 WILL be discarded as out-of-date "old light".....by then, all the people whose held 1914 so dearly will be gone, and the people who control things could care less about a year a 150 years in the past. (Do any of us really consider anything that happened in 1855 as being significant for us today?)
As for the 1914 calculation, it is extra-Biblical, an addition to the Bible by people trying to find "secret knowledge." Charles Russell did not invent the calculation, but took it over and believed it whole heartedly, as only the book-keeper that he was could have. Now The Watchtower equates the whole 1914 calculation as coming from the Bible, to go against it The Watchtower says, is to go against what the Bible says!
If evidence is presented that shows 607BCE is an incorrect date, The Watchtower says "No! That is wrong. 607BCE is what the Bible says, and you do not want to contradict what the Bible says, do you?" See how they argue?
The point is this, the Bible does NOT say anything at all about the year 607BCE, and the 607 year is arrived at by insisting that the year 1914 is the end of the Gentile Times. By insisting that 607 is a Bible based year, The Watchtower is attempting to use "proof by authority" to silence any critic. The essence of their argument is "This is Bible based(tm), so there!"
The secular evidence that simply shows 607 BCE is wring are the business tables of the Babylonian banking family Egibi, discover OVER 100 YEARS AGO! The evidence is there...there is no 20 year gap in the reigns of the neo-Babylonian kings. If you search The Watchtower literature you will see that the name "Egibi" is NEVER mentioned once! Why? Simply this....They do not mention the Egibi business tables because THE WATCHTOWER DOES NOT WANT ANYONE TO KNOW ABOUT THEM...The Watchtower WANTS NO RESEARCH INTO THE EGIBI TABLETS! The tablets will show once and for all, ending all uncertainty, that the neo-Babylonian reigns are accurate.
The Egibi tablets would THROW LIGHT upon the uncertainty The Watchtower likes to throw upon Ptolemy's kings list, and this they could not allow....so no mention of, and no research into the Babylonian business records.....The 1914 year doctrine be maintained.....for the time being!
--VM44