It seems to me so much of people's faith and therefore their actions is based on their reward being "imminent". You can do or believe almost anything for a short time especially if there is some greater reward to look forward to in a very short time.
This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while now - the Bible says, "You do not know the day nor the hour, neither the Son. Only the Father." (or something like that). So it hasn't made sense to me for a long time that they have been obsessed with 1914 and predicting the time of the end.
Now that it has come to nothing, they are backtracking. It will be interesting to see how many people leave now that there is no timeline for the reward.
And I will be interested now to see if this gives them the opportunity to focus on what kind of people they are instead of what kind of works they produce that other people can see.
I think this is the beginning of an important turning point.