Fisherman and Scholar, this is the type of Watchtower logic which you are clinging to:
According to the book Revelation-Its Grand Climax At Hand!, pp. 162, 164, it is expressly stated that the 42 months of trampling of the temple courtyard should be interpreted literally, spanning from October 1914 to 1918. Officially the Great War raged between July, 28, 1914 to November, 11, 1918. Presumably the 42 months should be fitted somewhere in between these dates. According to their reckoning, the 1260 day preaching of the two witnesses should run concurrently with the 42 months of the trampling. During this period their president, J. F. Rutherford and colleagues, were arrested and jailed for sedition against the state, thus “killing” them as well as their preaching work. In Jehovah’s Witnesses-Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, p. 70, it is reported: “The clergy-inspired opposition came to a head on May 7, 1918, when the U.S. federal warrants were issued for the arrest of J. F. Rutherford and several of his close associates. By mid-1918, Rutherford and seven associates found themselves in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia.”
They would be “resurrected” when they were released and could carry on with their God-ordained work. According to Revelation-Its Grand Climax At Hand! p. 170, this work would be reactivated during the 1919 convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, USA: “Here the recently released president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford stirred conventioners with his talk “Announcing the Kingdom,”… Those of the John class began once again to “prophesy,” or “preach publicly.”
There’s a few problems associated with above interpretation. Although interesting, it can easily be disproved by referencing JW theology:
1) The two anointed
prophets, members of the 144000, are to be sealed after the breaking of the
sixth seal, a future event (cf. Rev. 6:12-7:3).
2) The chronology doesn’t fit. If the 42 months of the trampling are to run concurrently with the 1260 days of preaching, starting in October 1914, three and a half years from there would bring one to March 1918. Federal warrants for the arrest of Rutherford and company were issued May 7, 1918.
3) According to the general chronology of Revelation the two prophets will be appearing towards the middle of the Tribulation, after the sixth trumpet blast (cf. Rev. 9:12, 13; 11:3-6).
4) Last, but not least, Beast from the abyss (as the United Nations) was created in 1945, after the Second World War had ended (cf. Rev. 11:7; 17:8). Impossible for it to have been involved 1914-1918. Will not work with the League of Nations either. It was created after the First World War.
