Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of an international denomination who identify themselves as Christian and number over six million. Their headquarters are in New York, USA. It is an international organization known for its extensive preaching and publishing activities, distribution of the Watchtower and Awake! religious magazines being the most prominent.

Jehovah's Witnesses and eschatology

Since their formation in the 1870s, leaders of the organization have sought to identify dates for end-time events such as the enthronement of Jesus as King in Heaven, the return of Jesus Christ, and for the "end of this system of things," culminating in Armageddon.

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Early eschatology

In the group's early period, during the late 1800s, Jehovah's Witnesses (then called Bible Students) believed that the return of Jesus Christ would be a visible, dramatic and world shattering event, a position also commonly held among many Christian groups. They believed that the "time of the end" (also called the "last days") had started in 1799, and that Jesus had returned invisibly to judge the earth in 1874 (they believed this to be the end of 6,000 years of human history). They also believed Jesus was enthroned as ruling King in 1878, the harvest of the remaining to be saved would run from 1874?1914, and that the culmination of Armageddon would occur in 1914 notes C1. From 1925?1933, the Watchtower Society radically changed their beliefs after the failure of expectations for Armageddon in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, and 1925. In 1925, the Watchtower explained a major change that Christ had now been enthroned as king in 1914 instead of 1878. 1874 was retained as the time of Christ's invisible return until the early 1930s. By 1933, it was clearly taught that Christ had returned invisibly in 1914 and the "last days" had also begun then. Witnesses no longer consider the dates 1799, 1874 and 1878 of any significance today, even though they were foundation doctrines in their time. The idea that the "great tribulation" had begun in 1914 and was "cut short" in 1918 to be resumed at Armageddon was dropped in 1969, though Armageddon is still considered to be "very close".

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Other dates proclaimed to be time of God's judgement on humankind and the culmination of Armageddon, were 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925 and 1941. The return of Old Testament men including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was an event anticipated by many Jehovah's Witnesses in the year 1925 based on writings in their Journal, The Watchtower, the book Millions Now Living Will Never Die notes C2, and various other Watch Tower Society publications. In 1929, Joseph Rutherford (the second president of the Watch Tower) built a luxury villa in California called Beth Sarim for the purpose of housing ancient Biblical persons, who were expected to be physically resurrected on earth to join Christ's reign over the earth, even though they had failed to materialize as he had predicted for 1925. Rutherford lived in the villa for until his death in 1942, and in 1948 the villa was sold. notes C3

Related Topics:
Old Testament - Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - The Watchtower - Joseph Rutherford

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Throughout its history the Watch Tower Society's claims authority as "God's Prophet", and "God's one and only true channel to mankind" has been historically reinforced into the minds of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the history of the organisation. Its dates for Armageddon were repeatedly classed as "of God,", "God's time to act against mankind", "God's interpretations," and the organization describes itself in a unique and privileged position of "God's one sole channel to Mankind" in giving these dates. To questions the dates validity is often negatively inferred to be questioning God Himself. The organisation has at times denied being "directly inspired", but has also made multiple claims equalling inspiration in their import. These historical dates were never suggested to be the thoughts of imperfect men, or passing and theories of men at the time of their publishing. This is demonstrated clearly in two out of many issues of the Watchtower magazine published by Jehovah's Witnesses: "It is on the basis of such and so many correspondencies-in accordance with the soundest laws known to science that we affirm that, Scripturally, scientifically, and historically, present-truth chronology is correct beyond a doubt. Its reliability has been abundantly confirmed by the dates and events of 1874, 1914, and 1918. Present-truth chronology is a secure basis on which the consecrated child of God may endeavor to search out things to come." (Watchtower, 15 June 1922, p. 187.) "This chronology is not of man, but of God. Being of divine origin and divinely corroborated, present-truth chronology stands in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct."—Watchtower, 15 July 1922, p. 217.

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