# *Sooner than you think...

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Posted by AF [AF] on November 09, 1999 at 22:37:44 {4Hfg918T5g1EwaxRomAMdaOt1gg/Zk}:

In Reply to: Sooner than you think... posted by Rick on November 09, 1999 at 21:10:52:

: One more interesting side note is that the Society assures us in this issue, that 1914 being a date of Christ coming to power, but not the absolute end of this world, was spoken about as early as in an 1870's Watch Tower magazine. It's as if they knew all along. No mention was made that the Watch Tower taught that the end of this system and the beginning of the thousand year reign of Christ would commence in 1914. Did any such teaching ever appear in any pre-1914 Watch Tower publication?

There are several problems with the Society's claims, and your understanding of Watchtower history here. The earliest mention in Zion's Watch Tower of 1914 is in the March 1880 issue, page 2. N. H. Barbour had published his ideas on the Gentile times ending in 1914 in 1875, and following him, C. T. Russell published an article mentioning 1914 in that vein in 1876. Later that year they joined forces and contributed to Barbour's little magazine, Herald of the Morning. By early 1877 they had decided to stop publishing monthly issues of the Herald and to produce a booklet summarizing their views. This came out late in 1877 as the booklet Three Worlds and the Harvest of this World. They heavily promoted 1914 as the end of the Gentile times, and began teaching that Christ returned, and Armageddon and Christ's Millennium began in 1874. After they split up Russell eventually produced the volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. In the 1889 2nd volume, The Time Is At Hand, Russell expounded upon his ideas of what would happen in the 40-year "harvest period" between 1874 and 1914. By 1914, he claimed, all the kingdoms of the world would be gone and replaced by God's Kingdom. As 1914 approached and his predictions all failed, Russell modified his remaining predictions and views. For a detailed look at what was said, look at this link and the topics around it.

: Could it actually be they never taught that, and those claiming they did are engaging in "apostate propaganda"?

It wasn't until 1922 that Rutherford modified some of Russell's teachings and began teaching that, although Christ had returned in 1874, he actually began ruling as King in 1914.

: I recall an elder once brushing it off by saying that the Watch Tower publishing the end of the world happening in 1914 "is rumored to have happened, and I challenge anyone to show me anything ever published before then claiming 1914 was going to be Armageddon," then he finished with something like "that's a long time ago and neither here nor there at this late hour." :-o

Well, he's quite in error, and the link I gave you above will furnish plenty of quotes showing what the Society did teach.

AF

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