Posted by Cygnus [Cygnus] on March 29, 1999 at 17:18:04 {L4bdfUTIaIH2BPSMl5WYMWlB1pOXGOGwk}:
In Reply to: *****Known to be Untrue posted by ~gc~ on March 29, 1999 at 16:12:57:
The WT appeals to the common JWs' lack of insight as to what the Bible Students expected and believed. The WT today teaches that the parousia and the Kingdom (ergo, Jesus' coming to Kingdom power) mutually commenced in October, 1914. The early Bible Students had a different analysis, in that they believed Christ's parousia was in 1874, paralleling his baptism and anointing, but that his 3 1/2 year ministry culminating in his Kingly entrance into Jerusalem foreshadowed/paralleled his full assumption of the throneship of the Kingdom -- in 1878. And with that event, he gained 'kingly power.'
He was expected to exercise that power against the Gentile nations in 1914/5. That is quite different than and indeed fully distinguished from 'accepting kingly power.' Therefore, the early Bible Students did not believe or anticipate what the 1998 Watchtower reported.
JWs today
almost have a similar belief, in that they view Christ's "coming" in Matthew 24:30 and Matthew 24:44 as yet future, whereas his "presence" and 'arrival' of verses 39 and 46 are indicative of his invisible parousia in the
autumn of 1914.