Contrary to the Watchtower’s prophetic pronouncements:

• The end of the world’s governments did not come in 1914.
• The churches were not destroyed wholesale in 1918.
• The “earthquake” did not come in 1918.
• The “fire” did not come in 1920.
• The republics did not disappear in 1920.
• A “spasm of anguish” greater than that of World War I did not come upon Christendom in 1920.

The Watchtower leaders could have admitted their ignorance and stopped prophesying.

Instead, they charged ahead, proclaiming boldly that the resurrection of the Old Testament patriarchs would occur in 1925 and that “millions now living will never die.”

Specifically, in 1920 the Watchtower published a booklet, Millions Now Living Will Never Die!, announcing that the resurrection of the Old Testament prophets would begin in 1925:

As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase of the kingdom shall be recognized. [The faithful men named in Hebrews 11] are to be resurrected as perfect men and constitute the princes or rulers in the earth, according to his promise [Scripture citations omitted]. Therefore, we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the condition of human perfection” (emphasis added) (Millions Now Living Will Never Die!, p. 89; part of this quotation also appears in the Watchtower’s book, Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, 1993, p. 78).

If you can get a Jehovah’s Witnesses to look at this statement, you might ask questions such as:

• How certain were the Watchtower writers that they were communicating truth from Jehovah when they published this?
• What would have happened to a Jehovah’s Witness who expressed disagreement about the accuracy of this prophecy and refused to teach it in the door-to-door ministry?

Although most Jehovah’s Witnesses have heard of the Millions book and cite it as evidence that the Watchtower has been vigilant in warning about the nearness of Armageddon, what most of them don’t know is that the title is based completely on the Watchtower’s erroneous prediction about 1925:

Based upon the argument heretofore set forth, then, that the old order of things, the old world, is ending and is therefore passing away, and that the new order is coming in, and that 1925 shall mark the resurrection of the faithful worthies of old and the beginning of reconstruction, it is reasonable to conclude that millions of people now on the earth will still be on the earth in 1925. Then, based upon the promises in the divine Word, we must reach the positive and indisputable conclusion that millions now living will never die” (emphasis added) (Millions Now Living Will Never Die!, p. 97).

The Proclaimers book, cited above, actually makes this false prophecy into a virtue:

In the lecture “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” delivered by J. F. Rutherford on March 21, 1920, at the Hippodrome in New York City, attention was directed to the year 1925… On the basis of what was said there, many hoped that perhaps the remaining ones of the little flock would receive their heavenly reward by 1925. This year also was associated with expectations for resurrection of faithful pre-Christian servants of God with a view to their serving on earth as princely representatives of the heavenly Kingdom. If that really occurred, it would mean that mankind had entered an era in which death would cease to be master, and millions then living could have the hope of never dying off the earth. What a happy prospect! Though mistaken, they eagerly shared it with others.” (Emphasis added, p. 632)

If you show Jehovah’s Witnesses this quote, you can ask, “Isn’t there something seriously wrong with eagerly sharing a false prophecy, even if you didn’t realize it was false until years later? Instead, this passage treats it like a virtue!”

How was the date 1925 tied into the Bible?

“Seventy jubilees of fifty years each would be a total of 3500 years. That period of time beginning 1575 before A.D. 1 of necessity would end in the fall of the year 1925, at which time the type ends and the great antitype must begin.” (Millions Now Living Will Never Die! p.88)

“Seventy times 50 are 3,500. The whole period would therefore have been 3,500 years from the time the Jews entered Canaan until all the types would have been fulfilled. As they entered Canaan 1,575 years before Christ there would be 1,925 years of types after Christ, or 1925 A.D.” (The Way to Paradise, p.223)

The May 15, 1922 Watch Tower (p. 150) doubled down on its prophetic claims: “We have no doubt whatever in regard to the chronology relating to the dates of 1874, 1914, 1918, and 1925.”

In articles focused on chronology, the June 15, 1922 Watch Tower stated:

 The chronology of present truth might be a mere happening if it were not for the repetitions in the two great cycles of 1845 and 2520 years, which take it out of the realm of chance and into that of certainty… they cannot possibly be by chance, but must be by the design or plan of the only personal Being capable of such a plan—Jehovah himself; and the chronology itself must be right.

In the passages of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh the agreement of one or two measurements with the present truth chronology might be accidental, but the correspondency of dozens of measurements proves that the same God designed both the pyramid and plan—and at the same time proves the correctness of the chronology.

The reference to the Pyramid and the plan being designed by the same God is especially ironic in view of the fact that in 1928, the Watchtower said this:

“Satan put his knowledge in dead stone, which may be called Satan’s Bible, and not God’s stone witness. In erecting the pyramid, of course, Satan would put in it some truth, because that is his method of practicing fraud and deceit.” (The Watchtower, November 15, 1928, p. 344).

After Jehovah’s Witnesses read these quotations, you can ask:

• How certain would you say the Watchtower was about its teaching that the resurrection would come in 1925 and that millions then living would never die?
• Does the Watchtower still teach that millions of people who were alive when that statement was made will never die?
• Which god produced the Great Pyramid and the related chronology promoted by the Watchtower—Jehovah or Satan?