The next president of the Watchtower, Joseph “Judge” Rutherford, eventually rejected many of his predecessor’s teachings, but he couldn’t do so right away because Charles Taze Russell was revered by his followers.

When Russell died in the fall of 1916, the Watchtower leaders moved quickly to bridge to the future.

In 1917, they published The Finished Mystery. It was presented as Volume 7 of Studies in the Scriptures, the posthumous book of Russell.

In fact, it was written by other men.

The Watchtower now claims that in 1918-1919, Jesus Christ personally inspected all the world’s religions. He found the Watchtower organization to be spiritually cleansed from past errors and faithfully dispensing spiritual food. Accordingly, he designated it to be the “faithful and discreet slave” of Matthew 24:45 and gave it dominion over all of his affairs on earth.

In effect, it became Jehovah’s one true religious organization on earth, authorized to speak and act on his behalf.

Given that The Finished Mystery was the last book it published and promoted before Jesus’ claimed inspection, I want to take some time to discuss it.

Peter Gregerson had been a loyal Jehovah’s Witness for more than 50 years. He had served as an elder and as a trainer of elders. In the late 1970s, he decided to read The Finished Mystery as a way of bolstering his faith in the Watchtower organization.

Instead, he concluded that the Watchtower is a fraud and left.

He has a YouTube video entitled “Is the Watchtower God’s Only Organization?” in which he discusses The Finished Mystery in some detail.

According to God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached, p. 350, the key factor in Jesus’ inspection in 1918-1919 was to determine the quality of spiritual food that was being presented: “The serving of food—the right sort of food—at the proper time was the issue. It had to be according to this that a decision must be rendered by the returned Master. The quality of the food itself was to be considered.”

The Watchtower, December 15, 1977, states (p. 751), “Their faithfulness and spiritual wisdom in the Master’s service determines their worthiness to be put in charge of all the earthly belongings of their Master.”

Gregerson notes that The Finished Mystery was the only book the Watchtower published during this critical time. Acceptance of this book became the test of whether you were in the truth or not. Its distribution was the focus of their activity. Ten million copies of a tract with excerpts were distributed. Page 256 of that book claims that it was divinely provided and that it is the seventh angel mentioned in Revelation 16:17.

He was puzzled. “If spiritual wisdom is the basis of selection, why in my 50 years had I never read one excerpt of this wisdom? I’d never read one quotation.” It’s not available for purchase through the Watchtower nor available at Kingdom Hall libraries. Why not?

After reading it, he knew.

Here are several quotations from that book.

General “wisdom”

• Job’s behemoth is the steam engine; leviathan is the locomotive. (pp. 84-85)

• Revelation 14:20 describes the distance between Scranton, Pennsylvania, where The Finished Mystery was published to Watchtower headquarters… by way of the Hoboken Ferry.

Prophecies regarding 1918

• “Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by million, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of ‘Christianity’.” (p. 485)

• “The Spring of 1918 will bring upon Christendom a spasm of anguish greater even than that experienced in the Fall of 1914…. The travail that is coming is to be upon nominal Zion- “Christendom” … “Babylon”; and it will be a great and sore affliction- “A Time of Trouble such as was not since there was a nation.” (p. 2)

• “Pastor Russell’s mission, in large part, was to advise Christendom of its impending end, in the time of world-wide trouble. It is the Divine judgment upon the nations. … There will be no chance of escaping from destruction, through the nations. … The trouble is due to the dawning of the Day of Christ, the Millennium. It is the Day of Vengeance, which began in the World War of 1914 and which will break like a furious morning storm in 1918.” (p. 404)

Prophecies Regarding 1920

• “Some interesting developments in connection with the setting up of the Kingdom may occur in 1920, six years after the great Time of Trouble began. It would not be strange if this were so, when we recall that after forty years wandering in the wilderness the Israelites came into possession of the land of Canaan after a further six years. As these matters are still future we can but wait to see. We anticipate that the ‘earthquake’ will occur early in 1918, and that the ‘fire’ will come in the fall of 1920.” (p. 178)

• “And the mountains were not found. Even the republics will disappear in the fall of 1920. And the mountains were not found. Every kingdom of earth will pass away, be swallowed up in anarchy.” (p. 258)

Gregerson counted 190 examples of such teachings which a Jehovah’s Witness would be disfellowshipped today for espousing.

He counted 88 prophecies (pp. 68-71) “proving” that Jesus returned in 1874 (something the Watchtower no longer believes or teaches.)

He summarized as follows: “The evidence is clear and overwhelming beyond any question or argument. In the beginning, I had wanted so much for their claim to be true… I had been led to expect some beautiful quality spiritual food that would mightily impress God and Jesus. As to its spiritual quality, I think you’ll agree it proves pathetic to the point of silliness—shameful silliness—an insult to common intelligence and most certainly an insult to God himself and our Lord Jesus Christ… No wonder they… hide it… That is why I left the Watchtower. There is no room for any doubt or any argument… The Watchtower has sold a grand and fraudulent lie. The Watchtower is not what they claim to be. The Watchtower is a giant fraud… Their core claim to be God’s only organization is totally bogus.”

Don’t present this conclusion to Jehovah’s Witnesses, though.

Instead, present the evidence dispassionately and let them come to their own conclusions.

If necessary, have them read out each prophecy and ask such questions as:

• Was this statement true?
• Did it come from God?
• Where did it come from?