If you were truly convinced that Armageddon and Christ’s millennial kingdom were coming in the next couple of years—because “the faithful and discreet slave” told you so—what radical changes would you make in your life?
For the Watchtower organization, it meant increased meeting attendance, increased revenue, increased witnessing activity, and increased membership.
But what was the impact on ordinary Jehovah’s Witnesses? Continue reading
Projection is the attribution of one’s own ideas, feelings, or attitudes to other people.
Here is a prime example from the Watchtower.
Down through the centuries since Jesus’ day, so many unfulfilled predictions have been made that many no longer take them seriously. … Undeterred by previous failures, some seem to have been spurred on by the approach of the year 2000 and have made further predictions of the end of the world. … The flood of false alarms is unfortunate. They are like the wolf-wolf cries of the shepherd boy—people soon dismiss them, and when the true warning comes, it too is ignored. (Awake! “Why So Many False Alarms?,” March 22, 1993, pp. 3-4) Continue reading
In 1931, Watchtower president Joseph Rutherford wrote that after 1914, 1918 and 1925, Watchtower leaders “learned to quit fixing dates for the future and predicting what would come to pass on a certain date.” (J. F. Rutherford, Vindication, pp. 338-339)
That is, until Watchtower vice president Fred Franz (as he then was) declared that 1975 would be an appropriate time for God to act. (Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, 1966, p. 30)
How did that develop? Continue reading
Throughout its history, the Watchtower organization has based much of its prophetic speculation on Old Testament types and antitypes.
That is, if something happened in the Old Testament, it must have some sort of parallel in Watchtower times. Continue reading
In 2010, in order to revive a sense of urgency, the April 15 Watchtower announced yet another change to the generation doctrine.
So, what does “this generation” that “will by no means pass away” mean now?
Both—but with a twist! Continue reading
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