In the early 19th century, Adventists began speculating about when Christ would return.

Baptist preacher William Miller believed the return would occur between 1843 and 1844. A “great disappointment” came on October 22, 1844 when Jesus failed to appear. Miller’s followers split into several groups and the Adventist movement began.

Millerite Nelson H. Barbour did his own study and concluded that Christ would return in 1873, which he later changed to 1874.

When Jesus failed to appear, he concluded that the date was correct but that they had been expecting the wrong thing. Jesus did return in 1874—invisibly—and would soon become visible to judge the world. He started a magazine, Herald of the Morning, to publicize his views.

This is where Charles Taze Russell entered the picture. Continue reading

When I wrote “The False Prophecies Approach” chapter of my book, I faced a quandary.

The stated objective of the approach is “to show Jehovah’s Witnesses that the Watchtower organization is not the reliable guide it claims to be in that it has made numerous false prophecies.”

The challenge I faced was this: How much evidence should I recommend that you present to the Witnesses? Clearly, one or two examples will probably not be enough. They can always be shrugged off as an aberration or as not representative of Watchtower literature as a whole.

After all, “nobody’s perfect.”

But there’s the opposite problem of overkill which destroys everything we’re trying to accomplish. You don’t want to drive them further into the Watchtower organization by triggering their persecution complex.

In other words, less can sometimes be better. Continue reading