The Watchtower Society leaders like to have it both ways. When they want Jehovah’s Witnesses to believe them without question and obey instantly, they claim to be the only trustworthy spokesman for God. In other words His prophet. However, when what they say proves wrong they want to be excused as the fallible people they are.
They can’t have it both ways. If they demand unquestioning obedience then they must be as trustworthy as a prophet of God.
If they are going to claim human fallibility when their statements are proven wrong then they must allow Jehovah’s Witnesses to question and doubt just as the Bereans did Paul’s teaching (Acts 17:11).
Did the Watchtower claim to speak as a prophet of Jehovah?
“More accurately, was there any group on whom Jehovah would be willing to bestow the commission to speak as a `prophet’ in His name, as was done toward Ezekiel back there in 613 B.C.E.?” (Watchtower, March 15, 1972, p. 189)
“It is of importance to every individual on earth to identify the group that Jehovah has commissioned as his `servant’ or messenger” (Ibid, p. 190).
“So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet?
This `prophet’ was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Of course, it is easy to say this group acts as a `prophet’ of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?” (Watchtower, April 1, 1972, p. 197).
What Does The Record Show?
In 1889, Founder and President, Charles Taze Russell said, “The `battle of the great day of God Almighty’ (Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth’s present rulership, is already commenced” (Studies In The Scriptures, Vol. 2, p. 101, 1908 edition).
In 1918, second President of the Watchtower, “Judge” Rutherford, said, “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 11, to the condition of human perfection” (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, p. 89).
Subsequently the Watchtower said regarding this prophecy, “The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures because it is fixed by the law God gave to Israel” (Watchtower, September 1, 1922, p. 262).
And again, “1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures” (Watchtower, April 1, 1923, p. 106).
Frequently after the failure of a prophecy the Watchtower leaders will blame their followers for putting so much stock in the expected end. The 1925 failure is a good example.
In September, 1925, they said, “It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated, the thought that 1925 should see an end of the work.” (Watchtower, 1925, p. 262). To this Christians could say a hearty Amen. Satan used the Watchtower to do it!
The next year they said again, “Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not state so. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason” (Watchtower, 1926, p. 232).
In the mid-1960’s the Watchtower again ventured a prophecy about Armageddon. They said, “According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man’s creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E.” (Life Everlasting In Freedom Of The Sons Of God, p. 29).
In this Life Everlasting book the Watchtower describes man’s existence on earth as being seven “days” of one thousand years each. 1975 was to be the end of the sixth “day,” hence the seventh day would be the Millennium. But, the Millennium must be preceded by the battle of Armageddon.
The Watchtower had lit a fire under their followers. For the next nine years the Society grew dramatically. But in 1976 and 1977 the Watchtower had hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Witnesses on their hands. Thousands came out of the Watchtower as evidenced by the numbers reported in their Yearbooks following 1975.
Thousands also were being reached with the gospel. The failure of a prophecy is one of the best ways to demonstrate to a Jehovah’s Witness that his trust is misplaced. This can only be done with the Watchtower’s publications.
Witnesses are trained to distrust, and not read, anything but their own literature. Thus for a Christian to be most effective with a Jehovah’s Witness it is helpful to have either a very large library of their publications, or, a good set of photostats that is easy to carry and use.
Editors Note: Watchman Fellowship has this resource in the form of a witnessing manual. It is titled Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Dating Game. It is available in our Store
“True, there have been those in times past who predicted and `end to the world,’ even announcing a specific date Yet nothing happened. The `end’ did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing? Missing from such people were God’s truths and the evidence that He was guiding and using them. But what about today? Today we have the evidence required, all of it (Awake!, October 8, 1968, p. 23; emphasis retained).
A Note About Prophecy
If the quote below proves to be correct, could it be a fulfillment of Psalm 83, Isaiah 17 and Ezekiel 29?
“War is on its way in the Middle East as Muslim countries are determined to force a showdown over the future of Israel, Ronald Reagan’s assistant defense secretary Frank Gaffney warned in an exclusive Newsmax.TV interview.
’I’m afraid there’s a war coming, a very serious, perhaps cataclysmic regional war,” he said. “It will be presumably over, at least in part, the future existence of the state of Israel. It may involve all of its neighbors, as they have in the past, attacking Israel to try, as they say, to drive the Jews into the sea.
’It may involve the use of nuclear weapons,” Gaffney predicted. “But whatever form it takes and whenever it occurs, it is unlikely to be contained to that region, and we must do everything we can to prevent freedom’s enemies from thinking they have an opportunity to engage in that kind of warfare.’” Frank Gaffney – Rise of Sharia Rule Will Bring War to the Middle East
http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/gaffney-islamist-war-israel/2011/10/24/id/415578
By David Henke
