Thursday 5 May 2011

Did Jehovah's Witnesses become the true religion in 1919?

Jehovah's Witnesses have the "truth" right?

Now any witness will tell you they believe they are the true religion on earth right now....

But is that based upon the organisation's current beliefs and standing with God?

Or have they perhaps always been God's chosen ones since C . T. Russell founded them?

Or as former Watchtower society president Fred Franz believed, attained such a lofty title at a specific time?

One of the above must be what they believe.

In my opinion the answer to these questions lies in a long term strategy by Governing Body 2.0 to re-shape or abandon doctrines and overhaul the public/religious image of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In the days of men like Fred Franz and his ilk they totally believed in their own press and thus felt they were in a position of having “special insight”. Fred Franz was merely following in the footsteps of "judge" Rutherford and his predecessor Charles Russell, the religion's founder, in his mind-set.

Franz believed the Witnesses, although known as the Bible students at the time were "chosen" by Jesus himself during an "invisible" visit to earth to inspect the world's religions around the year 1919 a.d.

Now how does that above statement sound ? Would a "householder" of the  21st century be likely to buy into that during a visit from a Jehovah's Witness at their door?
Remember ultimately they are a publishing corporation with a product to "sell" whether that be books, donations to the cause or joining the religion. Products have to be saleable and attractive to prospective buyers.

So the previous "product" sold. The end is coming! The people flooded in and so did the money......1975 and all that......
Unfortunately  the product eventually passed it's sell-by date in the shape of the combined "insights" of Russell, Rutherford and Franz  when they turned out to be poorly judged guesswork and idle speculation at best.

The newest members of the GB couldn’t fail to notice these events whether they were in power at the time or not. Hence when those older men finally died off I believe that GB 2.0 would be acutely aware of their own lack of “special insight”.
Perhaps an awareness of the impact these failed doctrines had on the rank and file witnesses and in the case of the 1975 “prochecy” , the general public  they decided to scale back on the doctrinal side.

As evidence for my line of reasoning I will cite some examples.

1.The abandonment of doctrines with an associated date i.e. 1935 and the “final sealing” of the “annointed” (may 2007 wt.)

2. Dates such as 1914 slowly being degraded in the jw mindset facilitated by being mentioned less and less in their literature over a 10-15 year period to the present day. One recent 2010 Watchtower’s cover asked “what is the kingdom?” This magazine when read cover to cover did not mention 1914 once.
Surely the date  1914 on  which the entire authority and doctrinal foundations of the the Jehovah's Witnesses rests deserves to be at the forefront of their message? My objective assessment of the 1914 doctrine can be found here.

3.The “appointment” of the “slave class” in 1919 dogma slowly being replaced by already existing concepts that JW’s are the “closest thing to 1st century Christianity” and have the “mark of love” and are the only ones doing the “preaching work”. Ideas which are much easier to defend and substantiate and thoughts which are already in the minds of many Witnesses.    This  is discussed in more detail in this blog I wrote two years ago.

4. A concerted effort to APPEAR more mainstream and like other “Christian” groups. Dumbing down in doctrines and literature, legal department softening medical policies, less meetings, lower pioneer hours etc, etc.

Of course the problem every member of the current Governing Body has is what to do with all the dated , failed old doctrines which many built their whole lives on?
It seems that 1914, 1919, 1975, and the "generation" teaching are somewhat of an embarrassment to the Governing Body today.
There is unfortunately no panacea as I’m sure they realise.


An example is the recent overhaul of an old doctrine in the shape of the paradoxical two-part overlapping generation. A  hybrid doctrine of the "creators promise" that those alive in 1914 would see the end, with the new generation of “anointed” alive today   overlapping them as the ones who ultimately see the end of this system. Co-incidentally these "new members" in the generation dogma just happen to include the majority of the Governing Body who are much too young too fit in with the old teaching......

This teaching epitomises the dilemma the GB find themselves in:-


The generation of 1914 clearly almost all dead, so therefore the old doctrine or "prophecy" is demonstrably false.

No new “light” to completely replace it.

Can’t completely bin old doctrines, as older ones would react adversely.

A need to give the rank and file something to bite on, a little hope, so therefore modify the doctrine to give the impression the "end" could still be quite close.


So the only option is to fire fight with face-saving nonsense.

So just to get this straight. Jesus was asked a question in Matt 24:34. He  answered that question  with the words "this generation will by no means pass away".
 What he actually meant was a group of people would see the year 1914 and the "signs" of his "invisible presence" and their generation would overlap a SECOND group  of people who would then in turn see the end of the world? 

Really? Does it seem reasonable that's what Jesus Christ 2000 years ago was referring to?

The leaders have probably come to the conclusion that most Jehovah’s Witnesses will believe whatever they are told and will follow this organisation till they die.
So the Organisation's remit is to make it easier to believe, easier to defend to their “opposers” and easier on the eye to governments and the public.

Jehovah's Witnesses have taught for almost 100 years that they were chosen by Jesus in the year 1919 as the one true religion.

If this is correct what should you do?

If this is proved to be false what should you do?

5 comments:

  1. Excellent assessment. Will be interesting to see their incarnation 25 years from now, hopefully gone.

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  2. When dates are printed in Jehovah's NAME and with the passing of time prove to be wrong. Someone has to be responsible for the errors. Held accountable for the wrong information.

    Investment in Religion or Financial, if information is given as truthful and it proves to be faulty. These errors can not be placed under the carpet and hope they will go away.

    By what the Watchtower has printed. There have been large burnouts in the forest. 1914... 1925...1975......People have been burnt.

    To explain away these errors by saying the light has got brighter is only half the answer. The other half is the Governing Body is responsible for these errors. They had the information printed and distributed worldwide effecting peoples lives. Families young and old alike.

    When their errors are presented before them they should openly set the example and confess their sins before all. Most importantly before Jehovah GOD, because his NAME is attached to the dates that have proved to be faulty. After all repentance is what a judicial committee look for
    otherwise disfellowshipping proceeds when no repentance is voluntarily forthcoming.

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  3. couldnt have said it better my self but talking to a wittness about this is like trying to reason with a drunk like jehovah said him self stupid profits walking after there own spirt

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  4. They play a numbers game. If they knock on 100 doors, a certain percentage will be receptive to any spiritual message that''s properly packaged and delivered.

    One of the fundamental teachings or brother Jesus is to never judge anyone, so when a church presents, "One True Religion," rhetoric, they are, in effect denouncing over 99% of our brothers and sisters as not eligible for eternal life, which is the ultimate judgement. So, judgments like that should raise a red flag for any christian. Furthermore, the bible also says that, "no one will know the time," of the end of the world, so these churches that set a certain date should be suspect as well.

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  5. In 1919 what dates were the Watchtower presenting to be truthful? What interpretation of scripture did they preach? Were these dates or interpretation of scripture truthful and correct? The Watchtower books Studies in the Scriptures, seven volumes were in the hands of the public in 1919 and also well into the 1920s. By researching these books, dates and interpretation of scripture are not the same as what is taught today. In fact if you advocated these dates and interpretation of scripture today as a member of the Watchtower you would not be welcome. Truth is important. Jesus did not preach half truth, half his own ideas. He preached the truth given to him from his heavenly Father. As Jesus said , you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The problem was in 1919 they presumed to know and printed their dates and ideas which proved in time to be wrong.

    ReplyDelete