Crisis of Conscience Read online

  The portions of the book here underlined show what was now foretold to occur. On reading them, note the language used and ask whether it would be ‘reading into the book things that are not there’ to say that it contained outright predictions and deliberately aroused expectations that were never fulfilled:

  1918 was thus to see the nations of Christendom suffer a “spasm of anguish” greater than that experienced in 1914 when World War I started. In reality, 1918 saw the end of the war in an armistice.

  The book also foretold that the remnant of “anointed ones,” the “last of the Elijah class,” would experience their transition to heaven in that year, as page 64 states:

  As with the similar prediction regarding 1881, this one also failed. Perhaps the most forceful language used was in the predictions of a terrible destruction due to come on Christendom’s churches and their members in 1918, with their dead bodies strewn about unburied. On pages 484 and 485 we find two of several examples of this prophecy:

  Not only Christendom’s churches but her governments as well would meet up with catastrophe and oblivion:

  All these things were foretold for the year 1918. None of them took place. But the book also predicted stupendous events for the year 1920. The gigantic revolutions that were to begin in 1918 would reach a culmination in 1920 with the disappearance of all orderly government of any kind:

  Thus, even the radical elements that would produce the revolutions in Christendom in 1918 and give birth to the laborite and socialist governments were to see those movements meet their demise. This would be because, even as those movements were to bring about the downfall of Christendom’s existing governments, they themselves would be brought down by anarchists in 1920:

  “Worldwide, all-embracing anarchy, in the fall of 1920.” Despite all the striking language and the positiveness of the claims, none of it came.

  Like 1914, the new dates of 1918 and 1920 passed without the foretold “spasm of anguish” upon Christendom, the overthrow of her governments and destruction of her churches, and the slaughter of millions of their members, or the transferal of the anointed to heaven.

  Instead, 1918 saw President Rutherford and six other principal officers of the Society tried and sentenced to prison on wartime charges that The Finished Mystery book and other publications contained seditious statements. The following year, 1919, they were released and exonerated of all charges.

  Thus, they were free to observe 1920, the year in which, by autumn time, all republics and “every kingdom of earth” would be “swallowed up in anarchy,” according to The Finished Mystery.

  By that year, however, new predictions were developed and proclaimed. Without even allowing 1920 to pass, a new date was now set forth to be anticipated.

  “MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE”

  I did not send the prophets, yet they themselves ran. I did not speak to them, yet they themselves prophesied.

  — Jeremiah 23:21.

  In 1920, Watch Tower president Rutherford published a booklet titled Millions Now Living Will Never Die. That catchy phrase has been used even in recent times. Back there, however, it was based on a new prediction that Rutherford had developed. The whole thrust of the claim that millions then living would never die was tied to a new date: 1925. Note what the underlined portions of the booklet say of that year:

  The Watch Tower’s more recent history book, as well as other sources, such as the 1993 Awake! article quoted in the previous chapter, all seek to portray the focus on specific dates, and the claims as to what those dates would bring, as mere “expectations,” presented in a non-dogmatic manner, with no pretense of certainty. They make very selective quotations of cautionary statements or disclaimers of infallibility or divine inspiration. What, however, is the real difference between, on the one hand, specifically using the phrase “in Jehovah’s name” and, on the other hand, describing events predicted for 1925 as “based upon the promises set forth in the divine Word,” so that the return of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in 1925 was—not something that might be hoped for—but something that “we may confidently expect”? In whose name do they profess to speak, and on what basis do they encourage readers to place confidence in the claim? And what real difference is there between, on the one hand, specifically professing certainty or infallibility and, on the other hand, stating that—due to being based upon divine promises—therefore “we must reach the positive and indisputable conclusion that millions now living [that is, living in 1920 when the booklet was published], will never die”? The difference is only in semantics, not in the force and sense of what is claimed, or in the effect on those claims on human minds.

  This information formed the basis for what was called the “Millions Campaign,” a worldwide effort to call attention to the message of this booklet during a two-year period. Large billboard advertisements were erected in all the big cities with streaming letters, “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” That publicity was buttressed by newspaper advertisements. All public talks given by Watch Tower representatives focused on this theme.

  The Society in the above mentioned history book relates the pronouncements and features of this all-out, worldwide effort as if they were simply items of historical interest. Yet the sensational claims centered on 1925 were presented as something founded upon the word—not of some man—but upon the Word of God, solidly founded thereon and because of this meriting full confidence. Neither this Watch Tower history book nor any of the articles published in other sources ever acknowledge the profound effect this had on people’s hopes and lives, and the deep disillusionment its failure produced. They never express regret that God’s Word was deliberately tied in with predictions that were nothing more than human speculation and imagination. The moral implication of those factors seems of little significance, worthy of essentially no consideration.

  In 1921, Rutherford published his first full-sized book, The Harp of God. It reaffirmed the Society’s confidence and faith in 1799 as the start of the “last days” and 1874 as the time when Christ began his “invisible presence.” In the portions that follow, with key points underlined, note the way the developments that were distinctive of those times and world conditions were used as “indisputable” testimony in support of those dates:

  Note particularly that, after describing the development of such things as Bible Societies, increase of colleges and universities, steam, electric and gasoline modes of transportation, telegraph and telephone—all resulting in a great increase in knowledge and movement—the book, on page 239, states:

  [This] is without question a fulfillment of the prophecy testifying to the “time of the end.” These physical facts can not be disputed and are sufficient to convince any reasonable mind that we have been in “the time of the end” since 1799.

  That which is “without question” and beyond dispute is logically infallible. The word “infallible” is not used—but to all intents and purposes the claim is made. And if any doubt or are not convinced, well, they simply do not come within the category of those having a “reasonable mind.” This is also intellectual intimidation, a weapon that solid truth never needs to employ.

  Despite whatever “stimulating and sanctifying” effect these new forecasts and strong affirmations about some of the old dates may have had, by the year 1922, with 1914 now eight years in the past, the confidence that many had placed in the Society’s time prophecies was wearing thin. The methods the headquarters organization resorted to in trying to overcome this problem are revealing. They also form a pattern seen again in recent times, since 1975.

  Instead of becoming more moderate in its claims about its interpretations or taking a more modest view of its authority, the organization became far more insistent upon conformity, the claims about the accuracy of its chronology became more dogmatic. “Loyalty” to the teachings of the “faithful and wise servant” (then argued as applying definitely to Pastor Russell) was the watchword. Those who questioned the chronology based on his teachings
(which chronology was in turn based on the teachings of N. H. Barbour, John Aquila Brown and others) were depicted as not only lacking in faith but also overly impressed with their own wisdom, as proud, egotistical, ambitious, self-willed, misled by the adversary, and guilty of repudiating the Lord. To give any weight to the testimony of ancient historians in contradiction of the organization’s dates was to put confidence in “agents of Satan’s empire.”

  If that seems difficult to believe, consider the statements made in a steady stream of Watch Tower articles during 1922 and 1923. Note the repeated use of terms such as “indisputable,” “correct beyond a doubt,” “divinely corroborated,” “absolutely and unqualifiedly correct,” “incontestably established,” “proven certainty,” “of divine origin”—terms applied to the whole chronological scheme including 1799 (the start of the last days), 1874 (the start of Christ’s invisible presence), 1878 (the start of the resurrection of the anointed), 1881 (the time when Russell was fully appointed as the Lord’s steward), as well as 1914, 1918 and the most recent prophetic date of 1925, said to have ‘as much Scriptural support as 1914.’ For the reader’s convenience, sections are underlined.

  From the March 1, 1922, Watch Tower:

  Under the heading “Wise Toward God” (referring to Russell), the article speaks disparagingly of those who “believe they have greater wisdom than others” and says such ones typically “make statements in dogmatic form.” A few paragraphs later it begins setting forth the “indisputable facts” about 1799 and 1874. What is “dogmatism” in others, is evidently considered “sincere conviction” when practiced by the writers of the magazine.

  Two months later the May 1, 1922, issue continued the campaign to rout out any thought of questioning the organization’s teachings, using the same tactic:

  Loyalty to the Society’s teachings, received from Russell, was equated with loyalty to God and Christ. To deny Russell’s teachings was to deny Christ. This amazing claim is plainly stated in the same issue of the Watch Tower:

  This line of argument is precisely the same as that used half a century later, in the 1980s, in condemning those called “apostates.” Then as now, chronology was a major factor, made a “Test of Faith” as to the genuineness of one’s Christianity. This same issue of the Watch Tower also warned that doubting the Society’s date system, including 1799, 1874, 1914 and 1925, would lead eventually to a “repudiation of God and our Lord Jesus Christ and the blood with which we were bought.” It said:

  Now, issue after issue of the Watch Tower magazine focused on the Society’s chronology, speaking deprecatingly of any contrary evidence, and exalting the accuracy of the organization’s own date system. 1914 was only one feature of that date system, and the Watch Tower argued insistently that all the dates (and the accompanying claims about them) were right, the product of divine guidance; hence there was no need to doubt any of them. From the May 15, 1922, Watch Tower:

  Readers were warned not to be easily swayed in favor of evidence from secular history that contradicted the Society’s chronology. Note the closing statement of this paragraph:

  Compare that final statement with the kind of language the Watch Tower itself uses in urging acceptance of its system of dates:

  Once again the failed expectations resulting from earlier time prophecies are all charged up to the Lord’s account, as of his doing, used by him, “doubtless intended by the Lord to encourage his people.” Nothing strange is seen in this concept that God and Christ would use falsehood as a means of encouragement for their servants. Yet in Scripture we read that “God is light and there is no darkness at all in union with him.”2 The idea that God or his Son employ error in their guidance of Christians is foreign to Scripture. It is clearly an attempt to put the questioning one on the defensive, cast him in the role of complainer against God.

  Great stress was laid on the claim that to change the chronology presented by even one year would be disastrous, “would destroy the entire system of chronology” advanced by the Society.3 The fact is that most of the dates used for the B.C.E. period have been changed substantially by the Society in more recent times.

  No adjective seemed too extreme and no claim too extravagant to be used in insisting on the rightness of what was then called “present-truth chronology.” Keeping in mind that the great bulk of it has since been rejected, consider these claims made in the June 15, 1922, Watch Tower:

  The chronology stood “firm as a rock, based upon the Word of God,” the article said, stressing that belief in it was a “matter of faith in Jehovah and in his inspired Word.”4 The “divine” nature of the now largely rejected chronology was insisted upon, not for certain parts or elements of it, but for all of it, “absolutely.” It bore the “stamp of approval of Almighty God.” Thus the July 15, 1922, Watch Tower, under the heading “The Strong Cable of Chronology,” said:

  “Parallelisms” were relied upon heavily as evidence of the divine origin of the date system advanced, parallel periods of 1,845 years and of 2,520 years being applied to a considerable number of dates and events in history. Of this system of using parallelisms the article in this issue of the Watch Tower stated:

  Once again, what genuine difference is there between speaking of “the divine origin of present-truth chronology” and describing that chronology as “inspired”? Ironically, though here presented as so obviously the product of divine foreknowledge that to deny their reliability and significance would be “absurd,” the whole system of using parallelisms has since been discarded by the organization.

  All of this material, hammering away against any tendency to question the time prophecies that formed such a vital part of the doctrinal structure of the organization seems to have been preparing the Watch Tower readers for a coming event. It apparently was designed to build up a certain spirit and attitude before the holding of that year’s convention in Cedar Point, Ohio. Regularly referred to as a major milestone in the organization’s history, that 1922 convention had as its principal talk a discussion that built on the foundation already laid by the earlier Watch Tower articles. Today the organization quotes a small portion of that talk in support of 1914. It ignores the fact that 1799 and 1874 figured with equal strength in the argument advanced and in the conclusion the audience was then called upon to reach, as seen in the following portions published in the November 1, 1922, Watch Tower:

  Despite the fierce calls for “loyalty” to Pastor Russell’s teachings and chronology, this 1922 convention talk is remarkable in that it reveals the first sign of a gradual edging away from those very teachings. In The Time Is At Hand, Russell had taught that “1878, being the parallel of his [Christ’s] assuming power and authority in the type, clearly marks the time for the actual assuming of power as King of kings, by our present, spiritual, invisible Lord—the time of his taking to himself his great power to reign.” By Rutherford’s talk at Cedar Point these acts—invisible acts—were moved up from 1878 to 1914, a date that had proved empty of all the things forecast and hoped for. It was the start of what would later become an almost wholesale transferal of events assigned to pre-1914 dates up to 1914 and post-1914 dates.

  In harmony with the Millions Now Living Will Never Die booklet, the organization was now teaching that the Jubilee cycle (which, according to God’s law through Moses, involved consecutive periods of fifty years, with a Jubilee year coming each fiftieth year) pointed to 1925 as the time for the full manifestation of Christ’s rule and the return of the prophets of old to earth. In 1924, the organization published a booklet designed to be used by young people titled The Way to Paradise. Note how confidently these predictions were offered to those young minds, including the description of earthly Jerusalem as the world capital of restored mankind:

  Needless to say, the boys and girls to whom this publication was addressed are now old men and old women, at least in their nineties.

  Although the Society has occasionally employed the catchy slogan “Millions now living will never die,” and cal
led attention to the fact that Witness membership has reached the multimillion range, they gloss over an obvious misrepresentation. The claim that “Millions now living will never die” was not made to people living in the 1990s or the 2000s. It was made to people in the first half of the 1920s. Only a fraction of the approximately 5.9 million members of Jehovah’s Witnesses were living then. Only if there were today [in the year 2008] more than two million Witnesses around 85 years of age or older could there be any pretense that the prediction was in any way substantiated. This is clearly not the case.

  1925, on which the prediction and slogan were based, proved empty of all the things foretold. The teaching was without substance, mere fluff, prophetic fantasy.

  Yet all of this material, appearing in the Watch Tower magazine and other publications, was supposedly “food in due season” being provided through God’s channel of communication, a channel claiming the special approval and direction of Christ Jesus as the now reigning King. As they themselves say, they spoke as God’s “genuine prophet.”

  The passing of 1925 and the failure of these latest predictions, however, proved that the predictors had not acted as a “faithful and discreet slave.” They had not held faithfully and humbly to the inspired Word of God, which alone merits such terms as “indisputable,” “absolutely and unqualifiedly correct,” “incontestably established.” Nor had they been discreet during all the years they published such dogmatic claims earthwide, that indiscretion being, in effect, acknowledged by Judge Rutherford’s recognition that he had made an “ass” of himself.