Crisis of Conscience

by Raymond Franz

It is true that the word “opinion” is here used, but how meaningful is this when at the same time God is brought into the picture as backing up the dates set forth? Who would be inclined to doubt “God’s dates,” as the Watch Tower calls them?

  Today, the organization would say that these matters are all peripheral, minor when compared to what they would present as a major truth, namely that the Society was right about the “end of the Gentile times” as coming in 1914, the one early belief concerning 1914 that they still retain. But in saying this they commit probably the greatest misrepresentation of all. For the fact is that all that has been retained is the phrase: “the end of the Gentile times.” The meaning they now assign to that phrase is totally different from the meaning assigned to it by the Watch Tower Society during the forty years up to 1914.

  During all those forty years those associated with the Watch Tower Society understood that the “end of the Gentile times” would mean the complete overthrow of all earthly governments, their total elimination and replacement by the rule of the whole earth by Christ’s kingdom. No human rule would remain. Recall the statement on pages 98 and 99 of The Time Is At Hand, that “within the coming twenty-six years [from 1889] all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved.” That, “In view of this strong Bible evidence concerning the Times of the Gentiles, we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914.”

  Today the meaning assigned to the phrase “end of the Gentile Times” (or “the appointed times of the nations”) is quite different. It is not the actual end of rulership by human governments as a result of their destruction by Christ. Now it is said to be the end of their “uninterrupted rule” of the earth, the ‘interruption’ resulting from Christ’s invisibly having taken Kingdom power and begun reigning in 1914 and directing his attention in a ‘special way’ toward the earth, (which actually is what had been earlier taught about the year 1874).

  Since, again, the realm of the invisible is where this is said to have occurred, it is difficult to argue with such a theory. The fact that nothing whatsoever has changed since 1914 as regards the earthly governments’ dominion of the earth does not seem to be viewed as of any consequence. Their “lease” of power has expired, it is now said, being invisibly cancelled by the invisible King, and thus the “end” of their appointed time has come.

  All of which is something like proclaiming for forty years that on a certain date the undesirable occupant of a property is going to be completely expelled, removed for all time, and then, when that date comes and goes and the undesirable occupant is still there carrying on as usual, explaining this away by saying, “Well, I cancelled his lease and as far as I’m concerned it’s the same as if he were actually moved out. And, besides, I’m keeping a much closer watch on things now.”

  Admittedly, the closer 1914 came, the more cautious the forecasts became. Whereas Russell had argued that the storm of trouble and universal anarchy would take place before October of 1914, later, in the July 1, 1904 issue of the magazine he said:

  In 1894 he had affirmed that the figures expounded were “God’s dates, not ours.” In the October 1, 1907, Watch Tower, with 1914 only seven years away, in an article titled “Knowledge and Faith Regarding Chronology,” he now said:

  This same article, however, goes on to imply that those doubting such calculations were lacking in faith, saying:

  How beneficial is it—or, for that matter, how much humility does it demonstrate—to acknowledge fallibility while at the same time implying that only those who accept one’s views are showing faith, are among ‘the wise who shall understand’? Would not those failing to heed these “cries” of 1844 and 1874 be classed logically with the “foolish virgins” of the parable?

  Earlier, in the same article, Russell had said:

  Thus, if any expressed doubts about the Society’s chronology, the very quality of their relationship with God was subtly placed in question—along with their faith and wisdom. This is a form of intellectual intimidation; a practice that increased many fold once 1914 had passed by, failing to fulfill the expectations published worldwide.

  As has been mentioned, in 1993, the Watch Tower Society published a new history of Jehovah’s Witnesses, titled Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. Certain portions appear to be reactions to information published by other sources, apparently in an effort to blunt the effect of that information. As an example, the book by Carl Olof Jonsson The Gentile Times Reconsidered, published and distributed since 1983, clearly showed the Second Advent sources for many of Charles Taze Russell’s distinctive teachings, including that regarding the year 1914. Watch Tower publications for decades have glossed over or simply ignored this reality, conveying the impression that most of these teachings and the date of 1914 were original with Russell, and that he and his Watch Tower magazine constituted a unique divine channel for the revealing of previously lost or unknown truths.

  Now, for the first time, a measure of acknowledgment was made of the extent of the indebtedness to these other, earlier sources, as in the case of John A. Brown’s development of the theory of the “seven times” of Daniel chapter 4 as representing a period of 2,520 years and relating this to the “times of the Gentiles” of Luke 21:24. (Until this book the name of John A. Brown had never even appeared in any Watch Tower publication.) Also that it was, not Russell, but Second Adventist N. H. Barbour who had targeted 1914 as the “end of the Gentile Times” in his magazine Herald of the Morning in 1875—four years before the first Watch Tower magazine appeared—and that it was from him that Russell obtained this date.

  All of this information was available and known to the Watch Tower leadership for decades. All Governing Body members received the first 20 pages of Carl Olof Jonsson’s material in 1979, where these facts had all been spelled out in great detail. Yet only at this late date has the Watch Tower organization made any open acknowledgment as to the true originators of these views and concepts.11

  This new history book also makes at least some acknowledgment of the earlier, long-held teachings regarding the date of 1874 as supposedly marking the start of Christ’s “second presence,” of 1878 as the time when Christ assumed Kingly power, of 1881 as the time when the heavenly calling would close, and of 1925 as the time when the “ancient worthies” would be resurrected, and the grand Jubilee would begin for this earth. All this information had been presented back in 1983 in the first printing of this book, Crisis of Conscience.

  What the book does not do is to admit honestly and frankly the intense importance and constant emphasis placed on these dates, in many cases for more than 50 years, and the positiveness with which assertions and claims were made. In this book, as in recent Watchtower and Awake! articles, there is an ongoing effort to minimize the importance attached to these dates and to what was predicted to take place by 1914 at the very latest.12 They often focus on one aspect among many claims (as in referring only to the “end of the Gentile Times” or in presenting 1914 as being looked to simply as a “crucial date” or “a marked year”) and do not mention other major claims that were part and parcel of the prediction. Generally, readers are only presented with a few later cautionary statements that came when 1914 (or, subsequently, 1925) was drawing close, and the bold predictions are then portrayed as only tentative ‘suggestions’ of mere ‘possibilities.’ Since the vast majority of their readers have no access to the earlier publications, the articles can trade on their ignorance and can downplay the force of the predictions by a selective use of quotations and either gloss over or deliberately ignore other clear statements made.

  Very frequently the tactic employed is that of emphasizing the absence of specific terminology, as if the nonuse of those particular words or phrases frees them from having made false predictions in the name of God. The March 22, 1993, Awake! on page 3 under the heading “Why So Many False Alarms?” presents a
n example of this:

  The accompanying footnote contains the following:

  The argument thus is that if one does not use expressions such as, “this is a direct revelation from Jehovah,” and avoids applying such terms as “infallible” and “inspired” to himself, the things said and the claims made by him are to be viewed as essentially harmless voicing of mere opinion. The Bible recognizes no such simplistic criteria for determining the wrongness of presuming to speak in the name of God and foretelling things which fail to come to pass. We may not find the false prophets within Israel employing specific expressions such as “direct revelation,” or speaking of themselves by such terms as “inspired” and “infallible.” Yet the pretense was nonetheless there that their words were indeed from Jehovah. To “speak in God’s name” means doing so as a representative of that one, as the Watch Tower publication Insight on the Scriptures (Vol. II, page 468) recognizes. Russell referred to himself as God’s spokesman and presented the chronological predictions as the product of God’s guidance upon his people. God’s name and his Word were certainly involved in all that was presented.

  Consider the two quotations in the earlier footnote (taken from 1883 and 1896 Watch Towers), offered as evidence of not “prophesying in Jehovah’s name” and of an avoidance of dogmatism and presumption, and then compare these with the statements found in publication after publication previous to 1914, statements declaring the Watch Tower time calculations as being “God’s dates, nor ours” that “it has been emphatically manifest that the time had come in A.D. 1878 when kingly judgment should begin at the house of God” that that year [1878] “clearly marks the time for actual assuming of power as King of kings.” Or the repeated statements that the Bible evidence would “prove” as “a fact firmly established by the Scriptures” that 1914 would mark “the farthest limit of the rule of imperfect men,” would “prove” that “before the end of A.D. 1914 the last member” of the body of Christ would “be glorified with the Head,” would “prove” that “before that date God’s Kingdom, organized in power” would smite and crush and “fully consume the power of these [Gentile] kings,” crushing and scattering the “‘powers that be’—civil and ecclesiastical.” Or the claim that “within the coming twenty-six years [from 1889] all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved,” and that “we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914,” and that the date of the closing of the great final battle “is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874.” These statements are all documented on preceding pages of this chapter.

  Following this same pattern of enshrouding the facts in a semantical smoke screen, with regard to the prediction of the church’s glorification to heaven in 1914, the new history book (page 635) quotes a 1916 Watch Tower statement that “We merely inferred it and, evidently, erred.” In the face of the plain statements already quoted, with their frequent use of such terms as “proof” and “proved,” “firmly established,” “established truth,” “definitely marked,” this can only be described as journalistic and intellectual dishonesty.

  Frequently, in Watch Tower argumentation, a “red herring” is dragged across the path, as in drawing attention away from the failure of the predictions by switching the focus to the willingness of many to stick with and support an organization despite its having fed them false hopes, while representing those who opted not to do so as being “spiritually weak,” as “having grown weary in God’s service,” or being governed by selfish motives.

  This only accentuates what is perhaps the most distressing factor of the whole matter: the apparent lack of any genuine concern for the effect such predictions had on the lives of people, those Watch Tower readers who viewed the predictive messages as coming from a God-directed source, as His divinely provided “meat in due season” for them. They were openly encouraged to allow these predictive claims, built around particular dates, to serve as a basis for their hopes and expectations, and thus to mold their lives in conformity. It produced a warped and shortsighted view of life and of the future and inevitably led to disappointment, for illusion sooner or later met up with reality.

  The material shown is from an issue of the Bible Students Monthly, published during World War I. It illustrates the way in which predictive statements by the Watch Tower spokesman, Russell, were presented—not as merely something suggested or as mere opinion—but something to be declared due to the prediction’s being connected with God’s “divine plan of the ages.”

  1This statement by Rutherford is quoted in the October 1, 1984, Watchtower, page 24.

  2Daniel 4:17, 23-33.

  3Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6

  4Daniel 8:14; 12:11, 12. The complete text of Carl Olof Jonsson’s research has been published under the title The Gentile Times Reconsidered.

  5See page 134 of Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. The book makes the erroneous statement that, although not ‘clearly discerning’ the date with which the 2,520 years would begin or end (evidently meaning that his dates for the beginning and the ending did not match those of Watch Tower teachings), Brown “did connect these ‘seven times’ with the Gentile Times of Luke 21:24.” As Jonsson’s book The Gentile Times Reconsidered correctly states “Brown did not himself associate this period with the Gentile Times of Luke 21:24.” His 2,520-year calculation did, however, play a part in the later linking of the “seven times” with the Gentile Times in 1826.

  6It was after the meeting with Barbour that Russell wrote an article for The Bible Examiner, published by George Storrs, another Adventist, in which article Russell set forth the 1914 date Barbour had arrived at. Like so many of the Second Adventist magazines, the magazine that Russell began included the term “Herald” in its title, Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence (which “presence” was believed to have begun in 1874).

  7The July 15, 1906, Watch Tower, earlier quoted, shows that they did advance that very argument.

  8See the book Prophecy, published in 1929, pp. 64, 65. The August 15, 1974, Watchtower makes mention of this belief, but gives no indication that it continued to be taught after 1914.

  9This view began to be changed in 1922 at the Cedar Point Convention, eight years after 1914.

  10So, too, with the claims made about the years 1878 and 1881, which, along with those about 1799 and 1874, were all eventually discarded as in error.

  11See The Gentile Times Reconsidered, pages 19-29; Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, pages 45-47, 132-135.

  12See, for example, the Watchtower, November 1, 1993, pages 8-12; Awake! March 22, 1993, pages 3, 4.

  * Reference is to the “League of Nations,” the predecessor of the United Nations organization.

  8

  JUSTIFICATION AND INTIMIDATION

  When men talk too much, sin is never far away; common sense holds its tongue.

  — Proverbs 10:19 New English Bible.

  CHARLES Taze Russell, who had referred to himself as “God’s mouthpiece,” died in 1916. He left behind a legacy of time prophecies not one of which had brought the results foretold. He also left behind thousands of confused followers.

  The Watch Tower book Light I, published in 1930, page 194, describes the situation in this way:

  With the passage of both 1914 and 1915 and no complete overthrow of all kingdoms and human institutions, no takeover of all earth’s rule by Christ’s kingdom, no transition of the anointed to heavenly life, no destruction of “Babylon the Great,” no conversion of Israel to Christianity—all foretold to take place by 1914—serious doubts arose among Watch Tower adherents. True, there had been the outbreak of World War I but it had not resulted in the worldwide anarchy predicted.

  In October, 1916, shortly before his death, Russell, in writing a foreword to a new edition of The Time Is At Hand,
endeavored to play down the significance of the inaccuracy of what had been predicted for 1914. What follows is illustrative of the approach he took:

  Involving God and Christ with the mistakes made, with God ‘overruling’ certain predictions, provides a very convenient escape from having to shoulder the true responsibility for having falsely presented as “God’s dates” things that were not God’s dates but simply the product of unauthorized human speculation. Merit is found even in false predictions because of the “stimulating and sanctifying effect” produced, so that one may “praise the Lord—even for the mistake.” That approach allowed for still more false predictions with their “stimulating” effect. One is reminded of the true prophet’s presentation of God’s words, saying:

  Woe to those who are saying that good is bad and bad is good, those who are putting darkness for light and light for darkness, those who are putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!1

  While he remained alive and for a few years after his death, Russell’s followers remained hopeful. When the war ended and things began to normalize, the passing of each year caused more questions to surface about the chronology advanced.

  That is the situation Judge Rutherford inherited. (He had been elected as president of the Society in January, 1917, at the annual corporation meeting.) He was faced with two choices: rectifying by frank admission of error, or trying to justify the predictions of his predecessor. He chose the course of justification.

  Acting quickly to revive any flagging confidence on the part of Watch Tower readers, Rutherford arranged for a book called The Finished Mystery to be published in 1917, the year following Russell’s death.

  This book endeavored to move some of the things expected in 1914 up to 1918, doing this by drawing a parallel with the smashing of the Jewish revolt by the Romans. The Roman destruction of Jerusalem came in the year 70 C.E., but the end of the struggle did not come until three and a half years later, in the year 73 C.E. So, that same amount of time was added to the autumn of 1914 and The Finished Mystery now pointed to the spring of 1918 as a new date of dramatic significance.