The so-called “Great Disappointment” of 1844, surrounding William Miller’s errant predictions of Christ’s return, was indeed partly responsible for Charles Taze Russell beginning his own search of the Bible for clues on the timing of the “last days” and Jesus’s return. But 1844 was never part of Watch Tower theology.

Russell was aware of the calculations behind Miller’s prediction, and in 1876 he met Nelson Barbour, a former Millerite. Barbour had by then made some necessary adjustments to his own theory: he had initially calculated that the second advent would take place in 1873, when the earth would be consumed by fire. When nothing took place, he decided it would be 1874. When nothing eventuated that year either, he and his colleagues concluded that the Second Coming, referred to in the Greek scriptures as parousia, was a “presence” and therefore had already occurred, with Christ returning … invisibly.

In 1877 Barbour and Russell co-wrote a book, Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World, in which they laid out a timetable in which:

Jesus had returned in 1874;
The deceased “saints” had been resurrected to heaven in 1875;
The “harvest” of remaining anointed “saints” would take place in 1878, when they would undergo a rapture, being raised to heaven;
The Jews would be restored to Palestine in 1881; and
The final end of God’s “day of wrath” would be in 1914, with nominal Christianity “utterly destroyed as a system".
Armageddon, he wrote, would take place in the 40 years from 1874 to 1914 — the “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation” — with the events of 1914 to be the climax of Armageddon. Those dates were all confirmed, he wrote, by measurements within the Great Pyramid of Giza, “God’s stone witness and prophet”.

In early 1915 Russell, reluctant to admit that still nothing had happened, wrote that what had taken place in 1914 was that the Gentile Times had ended … invisibly. The full establishment of God’s kingdom on earth, he said, would take place later in 1915. In 1916, realising he had been completely wrong about Armageddon, Russell wrote that the war in Europe marked the start of it. Christendom, he said, would now be destroyed in 1918.

Russell died in October 1916. In 1917 the Watch Tower Society published The Finished Mystery, which predicted the destruction of the churches of Christendom and the deaths of “church members by the millions” in 1918. It also predicted the destruction of all human governments in 1920.

In 1922, new Watch Tower president JF Rutherford — as part of a process of discarding many of Russell’s teachings and calculations after he had sacked the majority of the Watch Tower directors and seized control of the publications — declared that the establishment of God’s kingdom over earth, which had previously been expected to result in the destruction of human governments and a “new rule of righteousness”, had also actually taken place in 1914 … invisibly. In 1925 he changed the date of Christ’s enthronement as king in heaven from 1878 to 1914. And in 1933 he wrote that the “last days” had also begun in 1914.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have clung to the 1914 date, and Rutherford’s theology surrounding it, ever since.

https://qr.ae/psAXA1

Specifically for Galveston and Medullah.

“Apocalypse Delayed”

@divegeester said
“Apocalypse Delayed”

One quick read-through of Revelation and how one could think that Christ's return, whether in 1914 or any other time, could pass "invisibly", with no one being the wiser, seems unbelievable on the face of it.

@rajk999 said
The so-called “Great Disappointment” of 1844, surrounding William Miller’s errant predictions of Christ’s return, was indeed partly responsible for Charles Taze Russell beginning his own search of the Bible for clues on the timing of the “last days” and Jesus’s return. But 1844 was never part of Watch Tower theology.

Russell was aware of the calculations behind Miller’s pr ...[text shortened]... lung to the 1914 date, and Rutherford’s theology surrounding it, ever since.

https://qr.ae/psAXA1

@Rajk999

Ho hummmmm. You are a broken record. I wonder how many more times in this century you are going to bring this up again, and again?
Have you ever thought of using all of this energy of speaking of things that happened, oh lets say a hundred years ago that has been discussed sooooooo many times and maybe do something good spiritually for someone, anyone??
Find a scripture or maybe two that would actually bring encouragement to at least ((((1)))) person to make their day better or maybe give them hope of a better life in the future that Jehovah promises mankind?
Do you ever at all use Jehovah's name with any kind of respect? Off hand I can think of one spirit creature that shudders when Jehovah's name is spoken....
Ya think? Is that just not possible with you?

@galveston75 said
@Rajk999

Ho hummmmm. You are a broken record. I wonder how many more times in this century you are going to bring this up again, and again?
Have you ever thought of using all of this energy of speaking of things that happened, oh lets say a hundred years ago that has been discussed sooooooo many times and maybe do something good spiritually for someone, anyone??
...[text shortened]... ure that shudders when Jehovah's name is spoken....
Ya think? Is that just not possible with you?

@galveston75 said
@Rajk999

Ho hummmmm. You are a broken record. I wonder how many more times in this century you are going to bring this up again, and again?
Have you ever thought of using all of this energy of speaking of things that happened, oh lets say a hundred years ago that has been discussed sooooooo many times and maybe do something good spiritually for someone, anyone??
...[text shortened]... ure that shudders when Jehovah's name is spoken....
Ya think? Is that just not possible with you?

@Ghost-of-a-Duke & others...
Jesus is extremely clear in His Word that NO-ONE knows the date or time of of the end. Jesus even said He did not know and that only His Father in heaven knows.

[Mark 13:32-33 NKJV] 32 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."

@kingdavid403 said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke & others...
Jesus is extremely clear in His Word that NO-ONE knows the date or time of of the end. Jesus even said He did not know and that only His Father in heaven knows.

[Mark 13:32-33 NKJV] 32 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is."

@kingdavid403 said
Before 1914 all drugs were legal in the USA without a prescription. One could walk into a pharmacy and buy anything they wish; Cocaine, Morphine, etc. One could also order any of these drugs thru a Sears catalog and have them delivered to their home.


In 1914 that all changed and our government outlawed all drugs without a prescription with harsh prison terms ...[text shortened]... along with John J. Smith of the Mormons. No more dope for them.
The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914.

@galveston75 said
@Rajk999

Ho hummmmm. You are a broken record. I wonder how many more times in this century you are going to bring this up again, and again?
Have you ever thought of using all of this energy of speaking of things that happened, oh lets say a hundred years ago that has been discussed sooooooo many times and maybe do something good spiritually for someone, anyone??
...[text shortened]... ure that shudders when Jehovah's name is spoken....
Ya think? Is that just not possible with you?

@suzianne said
One quick read-through of Revelation and how one could think that Christ's return, whether in 1914 or any other time, could pass "invisibly", with no one being the wiser, seems unbelievable on the face of it.

@rajk999 said
Are you saying that it is possible Jesus returned in 1914?