JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES Prophesied
"Armageddon ... will come in the twentieth century"
(Investigator 155, 2014
March)
"The 20TH CENTURY
IN BIBLE PROPHECY"
Awake!
magazine 1961 (February 22, pages 5 to 8) has an article titled The
20th Century in Bible Prophecy which states:
'I'hose
who
look to the Bible in hope of finding encouraging facts about the future
should not be surprised to find critical times included in its forecast
for the twentieth century. Wars, food shortages, earthquakes, increase
in crime and a collapse in morals are all prophesied for this
generation. But then it also speaks of a group of people preaching
about the righteous kingdom of God, a war of God against all
wickedness, followed by a paradise without death—all to be
realized in the twentieth century… (p. 5)
…more
than 15,000 are
preaching every minute of every day about this kingdom. What kingdom?
The kingdom of God that is to crush all present kingdoms of men. (Dan.
2:44) That now-operating kingdom in heaven will, within the
twentieth century, cleanse the entire earth of wickedness… (p.
7)
Can
you not see that the
twentieth century is the century indicated by the prophetic language of
Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, and 2 Timothy 3? Since, according to 1
Corinthians 14:33, 40, God does everything by order and arrangement, is
it not only logical that whatever else is recorded in these
above-mentioned Bible chapters must also come upon the twentieth
century? If so, then What Is Ahead? … (pp 7-8)
Revelation
16:16 calls it
the "war of the great day of God the Almighty," Armageddon. This
war will come in the twentieth century. It will come right on
schedule, as have the wars, food shortages, earthquakes and other
events foretold. This generation will see its fulfillment… (p. 8)
Final
advice for those
living in the twentieth century is given by Jesus himself: "Keep
awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in
escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and to hold your
position before the Son of man."—Luke 21:36… (p. 8)
Now is
no time to be
applying yourself to fruitless endeavors in this doomed world. Now is
the time to heed Bible prophecy concerning the twentieth century
and live forever in the sunshine of God's new world. (p. 8)
The
title "The 20th Century
in Bible Prophecy" along with the first paragraph above are repeated in
Awake! 1963 March 22, p. 32 in an advertisement.
PREVIOUSLY
JWs
began to forecast
Armageddon for the 20th century in 1945 under the heading The
Sabbath In Shadow And Reality in:
•
The Watchtower 1945
February 15, pp 51-60
•
Let
God Be True (1946) Chapter 7
Investigator
publicized the 20th century date for Armageddon and suggested the
prophecy is false in the articles:
•
The WTS Separates "Sheep" and Goats #27, November 1992
•
Armageddon by 2000 AD says "Jehovah" #51, November 1996
•
Armageddon by 2000 AD — A Prophecy by God to Spur JWs to Act #67,
July 1999
"THE NATIONS SHALL KNOW…"
Shortly,
within
our twentieth century, the "battle in the day of Jehovah" will
begin
against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom. (The Nations
Shall Know That I Am Jehovah—How? 1971, p. 216)
The "Day
of Jehovah" is
Armageddon when all people worldwide who are not Jehovah’s Witnesses
(JWs) are slaughtered.
The same
book also states:
Revelation,
chapters seventeen and eighteen, forecasts the events of our present
century. Regardless of whatever the symbolic harlot, Babylon the
Great, may say in her heart she must suffer the punishment of loose
women… (p. 255)
Revelation
17 & 18
describes the end of "Babylon the Great" which JWs interpret as all
religions excluding their own. Notice when this occurs — "our present
century".
And
again:
Similarly
down
here in our twentieth century. If Christendom must go in the
approaching "great tribulation," so must all the rest of false
religion. (p. 113)
MORE 20TH CENTURY REMINDERS
The JW
Governing Body
continued to stir JWs as follows:
But
in 740
B.C.E., without a liberator and no longer able to battle for existence,
the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel ceased, perished.
Do we
catch the import of
this for us today? We should do so, for, in our twentieth century,
it is finding its fulfillment in the modern-day counterpart of the
spiritually adulterous, unfaithful Israel. That counterpart is
Christendom, with nearly a billion church members all around the globe.
(The Watchtower 1976, March 1, p. 150)
If
the
wicked system of this world survived until the turn of the century (the
year 2000), which is highly improbable in view of world trends and
the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, there would still be survivors of
the World War I generation. However, the fact that their number is
dwindling is one more indication that "the conclusion of the system of
things" is moving fast toward its end. (The Watchtower 1980, October
15, p. 31)
Some
of that
"generation" could survive until the end of the century. But there are
many indications that "the end" is much closer than that! (The
Watchtower1984 March 1, p. 19)
The 1989 Yearbook
of
Jehovah’s Witnesses (page 3) refers to Revelation Chapter 7 which
tells of a "great crowd" from all nations getting salvation. JWs
believe the "great crowd" are JWs and are being gathered through their
door-door work. The Yearbook says:
With
confidence
in the vision’s complete fulfillment during the decades of this
twentieth century the anointed remnant of the bride class have
never let up saying "Come!" Every effort has been made to broadcast the
message to all nations. (p. 3)
In plain language
this says
the JW preaching will be finished, the entire "great crowd" gathered,
in the twentieth century. And
every JW knows that the finish of their preaching means Armageddon.
CHANGED
When did
the JW leaders
postpone Armageddon?
The
Watchtower for
January 1, 1989 stated:
The
apostle
Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also
laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our
twentieth century. (w1989 1/1 12)
This
prediction was in the
single issue copies of The Watchtower i.e. the copies
distributed door to door. In the bound volume reprints of The
Watchtower for 1989, which were published in 1990, the sentence is
altered to:
The
apostle
Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also
laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our day.
In 1990,
therefore, the JW
leaders, the Governing Body, got second thoughts regarding Armageddon
in the "twentieth century".
The
revision in the bound
volume was surreptitious, neither announced nor publicized. The
Governing Body use prophecy as "a spur" to make JWs spend more time
going door to door and they probably wanted their prophecy for the
"twentieth century" to keep on spurring.
When the
bound volume
reprints of The Watchtower for 1989 were published many JWs
would
have thrown their single issue copies away. They will have thrown away
the evidence. The 1989 Watchtower for January 1 on the
Watchtower
Library CD likewise has the revision "in our day".
(BS)
The
truth about the predictions of the Governing Body of JWs on this
website: