The article Armageddon by 2000 AD says "Jehovah" (Investigator 51) gave the Watchtower Society (WTS) predictions of Armageddon in the 20^th century.

A word search of the WTS's CD-ROM reveals that the WTS society also quoted many secular sources that emphasized crisis in the 20^th century.

Such secular crisis-quotes would have reinforced in JW minds the prophecies of the world ending in the 20^th century.

The following is a list of such secular quotes plus a few more of the WTS's own comments.
 
 

g70 4/22 30 Watching the World
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, room must be found for about 100,000,000 more Americans by the year 2000. The paper says: "In light of already severe environmental problems, such figures have prompted some scientists to circle a date on the calendar for an Armageddon sometime in the middle or latter years of this decade."

g72 6/22 29 Watching the World
Dr. Martin, in his book Three Popes and the Cardinal, concludes: "Well before the year 2000, there will no longer be a religious institution recognizable as the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church of today."

g72 7/22 10 Will the "Green Revolution" Be Enough?
… the New York Times says: "Unless the rate is reduced significantly India will have a billion people by the year 2000, far outstripping any increase in food output."

g74 11/22 30How Serious Are Shortages?
And a government official estimates that this deficit will reach 31 billion dollars by 1985, and 64 billion by the year 2000.

g75 11/22 30 Watching the World
Wood scarcity also has necessitated greater use of dried cattle dung for fuel–diverting much-needed nutrients from the soil – at a rate of 300 million tons per year in India. "Even if we somehow grow enough food for our people in the year 2000," worries one Indian official, "how in the world will they cook it?"

g76 11/22 14 Habitat Conference-A Hope for Mankind?
By the year 2000, if present trends continue, there will actually be more city dwellers than rural in a world population of between six and seven billion. This startling change in human habitat gives rise to many gigantic problems.

g79 10/22 14 World Population – Is It a Problem?
By the year 2000, a population of between six and eight billion is expected at present increase rates. The year 2000 is not so far away, is it?

g79 11/22 21 Amazonia-Center of Controversy
Reports about the possibility of the vast Amazon region being transformed into a "red desert" by the year 2000 have alarmed scientists, the common man and the Brazilian government.

g80 11/22 23 What's Wrong with Nuclear Power?
Another deterrent to the growth of nuclear power is the fact that the supply of uranium is not unlimited. If the projected doubling of present capacity by 1985 is realized, the U.S. will be running short before the year 2000.

g80 2/22 16 Are Christendom's Churches Losing Their Grip?
Pope John Paul II recently raised these questions: "What is the destiny Our Lord has in store for his Church in the coming years? What direction will Mankind take while nearing the year 2000? These are burning questions and the only answer is: ‘God knows.'"

g80 6/8 7 The Unthinkable – Could it Happen?
For several days in May 1978, 30 scientists, military men and government advisers from 10 nations met in closed sessions in Toronto, Canada, to consider seriously the theme "The Danger of Nuclear War by the Year 2000."

g80 6/22 8 "I Am Putting You in Charge"
Amazon are now being exploited, and, if this continues, hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals will be lost by the year 2000.

g82 12/8 3-4 The Fight Against Sickness
In 1981 former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim warned that the present 400 million disabled people in the world could rise to 500 million by the year 2000.

g83 2/22 29 Watching the World
Today six countries, the United States, the U.S.S.R., France, Britain, China and India, have produced nuclear weapons. But by the year 2000 that number could grow to 31, claim U.S. military analysts in a special report to The New York Times.

g83 4/8 3 How Can You Tell?
"If things go on as they are, by the year 2000 the world will be…"
PREDICTIONS of this sort have now become commonplace.

g83 8/8 3 Our "Jewel in Space"– Is it in Trouble?
FAMINE… Yes, starvation and malnutrition lead to death for millions each year. And the demand for food worldwide is expected to double by the year 2000, less than 17 years from now!

g84 9/22 29 Watching the World
In 1977 a special United Nations conference mandated a program to halt the spread of deserts by the year 2000. But after six years, little progress has been made.

g85 3/8 5 ‘Signs From Heaven' – Cause tor Gloom?
"Terribly effective weaponry could well be deployed in space by the year 2000, weaponry that can attack both satellites and space stations as well as targets here on Earth."

g85 3/22 26 When Money Talks
By the year 1930, however, drastic changes could be seen in my purchasing power. My value had eroded to exactly half of what it was in 1908. As a one-dollar bill, I was now worth 50 cents. The inflation that concerned me and the deflation of my value that worried you was by now on an unstoppable course… And by the year 2000, I am expected to shrivel to a mere four pennies.

g86 3/22 11-12 The Marching Deserts – Will They Really Blossom as the Rose?
In 1980 UNEP estimated that it would cost about 90 billion dollars (U.S.) over 20 years, or about 4.5 billion dollars per year, to stop the spread of deserts by the year 2000. How serious do the experts consider this marching world of sand to be? "If the present march of desertification continues," said a representative of UNEP "by the year 2000 the situation will have become a global catastrophe."

g86 11/8 4 Hopes and Fears of Today's Youth
Will the year 2000 dawn bright or dismal? Branch offices of the Watch Tower Society around the world conducted interviews with youths.

g86 10/8 31 Watching the World
If this trend continues, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of earth's plant and animal life could be wiped out by the year 2000 unless deforestation can be stopped and reversed.

g86 11/8 7-8 A Sure Hope for the Present Generation
Samuel, a l5-year-old youth from the same country [France], also believes in a complete change: "For the year 2000, I visualize a world transformed into a beautiful paradise! But I don't think that either the present world or its rulers will live to see that day... We are living in the last days of the system of things." Ruth, a German girl of 16, also expresses her confidence in these changes: "I know I'm not smart enough to change the world and make things run right. Only Jehovah, our Creator, can and will do that soon."

But why are the last youngsters interviewed so sure of beneficial changes in the near future? Simply because they have come to know about God's promises through his Word, the Bible. As Jehovah's Witnesses they are confident of something better – a world of justice and peace where according to God's promise, even illness and death will be no more. – 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:3, 4.

A close examination of Bible prophecies showed these young Witnesses that we are now living in a privileged period of history, for the time has come for God to intervene in human affairs and rid the entire earth of unrighteousness. The Scriptures call this short period preceding God's intervention the "time of the end" and specify that it will not last longer than a "generation." It would also be distinguished by wars, earthquakes, epidemics, fear, and rising insecurity – all of which have marked the world since 1914. Since the "generation" of 1914 is now well advanced in years, God's promise is really up-to-date news for young people today.

g86 11/22 10 Warning! This Water May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Already the world shudders in fear of the coming explosion. For example, it has been estimated that by the year 2000 a fourth of the world's water supply could be unsafe for drinking.

g87 3/8 5 Why Can't Africa Feed Itself?
Some estimate the present population [of Africa] to be 553 million. By the year 2000, according to current trends, there could be an additional 324 million mouths to feed!

g87 5/8 4 Health for All – A Basic Need
WHO's regional office for Europe has foreseen not health by the year 2000 but a possible crisis by then.

g87 7/22 7 An Earth Without Forests – Is That What the Future Holds?
By the year 2000, according to some experts, about 12 percent of the tropical rain forest that remained in 1980 will be gone – no small accomplishment for man, even with his reputation for destruction.

g88 10/8 5 AIDS Carriers-How Many Could Die?
An article in Politiken of Denmark said: "Uganda's chief AIDS official states, ‘Unless something changes, every second adult in this country will be HIV-positive in the year 2000.'"

g88 1/18 8 The Reason for the Cult
As has been said, according to the pope's intentions, the revival of the figure of Mary will help to prepare for the year 2000. In the face of the fears and the anxieties caused by the "symptoms of malaise that pervade this generation," the pope has placed his trust in the "Madonna" so that she may intercede with God and solve the world's problems.

g89 7/22 29 Watching the World
Studies predict that "by the year 2000, water, not oil, will be the dominant resource issue of the Middle East."

g89 9/2228 Watching the World
The World Health Organization has predicted that AIDS cases worldwide will jump tenfold by the year 2000, raising the total to 5,000,000 from the present 450,000.

g90 2/8 20 No Money for the Blind
But WHO predicts gloomily that, at the present rate, the world will have 84 million blind and partially blind persons by the year 2000.

g90 2/22 28 Watching the World
By the year 2000, AIDS may kill six million people.

g90 9/22 4 The Garbage Glut – Will It Bury Us?
It is estimated that by the year 2000, this garbage pile will "tower half again as high as the Statue of Liberty and fill more cubic feet than the largest Great Pyramid of Egypt."

g91 1/22 29 Watching the World
In its first report on the impact of AIDS on children, the World Health Organization said that the virus is striking many more children than had been previously thought and that some ten million children would probably be infected with it by the year 2000. "The vast majority of these will have developed AIDS and died by the year 2000," said Dr. Michael Merson, director of the agency's global AIDS program.

g91 6/826 A visit to the Great Barrier Reef
Some take the alarming view that the entire Barrier Reef is at risk, and they issue warnings such as ‘No Reef by the Year 2000.'

g92 6/8 7 The Bitter Price of Gambling
In the United States, for example, women now represent about 30 percent of the total number of compulsive gamblers, but it is estimated that by the year 2000, this will have risen to 50 percent.

g93 3/22 3-4 Why So Many False Alarms?
THE story is told of a boy who…cried out, "Wolf! Wolf!" when there was no wolf…

So it has become with those who proclaim the end of the world. Down through the centuries since Jesus' day, so many unfulfilled predictions have been made that many no longer take them seriously…

Undeterred by previous failures, some seem to have been spurred on by the approach of the year 2000 and have made further predictions of the end of the world…

The flood of false alarms is unfortunate. They are like the wolf-wolf cries of the shepherd boy – people soon dismiss them, and when the true warning comes, it too is ignored.

g93 4/22 24 Where Have All the Quaggas Gone?
Chilling predictions indicate that by the year 2000, as much as 15 to 20 percent of all living species on earth may be extinct.

g93 5/22 18 Why Do I Have to Suffer With a Disability?
Statistics show that by the year 2000, the number of young people with disabilities will reach about 59 million worldwide.
 
 

w73 11/1 646 The Best Time to Be Alive
And now, particularly, many serious students of government and of world conditions – statesmen, scientists and others are saying that mankind will not even be able to survive to the year 2000 C.E. They base their outlook, not on the Bible, but on the hard facts of today and upon the now irreversible trend of things that involve all of us. The Bible tells of these hard times that we are experiencing as a sign of the nearness of the end of this system. – 2 Tim. 3:1-5.

w76 5/15 300 Insight on the News
"A Query into the Quarter Century" is the title of a message issued recently by twenty experts from various fields who met under the sponsorship of the Charles F Kettering Foundation and the Wright-Ingraham Institute. They concluded:

"Famine, social unrest and possible political chaos may not be far away… By the year 2000 the problems in food production, storage, transportation and distribution will make today's problems appear as child's play."

w78 10/1 16 "Keep on the Watch"
That day of Jehovah's "burning anger" is drawing perilously close. Jesus' own great prophecy concerning the conclusion of the system of things" has now had its remarkable fulfillment in our 20th century since 1914. We clearly see militaristic elements of that "disgusting thing," the UN organization, poised to wreak havoc on the realm of Christendom.

w79 10/15 12-13 Sustained by the Millennial Hope
In foretelling events, the "things happening" in our 20th century, Jesus Christ compared them to the fig tree when "its young branch grows tender and puts forth its leaves" – a proof that summer is at hand. (Mark 13:28, 29) This corresponds with Jesus' coming to execute judgment.

w80 2/1 26 Serve the "King of the Nations" and Survive
Does all that ancient history have any relation to our 20th century? Yes! …
Today that which was foreshadowed by Jerusalem of King Zedekiah's day is nearing its destruction, according to the judicial decision of Jehovah, the "King of the nations." (Jer. 10:7) How fitting it is, then, that there should be on earth at this critical time a class of worshipers of Jehovah God who were prefigured by the prophet-priest Jeremiah!

w80 4/1 19-20 Creation's Hope – Awaiting Its Realization
Today, after all the wars and other catastrophes besides sickness and natural death, there are more than 4,200 million of us alive, and it is predicted that by the year 2000 C.E. there will be 6,000 million humans on earth.

w80 10/15 10 Insight on the News
A special 800-page document titled "Global 2000 Report to the President" from the U.S. State Department and Council on Environmental Quality…warns that there is "potential for global problems of alarming proportions by the year 2000." The New York Times states that, according to the report, "time is running out for international action to prevent a starving, overcrowded, polluted, resource-poor world."

w80 10/15 31 Questions from Readers
It is the generation of people who saw the catastrophic events that broke forth in connection with World War 1 from 1914 onwards… And if the wicked system of the world survived until the turn of the century, 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.

w83 2/15 3 Are Our limes Really Different?
France's scientific monthly Science et vie (Science and Life) had this to say on the subject of population growth and the expansion of deserts: "The world population will increase from four to six billion by the year 2000, whereas arable ground will possibly be reduced by 30 percent over the same period, due to overcropping and urbanization. The simultaneous character of these two tendencies is preparing the way for an explosive situation."

w84 11/15 3 Our Age of Despair
Even if nuclear annihilation could be averted, human existence is being imperiled by the sheer mass of mankind. "Global population grows inexorably and at a rate so prodigious that by the year 2000 – only 16 years from now – the world, with its added billions, will be unable to provide adequate food and energy, let alone jobs, housing, education and health care," reports Parade magazine.

w87 7/1 10 ‘No Peace for the Wicked Ones'
In a recent survey 40 percent of the adults interviewed felt that there was a "high chance" of nuclear war before the year 2000. – See Luke 21:26.

w92 10/1 16-17 The Messiah's Presence and His Rule
When Jesus' disciples asked him: "What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?" Jesus responded by giving them a detailed description of that future time. (Matthew, chapter 24; Mark, chapter 13; Luke, chapter 21; see also 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Revelation, chapter 6.) This sign amounts to a detailed portrait of a troubled era… Every passing day confirms that the 20th century perfectly fits Jesus' description.

w94 4/15 10 Helpful Teaching for Our Critical Times
The events of this 20^th century overwhelmingly prove that we are now living in the conclusion of this present wicked system.
 
 

The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah – How? 1971 72
What did he [Ezekiel] as a "sign" or "portent" for the future indicate that Jehovah's remnant of anointed witnesses would do in this twentieth century?

God's Kingdom Of A thousand Years Has Approached 1973 14
For one thing, the end of six thousand years of human existence on earth and the beginning of mankind's seventh millennium of existence may come many years sooner than the year 2000 C.E. It is well that this is so. Today, with the world of mankind in such a deplorable condition and being threatened with destruction from so many angles, there are many students and investigators of these threats to human existence who express substantial doubts that mankind will be able to survive till the year 2000 C.E.

Let Your Kingdom Come 1981 11
...now in our 20th century, we have come to the time for harvest – "a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels"!

Mankind's Search For God 1990 373
A situation approaching global ruin has existed only in the 20th century. All the more reason, then, to believe that soon Jehovah will take action to protect his property, his creation.