"book, ""Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World"", was published in early 1877. It articulated ideas that remained the teachings of Russell's associates for the next 40 years, many of which are still embraced by Jehovah's Witnesses: it identified a 2520-year-long era called ""the Gentile Times"", which would end in 1914, and broke from Adventist teachings by advancing Russell's concept of ""restitution"" — that all humankind since Adam would be resurrected to the earth and given the opportunity for eternal perfect human life. Russell claimed it was the first book to combine biblical end-time prophecies with the concept of"
"""territories"", with ""publishers"" working under the direction of a field service ""captain"". Under Rutherford, Jehovah's Witnesses grew from about 44,000 in 1928 to about 115,000 at the time of his death on January 8, 1942. Rutherford's term as president was marked by a succession of changes to doctrines, with many of Russell's teachings altered or abandoned and many new teachings introduced. ""The Finished Mystery"" declared that God would destroy churches ""wholesale"" and church members by the millions in 1918, and that all earthly governments would be destroyed in 1920, resulting in anarchy. Expectations remained strong that the change of the"
"or death. It is said to have been the focal point of Jesus' ministry on earth. They believe the kingdom was established in heaven in 1914, and that Jehovah's Witnesses serve as representatives of the kingdom on earth. A central teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is that the current world era, or ""system of things"", entered the ""last days"" in 1914 and faces imminent destruction through intervention by God and Jesus Christ, leading to deliverance for those who worship God acceptably. They consider all other present-day religions to be false, identifying them with ""Babylon the Great"", or the ""harlot"", of Revelation"
"Tower Society literature of the 1970s and 1980s repeatedly claimed that the ""end"" had to be expected before the turn of the century. The 1971 book ""The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah – How?"" stated: ""Shortly, within our twentieth century, the 'battle in the day of Jehovah' will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom."" A 1980 ""Watchtower"" article described the notion that ""the wicked system of this world"" would last ""until the turn of the century"" as """"highly improbable"" in view of world trends and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy"" (emphasis added). A similar statement in"
"Spoken Word"", as Elizabeth and Mark taught it, was thought to be a gift of sound combined with meditation, prayer and visualization. They believed that a Divine Gift (The Ascension) of union with God was possible. Prophet predicted nuclear war would cause the end of the world in March 1990. Adherents started construction of a large bomb shelter in the church compound in Corwin Springs, Montana on land purchased from magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes. Construction was halted by court order when large amounts of stored diesel fuel leaked and contaminated the area. Prophet was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in November"
"Jehovah's Witnesses Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.5 million adherents involved in evangelism and an annual Memorial attendance of around 20 million. Jehovah's Witnesses are directed by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group of elders in Warwick, New York, which establishes all doctrines based on its interpretations of the Bible. They believe that the destruction of the present world system at Armageddon is imminent, and that the establishment of God's kingdom over the earth is the only solution for all"
"be accomplished at the end of A.D. 1914"". The result, he wrote, was that ""all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved"", along with the destruction of ""what God calls Babylon, and what men call Christendom"". In an 1894 ""Watch Tower"", responding to readers who questioned whether—because of recent political upheavals—the world could last until 1914, he wrote: As 1914 approached, excitement mounted over the expected ""change"" of anointed Christians. Early that year some Bible Students, convinced the end of the world had arrived, began distributing their material belongings, abandoning their jobs and eagerly anticipating the future. In May 1914—five"
"Jehovah's Witnesses and the United Nations Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the League of Nations and the United Nations were set up as a counterfeit of God's Kingdom. Joseph F. Rutherford, second president of the Watch Tower Society, condemned politicians, business leaders and clergy in their support of the League of Nations. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the United Nations will soon destroy all other religions, and then turn against Jehovah's Witnesses. At a convention of Bible Students held in September 1919, the local press reported J. F. Rutherford's comments on the League of Nations: ""He declared a League of Nations formed"
"when the Watch Tower Society sought NGO association, ""the organization agreed to meet criteria for association, including support and respect of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations"", acknowledging that the purpose of membership is to ""promote knowledge of the principles and activities of the United Nations."" Jehovah's Witnesses assert that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC and completely uninhabited for exactly seventy years. This date is critical to their selection of October 1914 for the arrival of Christ in kingly power—2520 years after October 607 BC. Non-Witness sources do not support 607 BC for"
"Mystery"" predicted the end of the World War ""some time about October 1, 1917,"" but this was changed in subsequent editions. It also predicted the destruction of governments in 1920. The predictions for 1920 were discarded before that year arrived, in favor of a new chronology. In 1918–1919, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, second president of the Watch Tower Society, inaugurated a worldwide lecture series entitled ""Millions Now Living Will Never Die!"", later reproduced in booklet form. It provided a re-interpretation of the significance of the year 1914 (now seen as the beginning of the ""last days""). It also included new predictions"
"Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs The beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses are based on the Bible teachings of Charles Taze Russell—founder of the Bible Student movement—and successive presidents of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, and Nathan Homer Knorr. Since 1976 all doctrinal decisions have been made by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group of elders at the group's Warwick, New York headquarters. These teachings are disseminated through ""The Watchtower"" magazine and other publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, and at conventions and congregation meetings. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the present world order, which they perceive as being under the control of"
"Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs The beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses are based on the Bible teachings of Charles Taze Russell—founder of the Bible Student movement—and successive presidents of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, and Nathan Homer Knorr. Since 1976 all doctrinal decisions have been made by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group of elders at the group's Warwick, New York headquarters. These teachings are disseminated through ""The Watchtower"" magazine and other publications of Jehovah's Witnesses, and at conventions and congregation meetings. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the present world order, which they perceive as being under the control of"
"holocaust that was prophesied to occur on April 23, 1990. When these predictions failed to come true, she reiterated her statements of impending doom, stating to her congregation: ""We need your sacrifice. The world is about to fail. I don't know where the bombs are coming from. But we must be ready."" The group had stockpiled their shelter with military-grade weaponry, and members of the organization were later arrested on federal weapons charges. After Prophet was diagnosed with epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease, the group's leadership tried to draw the focus of its work away from doomsday predictions. The Summit Lighthouse"
"rapture, and that Nibiru would destroy the Earth that day. He referred to his prediction as ""end of days convergence"" and that the ""disappearance of the Church will occur"". Meade became the first preacher since William Miller to predict that the world would end on 23 April. On April 19, 2018, he stated that reports saying that he predicted the world would be destroyed on 23 April were ""fake news"", but that the rapture—but not the end of the world—would take place on an unspecified date between May and December 2018. He stated that the rapture would bring in seven"
"followers) to incorrect assumptions. One example is ""The Watchtower's"" assertions that the end of the ""Gentile times"" or ""times of the nations"" would occur in 1914; even prominent Watch Tower representatives such as A. H. Macmillan incorrectly concluded and overstated their expectations. As a result, ""The Watchtower"" has acknowledged that Jehovah's Witnesses ""have made mistakes in their understanding of what would occur at the end of certain time periods."" Concurrently with these exceptions, Jehovah's Witnesses in their literature and assemblies have taught their leadership was personally chosen by Jesus Christ in 1919 (a prophetic year in Jehovah's Witnesses eschatology) and"
"question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.'"" In 1970, Camping dated the Great Flood to 4990 BC. Using this date, taking the statement in Genesis 7:4 (""Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth"") to be a prediction of the end of the world, and combining it with 2 Peter 3:8 (""With the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day""), Camping concluded that the end of the world would occur in 2011, 7000 years from 4990 BC. Camping takes the"
"Russell as president of the Watch Tower Society, predicted that the Millennium would begin in 1925, and that biblical figures such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David would be resurrected as ""princes"". The Watch Tower Society bought property and built a house, Beth Sarim, in California for their return. From 1966, statements in Jehovah's Witness publications raised strong expectations that Armageddon could arrive in 1975. In 1974 Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and property to ""finish out the rest of their days in this old system"" in full-time preaching. In 1976 ""The Watchtower"" advised those who had been"
"associated with the End of the World. Camping, who was then president of the Family Radio Christian network, claimed the Bible as his source and said May 21 would be the date of the Rapture and the day of judgment ""beyond the shadow of a doubt"". Camping suggested that it would occur at 6 pm local time, with the Rapture sweeping the globe time zone by time zone, while some of his supporters claimed that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world's population) would be 'raptured'. Camping had previously claimed that the Rapture would occur in September 1994."
"church, and Utah was eventually granted statehood in 1896. After the Reed Smoot hearings began in 1904, a Second Manifesto was issued which specified that anyone entering into or solemnizing polygamous marriages would be excommunicated, and clarified that polygamy restrictions applied everywhere, and not just in the United States. Thanks to worldwide missionary work, the church grew from 7.7 million members worldwide in 1989 to 14 million in 2010. Jehovah's Witnesses comprise a fast-growing denomination that has kept itself separate from other Christian denominations. It began in 1872 with Charles Taze Russell, but experienced a major schism in 1917 as"
"years, at most"" remained before Armageddon. Circuit assemblies in 1970 held a public talk entitled ""Who will conquer the world in the 1970s?"" and in a speech in Australia in 1975 the society's vice-president Frederick Franz went so far as to name a precise date—September 5, 1975—as the ""end of the present wicked system"". Witnesses were also urged that they should not be ""toying with the words of Jesus that 'concerning that day and hour nobody knows' ... to the contrary, one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent"
"""The Mystery of God and the Spring of the Water of Life"" is made available online; World Mission Society Church of God in their later editions of the book have deleted information pertaining to the failed prediction. Ahn in his book ""The Bridegroom Was a Long Time in Coming, and They All Became Drowsy and Fell Asleep"" (1980) in a discussion based on scriptural typology, presented his conclusion that the world would come to an end in 2012: By 1978 a group of people centered around a female member, one Um Sooin (born 1941), within the Witnesses of Jesus Church"
"view in 2013, calling the ""evil slave"" a hypothetical warning to the 'faithful slave'.) Jehovah's Witnesses report worldwide membership of over 8 million. Paul S. L. Johnson founded the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement in 1919. Johnson's death in 1950 led to an internal disagreement over his role as a teacher chosen by God, and resulted in the formation of new splinter groups, such as the Epiphany Bible Students Association, and the Laodicean Home Missionary Movement. Johnson believed he had been appointed by God as Russell's official spiritual successor, that he was the last member of the 144,000 of Revelation 7,"
"occur in 1794, based on his analysis of the Book of Revelation. Adam Clarke, whose commentary was published in 1831, proposed a possible date of 2015 for the end of the papal power. In 19th-century America, William Miller proposed that the end of the world would occur on October 22, 1844, based on a historicist model used with Daniel 8:14. Miller’s historicist approach to the Book of Daniel spawned a national movement in the United States known as Millerism. After the Great Disappointment some of the Millerites eventually organized the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which continues to maintain a historicist reading"
"executed him. Isaac Newton proposed that the world would not end until the year 2060, based largely on his own study and deciphering of Bible codes. The Millerites were the followers of the teachings of William Miller who, in 1833, first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Coming of Jesus Christ in roughly the year 1844. The ideological descendants of the Millerites are the Seventh-day Adventists. One notable example was the following of Margaret Rowen, a member of the Los Angeles Seventh-Day Adventists, who believed the second coming of Jesus was to strike on February 6, 1925. Like"
"updated their apocalyptic forecast and scheduled it to the opening of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul later that year where the members gathered and preached the end of the world would come by the end of 1988 and that Ahn Sahng Hong would come again. WMSCOG later claimed it was a fulfillment of the preaching of Johna. Around 1997, Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong Church of God had established a non-profit organization titled the Church of God World Mission Society for the purpose of registering and managing the organization's assets. List of people claimed to be Jesus Ahn Sahng-hong Ahn Sahng-hong"
"White Horse Prophecy The White Horse Prophecy is the popular name given an influential but disputed version given by Edwin Rushton, in about 1900, of statements supposedly made in 1843 by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, on the future of the Latter Day Saints (popularly called Mormons) and the United States. The Latter Day Saints, according to Rushton's version, would ""go to the Rocky Mountains and... be a great and mighty people,"" associated in the prophecy's figurative language, with one of the biblical four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. Smith's"
"The instruction was that Mgijima should leave the Wesleyan Methodist Church. In November 1912, he joined the Church of God and Saints of Christ, a small church based in the United States of America, observed the Sabbath on Saturday, held services four times a day, and had the Passover in mid-April as their main festival. Towards the end of 1912, Mgijima predicted that the world would end by Christmas and would be followed by 30 days of rain. As a result of his prediction, the Israelites stopped working their fields. However, the end did not come. Over the years his"
"indicates the presence of the Prophet or divine beings. It visually says, ""Those here cannot be depicted"". Jehovah's Witnesses believe, from their interpretation of the Book of Genesis, that God's original purpose was, and is, to have the earth filled with the offspring of Adam and Eve as caretakers of a global paradise. However, Adam and Eve rebelled against God's sovereignty and were banished from the Garden of Eden, driven out of paradise into toil and misery. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that disobedient and wicked people will be destroyed by Christ at Armageddon and those obedient to Christ will live eternally"
"public speaking as part of their weekly meetings for worship. He established 1914 as the date of Christ's invisible return, asserted that Christ died on a tree rather than a cross, formulated the current Witness concept of Armageddon as God's war on the wicked, and reinforced the belief that the start of Christ's millennial reign was imminent. He condemned the observance of traditional celebrations such as Christmas and birthdays, the saluting of national flags and the singing of national anthems. He introduced the name ""Jehovah's witnesses"" in 1931 and the term ""Kingdom Hall"" for houses of worship in 1935. He"
"Boukman at Bois Caïman, where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French"". Various figures in mainline and evangelical Christianity have on occasion disavowed some of Robertson's remarks. Several times near New Year, Robertson has announced that God told him several truths or events that would happen in the following year. ""I have a relatively good track record"", he said. ""Sometimes I miss."" In late 1976, Robertson predicted that the end of the world was coming in October or November 1982. In a May 1980 broadcast of ""The 700 Club"" he"
"Ntabelanga. Towards the end of 1912, Mgijima predicted that the world would end on Christmas, after 30 days of rain. As a result of his predictions, his followers stopped working and came to join this communal living settlement. Over the years Mgijima’s visions displayed a future full of violence. He was asked to renounce his visions by the leaders of the church as they could not condone the preaching of conflict and war, but Mgijima refused and was excommunicated. In 1914, the South African Church of God and Saints of Christ split, with one of the group following Enoch Mgijima,"
"evident in 1914."" In 2015, it was asserted that the ""generation"" would include any individuals ""anointed"" up until 1992 at the earliest, and that it includes all of the current members of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses assert that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 BC and completely uninhabited for exactly seventy years. This date is critical to their selection of October 1914 for the arrival of Christ in kingly power—2520 years after October 607 BC. Non-Witness scholars do not support 607 BC for the event; most scholars date the destruction of Jerusalem to within"
"He also commanded that they live in tents, rather than houses. At Jeremiah 35:6-19, his followers are commended for adhering to his instructions, and God promises that his lineage will continue. Jehovah's Witnesses use the terms ""Jonadabs"" or ""Jehonadabs"" to refer to Christians who hope to live forever on earth, rather than in heaven. The term was first used in this way in the early 1930s, though it is now used less frequently; Jehovah's Witnesses now usually use the terms ""great crowd"" (people who survive Armageddon) and ""other sheep"" (Armageddon survivors and others resurrected later). Witnesses believe that exactly 144,000"