In reading some of your publications I have discovered you have repeatedly and incorrectly given dates for Armageddon and the end of this system of things. In you own and personal opinion, what is the maximum number of years we have left before the end occurs?
Anonymous
1
Candace
Thank you for expressing your opinion. As One of Jehovah's Witnesses, based on the scriptures we actually have no idea of the exact day of Armageddon or The Great Tribulation. However, their are signs in the scriptures Jesus gave us, to warn us that we are in the "last days", one of those prophecies are 2 Timothy 3:1-5. However, again we do not know the exact day, we find that it's really not necessary to know the exact time because we've been instructed to keep teaching people about Jehovah and make that our focus-not timing.
Anonymous
False prophecies =False prophet
In 1876 Russell adopted the belief promulgated by some Adventist preachers that Jesus' parousia, or presence, had begun in 1874 and that the gathering of the little flock preliminary to the grand climax was already in progress. Using a form of parallel dispensations that incorporated "types" and "antitypes"—historical situations that prefigured corresponding situations later in time—he calculated the harvest would extend only to 1878, at which time the gathered saints would be translated into spirit form. The year would also bring the beginning of the "exercise of power" of God's kingdom, with evidence that God's favor was returning to the Jews.
The failure of Russell's prediction did not significantly alter the movement's short-term, date-focused orientation. In early 1881 Russell asserted that 1878 had, indeed, been a milestone year, marking the point at which "the nominal Christian churches were cast off from God's favor"......
laidawestbrook2
In examining the scriptures this our conclusion:Matthew 24:36-39
36 “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows,+ neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.+ 37 For just as the days of Noah were,+ so the presence* of the Son of man will be.+ 38 For as they were in those days before the Flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,+ 39 and they took no note until the Flood came and swept them all away,+ so the presence of the Son of man will be.
This doesn't mean we are not living in the last days. Matthew 24:3
3 While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately, saying: “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence*+ and of the conclusion of the system of things?”*+
Matthew 24:7-10
7 “For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom,+ and there will be food shortages and earthquakes in one place after another.+ 8 All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress.
9 “Then people will hand you over to tribulation+ and will kill you,+ and you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name. 10 Then, too, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another.....Matthew 24:14 And this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Even though we do know when the end will come, we do it will come when the good news of God's Kingdom has been preached to his satisfaction. Jesus is giving us his backing. Matthew 28:18-20
18 Jesus approached and spoke to them, saying: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.+ 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations,+ baptizing them+ in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.+ And look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”*+
?
That is a false statement, because Jehovah's Witnesses have never made any claim to know when the end of this system is coming, because no one knows when the end is coming. Matthew 24:36 says, "Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father".