Under the section with the heading "The Light Keeps Getting Brighter" it asks the question: "What are some of our beliefs that have been clarified in recent years?"
Can you give me as full a list as possible what clarifications have been made since 1914, what it was clarified from, what the new clarification is and what year it was clarified?
Thanks.
Annsan_In_Him
As I'm not a JW I cannot give a full list, especially of the latest spate of 'improved' teachings (due to 'increased light'). However, I can detail one that most JWs will have no idea about, especially newer converts. In order to give you full proof of this claim, I quote from their own literature (which few JWs will have access to) and provide links.
After at least 52 years of worshipping Jesus as God / a god, the Watch Tower Society declared in 1954 that JWs should no longer worship Jesus. Yet the Society’s Charter was not changed until 1999, removing the bit about the purpose of the Society being the worship of Jehovah AND Jesus Christ. They left it just as for the worship of Jehovah.
They were worshipping Jesus in the 1930s as these quotes show: "During the Millennium, "the princes will lead the people in their worship of Jehovah and of Christ." (Vindication Volume 3, p295, J. F. Rutherford, 1932) “Jehovah God commands all to worship Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah’s purpose (Heb.3-6).” Watchtower 1939 Nov. 15 p.339 click for scan
http://www.jwfacts.com/images/watchtower-1939-nov-15-p339 [Read Only]
They were still worshipping Jesus in 1945 as this 15 October 1945 Watchtower shows: “Now, at Christ’s coming to reign as king in Jehovah’s capital organization Zion, to bring in a righteous new world, Jehovah makes him infinitely higher than the godly angels or messengers and accordingly commands them to worship him... Since Jehovah God now reigns as King by means of his capital organization Zion, then whosoever would worship Him must also worship and bow down to Jehovah’s Chief One in that capital organization, namely, Jesus Christ, his Co-regent on the throne of The Theocracy.”
The 1945 Yearbook includes the Charter in full. Part of the then current charter stated as follows: “…maintain and send out to various parts of the world Christian missionaries, teachers and instructors in the Bible and Bible literature and for public Christian worship of Almighty God and Christ Jesus; to arrange for and hold local and world-wide assemblies for such worship...” Click here to scan http://jwfacts.com/images/watchtower-yearbook-1945-page-32.jpg
But the first clear statement that Jesus must not be worshipped was in 1954, as far as I can tell. The 1 January Watchtower, page 31 said: “Should we worship Jesus? ...Consequently, since the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is not a trinitarian co-person [sic] with God the Father, but is a distinct person [which the Trinity agrees with!] the Son of God, the answer to the above question must be that no distinct worship is to be rendered to Jesus Christ now glorified in heaven. Our worship is to go to Jehovah God.” Yet it wasn’t till 1999 that the Charter was changed, to confine worship to Jehovah alone, according to this link! http://www.jwfacts.mobi/watchtower/worship-jesus.php
Anonymous
My parents became Jehovah’s Witnesses in the late 1930’s and I was brought up in that faith, although I voted with my feet and left the organisation in the 1970’s. The biggest single obstacle to investigating the changes to the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses from 1914 till the year 2000 is that their official web site does not give access to literature prior to the year 2000. Very few Witnesses have access to the old, printed material. Even the history of the organisation has been “sanitised” and all sorts of skeletons from the time of Russell and Rutherford have been safely locked away. I do not believe there is any official document listing all the “clarifications” to their beliefs since 1914. The only one I know of comes from the 2016 Yearbook and covers only 2012 to 2015. See first link.
From memory, I know that some of the most significant changes involve expectations about 1914 and Armageddon. Things such as the generation alive in 1914 (my parents’ generation) would see the end of “this wicked system of things” at Armageddon. The meaning of “generation” has been changed because it’s over 100 years since Jesus is supposed to have started to rule (invisibly) from heaven and the generation alive in 1914 is now dead. Of course, the biggest error they made was in thinking Armageddon was to happen before 1914, and then Armageddon would be all over by the end of 1914.
“One of the most misleading statements in Watchtower publications is that they accurately foretold 1914 to be the “start” of the conclusion of this system of things. Rather, 1914 was predicted to be the “end” of the system of things, the conclusion of Armageddon and the start of the earthly paradise. 1914 is the pivotal date for the existence of Jehovah's Witnesses, currently explained as the date the Last Days began, Jesus started ruling in heaven and the Gentile times ended.
1914 is the basis for the interpretation of the majority of other Bible prophecies. Most importantly, this was the time during which Jesus is said to have come to inspect and cleanse the Watchtower Society, resulting in Jesus choosing it in 1919 to be the only organization he works though in our time, and the only means of salvation. The current understanding is significantly different to the original teachings. Prior to 1914, the Watchtower believed:
The Last Days began 1799
Jesus Parousia started 1874
Jesus started ruling in heaven in 1878
The Gentile Times would end in 1914, resulting in the:
end of Armageddon
fall of false religion
end of all earthly governments
heavenly and earthly resurrections
paradise on earth
The ability of the Watchtower to accurately foretell the meaning of 1914 is a great source of faith for Jehovah's Witnesses, unaware of what the Watchtower said prior to 1914, as nothing that Russell said about 1914 came to pass. 2nd October 1914 was to be the final of many dates for Russell, the conclusion of matters. As soon the Watchtower was proven to be wrong about 1914, Russell went into damage control, dishonestly rewriting history. Reading through the older publications, it is evident how forcefully the predictions for 1914 were presented as truth, yet now they began to be referred to as nothing more than inference: “The Lord did not say that the Church would all be glorified by 1914. We merely inferred it and, evidently, erred.” (Watch Tower 1916 April 15) Source: http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/failed-1914-predictions.php See also second link.
The organisation has also recently had to admit they got lots of things wrong to do with end time expectations such as the preaching work would be finished by the end of the 20th century (see third link), the separating of the sheep from the goats (it’s now future), and when the faithful and discrete slave was appointed (it wasn’t 33 C.E. as first thought but now 1919).
While looking through my records, I found this telling quote in an article published in 1881 by Charles Russell: “If we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now. But with God there is no variableness, “neither shadow of turning”, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from God must be like its author. A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth.” Russell would be turning in his grave at how today’s Governing Body has dismissed and contradicted everything he held dear before he died in 1916 and how they are having to make it up as they go along the further they get from 1914.
Edit: Here are a couple of quotes I found on how they view people who get their dates wrong:
1930 "The false prophets of our day are the financial, political and clerical prognosticators, They assume to foretell future events; but their dreams or guesses never come true,.... In 1914-1918 these same three classes told the whole world that the great world war would end all wars and make the world safe for democracy...their prophecies did not come true. Therefore, they are false prophets; and the people should no longer trust them as safe guides..." Watchtower, May 15, 1930, p. 155-156
1958 "'Sometime between April 16 and 23, 1957, Armageddon will sweep the world! Millions of persons will perish in its flames and the land will be scorched.' So prophesied a certain California pastor, Mihran Ask, in January 1957. Such false prophets tend to put the subject of Armageddon in disrepute." Watchtower, Oct. 15, 1958, p. 613
Yeah, they got that right - people who make false predictions about end time events are false prophets. And here is what the organisation claimed themselves (wrongly):
Armageddon before the end of the twentieth century: "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 earth without death - all to be realized in the twentieth century." (Awake! February 22, 1961, p. 5, article ‘The 20th Century In Bible Prophecy’). "That now-operating kingdom in heaven will, within the twentieth century, cleanse the entire earth of wickedness." (Awake! February 22, 1961, p. 7)
1 January 1989 Watchtower: "The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century." NOTE: The 1989 Watchtower bound volume changed "20th century" to "day."
1999 "Shortly, within our twentieth century, the 'battle in the day of Jehovah' will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom."