Jehovah's Witnesses claim Jesus inspected their religion in 1919 and found them "clean" from false doctrines?

"The Finished Mystery" (1918 ed) was being studied and distributed worldwide in 1918 and 1919 (both years have been claimed in various publications to have been the time of Jesus' inspection of the organization). Following are some of the teachings found in this publication:

> Charles Taze Russell is the faithful and wise servant (pp4-5)

> Jesus gave Russell the “key” and the privilege of making clear the “Mystery of God” (p6)

> Jesus is the Alpha and Omega in Rev 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13 (pp15, 318, 336)

> Adventist Nelson Barbour showed Russell biblical proof that Jesus’ presence and the Harvest began in 1874; Russell found this evidence satisfactory (p54)

> The remnant will be taken to heaven in the spring of 1918 (p64)

> The 7 messengers in Revelation are Paul, John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, Luther and Russell (illustration following p64)

> The 7 trumpets in Rev 8:2 are the trumpets of the Lutherans, the Anglicans, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Evangelical Alliance and The Bible Students (chart after p64)

> Jesus assumed kingship in the spring of 1878 (p66)

> List of Scriptures proving that Jesus’ second advent occurred in the fall of 1874 (pp68–71)

>The behemoth of Job 40:15-24 is the stationary steam engine (p84)

> The leviathan of Job 41:2-19 is the locomotive (p85)

> The valiant men in Nahum 2:3 are the locomotive conductor and the fireman (p93)

> The rider of the white horse in Revelation 6:2 is the Bishop of Rome, the personal representative of Satan (p106)

> The demons will invade the minds of nominal Christians leading to their destruction in 1918 (p128)

> The earth was created 48,000 years ago (p139)

> The “angel” mentioned in Rev 8:5 is the Watchtower Society and the “incense vessel” is the book The Finished Mystery “divinely provided” to humanity (p145)

> According to Rev 9:15, all of the 177,300,000 protestants on earth, who represent 1/3 of all Christians, will be destroyed in 1918 (p164)

> The “Time of the End” started in 1799 (p171)

> The French Revolution was an illustration of, and a prelude to, the “Great Tribulation,” which started in 1914 (p178)

> Michael the archangel is the Pope, and “his angels” are the Bishops (p188)

> The Great Pyramid confirms the fact that the time of Harvest has come (p226)

> The republics will disappear in the fall of 1920. Every nation will cease to exist as they get swallowed up by anarchy (p258)

> The earth was lightened by Jesus’ “glory” in 1874, resulting in such great discoveries and inventions such as antiseptic surgery, barbed wire, electrical motors, airplanes, the Panama Canal, vacuum cleaners, The Divine Plan of the Ages, etc. (p273)

> The “voice out of heaven” mentioned in Rev 18:4 is the WTBTS (p276)

> According to Rev 18:14, in the Millennial Age, the clergy will have to work for a living, which means that each preacher in Christendom will have an extra 65 cent expense for an alarm clock (p285)

> The God sitting on the throne in Rev 19:4 is Jesus (p290)

> God assumes full responsibility for the entire volume of Studies in the Scriptures (p295)

> The Kingdom of a thousand years started in 1874 with the second coming of Jesus (pp301, 386)

> According to Rev 21:17, the number of sheep at the end of the thousand-year reign will be approximately 20.7 Billion (p323)

> When Russell understood the full import of God’s Word, he took a firm stand. The spirit, power and influence of God entered him, never to leave (p377)

> Ezekiel 5:2, 12, 16, 17 refers to the way in which Jerusalem was destroyed in 606BCE and 70-73CE and also refers to the way Christianity is being destroyed between 1914 and 1918 (p398)

> God’s Day of Vengeance started in 1914 and will culminate in 1918 (p404)

> According to Ezekiel 11:9, Christianity will literally fall in the hands of labor unions, socialists and anarchists (p425)

> The preachers of Christianity say things that originate in their own imagination (p432)

> According to Ezekiel 17:22 and 20:42, Zionism and Judaism will prosper on Earth as their leaders will be Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others upon their resurrection (pp450, 462)

> The congregation mentioned in Ezekiel 23:46 are union workers, socialists, democrats and anarchists (p480)

> In fulfillment of Ezekiel 24:15-19, God took away Russell’s desire for his wife by putting a spiritual plague over her which made her “dead” in the eyes of Russell (pp483-484)

> God will destroy all of the churches on earth including all of its millions of members in on or around April 27, 1918. (pp485, 513, 530)

> All Jews will return to their native land according to God’s promise. Russell has been preaching the message Zionism since October 1910 (pp536, 554-555)

> In 1878, during the First Resurrection, God raised up the members of the Body of Christ, the “stem of David” (p539)

> According to Ezekiel 40:1, the establishment of the Kingdom on earth will occur 13 years after 1918 (p569)

Great observation in the 1919 date. Jesus supposedly found them clean and appointed them as God's chosen organization to feed his people the proper food at the proper time. This is their foundation of their belief, this coupled with the 1914 date. Jesus' invisible return in 1914 and the 1919 date. Their own publications tell us that at that time, Jesus would have never chosen such people. Date predictions, in fact there is another question on this form about this Mr. Camping and his date of May 21, 2011 Rapture and the Jehovah's Witnesses telling how that no one knows but the Father. They never made those kind of statements back then, did they? If a Jehovah's Witness really know the real history of the Jehovah's Witness, they would never be associated with them. You are correct in your assessment with the regards to this teaching, they shrug it off, but still hang on to the very deceptive fact that they were chosen By Jesus and they are the only channel of God to his people. Totally disowning the lie but holding dear to it's outcome. How could anyone in their right mind believe that such a thing happened and yet believe in the outcome? It absolutely astounds me, that anybody could believe in such a concept with this knowledge. Just maybe they can understand why most think that they, Jehovah's Witnesses, are a cult in the bad sense of cults.

Edit. Just a thought, with all these false teaching they had back then, and they make the claim that Jesus declared them clean of such false teachings, how can they even fathom the thought that the remaining anointed of the 144,000 are the "faithful and discreet slave" in Mathew 24. In fact this teaching has changed since then. If they were declared clean in 1919 then their teaching today is false on this faithful and discreet slave as in 1919. Before 1881 the whole body of Christian believers then in 1881 it was Charles Tazr Russell until 1927, Then, in 1927, the Society received "new light" and returned to the earlier teaching that the "faithful and wise servant" was the Christian congregation. And now it's the anointed 144,000? So what should one believe about this, if Jesus did indeed declare them clean of all false doctrine, then the doctrine they have today is false. Can you spell fip-flop? This is very evident that the Holy Spirit is not working within this so called organization and it is not God's chosen organization, only in their dreams is such a myth present!

I've noticed whenever a Witness tries to explain this they come off with something like "b-but-but we were the MOST clean compared to everyone else!" I guess Jesus took what he could get???? Or that God would "fix" the errors within "his" organization in due time. This is circular logic at its best. this is how I knew I'd found the right church at last. The Pastor never claimed he was given some special authority to interpret the bible, and freely admits when he has made a human error. Jehovah's Witnesses are never wrong you see, God has only brightened the light... Its not, oops we were wrong, its "oh look! God has given us greater understanding" I wonder what Jehovah's Witnesses would say about a church of "christendom" who changed its teachings as they do claiming "brighter light"... Excellent answers given by Unsilenced and Peacelily.

The Jehovah Witnesses could make such a marvelous end time group of messengers if ........

ok, Sorry, I was dreaming. The Governing Body will not likely repudiate all the false teachings with a humble apology that all the prevvious " Accurate Knowledge" that is still coming in bits and pieces as newer or lighter light was indeed false.

Peacelilly and Unsilenced Lioness make irrefutable points that should stop any thinking person in their tracks to re-evaluate the basis of such allegiance to the mind controlling theology of being led into a false Gospel of Jesus Christ .

Jesus made it clear if you deny Him here, (in Matthews gospel) He will deny you there. .... and what is it about Jesus that if you deny it, you will be denied entrance to the Kingdom of God ?

It is denying the Savior His very nature, that He is very God in the flesh. Only in that capacity, can the incorruptible be qualified and able to give us righteousness through the blood of Christ . ie: all created beings proved corruptible....therefore it is of necessity God provided the way through Jesus Christ, Emanuel, not a god, but GOD WITH US.

There is still hope for the Jehovah Witness Organization to repudiate their past falsehoods, though it will split them wide apart if the GB ever came forward to tell the real Truth about Jesus..

Case in point is the Herbert & Garner Ted Armstrong church.......it split into several factions when the Truth of Christ was introduced after the death of its founders.

Until the whole world hears that Jesus Is Lord and very God........God bless.

/dm/

Jesus is not as capable of finding errors as the "Last minute error finders of the Governing Body"

wouldn't it be nice if the Witnesses actually addressed your question? Where are they?

Those JWs who are still active today and who were around in that period will typically say it was the "brothers" who "ran ahead of Jehovah" and "read more into" the 1975 prediction than what was actually stated. In fact, due to help from their religious masters they have even coined a pejorative stop-think phrase about it: "serving for a date." This phrase is a masterpiece of WTS deception. It implies greediness and selfishness on the part of those members who later left the religion, but who truly believed that was to be the start of Armageddon and the gateway to the Paradise Earth.long promised by their religious leaders.

The main excuse given is that the society never stated "for sure" that Armageddon would happen then. What excuse do they have then when District Overseer Charles Sunutko in 1967 got the assembly audiences all whipped up with his "Stay Alive 'Til '75!" slogan in his speech here:

Charles Sunutko

Why did not the WTS clamp down on him or correct his "running ahead of Jehovah" comments and allow him to give several speeches on this theme to large JW audiences?

I'm not going to dwell on what the WTS did or didn't say about 1975 in this article. That's been done many times before. I'm going to present a significant piece of empirical evidence however, and let the readers draw their own conclusions.

I was at the 1968 Pomona, California District assembly and we were told something really BIG was going to happen there. It did. It was the release of the book "The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life." It was a very small book and not at all like the typical book released at conventions. It was topically arranged and designed specifically as a teaching book for our Bible studies.

Not that much later an even bigger bombshell was dropped. We were told in no uncertain terms that if our Bible studies had not progressed into going to meetings and going in field service within 6 months after the study was started we were to drop them. What was the reason? "The time is too short for dilly-dallying around." This was unprecedented in WT history.

"Six months and dump them" was our local slogan. "Go to hell in 6 months if you are not one of us, because you will die shortly at Armageddon" is what many of us thought.

I'm sure that "policy" was dumped not that long after the 1975 failure showed our massive urgency was just a pile of horse dung. It's now 35 years and a full generation later and even the 1975 date has been carefully removed from the WTS Time Lines of Significant World Events in their history and reference books.

So, this begs the question, is not the "6 month-and-drop-them" policy solid empirical evidence that the WTS wanted members to be deadly serious about 1975 and give their lives, treasures and souls to the service of the WTS to that end?

Sure it is. Those who bought into it and became disillusioned when the lie was exposed later were called evil ones who were "serving for a date." But the WTS got very rich in those years because of the huge growth in membership comprised of people who believed that what they were promised came from God.

To say that the Governing Body is a bunch of cynical old assholes is being way too kind to them, in my not so humble opinion.

Bull, THEY ARE THE ONES TRYING TO CANCEL CHRISTMAS, EASTER, MOTHERS DAY, FATHERS DAY, AND BIRTHDAYS ALTOGETHER. THE WATCH TOWER ORGANIZATION CHANGED PARTS OF THE BIBLE AND BRAINWASHED THEM ALL! SINCE IT IS 2011, ALL PEOPLE WORKING AT THE WATCH TOWER DO NOT KNOW THEY ARE BRAINWASHING. THEY DO NOT EVEN BELIEVE IN HELL OR HEAVEN!!!

People from any religion can say whatever suits their purpose. And do. As to whether anybody should believe any of it, well most probably not.

It's true.

Then, in 1920, the Easter bunny gave his blessing as well.

@Danielle - They make it always winter and never Christmas!

Jehova's Witnesses are every bit as prone to false doctrine as 7th Day Adventists and any other denomination.