Does the Watchtower (Jehovah's Witnesses) whitewash their history? They said "Time of the End started in 1799?

Question

How can the Watchtower write TWO history books about themselves which emphasize repeatedly their assertion that the time of the end began in 1914, while failing to mention that up until 1925 (and possibly later), they insisted that "any reasonable mind" would recognize the "physical facts" were proof that the Time of the End began in 1799? (The Harp of God, page 234, 1925 edition, published by Watchtower)

Is that "whitewashing" their history? What is your opinion?

Answer 1

HOW can they do it? Those who are under 30 don't remember the most recent debacle (1975). Those who are older either weren't born as recently as the 1925 contrivance or they're among the tiny number of those who are still running the thing. They contradict themselves pretty often and excuse it as "new light." Rewriting history? Yep.

Answer 2

Notice who the ACTUAL one was who came up with this view:

It was actually: "...Latin religious father, Aurelius Augustine, who spread such an interpretation of Revelation 20:4-6, (who lived 354-430 C.E.). In harmony with his view that the millennial reign of Christ was being fulfilled in the Roman Catholic Church on earth, it was later thought that the millennial reign of the Roman Catholic Papacy in a literal way was from the year 800 C.E., when Pope Leo II crowned Charlemagne in Rome as king of the Holy Roman Empire, to 1799 C.E., when Pope Pius VI, already deposed by Napoleon Bonaparte, was taken as a prisoner from the Vatican on February 20, and deported to Valence, France, where he died on August 29, 1799. The trouble that followed upon the Roman Catholic Church was viewed as marking the “little time” during which Satan the Devil was to be loosed at the millennium’s end. (Rev. 20:1-3, 7, Dy) However, it is now 168 years since the year 1799. That is not a “little time” for the Devil to be loosed; and yet the troubles on the Roman Catholic Papacy are worsening. And now the destruction of Babylon the Great, of which the Papacy is the most powerful member, threatens that religious empire in the near future."

"Similar claims were made by the British-Israel-World Federation in a Manifesto sent out by them in 1931. Therein they claimed that the ten tribes went into captivity in 721 B.C.E. and that the “seven times” of punishment mentioned at Leviticus 26:28 meant 2,520 years and that these lasted until 1799. Among other things it stated: “The miracle of the United States is surpassed only by the miracle of the . . . British Commonwealth of Nations. . . . Multiply the influence of the race, and then Anglo-Saxon civilisation will command the peace and ensure the prosperity of the world."

NOT Jehovah's Witnesses,
who I--in fact-- REFUTED this teaching.

Answer 3

No. Do current medical textbooks discuss the curative effects of tapeworms and animal feces? Obsolete information is allowed to go 'out of print' because it is obsolete.


Firstly, this was hardly a major doctrine. It seems that even a regular reader of The Watchtower in the 1920's could easily have served Jehovah God without any knowledge of how the book "Harp of God" (1921, incidentally) had mentioned the year 1799.


Secondly, the urgency of the preaching work and the much larger bible truth about "the time of the end" actually was quite well understood and explained in that 90-year-old publication. Here is a quote from page 438:
[begin quote]
...and yet the message goes on, giving a wider and wider witness, looking forward to the full consummation of "the time of the end", the end of the old order and the incoming of Messiah's kingdom.
[end quote]


Thirdly, there were a mere 3,868 active Jehovah's Witnesses in 1918 (the closest available figures to 1921 when "Harp" was published). By the time the official history ("Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom") was published in 1993, there were 4,709,889 active Jehovah's Witnesses (almost none of whom had ever heard anything about 1799).

Would it make sense to confuse nearly 5 million people in order to clarify things for what could (even with enormous optimism and longevity) only have been a few hundred survivors? By 2006, there were even fewer survivors from 1921, while steady increase has led to nearly 7 million active Jehovah's Witnesses, and an additional 10 million who associate themselves with the religion.
http://jw-media.org/people/statistics.htm


Fourthly, while these old publications are out of print, many Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses have these books in their libraries. In most cases, even the public may respectfully handle these heirlooms, albeit inside the library. Many Kingdom Halls have photocopiers which permit interested persons to leave with reproductions of interesting pages.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/jt/index.htm?article=article_02.htm

Answer 4

The Watchtower has lied consistently throughout their history. This is indeed in order to get unsuspecting people and rob them of their lives. They are the very definition of a controlling cult. They have lied for example about 1975 claiming that they never told their membership armagheddon was coming in that year-but they did! They never account for the lives that have been lost as a result of their policy on blood transfusions-and deny that they have an occult history. They also have a policy of disfellowshipping young people as a result normal things such as trying smoking-well this can result in the complete destruction of that young person's family because they are no longer allowed to talk to or deal with their family members. My father was a victim of this. At fifteen he could no longer live in the same house as my grandmother-thus setting the stage for trouble in his life. Tell me what is moral about that? The best thing to do is not allow these people into your home. People are right now doing all they can to warn people about them. And they are right in doing so!

Answer 5

Not sure what this has to do with Jehovah's Witnesses as the Harp of God was not published by Jehovah's Witnesses.

If you want to know about the history of Jehovah's Witnesses, go to www.jwproclaimers.org.

Answer 6

I'm not really sure of that. It sounds counter active to me. When I was a teenager I had some JW friends and they swore that the world was going to come to an end in (I believe) 1976 or 1977, been too long ago to remember exactly. Well, it didn't. I called them up and asked them about it and they didn't have any usable explanation. A lot of JW were headed for caves at that time also. I just don't understand.

Answer 7

I just "love" achtung's answer:

Why confuse the 4million + new people with what happened in the past. JW's tell Catholics to research their church's history. They tell Mormons the same thing. THEN they have the audacity to say, now, now JW"s we don't need to confuse ourselves by researching OUR OWN past. HYPOCRITES!!!


Why not confuse your followers on this topic, you do it all the time on other things: take blood, can't take blood, can use some blood. or if a woman doesn't scream during a rape attack, she's guilty of fornication, oh oops, we were wrong, she's not, oopps we were wrong again, yes she is guilty AND can be disfellowship if she's not repentant that she was raped, oops, wrong again....this went on for 10-15 years that I'm aware of. (As a victim of rape, this topic was of interest to me during my term as JW).

Do not compare science/medical research with bible teachings. The BIble teaches the truth, JW's don't have the complete truth...not now or then. SUre, they may have gotten a FEW things that other religions missed, but it doesn't make them the "only source of truth and light" or "inspired by God's Holy Spirit", or "the only way to salvation" as they claim to be.

I encourage JW's to do what the WBTS encourages people in other religions to do: Examine your own religion. But don't use the WBTS publications to do it...just like JW's don't want you to use your own religion's publications to examine your religion: they use THEIR publications to examine your religion.

Answer 8

this is a GREAT question.

BRAVO, Carol. no need to contribute; you made the point i was going to.
double bravo for calling out 'achtung', whose submissions ALWAYS have an answer for every contradiction brought up in Y! answers about JWs.

Answer 9

the last "Prophecy" of Jehovah ´s witness the destruction of all false religion including christianity, what are you going to say when that happen?

Answer 10

Yes they try to turn a blind eye to the false prophecies of past leaders. They fact that their leaders are false prophets should be a warning sign to people.

My opinion is they're a cult that people need to flee from.