Why are ther so many False Prophecies of the Jehovah's Witnesses?

Question

"If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him." Deut. 18:22

The following is a list of false prophecies made by the Jehovah's Witnesses over the past century..


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In 1972 the Jehovah's Witness Watchtower claimed to be the prophet of God (The Watchtower, April 1, 1972, p. 197).
1897 "Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874," (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 4, page 621).

1899 "...the battle of the great day of God Almighty' ( Revelation 16:14 ), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced." (The Time Is at Hand, page 101 (1908 edition)).

1916 "The Bible chronology herein presented shows that the six great 10000 year days beginning with Adam are ended, and that the great 7th Day, the 1000 years of Christ's Reign, began in 1873." (The Time Is at Hand, page ii, (forward)).

1918 "Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection." (Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 89).

1922 "The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures than 1914." (The Watchtower 9/1/22, page 262).

1923 "Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures. As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had upon which to base his faith in a coming deluge." (The Watchtower, p. 106 4/1/23).

1925 "The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during this year. This may be accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his purposes concerning his people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year." (The Watchtower, 1/1/25, page 3).

1925 "It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated, the thought that 1925 should see an end to the work." (The Watchtower, Sept, 1925 page 262).

1926 "Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not state so. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason; and that when their imaginations burst asunder, they were inclined to throw away everything." (The Watchtower, page 232).

1931 "There was a measure of disappointment on the part of Jehovah's faithful ones on earth concerning the years 1917, 1918, and 1925, which disappointment lasted for a time...and they also learned to quit fixing dates." (Vindication, page 338).

1941 "Receiving the gift, the marching children clasped it to them, not a toy or plaything for idle pleasure, but the Lord's provided instrument for most effective work in the remaining months before Armageddon." (The Watchtower, 9/15/41, page 288).

1968 "True, there have been those in times past who predicted an end to the world', even announcing a specific date. Yet nothing happened. The end' did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?..Missing from such people were God's truths and evidence that he was using and guiding them." (Awake, 10/8/68).

1968 "Why are you looking forward to 1975?" (The Watchtower, 8/15/68, page 494)

The excuse often given for these false prophecies has been to quote Proverbs 4:18 :"But the path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day it is firmly established."

However, this is not a valid excuse as it in no way refers to the making of false prophecies, but rather refers to the growth in faith of the righteous

Answer 1

EXCELLENT Questions!!!

De 18:22 - If the prophet predicts something in the LORD's name and it does not happen, the LORD did not give the message. That prophet has spoken on his own and need not be feared.

De 18:20 - But any prophet who claims to give a message from another god or who falsely claims to speak for me must die.'
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And they also think that God's true Name is "Jehovah" that is the Greatest of their falsehoods!

This is a dangerous religion, insomuch as it teaches with almost a cult-like, brainwashing technique that those that are lost and seeking God are easily persuaded.

I DO like that they don't celebrate the pagan holidays, but that's all I like about their very false religion.

God Bless You

Answer 2

The answer to your question is found in the 10/8/68 Awake that you quoted above:

God's truth was missing, also the evidence of his guidance and direction. If their prophecies had come true, they could claim they were speaking the "truth", and the fulfillment of their prophecies would be the evidence of God's direction and guidance. As the article states, nothing happened...they were guilty of false prophesying.

Their own words, not mine.

Answer 3

None of those are prophecies.

Prophesies means that ones is speaking for God, but what you quoted from the 1972 does not mean that. They, we, are giving warnings from God's Word.

Remember that Deut 18:22 no longer applies since it was a prophesy itself, leading to Christ. Christ came and died. So that is not relevant anymore.


Prov 4:18 is not relevant because none of what you quoted relate to false prophesies. There is nothing wrong with looking to dates, provided that there is a biblical basis. Not all dates from which you referred have a biblical basis such as 1925. But that does not make it is prophesy.

But may I ask, do you have a better alternative to Jehovah's Witnesses?

Answer 4

2 John :7-11

Answer 5

Palms..You are a JW's? I don't know, but to me the way you always end your answers with Blah..makes me question you..What kind of love is that? I feel that JW's love only the ones in your congregations..Your love for "worldy" people is fake..I was once a JW's ..and I know how you look at everyone else that is not in your religion..You think you are special..God's chosen people..You fail to read scriptures that say God is not a partial God..What does that mean to you..Nothing?

God , loves each of us the same..You do not have his special blessings..JW's are so conditioned by the WT to look at all other people as BAD..You look at Churches as something EVIL..You should take a long look at the way you view others..
Do you think Jesus if he were here today, feel the same way? Gods Holy Spirit lives inside a Christian..when you recieve that beautiful gift..Love for everyone comes natually..We talk about Gods kindom and pray for peoples hearts to be soften in order to recieve the message that he wants us to spread..It is not about going door to door, in order to get your time in..I know ..you are made to feel bad, and less of a christian if you don't get "enough" time in each month..Speaking about God, and Christ should come from the heart..not the WT teachings, that make you feel bad for not going door to door.
The Bible has a very simple message and it doesn't take the WT and all of the many, many, many books to explain it to you.
What in the world did Christians do over a hundred years ago without having the WT to reley on? God doesn't need the WT to explain his gospel. He is relying on each Christian with the Holy Spirit to help him prove Satan wrong..That his people will love him no matter what..that they have faith in him, trust him..We serve God not because of some reward or punishment ..We serve God because we love him..That is what is wants more than anything..for his people to love, trust and have faith in him..He could come to earth right now if he wanted to..he could talk in a LOUD voice and tell us what he wants of us..but, he is using us..his creation to prove to Satan that his people love him..

Answer 6

Very good documentation...sadly i am afraid that very few if any Jw's will read it......We have been trying for a long time to get them to just look at their own past and not one of them has even so much as asked a question that does not mirror WBTS dogma...It is so sad that such dedicated people may lose their salvation by following a false prophet...


SKLEMETTI....If we showed you PROOF That the WBTS claims to be the only voice of God on earth and then were wrong, would you open your eyes then?

Answer 7

Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they are infallible or inspired. Jehovah's Witnesses have never pretended that they experience miraculous messages from God or Christ. For more than a century, Jehovah's Witnesses have always presented their suppositions as the result of sincere bible research, rather than as "predictions" or "prophesying".

Interestingly, however, even those Christians who did enjoy direct communication from heaven at times came to wrong conclusions; these wrong conclusions were even communicated "out among the brothers"!

For example, the apostle Peter enjoyed remarkable privileges in the early congregation, but it seems that he was the source of an incorrect teaching about the apostle John that was not formally corrected until several DECADES had passed, and John himself finally wrote his gospel about 98 C.E.

(John 21:21-23) Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, what will this man do [that is, the apostle John]?” Jesus said to him: “If it is my will for him to remain until I come, of what concern is that to you? You continue following me.” In consequence, this saying went out among the brothers, that [the apostle John] would not die. However, Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but: “If it is my will for him to remain until I come, of what concern is that to you?”


Jehovah's Witnesses apply the term "prophet" only in a very limited sense to themselves as a religion, not to individuals. The Scriptures indicate that whenever Jehovah purposes to execute judgment upon a people, he always makes arrangement for a 'prophet's work' as a warning. Their self-description as a "prophet" (in this limited sense) does not indicate special inspired knowledge or foreknowledge, but their willingness to perform Christ's assigned warning work in our day leading up to Armageddon.

What group is working harder than Jehovah's Witnesses to preach God's message globally (as Noah did before the Deluge)?

(Amos 3:7) For the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will not do a thing unless he has revealed his confidential matter to his servants the prophets.

(2 Peter 2:5) Noah, a preacher of righteousness...

(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.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20000622/
http://watchtower.org/e/19990715/article_02.htm

Answer 8

Anybody with any amount of logical reasoning skills can see that they are false prophets. The reason the JWs themselves can't see it is because their natural reasoning skills have been deprogrammed by the Watchtower Society, and replaced with a carefully crafted script that only serves to reconfirm what they have been brainwashed to believe. (The very essence of a cult). I think it is the greatest travesty when you rob someone of his ability to think independently.

The JWs on here who read these and respond know full well that they are forbidden from reading anything that is contrary to what their Watchtower Society teaches, because it is "apostate." I, for one, am glad to see you here, and I hope that you stay here and continue to give me negative votes, because at least it means you're reading. The more you read, the more you learn, and hopefully one day you'll learn enough to see the light and break free.

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TO ACHTUNG:

I smile at your choice of the Watchtower article on propaganda. For one, I always thought that article was QUITE audacious, for obvious reasons.

Secondly, throughout the entire article, the Watchtower provides a definition of propaganda and how to recognize it when it is used (by other groups, of course). When it gets to the section on whether JWs use propaganda, it uses NONE of that evidence to disprove that JWs use propaganda. It simply waxes poetic about how good and upstanding citizens the JWs are, and how such good and upstanding citizens would never use propaganda.

Had I written an article with such fallacious reasoning in my research class, I would have received a big red F. But of course, they don't really reason, they just reconfirm.

Answer 9

Jehovah’s witnesses are not giving new prophecies about the future. But they are proclaiming the present and future fulfillment of prophecies recorded in the Bible, as well as prophesying in the sense of declaring God’s message today. In this they emphasize Jesus’ role as the key one in Jehovah’s purposes, the king of His kingdom.

Answer 10

Your is a true statement however these were but a few there are many spread throughout the whole world and the numbers are still growing daily, there may be some even in your place of assembly?