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What is the most recent false prophecy by Jehovah's Witnesses?

Back up it goes. Now that those born in 1914 are almost 100 years old, the prophecy that I was raised believing, that individuals alive in 1914 would witness armageddon is all but completely disconfirmed. Are there any other prophecies that are soon to be disconfirmed, or perhaps new prophecies that we will not know to be false until many years in the future?

Public Comments

1. Fortunately, they've given up naming dates. JWs believe Jesus is a **created** being, really the Archangel Michael! JWs confuse the description of Jesus as the “only-begotten” Son to mean, “first-created” son. Fact is, Jesus is never spoken of as being **created**. And no other “son” of God (us, or Michael) is ever spoken of as being the “only-begotten” of the Father, except Jesus. Calling Jesus the **first-created** son of God is a blasphemous denial of the Savior’s deity and His atoning, substitutionary sacrifice for your sins(even though JWs claim to “believe in Jesus”).

How interesting ~ this mistake is similar to that of Mormons and Muslims! If Jesus is just a spirit-sibling or just another created being, then His sufferings on the cross were useless, unnecessary and you can satisfy the Father’s justice (pay, or atone) for your own sins through your good deeds. ~ Except ~ ‘It doesn’t work that way.’ ~ You can’t.

Our sins, contrary to the beliefs of false religions, are not only against Man, but against our Creator. Even if you make restitution to every person you offend in life, that’s good, but your offences are **also against your Creator** not only against other people. All your restitution, human goodness or religious obedience will never absolve **even one offence** against the infinite, eternal, just Creator! You need a bigger sacrifice, a bigger payment -- much bigger -- than your lifetime could ever produce. Only Your Creator could provide a sacrifice that big ~ which made it necessary for the Creator to **beget Another** who (like an earthly father & son) would share His **same nature & substance**. Only that begotten Son, fully God the Son, could provide the big enough payment to satisfy the infinite, eternal, perfectly just demands of your Creator - your Father in Heaven.
No earthly judge would accept an innocent person to suffer for a guilty person – no earthly judge would – but your Father in Heaven offered and is willing to accept Jesus’ sufferings for the punishment your sins deserve; you would be very foolish to refuse, even if a sacrifice like that doesn’t seem to “make sense”! You were created in love to respond to the love your Father in Heaven proved He has for you; but love also demands justice. Your Father in Heaven is merciful and loving; but also just; perfectly, absolutely just. In an astonishing act of grace (undeserved favor) He provided the way for your offences against Him to be removed, when you confess your sins to Him and ask His forgiveness; He will! Then turn from them proving your repentance is real. Trust that His Son Jesus provided the only payment big enough for your sins against took the punishment your sins deserved, on His cross (aka “believing in Jesus”). I have done this; so can you.

2. well they have made so many false so when they start to talk i usally just dont try to find out what they are saying next why waste my time on it?

3. everything in the bible taught by JW's are not false. I just finished answering a question, that will surprise you too.

The question is: "I am shocked by my neighbors response to a Jehovah's Witness. SHOCKED. Now I really need to know the truth!?".

Jesus is God's only begotten Son: Colossians 1:15; Matthew 3:17,18. Michael the Archangel is often mentioned, but you can read about him in the book of Daniel, Revelation and Thessalonians. The angels call him "Michael", but here on Earth, we call him "Jesus".

Michael means "Who Is Like God?" and Jesus means "Jehovah Is Salvation". Names do have meanings.

If you compare our Bible to the many versions in http://bible.cc you'll be quite dismayed.

4. The expression 'false prophecy' cannot be attached to the points I detail below, but they clearly were false statements about what would happen in the 1970s, then by the end of the 20th century. (I am not a JW by the way.)

The 8 October 1971 Awake! magazine said: "In fact, there is even good reason to hope that a new order of God's making may begin within the present decade." (p 26) We are now four decades on from that statement.

The JW book "The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah",1971 edition, p 216: "...within our twentieth century, the battle of the day of Jehovah will begin."

The 1 January 1989 Watchtower said about the apostle Paul's missionary work, "He was also laying a founation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century." (p 12)

By the end of 1989, the bound volume edition had changed that to "...completed in our day."

The closest the Watchtower Society seems to have dared get to a 'prediction' was published in their 15 December 2003 Watchtower magazine. Using Genesis 3:16, they interpreted the 120 years from the warning of the flood till the flood arriving as providing a parallel of JW warnings from 1914. It is a coy way of saying that there should be 120 years from 1914 till Armageddon. That would take them to 2034. Without mentioning the year 2034, then, the Society has made a link with 1914 and 120 years of sounding their warning. (p. 15) Only 24 years to wait and find out. Of course, by then, there will be a new generation of recruits who won't know what was said about the witness work being wrapped up by 1981, then before 2000. They might know about the 'prediction' in that 2003 magazine, if people like us keep gently reminding them about it.

5. Jehovah's witnesses have always said that Our God and Father Jehovah is the only one who knows the day or the hour. Consider the following quotes:

The Bible might be likened to a timetable, God’s timetable for carrying out his purpose. Why ignore this timetable, then? Why not pattern our lives after God’s way of doing things? Can we reverse the clock of the universe? We can deliberately ignore the physical facts and happenings that make up the great sign of the “last days,” but this does not change God’s time schedule. God has set a specific time for this set length of time called the “last days” to come to its end in the Armageddon climax. Concerning this time the Lord Jesus said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”—Matt. 24:36. WT 12/15/1959

One thing is absolutely certain, Bible chronology reinforced with fulfilled Bible prophecy shows that six thousand years of man’s existence will soon be up, yes, within this generation! (Matt. 24:34) This is, therefore, no time to be indifferent and complacent. This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that “concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matt. 24:36) To the contrary, it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end. Make no mistake, it is sufficient that the Father himself knows both the “day and hour”! WT 8/15/1968

It is certain that God has a definite time for Christ’s coming to execute judgment on the earth. Man, made in God’s image, has a sense of timing of matters. For this reason God provided a way for man to keep count of years, months and days. (Gen. 1:14-16) In the Bible an accurate chronology from the creation of man onward is provided. An outstanding instance of such chronology is the Biblical count of the “seven times” of Gentile domination of mankind without divine interruption, which ran from 607 B.C.E. to 1914 C.E. This count even had a prophetic nature. It was chronology in advance.
But nobody should get the idea that, simply by chronology, he can calculate the time of that “coming” of Christ for executing judgment. Christ himself told his apostles: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”—Matt. 24:36.
Now, we know that Jesus Christ had been in heaven with his Father at the time of earth’s creation. (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:13-17) He knew the exact time of the creation of both Adam and Eve. (Gen. 1:26, 27) He knew precisely when 6,000 years of human history would be completed. He knew exactly when God’s seventh creative day, his great “rest” day began and when it would end. (Gen. 2:1-3) Yet, with all his perfect knowledge of chronology, when he was on earth he did not know the day and hour of his execution of judgment on this world, prior to when his thousand-year reign begins. (Rev. 20:4-6) How, then, could any human today possibly figure it out? WT 1/1/1975


We have ample reasons to expect that this preaching will be completed in our time. Does that mean before the turn of a new month, a new year, a new decade, a new century? No human knows, for Jesus said that ‘even the angels of the heavens’ did not know that. (Matthew 24:36) Furthermore, we do not need to know as we continue doing what the Lord commands us to concentrate on doing. What is most important is that God’s will and work be done and that we have the fullest share in that. Thus we “may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man.”—Luke 21:36. WT 10/01/1989

Jesus warned his followers against speculating about dates. He told his disciples: “It does not belong to you to get knowledge of the times or seasons which the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction.” (Acts 1:7) Earlier, Jesus revealed that even he did not then know when God would execute judgment on this wicked system, paving the way for Christ’s Millennial Rule. He said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”—Matthew 24:36. WT 11/01/1999

6. Actually, JWs have never issued a prophecy. They have only offered interpretation of already existing prophecies, and have admitted that they are not infallible. In fact, JWs have always believed that the gift of prophecy ended in the first century, so it is logically impossible for JWs to ever have issued a prophecy.

To prove my point, let's look at what the Watchtower said concerning 1914:

"From every point of view the Year 1914 seems big with possibilities." - January 1st, 1914 WT, pg. 1
Note they said 1914 is big with "possibilities," not certainties. Remember the Bible Students were looking specifically to October 1914 as the end of the Gentile Times.

"So far as our judgment goes, the Year 1914 is the last one of what the Bible terms "Gentile Times"-- the period in which God has allowed the nations af the earth to do their best to rule the world." - January 1st, 1914 WT, pg. 1
Note they said "as far as our judgment goes" as a qualifier. This was their interpretation, their opinion. They were not presenting this as a solid fact.

"As already pointed out, we are by no means confident that this year, 1914, will witness as radical and swift changes of dispensation as we have expected. It is beyond the power of our imagination to picture an accomplishment in one year of all that the Scriptures seem to imply should be expected before the reign of peace is ushered in." - January 1st, 1914 WT, pg. 1
Note their uncertainty.

"If later it should be demonstrated that the church is not glorified by October, 1914, we shall try to feel content with whatever the Lord’s will may be. We believe that very many who are running the race for the prize will be able to thank God for the chronology, even if it should prove not accurate to the year, or even out of the way several years." - January 1st, 1914 WT, pg. 2
I can't see how anyone can logically hold the position that JWs made a "prediction" or "prophecy" about 1914, and incorporate statements such as this.

7. Jumbo,

I can tell you have been away from the halls for a while. That profecy that you mentioned, has been discarded since around 1995 ( i could be wrong on the exact year)

Around 1995, the profecy was changed to mean that the "generation" signified the character of the wicked people living in 1914, not the people themselves. Then in 2008, this was changed again. In 2008 it was changed to signify that instead of the wicked people living in 1914, it was now the annointed class in general. This meant that some annointed would still be around when "then end" came.

Then in 2010 it was changed again. Now the "generation" mentioned by Jesus, means actually an overlapping generation. So if a baby is born before someone that was living in 1914 dies, then the end will come before the baby dies. The society says that the baby and the elderly person would be of the same generation because they overlap.

The generation interpretation was changed 6 times now, since the original interpretation. Increasing light? more like strobe light.

8. I love it when JWs falsely report a question like yours. It shows how they are trying to censor information.

9. The last one I knew of that was predicted with certainty was by the year 2000, or by the turn of the century:

"Shortly, within our twentieth century, the 'battle in the day of Jehovah' will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom." The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah p. 216 (They also made a clear claim to speak in Jehovah's name as "prophets" in this particular publication).

"He was laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century." Watchtower 1/1/89, p.12 (In the bound volume, the words "in our 20th century" were changed to "in our day.")

However, in the Watchtower of December 15, 2003, there was a little speculation that smacked of the sort in the various Watchtower publications leading up to the year 1975:

"In Noah's day, Jehovah declared: 'My spirit shall not act toward man indefinitely in that he is also flesh. Accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years.' (Genesis 6:3) The issuance of this divine decree in 2490 B.C.E. marked the beginning of the end for that ungodly world. Just think what that meant for those then living! Only 120 years more and Jehovah would bring 'the deluge of waters upon the earth to bring to ruin all flesh in which the force of life is active from under the heavens.'-Genesis 6:17. Noah received the warning of the upcoming catastrophe decades in advance, and he wisely used the time to prepare for survival. 'After being given divine warning of things not yet beheld,' says the apostle Paul, '[Noah] showed godly fear and constructed an ark for the saving of his household.' (Hebrews 11:7) What about us? Some 90 years have passed since the last days of this system of things began in 1914. We are certainly in "the time of the end." (Daniel 12:4) How should we respond to warnings we have been given? 'He that does the will of God remains forever,' states the Bible. (1 John 2:17) Now is therefore the time to do Jehovah's will with a keen sense of urgency.' (p.15)

Now, one would think that they've learned their lesson after so many failed prophecies in the past, but who knows? Is there possibly a whisper campaign on for 2033?

10. Jumbo I concur with Gary Christian and Ab. The Dull