Introduction
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There are no Jehovah’s Witnesses in the world today who as publishers of the Watchtower Society waited for the year 1914. It seems that the last of them was Frederick W. Franz (born 1893), the president of this organization. The Watchtower Society recalls his expectations, shared also by all the followers of the organization living in those years:
Franz, who was baptized in 1913, well expressed the feelings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1991, as president of the Watch Tower Society, he stated: “(...) We of the remnant who were on hand in the year 1914, when we expected all of us to go to heaven, have not lost our sense of value of that hope. (Jehovah’s Witnesses — Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom 1993 p.716).
There are no longer any Jehovah’s Witness today, who as the publishers of the Watchtower Society, were waiting for the year 1918, which the organization now mentions as follows:
Shortly after this, members of the Society’s administrative staff were arrested, and on June 21, 1918, they were sentenced to 20-year prison terms. (...) Was this the time when they would at last be united with the Lord in heavenly glory? A few months later, the war ended. The following year the officials of the Society were released. They were still in the flesh. It was not what they had expected... (Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom 1993 pp. 211-212).
However, perhaps there are still single Jehovah’s Witnesses living in the world, who were waiting for the year 1925. It is important to point out that this generation is about to end. The publishers of the Watchtower Society are not generally baptized before the age of five, so the youngest of them, waiting for 1925, would have more than 90 years to live today (according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses publication, the youngest baptized people are 6 years old children). There are currently many Jehovah’s Witnesses who are over 90 years old, but probably only a few of them had joined the organization before the discussed year. The year 1925 became a critical date for Jehovah’s Witnesses for long time, until the year 1975 came. The fame of the year 1975 outshined and replaced the year 1925. This organization sometimes even mentions both dates together:
Bible Students, known since 1931 as Jehovah’s Witnesses, also expected that the year 1925 would see the fulfillment of marvelous Bible prophecies. They surmised that at that time the earthly resurrection would begin, bringing back faithful men of old, such as Abraham, David, and Daniel. More recently, many Witnesses conjectured that events associated with the beginning of Christ’s Millennial Reign might start to take place in 1975. Their anticipation was based on the understanding that the seventh millennium of human history would begin then. (Awake! 22.06 1995 p. 9).
What’s more, 1925 was not just a regular date, but the one based on the chronology having the “divine origin”, as the Watchtower Society once claimed. This problem will be discussed in the chapters: Year 1922 – the fullness of expectations and Was 1925 more important than 1914?
Interestingly, both mentioned dates (1925 and 1975), expected by the Watchtower Society, coincided with the Holy Years proclaimed by Popes.
Oddly enough, the Watchtower Society just in 1925 announced that Jesus was reigning in heaven (since 1914).
Each Holy Year proclaimed by Popes is called also a Jubilee Year. As we will see below, the Watchtower Society is using the same terminology for years connected with specific expectations, calling them “Years of Jubilee.”
Those who recall 1925 remind that some of the publishers of the Watchtower Society (who were farmers) did not sow their field that year!
It seems unbelievable today, but if we consider that the Watchtower Society really meant 1925 to be the “Jubilee Year,” then we will see that it could have been indeed, in harmony with the Old Testament text:
“That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.” (Leviticus 25:11-12, English Standard Version).
Even in the key article, THE YEAR OF JUBILEE (The Watchtower February 15, 1925 p. 51) the organization recalled these biblical passages while discussing this topic.
By way of introduction, it is worth to compare the length of the campaigns focused on individual years connected by the Watchtower Society with specific expectations.
Years 1914/1915 – campaign duration: 1877-1915;
Year 1918 – campaign duration: 1916-1918;
Year 1925 – campaign duration: 1917-1925;
Year 1975 – campaign duration: 1966-1975;
“The generation of 1914” – campaign duration: 1926-1995.
As seen from the above statement, the length of the 1925 campaign was one of the shortest. However, this period of less than 9 years was enough for the Watchtower Society to publish tones of publications that discussed and justified the year 1925 to be one of the most important dates in the world history.
It is worth to mention here that the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has always had a “backup date.” In case the former date did not turn out to be the right one and nothing happened, the second could appear from nowhere and postpone the expectations to a later time.
Hence, the following back up dates are as follow (next to the original dates):
• For the year 1914, the backup date was: 1915.
• For the year 1915, the backup date was: 1918.
• For the year 1918, the backup dates were: 1920-1921.
• For the years 1920-1921, the backup date: 1925.
• For the year 1925, the backup date was: 1926.
• For the year 1926, the backup dates were: 1931-1932.
• In case of the thirties, forties, and fifties of the 20th century, the backup solution was: “the generation of 1914.”
• For 1975, the backup was “the generation of 1914.”
• For “the generation 1914,” the backup was the end of 20th century.
Since the 1925 campaign went down to the history already, we have decided to gather here the most important facts about the expectations of those years and keep them as a reference point for those that will be interested.
We would like to sign that this is an abridgement of the Polish edition. The number of comments was reduced in comparison with the original ones, more advisable in case of Polish readers.
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