Be Thankful—Jehovah’s Messianic Kingdom Rules! - ????? SPREAD ABROAD THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM IT HAS BEGUN TO RULE IN THE HEAVENS! - ?????

[Bible Speaks]

Be Thankful—Jehovah’s Messianic Kingdom Rules! - ??????? SPREAD ABROAD THE GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM IT HAS BEGUN TO RULE IN THE HEAVENS! 

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“We thank you, Jehovah God, the Almighty, . . . because you have taken your great power and begun ruling as king.”—REVELATION 11:17.

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EARLY in 1911, the president of the Watch Tower Society, C. T. Russell, gave a series of Bible lectures in major cities of Europe. Commenting on that tour, Russell wrote the following in The Watch Tower, May 15, 1911: “We were surprised to find so many evidences of prosperity everywhere . . . Our readers know that for some years we have been expecting this Age to close with an awful time of trouble, and we expect it to break out with suddenness and force not long after October, 1914, which, so far as we can understand the Scriptures, is the date at which the Times of the Gentiles—the lease of earth’s dominions to the Gentiles—will expire; the time, therefore, when Messiah’s kingdom will be due to begin its exercise of power.” Was this expectation fulfilled?

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During the first half of 1914, the world seemed secure and safe from war. But peace was suddenly shattered with the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne by a Serb on June 28, 1914. Austria-Hungary soon declared war against Serbia. Russia took sides with Serbia, so Germany declared war against Russia on August 1. Then Germany declared war against France on August 3; Great Britain against Germany on August 4; Montenegro against Austria-Hungary on August 7; Japan against Germany on August 23; Austria-Hungary against Belgium on August 28. Many believed that the war would soon be over. Instead, it escalated into the worst war of history up till that time, with 19 more countries taking sides in an international bloodbath that cost over 13,000,000 military and civilian lives, with over 21,000,000 maimed and wounded.

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On Friday morning, October 2, 1914, Russell announced to the headquarters staff of the Watch Tower Society in Brooklyn, New York: “The Gentile times have ended; their kings have had their day.” This was greeted with enthusiastic applause by the family at Bethel, “the house of God.”

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What justification did C. T. Russell and his associates have for being so joyful on that October morning? Where does the expression “Gentile Times” originate? What evidence is there that the Gentile Times ended in October 1914? And how should that affect you?

Jerusalem and the Gentile Times

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The expression “Gentile Times,” or “appointed times of the nations,” comes from Jesus’ great prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem. (Luke 21:5-36, King James Version) Two days prior to giving it, Jesus presented himself to the inhabitants of Jerusalem as their Messiah. While he humbly rode upon an ass toward the city, crowds of Jews shouted in triumph, just as Zechariah 9:9 foretold. “Blessed is the One coming as the King in Jehovah’s name,” they cried aloud.—Luke 19:28-40. READ THE REST AND BE IMPRESSED!!

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*** w90 10/15 pp. 15-17

[JW Insider]

Unfortunately, the image that was attached to this article is a good example of how Biblical chronology predictions are almost always accompanied by deception of some kind. The way it works is that whenever predictions are wrong they are minimized and whenever predictions come close to being true they are exaggerated.

There was a time when we could get away with this in our publications, and there were many claims in the Watchtower over the years about how, many decades in advance 1914 was predicted to be a time for the start of great trouble. The problem with that claim is that many decades in advance 1914 was predicted to be the END of a time of great trouble. Only as 1914 approached with about ONE decade left, was this idea partially adjusted so that it was now expected that there would be no time of trouble interfering with the 40 year harvest, and that the "trouble" would START after October 1914 or some time 1915. It would result in the complete collapse of most human institutions and even the end of the Gentile nations by about the end of 1915.

We can no longer get away with this kind of re-writing of our history, because this is the Internet. People can check things. We have to be more careful!

THE ABOVE "BIBLE STUDENTS MONTHLY" is a FAKE!

It appears to have been faked for the purpose of minimizing the false predictions for 1914 and maximizing the true predictions.

[JW Insider]

On 7/2/2017 at 3:13 PM, Bible Speaks said:

Our readers know that for some years we have been expecting this Age to close with an awful time of trouble, and we expect it to break out with suddenness and force not long after October, 1914, which, so far as we can understand the Scriptures, is the date at which the Times of the Gentiles—the lease of earth’s dominions to the Gentiles—will expire; the time, therefore, when Messiah’s kingdom will be due to begin its exercise of power.” Was this expectation fulfilled?

The answer is actually No. None of their expectations were fulfilled.

[JW Insider]

Here is the ACTUAL original article that was faked in the image @Bible Speaks attached.

It was actually published about January 1914, not October 1876 as depicted in the fake version, a time period when Russell had spoken about losing faith in 1914 because it was becoming more difficult to believe that all the things they expected to occur could still occur in the next few months. In the Watch Tower publications Russell even spoke about how a person living 100 years from now (that would be 2014) might look back on what he had written and have a laugh about it.