Did you know that Jesus Christ prophesied about what is now happening within the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses?
Seriously!
Here it is:
“Many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:11, 12)
That’s a two-part prophesy. Let’s start with the first part: Who was the first false prophet who misled many and affected Jehovah’s Witnesses? It goes back farther than you might think. About 180 years ago, a Baptist preacher named William Miller predicted that the second coming of Jesus Christ would occur in 1843. When nothing happened, he revised it to 1844. He had somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 followers. They called it “The Great Disappointment.”
But one of his followers, a minister by the name of Nelson Barbour, decided that Miller had it right all along. He claimed that Jesus did return in 1844, but it was an invisible return. Does that ring a bell?
The Bible doesn’t speak of an invisible return. In fact, Jesus warns against believing in an invisible return.
“…if people say to you, ‘Look! He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; ‘Look! He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.” (Matthew 24:26 NWT)
Jesus is not hidden far away in the wilderness, nor is he concealed in inner rooms. He is to be visible to all when he comes. The next verse confirms this.
"For just as the lightning comes out of the east and shines over to the west, so the presence of the Son of Man will be." (Matthew 24:27)
But false prophets and charlatans need to cover their mistakes, so when Nelson Barbour predicted a physical return of Jesus in 1874 and nothing happened, he claimed that Jesus returned invisibly.
That’s two false prophets. Enter a third, Charles Taze Russell. As a young man, he was skeptical of prophetic time calculations like those of William Miller, but at the age of 24 that all changed. He met up with Nelson Barbour in 1876 and bought into Barbour’s time calculation which set the physical return of Jesus at 914.
If World War I hadn’t occurred in 1914, the whole thing might have died then and there, but Russell saw the “War to end all wars” as the fulfillment of his prophecy. He died in 1916, so he never got to see that the war ended without any appearance of Jesus Christ. However, an unscrupulous lawyer named Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over from Russell, forcing his way into the presidency of the Watchtower Corporation. T wo years after Russell’s death, he was predicting that 1925 would be the start of the end.
Of course, when nothing happened in 1925, over 70,000 of the 90,000 who were following Rutherford left. Did Rutherford apologize? Don’t be silly. False prophets don’t apologize.
Well, knowing this, then, we are not embarrassed about adjustments that are made, nor do…is an apology needed for not getting it exactly right previous.
Over a century has passed and yet the Watchtower Society, now known as JW.org, continues to preach that Jesus Christ returned in 1914.
At the 1941 St. Louis convention, young Witnesses were told not to worry about marriage or careers because Armageddon was so near. Every child at that convention was given a copy of the book, Children, which advised: “It would be far better to put off marriage until after Armageddon.”
Pretty much all those children are dead now.
But undaunted, the so-called Watchtower faithful and discreet slave continued to issue false predictions.
It was principally Freddy Franz who was responsible for the infamous 1975 failure. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses left after that disappointment.
Instead of apologizing, Watchtower leadership blamed their flock. Being a false prophet means never having to say your sorry.
So where are we now?
Miller, 1844
Barbour, 1874
Russell, 1914
Rutherford, 1925
Rutherford/Franz, before the end of World War II
Fred Franz/Nathan Knorr, 1975
Oh, but we’re not done yet. Number seven would have to be the whole generation doctrine. The end was supposed to come before the generation of 1914 died off. Hello, we’re still here!
Did the finally acknowledge their guilt. Nooo! Instead, Governing Body Member David Splane just redefined the meaning of the word generation. Now it’s two distinct generations that overlap to create a single super-generation. Okie dokie.
Now if you’ve bought into Watchtower doctrine that these failed predictions were just mistakes made by sincere servants of God, who never claimed to be inspired, you’re being played for a fool. You cannot call yourself Jehovah’s channel, make a prediction, have it fail, and then just call it a mistake due to human imperfection.
They claim to speak for Jehovah God.
So this is what we know from the Scriptures and from our own experience as well, about how the light gets brighter in modern times. It comes about by means of the holy spirit, through his channel of the faithful and discreet slave.
“It is vital that we appreciate this fact and respond to the directions of the ‘slave’ as we would to the voice of God, because it is His channel of communication.” (w59 7/15 p. 435)
“The faithful and discreet slave is the channel through which Jesus Christ is feeding his true followers in this time of the end.” (w79 3/1 p. 24)
“Jehovah has a channel for giving spiritual nourishment to his people. That channel is the ‘faithful and discreet slave’ organization.” (w81 2/15 p. 19)
“We need to recognize the faithful slave. Our spiritual well-being depends on this channel of communication.” (w2013 7/15 p. 20)
They have declared themselves to be speaking in the name of God. But they have prophesied falsely. How does Jehovah God view them?
“But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” (Deuteronomy 18:20 BSB)
Now we come to the second part of Jesus’ prophecy.
“Many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:11, 12)
What does “the increase of lawlessness” mean?
When the Bible refers to lawlessness, it is not talking about breaking a country’s criminal codes but about violating God’s law, which is above all based on love. Whatever love for God drew people to listen to and follow the false prophets is killed by the repeated failures of those prophecies to come true.
And what happens? Those disillusioned souls blame God for the failure and lose all love for God the Father. Do they abandon the false prophets? Some do, but often they abandon God as well. Others cling to the false prophets, but since they have no love left, they persecute those who do love God.
Paul told Timothy about such lawless men:
“In fact, all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Christ Jesus will also be persecuted. But wicked men and impostors will advance from bad to worse, misleading and being misled.” (2 Timothy 3:12, 13)
So, these wicked false prophets mislead even themselves and go from bad to worse. As a result of their increasing lawlessness, they persecute those with true godly devotion. Have you noticed how the rhetoric about apostates has grown over the past few years? The Governing Body is seeing the love of the greater number grow cold, and instead of repenting, they are ramping up their campaign against anyone who dares to speak out and shine the light of truth upon them, labelling all such ones as apostates.
Their currency is fear, not love—fear of being cut off from your family and friends if you defy the leaders; fear of dying at Armageddon if you leave their Organization. Once there was real zeal among Jehovah’s Witnesses. I grew up as one; I know what I’m talking about. There was no Governing Body back then. We believed and worshipped Jehovah God. And those with sincere love of God have left or are leaving because they see the lawlessness in the Organization—among its leadership and the authority hierarchy now ruling JW.org.
As for the rest, Jesus’ words have come true: the love of the greater number has grown cold. Attendance is dwindling. Many attend passively by Zoom to avoid being harassed by the elders. Congregations are shrinking and being merged. The youth are leaving en masse. Kingdom halls are being sold. This prophecy of Jesus is not fulfilled exclusively within the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses; we are entering what many call a post-Christian era.
But the Lord is coming. He will come to punish those who have persecuted his faithful ones. In what state will the world be then?
“Certainly, then, will not God cause justice to be done for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, while he is patient toward them? I tell you, he will cause justice to be done to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man arrives, will he really find this faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7, 8)
That last question is sobering. When Jesus returns, will he really find the faith? Each of us must do what we can to ensure we do not lose our faith and give out.
But we can’t stop there. We can all—each and every one of us—prove to be a faithful and discreet slave if we are ready to feed one another.
Paul tells us that we are “competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14); that we are to “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16); and that we must “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
We are being prepared for something greater and more wondrous than anything that has come before. Let us not give up.
Thank you. We appreciate any help you can give us financially so that we can continue in this work.