h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We Jehovahs Witnesses have a joke that armageddon will be on the 21st of May. This is based on the last two verses in Revelation.
In the New World Translation, the second-to-last verse ends with the sentence 'Come, Lord Jesus'. The last verse is verse 21 and starts with the word May.
These 4 or 5 words therefore read : "Come, Lord Jesus. 21 May"

Hmmm....
BTW, out of curiousity, what is the truth behind the story that the Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the end of the world would happen in 1946? Hope you don't me asking - I've always wondered if it was true or not.

<BB<

I've never heard of 1946 as having any significance. 1914 was a significant year, as it is when Jesus took up rule in heaven. This was prophecied in Daniel and Revelation (I'll give an explanation of the prophecy sometime if you want me to), and the first world war was kind of evidence, since when Jesus disciples asked for the sign of his presence, the first thing he said was that nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Some witnesses probably believed that armageddon would come then.
There were some witnesses who thought that armageddon would come in 1975, having calculated that this would be 6000 years since Adam sinned.
However, neither of these views were, as far as I know, ever promoted by Jehovahs Witnesses officially, and as an issue of the Watchtower a few years ago pointed out, it isn't really feasible that the date of Armageddon could be worked out, because in that case Jesus would have been able to do it, and yet he said that even he did not know when Armageddon would be.(Mark 13:32)

By the way, another joke (in the form of a true story) related to armageddon: There was a brother in a congregation who always came to the meetings but was always late. Some brothers referred to him as 'Armageddon', saying that, "We know he's coming - but only God knows when!"

Here is a list of the dates and official statements concerning those dates from the official Governing Body of JWs. This is what JWs have been taught about dates through the years:

In 1972 the Jehovah's Witness Watchtower claimed to be the prophet of God.

IDENTIFYING THE "PROPHET" -- "So does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet?...This "prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian Witnesses...Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a ‘prophet' of God. It is another thing to prove it." The Watchtower, 4/1/72 (See Deut. 18:21)


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).

1897 "Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874," Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 4, page 621.

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, PAGE 1064/1/23.

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.

Make of this what you will but it does seem less than accurate, and more than a little unfair, to suggest that individual JWs have been responsible for over-enthusiastic date setting when the organisation itself has enthusiastically set dates and engendered a culture of date setting.

"Interestingly, the autumn of the year 1975 marks the end of 6,000 years of human experience. This is ascertainable from reliable chronology preserved in the Bible itself. What will that year mean for humankind? Will it be the time when God executes the wicked and starts off the thousand-year reign of his Son Jesus Christ? It very well could, but we will have to wait to see." - Watchtower 1st May 1967

"Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man’s existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ." - Watchtower 15th August 1968

"How close we may exactly be to the end of the present divisive system of things cannot be predicted, as Jesus reported that even he did not know the day or the hour at the time of his earthly ministry. (Matt. 24:36)" - Watchtower 1st May 1970

While sentences can be taken out of context, the general trend at least within the last half of their existence that I have available seems to be that when dates are mentioned, it is pointed out that their significance cannot be certain.

In any case, one can hardly say that the Watchtower "engendered a culture of date setting". In the ten years leading up to 1975, there will have been approximately 2000 articles published in the Watchtower. Only 7 of these articles contained any reference to 1975 (with respect to it's having some scriptural significance as being 6000 years since Adam's creation). For comparison, the year 1914 was mentioned 840 times in the same period. The year 1975 was never treated as being terribly important.