Charles Taze Russell obviously stole Freemason ideas, regardless of the fact that he denounced Freemasonry. Herbert Armstrong denied ever being a Jehovah's Witness, but it is obvious he stole ideas from them. The Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the end of the world in 1975, and so did Armstrong. It is interesting that of all the cults touched by Freemasonry, the ones that went anti-Mason (7th Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witnesses, Armstrong) predicted much gloom and doom, and taught doctrines that drew people out of mainstream society... both Russell and Armstrong's teachings are very destructive to national solvency, perhaps they were convinced of their own teachings, but they did turn people against the system which they saw as Masonic. Apocalypticism has been used to destabilize the West in many ways, it would be surprising if it were the Masons who wanted stability and the anti-Masons who wanted things to fall apart.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/web/g3226/doomsday-predictions/
10 Super-Specific Doomsday Predictions That Didn't Pan Out
This latest incorrect prediction is just the most recent in a long string of failures.
BY AVERY THOMPSONPUBLISHED: SEP 25, 2017
Herbert Armstrong was one of the first televangelists, preaching the gospel across the airwaves long before it became popular. He founded his own church, the Worldwide Church of God, in 1933, and three years later predicted the end of the world. He claimed the rapture would occur in 1936, and was probably surprised when it didn't.
One missed prediction wasn't enough to shake his confidence, however. Armstrong revised his apocalypse schedule for 1943, and when that didn't work, revised it again to 1972. Perhaps he thought that was far enough into the future that he wouldn't have to worry about being proved wrong, but Armstrong did in fact live to see his prediction fail one more time. At this point, most people would hang up their hat, but Armstrong made one last try, predicting the end of the world in 1975. The real miracle is that anyone still listened to him.
Unfulfilled Watch Tower Society predictions
1975: The worldwide jubilee[edit]
In 1966 the Watch Tower Society issued the first of what became a sequence of statements on the importance of a new date—1975—that raised the possibility of that year heralding the beginning of Christ's millennial reign and, along with it, doom for unbelievers.[39]
The hope hinged on the Society's belief that Adam had been created in the northern hemisphere in the autumn of 4026 BCE. The Society suggested that the close of the first 6000 years of human history could correspond with the end of God's "rest day"—with the transition marked by the Battle of Armageddon. Yet as researcher Richard Singelenberg has pointed out, the Society's literature at no point definitively stated that Armageddon would take place in 1975. In fact, as early as 1966 Frederick Franz, then vice-president of the society, inserted a definite "uncertainty" clause:
Expectations for 1975 also built on the belief that Christ had set up his kingdom in heaven in 1914 and that "this generation [those who were at least 15 years old in 1914, according to a 1968 Awake![42]] would by no means pass away" before the end came.[43] The 1967 book, Did Man Get Here By Evolution Or By Creation?, similarly stated, "We find that the time of our generation, our day, is the one that is identified in the Bible as the 'last days'. In fact, we are actually living in the final part of that time. This can be compared, not just to the last day of a week, but rather, to the last part of that day".[44]
In a 1969 book the Society expanded on its belief in a link between the seventh millennium of human existence and the kingdom's establishment. It stated: "In order for the Lord Jesus Christ to be 'Lord of the sabbath day,' his thousand-year reign would have to be the seventh in a series of thousand-year periods or millenniums. Thus it would be a sabbatical reign."[45] Raymond Franz, who became a member of the group's Governing Body before defecting in 1980, claimed readers were left in no doubt about what was expected in 1975, claiming: "The presentation is in no sense indefinite or ambiguous."[46]
The prophecy galvanized the Jehovah's Witnesses movement, and proselytism increased substantially. On the eve of the predicted Millennium, in 1974, the number of publishers (Witnesses who submitted their record of preaching) rose by 13.5 percent worldwide and many Witnesses were actively preparing for the dawn of the New Order.[16]
Yet as 1975 drew closer the degree of uncertainty expressed in Watch Tower publications increased. The chances of Armageddon occurring that year were initially described as "feasible", "apparent" or "appropriate", but from the end of 1968 it became a mere "possibility". In 1966 the Society characterised the chronological calculations as "trustworthy"; by 1968 it considered them "reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible)".[47] The basis of the gradual retraction was uncertainty over the elapsed time between the dates of Adam's creation and that of Eve.
In fact, says Singelenberg, from the end of 1968 Watch Tower Society publications never again explicitly focused on 1975 in a theological context. Though articles continued to remind readers that the "end of 6000 years of human history" was imminent, they increasingly highlighted non-Society sources that forecast a gloomy future with worldwide famine, ecological collapse and oxygen deficiency. The articles, says Singelenberg, featured emotional expressions of excitement, hope and urgency, with readers told: "What a time of turmoil is ahead of us! A climax in man's history is imminent!"[39]
Less-cautious language appeared in publications distributed only to members of the group. In a 1968 issue of the monthly bulletin Kingdom Ministry, adherents were encouraged to increase their preaching activities because time was running out rapidly: "Less than a hundred months separate us from the end of 6000 years of man's history. What can you do in that time?"[48] Some Witnesses sold their possessions, postponed surgery or cashed in their insurance policies to prepare for Armageddon[16] and in May 1974 the Watch Tower Society told members: "Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end."[49]
Talks at congregation meetings and assemblies also disseminated the prophecy. Speakers at some conventions highlighted the phrase "Stay alive till '75" and urged the audience to maintain their meeting attendance or risk losing their lives at Armageddon.[50] The Dutch branch overseer urged the audience at a "Divine Purpose" district convention in 1974 to "pioneer" (take part in full-time preaching) as the end approached:
Yet The Watchtower's public coverage of the same series of conventions expressed a far more cautious tone. In its summary of the convention talks, the magazine reiterated the teaching that Bible chronology showed 6000 years of human existence would be completed in the mid-1970s, then pointed out: "These publications have never said that the world's end would come then. Nevertheless, there has been considerable individual speculation on the matter." What was certain, the magazine said, was that the end would come within the generation of those who saw the beginning of world tribulations in 1914. "So we can be confident that the end is near; we do not have the slightest doubt that God will bring it about [...] we have to wait and see exactly when, in the meantime keeping busy in God's service."[52]
Franz says a 1968 Watchtower article implied that members should be careful about taking too literally Jesus' cautionary words about forecasting the last days. The magazine warned: "This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that 'concerning that day and hour nobody knows [...] only the Father'. 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."[53]
In a 1970 paper, Joseph F. Zygmunt commented on the likely outcome for Jehovah's Witnesses if this prediction, too, failed: "While return to this old strategy would seem to expose the sect once again to prophetic failure, the risks are balanced by the potent ideological reinforcement accruing from this forthright renewal of faith, which thirty-five years of diffuse watchful waiting seem to have made necessary." But he added: "The risks of another prophetic failure actually appear to be minimal. The new prophecy is being phrased in a manner that lends itself to 'confirmation' by the old device of claiming partial supernatural fulfillment."[5] Beckford, too, expected no significant organizational disturbance resulting from the absence of observable effects that year, suggesting in 1975 that Witnesses were being "skilfully prepared for prophetic disconfirmation" to reduce the dangers of disappointment. He noted an increasing frequency of Watch Tower Society warnings about the futility of making precise predictions about events expected for the jubilee year.[54]
Yet Singelenberg, a Dutch social anthropologist, found that – amid the conflict of Watch Tower Society statements from the era about what might happen that year, its sense of urgency on a probable apocalyptic event, and later the possibility of a cataclysm – expectations of a significant event in 1975 had a "startling impact" on the proselytizing activities of Jehovah's Witnesses and on membership growth. His analysis of Watch Tower Society data from the Netherlands showed annual growth of "publishers", which had averaged 2.8 percent annually between 1961 and 1966, leapt to between 10.4 and 12.4 percent from 1967 to 1975, with the number of active Witnesses through the 1970s peaking at almost 28,000 in November 1975.[39]
The number of average annual baptisms in the Netherlands more than doubled, from 750 to 1851, with the ratio of defections to recruitments plummeting. The percentage of "pioneers", Witnesses devoting at least 60 hours a month in preaching work, more than tripled from 2.3 percent of members to almost 8 percent in 1974 and 1975. He also found major increases in the number of "back calls", return visits to interested members of the public who purchased publications, and average hours spent in service by individuals in the same two years.[39]
Aftermath[edit]
The passing of 1975 without obvious incident left the Watch Tower Society open to new claims of prophetic failure. Instead of maintaining the prophetic significance of that year, however, the group's leaders embarked on a lengthy period of denial and purge, blaming rank-and-file membership for misreading the organization's interpretations.[16] The Watchtower initially explained that the reason for the failure of Armageddon's arrival was due to the time lapse between the creation of Adam and Eve. Although the Society had earlier argued that the gap was "weeks or months, not years", it now decided the time lapse could, after all, be years.[55]
In 1976 the magazine repeated its explanation, but declared Witnesses themselves to blame for their eager expectations about 1975 because they had misread the Bible.[39] "It was not the word of God that failed or deceived [the individual Jehovah's Witness] and brought disappointment, but [...] his own understanding was based on wrong premises."[56] In talks at conventions four years later, leading members of the Society finally acknowledged their error in the initial formulation of the prophecy, and in the March 15, 1980 Watchtower the Society said its claims about 1975 were regretted.[39] It assigned no different interpretation to the date and demanded that its members recognize that there never was an explicit prophecy.[16]
Singelenberg's analysis of Jehovah's Witness preaching activity in the Netherlands in the wake of the 1975 prophetic failure showed a drop in the group's membership from mid-1976, a trend that did not reverse until 1980. An estimated 5,000 Witnesses in the Netherlands either left the movement, were expelled, or became marginal and inactive members.[39] Singelenberg suggested many of those expelled and shunned in the late 1970s had rebelled against the group's authority structure out of "post-prophecy frustration". Post-1975 defectors were described to him and to American researcher A. J. Brose as "opportunists" who had joined the group out of fear when the end seemed imminent, yet who lacked genuine commitment.[39]
One elder told Singelenberg: "It was good that Armageddon did not take place. It separated the wheat from the chaff."[39] Researcher Mathew N. Schmalz suggested the leadership drew attention from the disconfirmation by requiring an even greater loyalty from members, a demand enforced with the expulsion of almost 30,000 Witnesses in 1978 alone. The insistence on doctrinal orthodoxy reached the highest levels of the organization in 1980, with many in the writing committee disfellowshipped.[16]
In almost every country the annual growth rate of Jehovah's Witnesses fell markedly after the 1975 failure. In the US, the group's growth-rate fell from 6 percent to 2 percent. In South Korea it plummeted from 28 percent to 7 percent and the downward trend continued through to 1978. Even among the majority who remained, morale declined: in 1977 and 1978 the average "publisher" spent 140 hours a year proselytizing, compared to 196.8 hours in 1974.[57]
In his ethnographic study of Jehovah's Witnesses, English sociologist Andrew Holden quoted the testimony of a Witness who had been in the movement from the early 1970s, but found it impossible to remain as an active member after the failure of the 1975 prediction. He said that he, like many others, had been convinced the end would come in 1975:
Predicting the end of the world is a form of accelerationism.
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