Strange Doctrines, Failed Predictions, and Little-Known Facts From Jehovah’s Witness History
Most people who encounter Jehovah’s Witnesses today are familiar with some of their distinctive teachings. They may know that Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the Trinity, refuse blood transfusions, do not celebrate birthdays or traditional Christian holidays, and believe only 144,000 people have a heavenly hope. But what about the teachings that have largely disappeared from modern Jehovah’s Witness literature? Travel back through more than a century of Watchtower publications and you will encounter predictions and doctrines that would probably surprise many Jehovah’s Witnesses today.
Watchtower literature predicted dramatic events for specific dates. It discussed the Great Pyramid of Giza in connection with biblical chronology. It associated God’s heavenly throne with a star called Alcyone. It published statements about racial superiority that would rightly be considered offensive today. Its teachings about military service also changed dramatically. Why should any of this matter? People and organizations can certainly change their minds. Correcting a mistake is not, by itself, evidence that a religion is false. But the Watchtower Society has claimed far more than simply being an organization of Christians trying to understand the Bible. Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that theirs is the organization Jehovah is uniquely using to dispense spiritual truth to mankind.
That makes its history worth examining.
Here are 10 little-known facts from Watchtower history that every Jehovah’s Witness—and every Christian studying with them—should consider.
FACT #1: Watchtower Literature Predicted That the Churches of Christendom Would Be Destroyed in 1918
“In the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions…”
Specific prophetic predictions have played an important role throughout Watchtower history. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Watchtower movement published the series known as Studies in the Scriptures. Charles Taze Russell authored the first six volumes. Following Russell’s death, the Watch Tower Society published the seventh volume, The Finished Mystery, in 1917. That book made an extraordinary prediction concerning 1918.
Pages 484–485 declared:
“THE CHURCHES TO CEASE TO BE…in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of ‘Christianity.’”
This wasn’t merely a vague statement that difficult times were ahead. It connected the destruction of the churches and millions of church members with a specific year: 1918. Yet 1918 came and went without the predicted destruction of Christianity’s churches. That raises an important question. If a religious organization speaks confidently about what God is about to do—and attaches a date to that prediction—what responsibility does it have when the predicted event fails to occur? The Bible repeatedly warns God’s people to exercise discernment when someone claims to speak about future events in God’s name. A failed prediction should therefore never simply be dismissed as an embarrassing piece of old history. It should cause us to ask whether the religious authority making the prediction truly had God’s direction in the first place.
View photocopied documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #2: A Key Figure Behind the New World Translation Was Unable to Translate a Hebrew Passage When Asked in Court
Frederick Franz claimed considerable familiarity with biblical languages—but his testimony raises important questions.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are encouraged to place considerable confidence in the New World Translation of the Bible. Yet historically, the Watchtower Society chose not to publicly identify the members of the New World Bible Translation Committee. This makes the qualifications of those involved an important issue. During the 1954 Douglas Walsh court case in Scotland, Frederick W. Franz—who later became president of the Watch Tower Society—gave testimony concerning his knowledge of biblical languages and his involvement with translation work. Franz testified that he could read and follow the Bible in several languages, including Hebrew and Greek.
During questioning, however, he was asked to translate a passage from Genesis from Hebrew into English and declined to do so. That incident does not by itself prove that Franz had no knowledge of Hebrew. Nor would one courtroom exchange, by itself, establish whether an entire Bible translation is accurate or inaccurate. But it does raise a legitimate question concerning the scholarly credentials behind a translation that departs from conventional translations in several doctrinally significant passages. This becomes especially important because the New World Translation contains controversial renderings affecting doctrines such as the deity of Christ.
The ultimate question is not simply “Who translated this Bible?”
It is:
Can its distinctive translations withstand careful examination of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts?
A Bible translation should be evaluated on the basis of the original languages—not merely because a religious organization tells its followers that its translation is trustworthy.
View documentation from the court proceedings in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #3: Early Watchtower Publications Contained Teachings About Race That Jehovah’s Witnesses Would Reject Today
An early Watchtower publication stated that “the white race exhibits some qualities of superiority over any other.”
Jehovah’s Witness congregations today include people from many races, nationalities, and cultures. Modern Jehovah’s Witnesses would generally reject racial discrimination. Yet some statements appearing in early Watchtower publications present a very different picture. The October 1, 1900 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower related an account of a Black minister whose skin was supposedly becoming white. It stated:
“Though once as black as charcoal, the Rev. Mr. Draper is now white. His people say that his color was changed in answer to prayer.”
Even more troubling is a statement appearing in the July 15, 1912 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower:
“…it is true the white race exhibits some qualities of superiority over any other.”
Such statements are rightly disturbing to modern readers. The issue is not whether present-day Jehovah’s Witnesses personally hold racist views. Many clearly do not, and it would be unfair to accuse today’s individual Witnesses of believing everything printed in Watchtower literature more than a century ago. The historical question is different. If Watchtower literature is presented as spiritual instruction coming through God’s uniquely chosen channel, how could ideas reflecting racial superiority be published as part of that spiritual instruction? The Bible teaches that God “made from one man every nation of mankind” (Acts 17:26), and the gospel breaks down racial and ethnic barriers rather than assigning spiritual superiority according to skin color. This history deserves acknowledgment rather than dismissal simply because the organization no longer teaches these ideas.
View photocopied documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #4: The Watchtower Later Acknowledged That Some Early Bible Students Fell Into “Creature Worship” Surrounding Charles Taze Russell
Russell came to be identified by many followers as the “faithful and wise servant.”
Charles Taze Russell occupied an extraordinary place in the early Watchtower movement. Early Watchtower literature increasingly associated Russell with the “faithful and wise servant” described in Matthew 24:45–47. After Russell’s death, this identification became particularly prominent among many of his followers. The Watchtower later acknowledged the problem this created. The 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses stated:
“The idea adopted by many was that C. T. Russell himself was the ‘faithful and wise servant.’ This led some into the snare of creature worship.”
That is a remarkable admission. Jesus clearly taught:
“You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”
Christians can certainly respect teachers and leaders. But Scripture repeatedly warns against giving human religious leaders the devotion and authority that belong to God. The important question here is not whether every early Bible Student literally worshipped Russell. The Watchtower’s own wording says that some were led into “creature worship.” How did a movement claiming to be restoring pure Christianity develop an environment in which its founder could become the focus of such devotion? This history should remind all of us of the danger of elevating any religious teacher or organization beyond what Scripture permits.
View the Watchtower documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #5: Charles Taze Russell Used Measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza to Support His Prophetic Chronology
Watchtower history acknowledges that Russell regarded the Great Pyramid as “God’s stone witness.”
One of the most surprising chapters in early Watchtower history concerns the Great Pyramid of Giza. For decades, Russell believed that measurements within the Great Pyramid corroborated biblical chronology. Later Watchtower literature acknowledged:
“For some 35 years, Pastor Russell thought that the Great Pyramid of Gizeh was God’s stone witness, corroborating Biblical time periods.”
Russell’s Studies in the Scriptures included diagrams and discussions connecting measurements within the pyramid with prophetic chronology. This is especially noteworthy because chronology became foundational to the Watchtower movement’s understanding of the “last days.” Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses would never look to an Egyptian pyramid as a divinely provided confirmation of biblical prophecy. Yet the founder of their movement considered its measurements significant evidence supporting his prophetic system.
This raises an obvious question:
Why was an Egyptian monument being used as a supposed “stone witness” to confirm God’s prophetic timetable?
Christians are instructed to base doctrine upon God’s revealed Word. Scripture does not tell believers to determine prophetic chronology by measuring passages inside ancient Egyptian monuments. Eventually, the Watchtower rejected pyramidology. But its prominent role in the movement’s early prophetic thinking remains an important part of Watchtower history.
View photocopied documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #6: The Watchtower Once Connected a Person’s Desire to Worship God With “the Shape of the Brain”
“Some have a strong desire to worship God…. This difference is due to the shape of the brain.”
Some early Watchtower teachings reflected popular ideas of their era that the organization would later abandon. One particularly unusual example appeared in The Watch Tower of March 15, 1913.
It stated:
“The drawing power of the Almighty exercises over humanity is in different degrees. Some have a strong desire to worship God, others have a weak desire, and others have no desire at all. This difference is due to the shape of the brain…. All have unbalanced brains, some in one direction, others in another.”
The idea that spiritual inclination could be explained by the physical shape of a person’s brain reflected theories circulating during that historical period. But where does Scripture teach this? The Bible certainly recognizes differences in people’s responses to God, but it explains those differences in moral and spiritual terms—not according to the contours of a person’s brain. Again, the significance is not merely that an old religious magazine contained an unusual statement. The larger question is how Christians should evaluate a religious organization when teachings presented as spiritual instruction are later discarded as mistaken ideas belonging to their era.
Truth does not become false simply because decades have passed.
View the original Watchtower documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #7: Early Watchtower Teaching Did Not Always Prohibit Military Service
“There is no command in the Scriptures against military service.”
Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses are internationally known for refusing military service on the basis of Christian neutrality. Some Witnesses have endured imprisonment and severe persecution because of this conviction. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses may therefore assume that their organization has always taught this position.
It hasn’t.
The August 1, 1898 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower addressed the question of military service and stated:
“Notice that there is no command in the Scriptures against military service.”
The same discussion advised:
“You need not be a good marksman…it would be quite right to shoot, not to kill.”
Compare that with the position Jehovah’s Witnesses hold today. This represents much more than a minor adjustment in terminology. Military neutrality eventually became an important test of faithfulness for Jehovah’s Witnesses, with serious consequences for members who refused to follow the organization’s position. That raises a difficult question:
If participation in military service is now considered incompatible with Christian faithfulness, why did early Watchtower teaching explicitly say that Scripture contained no command against it?
An organization is free to change its interpretation. But when religious interpretations become requirements governing the consciences and lives of millions of followers, the history of those changing requirements deserves careful examination.
View the documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #8: The Watchtower Once Associated God’s Heavenly Throne With the Star Alcyone in the Pleiades
Early Watchtower literature described Alcyone as a possible “midnight throne” from which Almighty God governed the universe.
This may be one of the strangest teachings modern Jehovah’s Witnesses encounter when examining their history. In Thy Kingdom Come, Volume 3 of Studies in the Scriptures, the Watchtower discussed Alcyone, a star in the Pleiades.
The publication stated:
“Alcyone… seems to be ‘the midnight throne’ in which the whole system of gravitation has its central seat, and from which the Almighty governs his universe.”
Modern Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jehovah governs the universe from a physical star called Alcyone. So how should this abandoned teaching be understood? A common Jehovah’s Witness response to historical doctrinal changes is to appeal to “new light”—the idea that Jehovah progressively clarifies truth through His organization. Certainly Christians can grow in biblical understanding. No individual Christian has perfect knowledge. But there is an important difference between greater understanding and replacing one teaching with its opposite.
Interestingly, an early issue of Zion’s Watch Tower itself made this observation:
“A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth. ‘New Light’ never extinguishes older ‘Light,’ but adds to it.”
That creates an important standard by which Watchtower doctrinal changes can be evaluated. If yesterday’s “truth” becomes today’s error, was the earlier teaching really spiritual light from God? Or was it simply human speculation presented with greater confidence than it deserved?
View the Watchtower documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #9: Watchtower History Contains Numerous Failed Prophetic Expectations
The Bible gives believers a standard for evaluating predictions made in God’s name.
The 1918 prediction discussed earlier was not the only date associated with extraordinary expectations in Watchtower history. Dates including 1874, 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925, and 1975 have all played significant roles in the organization’s prophetic history, although the nature and strength of the claims surrounding each date differed. For approximately half a century, Watchtower chronology also identified 1874 as the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence. That teaching was eventually abandoned, and Jehovah’s Witnesses today identify 1914 as the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence. This matters because the Bible itself tells believers how to evaluate claims concerning future events.
Deuteronomy 18:21–22 asks:
“How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?”
The answer is:
“When the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak.” —New World Translation
Jesus likewise warned His followers about false claims concerning His coming and presence (Matthew 24:23–24). Jehovah’s Witnesses sometimes respond that their organization has never claimed to be an inspired prophet in the same sense as biblical prophets. That distinction deserves consideration. But it doesn’t eliminate the underlying problem. When an organization repeatedly presents chronological expectations as part of God’s unfolding prophetic timetable, those claims should be evaluated by what actually happened.
The question every Jehovah’s Witness should ask is simple:
If another religion had made these same predictions and they failed, what conclusion would the Watchtower encourage you to draw about that religion?
The same standard should be applied consistently to everyone.
View photocopied documentation of these prophetic expectations in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
FACT #10: Watchtower Literature Has Claimed Divine and Angelic Direction for the Organization
This raises an important question about the explanation that the Watchtower is simply made up of imperfect men who sometimes make mistakes.
When confronted with failed predictions and abandoned teachings, Jehovah’s Witnesses often explain that their leaders never claimed to be inspired prophets and that Jehovah has progressively corrected their understanding.
The Watchtower publication Reasoning from the Scriptures stated:
“Jehovah’s Witnesses do not claim to be inspired prophets…. Matters on which corrections of viewpoint have been needed have been relatively minor when compared with the vital Bible truths that they have discerned and publicized.”
But other Watchtower publications have used much stronger language concerning the source of the organization’s direction. Watchtower literature has spoken of the Holy Spirit and angelic direction influencing the preaching work and has described invisible messengers communicating divine instructions to God’s earthly remnant. It has also compared the organization with biblical prophetic figures such as Ezekiel.
That creates an important tension. If teachings originate merely from imperfect men studying Scripture, then mistakes are understandable. But if an organization presents itself as Jehovah’s uniquely appointed channel, directed by the Holy Spirit and angels to provide spiritual truth to mankind, then repeated false teachings become much more difficult to explain. The issue is therefore not whether individual Jehovah’s Witness leaders are imperfect. Every Christian leader is imperfect.
The real question is:
What level of authority should an organization possess when it claims special divine direction but repeatedly changes teachings previously presented as truth?
Scripture encourages Christians to test spiritual claims rather than surrender their judgment to human religious authorities. The Bereans were praised because they examined even the apostle Paul’s teaching against Scripture:
“They received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” —Acts 17:11
Jehovah’s Witnesses should be allowed—and encouraged—to do the same with the Watchtower.
View photocopied Watchtower documentation in our Documented Facts book:
http://www.amazon.com/Documented-FACTS-Watchtower-Society-Doesnt/dp/1479193917/
What Does This History Tell Us?
Any organization that has existed for more than a century will have history it would rather forget. Christians should therefore be careful not to argue that every old mistake automatically proves a religious organization false. The deeper issue with the Watchtower Society is authority. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not merely encouraged to consider Watchtower publications as the opinions of fellow Christians. They are taught to trust the organization as Jehovah’s unique channel of spiritual instruction. That makes these historical teachings significant. If teachings presented as spiritual truth can later be abandoned as error, Christians have every reason to ask whether their ultimate confidence should be placed in an organization—or in the Word of God itself.
Jesus warned:
“See to it that no one misleads you.” —Matthew 24:4
And Scripture commands:
“Test all things; hold fast what is good.” —1 Thessalonians 5:21
If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, we don’t present these historical facts to ridicule you or attack you personally. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses are sincere people who genuinely want to please God. We present them because truth matters. You have the right to know the history of the organization asking for your trust. Read the old publications for yourself. Examine the quotations in context. Compare what was taught then with what is taught today. Most importantly, compare everything with Scripture. Your relationship with God should never depend upon unquestioning loyalty to a human organization. It should rest upon Jesus Christ and the truth God has revealed in His Word.
