Did the Watchtower Predict 2000 for

Armageddon?
By James K. Walker

The Jehovah's Witnesses entered the year 2000 with a different kind of Y2K problem. Exactly eleven years
earlier the Watchtower leaders told Jehovah's Witnesses that the Christian missionary work begun by Paul
in the Bible would be completed by the end of the 20th Century - or did they? It would all depend on which
version of The Watchtower you read.

The January 1, 1989 Watchtower clearly pointed to the year 2000 as the farthest limit of Christian
missionary work and thus the beginning of the thousand-year reign of Christ. It stated, "The apostle Paul
was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would
be completed in our 20th century."1

If that missionary work was to "be completed in our 20th Century" then the door-to-door missionary
activities should have ceased no later than December 31, 1999. When the missionary work has ceased,
Jehovah's Witnesses know that Armageddon begins followed immediately by the 1,000-year reign of Christ
on earth. Those who more accurately measure the 20th Century can give the Society twelve more months -
to December 31, 2000. Either way, in 1989 the Society was clearly limiting the remaining time before the
end of missionary activity to eleven or twelve years at most.

About a year later, however, the Watchtower Society altered the article in the bound volume version of the
publication removing the time limitation. The bound volume of the same article states "The apostle Paul
was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would
be completed in our day."2

End of article by James K. Walker

--------------

So why did the watchtower society revise the text of the watchtower article? It seems that this was to lessen
the charge of false prophesying, but a deliberate revision does not alter the society’s belief that the world
was to end on or before the year 2000.

The following two pages are scans of the January 1st 1989 watchtower and the same article from the
watchtower bound volume

It should be noted that this revision is on the watchtower CD rom as well

Here is another scan where the watchtower society claimed that Armageddon was to arrive before the year
2000
Here are two quotes from the watchtower society. Are they guilty of false prophesying?

Quote

*** Awake! 1969 May 22 p.15 ***

If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system
of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt
system is due to end in a few years. Of the generation that observed the beginning of the 'last days' in 1914,
Jesus foretold: 'This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.' Therefore, as a
young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and
thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate
into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way
towards its finish, if not actually gone! This is why parents who base their lives on God's prophetic Word
find it much more practical to direct their young ones into trades that do not require such long periods of
additional schooling… True, those who do not understand where we are in the stream of time from God's
viewpoint will call this impractical. But which is really practical: preparing yourself for a position in this
world that soon will pass away? or working toward surviving this system's end and enjoying eternal life in
God's righteous new order?

-------------

*** Millions Now Living Will Never Die! (book, 1920) pp.89-90 ***
As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase
of the kingdom shall be recognized [...] 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 chapter eleven, to the condition of human perfection

End quote

According to the following scripture, the watchtower society is guilty of false prophesying

Deuteronomy 18: 20-28:

"But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to
speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine
heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name
of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but
the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him."