False prophecies of Jehovah Witnesses
Deut 18:20-22
“‘If any prophet presumptuously speaks a word in my name that I did not command him to speak or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. However, you may say in your heart: “How will we know that Jehovah has not spoken the word?” When the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word is not fulfilled or does not come true, then Jehovah did not speak that word. The prophet spoke it presumptuously. You should not fear him.’
The Bible says that if anyone prophesied about something in the name of God and that thing was not fulfilled, he should be considered a false prophet and should not be listened to.
Since JWs have made so many wrong predictions, they should be considered a false prophet and their teachings should not be followed.
JWs predicted that Jesus’ reign on earth will start in 1914.
By 1914 the Lord will have full control. Gentile governments will be overthrown; Body of Christ will be glorified: Jerusalem will no longer be trodden; Israel’s blindness will be turned away; there will be worldwide Anarchy; and God’s kingdom will take the place of man’s governments. (Studies in Scripture, early editions, volume 2, Pg 76-78)
This did not happen because after that came World War I, followed by World War II rather than a period of God’s reign taking over man’s government.
When World War I broke out, JWs predicted that this was the war of Armageddon predicted in the Bible and will end with the elimination of all systems of error.
The present great war in Europe is the beginning of Armageddon of the scriptures (Revelation 16:16-20). It will eventuate in a complete overthrow of all the systems of error which have so long oppressed at the people of God and deleted the world. (Pastor Russell’s Sermons, Pg 676)
This did not happen and World War II followed World War I.
JWs predicted that the war will cause Protestants and Catholics to band together to form a great world religion. All the Protestant denominations will cease to exist and will join the Roman Catholic church. The “false” Christian church (referring to Protestants and Catholics) will fight Jesus in the battle of Armageddon and will be defeated.
The various sects of protestantism will band together as one, but that there will be close affiliation with Roman Catholicism. These two ends of the ecclesiastical heaven will roll together as one scroll. The two rolls, Protestantism and Romanism, coming closer and closer together as their power over the masses of the people decreases. (Zion’s Watch Tower, January 15th, 1892)
Today, Protestants and Catholics are still around. Protestant denominations did not disappear and they did not join with the Roman Catholic church.
JWs admit themselves that their prophecies failed to come to pass.
All of the Lord’s people looked forward to 1914 with joyful expectation. When that time came and passed there was much disappointment…They are ridiculed by the clergy and their allies in particular, and pointed to with scorn, because they had said so much about 1914, and what would come to pass, and their prophecies had not been fulfilled. (Light, Vol 1, pg 194)
JWs later changed the 1914 date to 1918.
Also in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any who escaped shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of “Christianity”. (The Boiling Cauldron, 1917 edition)
The 1918 prophecy again did not happen.
JWs predicted that in 1925, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would be resurrected and physically come back to earth and the world would see them.
The scriptures definitely fix the fact that there will be a resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other faithful ones of old, and that these will have the first favor, and we may expect 1925 to witness the return of these faithful men of Israel from the condition of death, being resurrected and fully restored to perfect humanity and made the visible, legal representatives of the New Order of things on earth. (Rutherford, Millions Living Now Will Never Die)
JWs later admitted their error but said that they meant it as a probability, not a certainty. However, this was not the wording above.
The year 1925 came and went. Jesus had anointed followers on Earth as a class. The faithful men of old times, Abraham, David and others, had not been resurrected to become princes of the Earth…1925 was a sad year for many brothers. Some of them stumbled; their hopes were dashed…Instead of being considered a “probability”, they read into it that it was a certainty, and some prepared for their own loved ones with the expectancy of the Resurrection. (1975 Yearbook Pg 146)