Group or movement

Watch Tower Society

The publishing organization behind the Bible Student movement and, from 1931, Jehovah's Witnesses.

Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1884 under Charles Taze Russell. Its publications taught that Bible chronology pointed to 1914. After a split in 1917 and the leadership of Joseph Rutherford, the main body adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931.

The organization has revised its teaching on several dates over time. This site records those revisions as part of each entry and does not evaluate the movement's wider beliefs.

Official site: www.jw.org (opens in a new tab)

Predictions in this timeline

1914 The Watch Tower Society and the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 Charles Taze Russell and the Watch Tower Society · Later reinterpreted From 1889, Watch Tower publications taught that Bible chronology showed the "Gentile Times" would end in 1914, and early writing expected major changes to follow, including the end of existing governments.
1918 Watch Tower expectations for 1918 Joseph F. Rutherford and the Watch Tower Society · Date passed After 1914 passed, some Bible Student publications, including The Finished Mystery (1917), pointed to 1918 as the year when the existing church systems would be brought down and faithful Christians would be taken to heaven.
1925 Watch Tower expectations for 1925 Joseph F. Rutherford and the Watch Tower Society · Date passed Watch Tower publications of the early 1920s, including the pamphlet Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1920), linked 1925 to the expected return of faithful figures of the Old Testament and the start of a new order.
1975 Watch Tower expectations for 1975 Watch Tower Society · Later revised A 1966 Watch Tower book calculated that 6,000 years of human history would end in 1975. The organization later said it had not made a firm prediction and that some members had read too much into the date.