Person

Joseph F. Rutherford

Second president of the Watch Tower Society (1869 to 1942), associated with the 1918 and 1925 expectations.

Joseph Franklin Rutherford led the Watch Tower Society from 1917 until his death in 1942. He oversaw publication of The Finished Mystery (1917) and the 1920 pamphlet Millions Now Living Will Never Die, and was president when the 1925 expectations rose and passed.

Historians of the movement, notably M. James Penton, describe his tenure as one of both doctrinal change and organizational centralization.

Predictions in this timeline

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.