scholarly journals When Prophecy Adapts

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-51
Author(s):  
Venke Sande Mikkelsen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Group ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
The World ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
Over Time

Jehovah’s Witnesses is often presented as a special religious group, one who has preached the imminence of the end of the world for an exceptional long amount of time. The implicit assumption in this statement, is also this article’s hypothesis: an imminent eschatological expectation will, over time, create an explanatory problem, where religions, for the sake of their own survival, must revise and adapt their eschatological expectations. This article examines this hypothesis by analysing the eschatological expectations presented in Jehovah’s Witnesses magazine The Watchtower, from 1985 through 2015. With the use of Roy Rappaports theory, supplemented with some new terms to make the theory fit the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses, it analyses the developments and adaptations in Jehovah’s Witnesses eschatological doctrines, and shows numerous signs of a religious organization that may be headed towards great changes in the immanent character of its eschatological beliefs.

The “World” Concept Among Jehovah's Witnesses

1946 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-140
Author(s):  
Theodore W. Sprague
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
The World ◽  
World Concept

Various concepts bearing the label of “the world” have held an important place among the categories in terms of which men of many times and places have organized their experience. The present article attempts a case study of a single one of these — that developed by Jehovah's witnesses.

scholarly journals Institutionalization of Protestantism as a way out

2005 ◽  
pp. 238-261
Author(s):  
Petro Yarotskiy ◽  
Yu.Ye. Reshetnikov
Keyword(s):  
Religious Organization ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State ◽  
Extended Analysis

The study of the current state and tendencies of the development of the traditional trends of late Protestantism in Ukraine - Baptism, Adventism and Pentecostalism, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses during 1999-2005 made it possible, in our opinion, to be scientifically valuable and relevant to the public in these confessions. generalizations and conclusions. At the same time, in our study, they have both a universal character for all four of these denominations, as well as a specific context in the form of an extended analysis of the nature of theological, doctrinal, institutionalization changes that have taken place in the past 15 years in particular in Ukrainian Baptism and the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. Adventism was preserved somewhat during this period.

scholarly journals The Contradiction of the Presence of Jehovah’s Witnesess as Christian Denomination in Yogyakarta

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Arifuddin Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
Religious Sect ◽  
The Government ◽  
Christian Denomination

<p><em>Th</em><em>e Presence of Jehovah’s Witnesses which has contradictory concepts has harassed mostly Christian people, but it attracts many people to join this group. Even nowadays this denomination has a significant progress in number of population. This research is aimed to find the answer of the above problem and to describe about whether Jehovah’s Witnesses as a Christian denomination or religious sect in which its existence are opposed by Christian community in general. Subject of this research is focused on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Yogyakarta.   This Christian denomination becomes an international religious movement and has been assured in the 1945 Constitution as well as gets recognition from the government as a religious organization who has equal rights. In Yogyakarta, this group is also accepted; this is a picture of Yogyakarta as a multicultural city, and a town with high tolerance. In contrast, other Christian’s denominations have rejected this sect because it has different basic theology. The emergence of new denominations is caused by the absence of limitation in this open room. Therefore, it needs a “re-thinking” whether to leave this phenomenon free or to create a rule to control this situation so as to create harmony in managing religious life.</em></p>

The Growth of the Millerite Legend

1952 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-313
Author(s):  
Francis D. Nichol
Keyword(s):  
Religious Group ◽  
The World ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
History Books

In history books, in newspapers and in religious journals, and most impressively of all, in ponderous encyclopedias, has been carried down to us for a hundred years, a strange and wondrous story. The story concerns a religious group called Millerites who flourished in America in the early 1840's and who believed that the end of the world would take place on October 22, 1844.

How Prophecy Succeeds

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Chryssides
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Human History ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
The Future ◽  
Over Time

Leon Festinger’s notion of prophecy as prediction that is liable to failure has been widely accepted in religious studies. The author argues that this understanding of prophecy is not shared by biblical scholars or by the Watch Tower Society. The article explores in detail the various calculations that the Society has used in devising its views on the last days, and how these have changed over time. Four periods of development are identified: (1) the era of founder-leader Charles Taze Russell; (2) the early Rutherford period; (3) a changed chronological system in 1935; and (4) the Society’s present-day understanding. Discussion is given to the key dates of 1914, 1918, 1925 and 1975, and to the Society’s changed understanding of the ‘generation that would not pass’ until the fulfilment of prophecy. It is argued that, although there have been failures in prophetic speculation, the changing views and dates of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are more largely attributable to changed understandings of biblical chronology than to failed predictions. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses prophecy serves more as a way of discerning a divine plan in human history than a means to predicting the future.

scholarly journals Organization and Running of the National Plebiscite for Peace in Opole Voivodeship

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Dawid
Keyword(s):  
Social Acceptance ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Jehovah’S Witnesses ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Jehovah's Witnesses ◽  
The World ◽  
Radio Systems ◽  
The Government

The National Plebiscite for Peace took place in Poland between 17 and 22 May 1951 under the auspices of the Polish Committee of the Defenders of Peace. The campaign aimed to gather signatures under the Berlin Appeal announced by the World Peace Council as regards signing the Peace Treaty between five world powers. Voting was preceded by an intensive propaganda campaign in defence of peace and condemning “warmongers”. In Opole Voivodeship, analogically to the whole country, numerous peace committees came into existence before the plebiscite. A group of about 40,000 activists were recruited. Many gatherings, mass meetings and demonstrations were organized. Propaganda was conducted by means of press, film, radio and radio systems. To celebrate the plebiscite, production commitments were undertaken and special decorations prepared. In Opo­le Voivodeship 99.5 per cent of people qualified for voting submitted cards with signatures as part of the Appeal of the World Peace Council. The few refusals came mainly from Jehovah’s Witnesses and native inhabitants who declared themselves Germans or applied for departure and permanent stay in Germany. The campaign’s objective was to indicate sources of threats of war and methods for the maintenance of peace. Moreover, the campaign was to cause an increase in social acceptance of the authorities and the programme of political and economic changes being implemented by the government. The results of these efforts turned out to be temporary.

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