Failed predictions by the Jehovah’s Witnesses

1878: End of the harvest

1881: A revised end of the harvest

1914: The end of human rulership

1918: The new terminus

1925: Resurrection of the patriarchs

1975: The worldwide jubilee

-Armageddon to come within 20th century

- Watch Tower Society literature of the 1970s and 1980s repeatedly claimed that the "end" had to be
expected before the turn of the century. The 1971 book The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah –
How? stated: "Shortly, within our twentieth century, the 'battle in the day of Jehovah' will begin against
the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom."[58] A 1980 Watchtower article described the notion
that "the wicked system of this world" would last "until the turn of the century" as "highly improbable in
view of world trends and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy" (emphasis added).[59] A similar statement in
a 1984 Watchtower article suggested that some members of the 1914 generation "could survive until
the end of the century. But there are many indications that 'the end' is much closer than that!"[60] Until
its October 22, 1995 issue, Awake! similarly included the statement, "this magazine builds confidence in
the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of
1914 passes away."[61]

In 1989, the notion that the missionary efforts of the Witnesses would culminate before the turn of the
century was first reaffirmed, then abandoned. As first published, a Watchtower article of January 1
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."[62] (Emphasis added.) Nine
months later a more cautiously worded statement appeared in the Watchtower: "We have ample
reasons to expect that this preaching will be completed in our time. Does that mean before the turn of a
new month, a new year, a new decade, a new century? No human knows" (emphasis added).[63] In
later bound volumes of the 1989 Watchtower magazines, the text of the January 1 article was amended
to state that Christian missionary work "would be completed in our day" rather than "in our 20th
century".