Talk:Eschatology of Jehovah's Witnesses

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

An IP added this " which included all the then members of the Governing Body" to the end of the 'The "generation of 1914" (1976–present)' section. Jeffro has removed it, stating "tangential, and unverifiable that any person is actually anointed". (see here)

I am not necessarily arguing that it should be put back in, but I think there should be a discussion on it, as I believe it is relevant. To be a member of the GB, one must be of the anointed, so the GB of the time essentially made themselves even MORE sacrosanct than they already are by saying "we are the last of this important time period". If any other ruling body (be it religious or even just business oriented) made a new rule that directly elevated a subset of the organization into a higher status (regardless of any actual power increase), and ALL of the members of that ruling body just so happened to be a part of this newly elevated subset, I personally don't think that's tangential. That to me sticks out as being potentially very important, and therefore notable.

As for the "unverifiable that any person is actually anointed" argument, I argue that is entirely an irrelevant point. The JW's believe in the anointed, the organization revolves around a subset of the anointed as being in charge, and acceptance of the idea of the anointed (regardless of an individual being accepted as such) within their religion is nigh-on universal. It makes no difference that it can't be "proven". That's like arguing that because it can't be proven that the Pope's papal supremacy is approved by God that we shouldn't talk about him as having it. It's there because the followers of the religion have accepted it as being there, and the power that the title confers is a de facto power, irrespective of its "verifiability". Vyselink (talk) 05:49, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

The Watch Tower Society itself says that people claiming to be anointed may not actually be anointed, rather than it being some external opinion, so the analogy does not apply. It is the official view of the denomination that claims of being 'anointed' cannot be verified (despite the fact that the claim of being 'anointed' by high-ranking members must nevertheless be accepted by other members). In reality, to be a member of the GB, what is actually required is that a sufficient number of current GB members accept the claim of a prospective member that he is anointed.

The GB a few years ago changed the definition of the 'faithful slave' to apply only to the 'Governing Body'. As such, neither term is considered equivalent to the 'anointed' and nor do the GB members claim to be the 'last of the anointed'. Hence it remains tangential to the point.

The cited Watchtower article for the statement that was modified does not mention the Governing Body at all. The video cited in the same paragraph (thanks for making me have to listen to it 😔) only briefly mentions the Governing Body once right at the end of the video, saying the members of the Governing Body are also members of the 'generation', but it also makes no comment at all about people who were "then [in 1992] members of the governing body".--Jeffro77 (talk) 09:22, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

2520 years after 607 BC is 1913 AD. So why 1914 is stated?! Aminabzz (talk) 21:19, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

No. There was no ‘year 0’ between 1BC and 1AD. You can think of 607BC as -606 (this is how BC years are handled in contexts such as calculations for astronomy), which should resolve the confusion.—Jeffro77 (talk) 22:07, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. Aminabzz (talk) 17:06, 7 August 2023 (UTC)

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

1) In the lead, the links on "eschatology" in the first paragraph and first sentence and "last days" in the second paragraph and second sentence lead to the same article-page, despite being part of the lead.

2) In the lead, the link on "NWT" in the third paragraph and fourth sentence leads to the article-page on "New World Translations", despite being the first time that the intialism gets used.

3) In the lead, then in the third paragraph and sixth sentence "God's Kingdom" links to the article-page on "Kingship and kingdom of God", while "kingdom" in the first paragraph and third sentence does not, despite being part of the lead.

4) In the lead, then in the third paragraph and sixth sentence "their core beliefs" links to the article-page on "Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs", while "beliefs" in the first paragraph and first sentence does not, despite being part of the lead.

5) Under "Current beliefs", then "Presence of Jesus Christ", then in the first paragraph and fourth sentence "coming" leads to the article-page on "Second Coming", while "parousia" does not, despite being under the same header, paragraph and sentence.

6) Under "History of Eschatology", then under the image "Charles Taze Russell" links to the article-page on "Charles Taze Russell", while "Charles Taze Russel" in the first sentence does not, despite being under the same header.

7) Under "History of Eschatology", then "Great Pyramid of Giza (1876-1928)", the links on "Great Pyramid of Giza" under the image from the first paragraph and "Great Pyramid of Giza" in the first paragraph and first sentencd lead to the same article-page, despite being from the same header and paragrapgh.

8) Under "History of Eschatology", then "Great Pyramid of Giza (1876-1928)", the links on "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" under the image from the first paragraph and "Pittsburgh" in the second paragraph and fourth sentence lead to the same article-page, despite being under the same header.

9) Under "History of Eschatology", then ""Armageddon Immediately Before Us" (1925-1966)", then in the second paragraph and first sentence "Last Days" links to the article-page on "Eschatology", while "eschatological" in the first paragraph and first sentence does not, despite being under the same header.

10) Under "History of Eschatology", then ""Armageddon Immediately Before Us" (1925-1966)" the links on "Beth Sarim" under the image from the first paragraph and "Beth Sarim" in the third paragraph and first sentence lead to the same article-page, despite being under the same header.

11) Under "History of Eschatology", then ""Armageddon Immediately Before Us" (1925-1966)" the links on "Armageddon" in the third paragrapgh and second sentence and "Armageddon" in the fourth sentence lead to the same article-page, despite being under the same header and paragraph.

12) Under "History of the Eschatology", then ""Looking Forward to 1975" (1966-1975)" the link on "Fred Franz" in the fourth paragraph and first sentence leads to the article-page on "Frederick Franz". ~2026-68312-8 (talk) 15:33, 31 January 2026 (UTC)