On October 2nd 1914, the founder and president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society entered the Bethel dining hall and made the startling announcement to the headquarters staff: "The Gentile times have ended, their kings have had their day." Since the 1920's, the Watchtower has taught that Christ was given the kingdom of the world in 1914, and, as a consequence of that, Satan and all his demon angels were also hurled from heaven in that year, which commenced a period of unprecedented troubles for the world.
At the time that Charles Russell informed the Bible Students that the Gentile times had ended, his ideas were based largely upon an interpretation of chronology. Unfortunately, Pastor Russell, as he was called, was fascinated and heavily influenced by pyramidology as well. However, since 1914, the numerous wars, food shortages, earthquakes, as well as the general moral breakdown of civilization, have served to convince many that we are indeed living in the critical last days of the present system of things.
Unquestionably, 1914 was a strategic turning point in history. The First World War, or the Great War as it was originally called, was a catastrophe for Europe that continues to reverberate to this day. But was that date, now nearly a century in our past, the commencement of the most significant event in the history of the world? That question need not arise out of any lack of faith in the sacred promise of God. On the contrary, it should be our utmost desire to know, at least as clearly as can be humanly ascertained, whether 1914 was the beginning of the rule of God's kingdom, or whether that momentous event is still in our future.
In any case, the actual judgment day of Jehovah cannot be advanced or retarded by so much as even one hour by either our accepting or rejecting the doctrine of 1914. Regardless of our present interpretations of prophecy the great day of Jehovah will inevitably arrive, probably sooner rather than later, and not in the exact manner that we may expect. Our misunderstanding Jehovah's coming judgments could prove to be costly and will almost certainly result in a massive sifting and refining of the entire organization.
What should be of concern is that, in the past, whenever relatively insignificant "adjustments" have been made in certain Watchtower teachings or interpretations, there have always been a number of casualties among the faithful who cannot accept change and are consequently stumbled from the Truth. It is positively frightening to contemplate the state of confusion that will occur in the organization in the event that we must rapidly come to terms with a reality that defies our long-cherished prophetic interpretations regarding the presence of Christ and 1914. Better it is, then, that we prepare our minds now by following the apostolic exhortation to "make sure of all things, hold fast to what is fine."
The apostolic writings exhort Christians to pay attention not only to doctrine, but also to prophecy. For example, 2 Peter 1:19 says: "Consequently we have the prophetic word made more sure; and you are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and a daystar rises, in your hearts."
At Revelation 2:26-28, Jesus promised to give his faithful and victorious anointed brothers a sharing in the exercise of his royal authority when he crushes the nations, and verse 28 specifically says: "And I will give him the morning star." Since Jesus and his 144,000 associate kings have not yet dashed the nations like clay pottery with an iron scepter, it must follow that neither has Christ given his brothers the "morning star" of immortality and complete enlightenment. That being the case, then, our paying attention to prophecy must be more than just a perfunctory study of the supposed fulfillment of prophecy past; rather, our study should cause us to look to the future for the realization of the presence of Christ. That, after all, was what the transfiguration signified---Christ's presence. The transfiguration vision was what Peter was referring to that made the prophetic word more certain, and to which we must continue to pay attention until Christ is present.
Our desire should be to continuously determine the truth regardless of the cost or discomfort at having to perhaps discard some ideas that we may be presently convinced are biblically sound. Anything less is to lose sight of the only light that shines in this dark world and to risk being unprepared and startled by Jesus' unexpected arrival like a thief in the night.
With full faith in the Bible and its trustworthy Author, we must muster the courage to ask the question: Did Jesus Christ really begin ruling the world in the year 1914? To arrive at a truly satisfying answer to that question, let us ask a series of questions in order to understand what the presence of Christ and the appointed times of the nations are all about.
The exact expression "times of the Gentiles," or "appointed times of the nations," is only found at one place in the Scriptures, Luke 21:24, where Jesus said the following: "Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (NIV)
Dedicated Bible students have long recognized that Jesus' prophecy had a much longer-range application than to just the ancient city of Jerusalem, which has on more than one occasion been laid waste by trampling invaders. "Jerusalem," according to the prophets and apostles, would come to represent the very kingdom of God since it was in the literal city of Jerusalem where the Davidic dynasty was originally established. Christ Jesus also presented himself as God's messianic king to the citizens of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was thus considered the capital city of Jehovah's royal kingdom. For that reason, the city of Jerusalem is used in prophecy to represent various aspects of God's heavenly kingdom.
Jehovah's Witnesses have understood that the present political system that has dominated the earth, as well as God's people, will at some point give way to the rule of God's kingdom. The last days are basically an interval of time marked by a changing of the guard, whereby man's rule goes through a tumultuous upheaval as it ultimately gives way to the kingdom of Jehovah's glorious heavenly Messiah.
Now, we must ask some searching questions: If the kingdom of the world actually gave way to Christ's kingdom in 1914, why, after nearly ninety years, do the nations of this world still exercise total domination over the earth? What has changed since 1914? Clearly, as regards the political nations of this world doing as they please, nothing has changed.
Does the mere growth of the Watchtower Society indicate that Christ has now taken complete control of earth's affairs? Why should it? In the 1st century, the apostles and disciples of Jesus similarly spread the kingdom gospel far and wide, and yet that was no indication that any such appointed times of the nations had expired way back then. As the Scriptures indicate, Christ has indeed ruled in his kingdom since its advent in the year 33 CE, and as king, Christ has directed his congregation since its inception.
What is even more perplexing in this connection is our interpretation of the prophecy in the 7th chapter of Daniel. That prophecy foretells that at the time that God gives the kingdom to the Son of man and the holy ones, that afterwards a brief extension of time is given to the beastly political system amounting to an enigmatic "three and one-half times," during which time the beastly king is said to continually harass the holy ones. Yes, more than mere harassment, Daniel 12:7 makes reference to the same "appointed time, times and a half," and says: "And as soon as there will have been a finishing of the dashing of the power of the holy ones to pieces, all these things will come to their finish."
"All these things" that the prophet refers to have to do with the end of the human system of things. Now, if the holy ones were supposedly dashed to pieces during the 1916-1919 period, why, then, haven't "all these things" come to their finish?
Not only that, but the 8th chapter of Daniel similarly foretells how the holy ones will be brought to ruin and trampled underfoot for a period amounting to 2,300 "evenings and mornings," which the Watchtower attributes to a period during the Second World War. Again, we raise the question: If the symbolic Jerusalem ceased to be trampled on by the nations in 1914, as we now suppose, why is it that the nations continue to trample on the holy ones of the kingdom for an appointed time after we imagine that the time for such trampling has ended?
What we have is a contradictory and confusing patchwork of prophecy that has the appointed times for the nations to trample God's kingdom ending in 1914. Then, we have an additional three and a-half year period during WWI where the nations harass and trample God's people underfoot again. The Watchtower has also applied to a period during WWII yet another prophecy that foretells of God's holy ones being trampled underfoot by the political powers.
Not only that, but we must also reconcile the fact that many prophecies point to a still future time of tribulation, when God's holy place will be violated and trampled upon by the nations
By such arbitrary interpretations of prophecy, we are rendering the words of Christ regarding the end of the Gentile times more or less meaningless. If the appointed times of the nations ended in 1914, and yet year after year since then the nations are allowed to carry on in business-as-usual fashion just as before, we must either conclude that the kingdom of Christ is a powerless institution, or, more reasonably, that the kingdom of the world has not yet been given to Christ. Ominously, that would inevitably mean that the above-mentioned prophecies of Daniel have not been fulfilled yet and that God's people are going to be waylaid by events yet to develop. With that distinct possibility in view, one can begin to finally grasp how absolutely vital it is that we reexamine just what the so-called Gentile times purport to be.
If we examine the context of the prophecy regarding Jerusalem being trampled on until the appointed times of the nations have ended, we will note that there is no reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians some five centuries earlier. It is just not there. There is, therefore, no scriptural justification in applying the seven times of Daniel to the appointed times of the nations that Christ spoke about. Therefore, Jesus was instead forewarning his disciples about a future time when the temple and the holy city of Jerusalem would be desolated by the Roman legions. However, there is no Scriptural or historical indication that any such appointed times of the nations began in 66 CE, when the Roman imperial legions first set foot in the holy place.
Competent Bible students can prove that the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction had a more far-reaching application, foreshadowing a modern-day disgusting thing that would "stand where it ought not." We can thus conclude that "the appointed times" have to do with the interval that God allows his symbolic Jerusalem and its holy place to be trampled underfoot and lay desolate.
One problem we presently face in coming to an accurate interpretation of this vital prophecy is that the Watchtower has taught God's household that the holy place that Jesus referred to represents Christendom. Specifically, the prophecy in question reads: "Therefore, when you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, (let the reader use discernment,) then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains." (Matthew 24:15-16)
The reason we believe that Christendom is the modern-day holy place is because Jerusalem was unfaithful to God, which was why God decreed that she should be destroyed. If that were the case, though, why does the prophecy say that the disgusting thing will stand where it ought not to stand? If the holy place actually represented the unholy place of Christendom's multitude of contradictory denominations and sects, it would seem that the political disgusting thing should find a welcome home instead of standing where it ought not.
The assumption of many of Jehovah's Witnesses, and indeed the prevailing attitude put forth by the Watchtower itself, is that, as an organization, we are in an approved standing before God. Because Christ foretold that the holy place will be desolated as a result of God's meting out justice, for that reason we naively assume that the holy place must mean something other than the spiritual temple made up of God's holy ones. Yet, a few verses later in that very same context, where Jesus spoke about Jerusalem being trampled on for an appointed time, we interpret that "Jerusalem" to represent God's heavenly kingdom. So, we have two contrary definitions for what Jerusalem and its holy place symbolizes.
What we must realize is that Christ himself recognized Jerusalem as the holy city. He called Jerusalem "the city of the great King." Furthermore, Jesus cleansed Jehovah's temple on two separate occasions; calling it "the house of my Father." So, even though the Jewish religion at that time was corrupt, Jesus did not view the temple itself as something unholy. Otherwise, why would Jesus have gone to the trouble of throwing the moneychangers out of his Father's house? As a faithful Jew, Jesus showed reverence for God's temple. It grieved him deeply to have to pronounce woe upon Jerusalem and its beautiful temple. In fact, on the occasion that he approached the holy city for his final triumphal entry into its gates, Jesus wept as he viewed Jerusalem from afar. It is not likely that Jesus intended his references to the holy place and Jerusalem to symbolize Christendom.
Let the reader take note that on the occasion when Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he also foretold that "days will come upon you when your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side…because you did not discern the time of your being inspected."
Now let us consult the Hebrew prophet, Isaiah. Isaiah, the 29th chapter, begins by pronouncing woe upon God's servant, Ariel. Verse one reads: "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the town where David encamped!" The town where David encamped is none other than the city of Jerusalem, which David captured from the Jebusites. In fact, Jerusalem was called “the City of David." Verse three goes on to say: "And I must encamp on all sides against you, and I must lay siege to you with a palisade and raise up against you siegeworks." The dictionary definition of palisade is a "row of pointed stakes." Interestingly, that is exactly what Christ said the enemy would do to Jerusalem; namely: "your enemies will build around you a fortification with pointed stakes and will encircle you and distress you from every side."
The question arises: Was Isaiah foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans? No, he was not. Does Isaiah's prophecy have reference to Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem? No, it does not. The reason being that further on in verses seven and eight the prophecy refers to the attackers as being a plurality of nations. In part, those verses read: "And it must occur just as in a dream, in a vision of the night, regarding the crowd of all the nations that are waging war against Ariel, even all those waging war against her…thus it will occur with the crowd of all the nations that are waging war against Mount Zion." Elsewhere, the prophets confirm that a combine of all the nations pillages spiritual Jerusalem. For example, Zechariah 14:2 says: "And I shall certainly gather all the nations against Jerusalem for the war; and the city will actually be captured…" That prophecy was given after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem.
The atrocities committed against God's people during that attack upon "Jerusalem" are what provoke Jehovah's fearsome wrath and the ultimate destruction of all the nations on the symbolic battlefield of Armageddon.
Isaiah 29:5-6 also reveals that Jehovah's response to the attack upon Ariel is an instantaneous and sudden annihilation for the attackers. Babylon was certainly not instantly destroyed by a tempest and devouring fire and neither were the Roman invaders in 70 CE.
Since Jesus quoted nearly word for word the prophesy of Isaiah when he was pronouncing woe upon Jerusalem, and since God did not destroy the Roman empire or its imperial legions in response to their destroying Jerusalem, it is evident that both prophecies have application to spiritual Israel. That means that the holy place that is desolated during the oncoming worldwide tribulation is Jehovah's organization and not Christendom as we now suppose.
We are now in a position to grasp what the appointed times of the nations actually are. Since "no prophecy of Scripture springs from any private interpretation," we must then look to God's own word to interpret itself. If we find in another location the same phraseology that Christ used in reference to God's holy place and Jerusalem being trampled by the nations for a specified period of time, surely it would not be inappropriate to conclude that that was the Gentile times that Jesus was speaking of in the 21st chapter of Luke.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus' last direct communication with his followers, Christ revealed that the appointed times of the nations to trample God's holy place would be 42 months. Revelation 11:2 states: "But as for the courtyard that is outside the temple sanctuary, cast it clear out and do not measure it, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months."
Ironically, we have believed that the forty-two month period of trampling occurred immediately after the appointed times for the nations to trample "Jerusalem" supposedly ended. Since the only true Scriptural interpretation of the appointed times of the Gentiles points to this three and a half year period, and not the much longer 2,520 year period, it does not appear to be true that the appointed times ended in 1914. Since that is the case, neither is it true that God's holy ones were trampled underfoot for forty-two months back in the 1916-1919 period. Apparently, the truth of the matter is, that not only have the appointed times, and time, and half a time not ended, they have not even begun.
What we are facing is God's imminent judgment upon his house. It will far surpass the hardships and discipline that Jehovah meted out upon his sons and daughters back during World War One. With mankind's newfound ability to both harness and exploit the power of the atom through nuclear weapons, and their amassing of biological weapons in their storehouses, and their historically-demonstrated disregard for the value of human life, there should be little doubt that the world is literally living on the brink of self-annihilation, ready to topple into a tumultuous outbreak of war and chaos the likes of which has never been seen nor imagined.
In the world's final, decisive and desperate attempt to regain or maintain control of that which they never truly had, the Watchtower Society is certain to be impacted in a way that we have not imagined because of our becoming convinced in being somehow immune to the travails fast coming upon us, when the exact opposite is the reality that awaits us. An appointed time of nations indeed!
Copyright © 2002, by Robert King
All Rights Reserved.