The Watchtower December 15, 2003, has an article entitled “Our Watchfulness takes on Greater Urgency.” Speaking about the flood of Noah’s day, it says that a divine decree issued in 2490 B. C. E. marked the beginning of the end for that ungodly world. Only 120 years later Jehovah sent the flood. 90 years have now passed since 1914; does that mean we have 30 years left before the end of the world?

Apparently, that is what the Watchtower is hinting at. Of course, it all hinges on the questionable chronology and specious prophetic interpretations tied to 1914. If anything, it seems to be a desperate attempt to keep the fading 1914 chronology relevant. Of course, it could also have the opposite effect upon some of the friends too. After all, how encouraging is it to the hard-working ministers among Jehovah's Witnesses to think that the new system might still be 30 years away? What is the point of preaching with urgency, as the article exhorts, if Armageddon is at least three decades off? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it? On the other hand, it just might be what some people want to hear.

At the same time, though, we should not lightly dismiss the biblical patterns involved. We have to respect Jehovah's superior wisdom and intellect, which is so evident in the writings of the Bible. Jesus, of course, indicated that Noah's Flood is a pattern of thing to come, when he said: "For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be."

But, the preceding words of Christ are most revealing: "Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father. For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be.

Here's the contradiction which we are now up against: The August 15th, 1998, Watchtower, page 10-11, points out that Noah did not know the exact year that the Deluge was to commence. Here's an excerpt from that article:

Before the Flood, God fixed a 120-year time limit for the corrupt world that humans and rebellious materialized angels had brought about. (Genesis 6:1-3) Godly Noah was 480 years old at that point. (Genesis 7:6) He was childless and remained so for another 20 years. (Genesis 5:32) Much later, only after Noah's sons had reached adulthood and had married, God informed Noah of His purpose to remove wickedness from the earth. (Genesis 6:9-13, 18) Even then, though Noah was entrusted with the dual commission of building the ark and preaching to his contemporaries, Jehovah did not reveal his time schedule to him.—Genesis 6:14; 2 Peter 2:5.

For decades—perhaps half a century—"Noah proceeded to do according to all that God had commanded him." Noah did so "by faith," without knowing a precise date. (Genesis 6:22; Hebrews 11:7) Jehovah left him uninformed about the exact timing of events until one week before the Deluge was due to begin. (Genesis 7:1-5) Noah's implicit trust and faith in Jehovah enabled him to leave time factors in God's hands.

So, according to the Watchtower's own reasoning on this issue, which appears sound in this instance, Jehovah did not notify Noah when he originally decreed that the world of that time had only 120-years more before the Deluge. The brothers ascertain that by the fact that when Jehovah finally informed Noah of his purpose to destroy the world by a flood, God referred to Noah's sons and their wives. Yet according to the genealogic record in the Bible, Noah's sons had not yet been born 120-years before the Flood. So, the account in Genesis seems to indicate that Jehovah only notified Noah sometime after the 120-year countdown to the Deluge had already begun.

But, the point is, apparently Noah did not know the day and hour until a week before the Deluge was to commence. So, if the presence of the Son of man is just as in the days of Noah, it seems unlikely that we could affix that time to 120-years from 1914.

However, again, we are left with the fact that God does things according to a specific timetable, which humans may or may not be privy to. So, it may well be that that the 120-year period preceding the Deluge does indeed establish some sort of pattern. And if so, we may now be in a similar countdown mode presently. But perhaps the starting date is unknowable to us, just as the starting point of the 120-years was apparently unknown to Noah even after God spoke to him and commissioned him to build the Ark—since God made no mention to Noah of the 120-years.

Instead of 1914, what if the pre-1914 work of Russell and the sudden appearance of a grouping of anointed individuals were synchronized with the beginning of a 120-year countdown? For instance, what if Jehovah's decree—"accordingly his days shall amount to a hundred and twenty years"—went forth in the heavens in 1884? No one can say that it did not, can they?

One thing seems certain, though, and it is this: During the past 120-some years, critical developments have taken place that appear destined to inexorably lead to Armageddon. Consider that a mere 120 years ago, settlers were still crossing the Wild West of the United States in stage coaches and ox-drawn covered wagons! It was at that technologically primitive time that the modern movement of Jehovah's witnesses first began.

Seemingly in response to those developments in the religious realm, in the span of just a few decades the world has literally rocketed from the bow-and-arrow age to the nuclear space age. What can account for the sudden explosion of technology that has ultimately resulted in empowering men with the weaponry to blow up the world? We should not discount the insidious influence of the demons in misleading the world under their control.

(Christ foretold that the day of distress would instantly come in upon the entire inhabited earth. That prophecy would seem to suggest a nuclear-age catastrophe; otherwise, how would it be possible for that day to suddenly sweep the globe and affect all mankind without modern weaponry?)

The demons certainly recognized Jesus as the Son of God when he appeared on earth. They even asked him if it was their time to go into the abyss. Likewise, the demons also recognized the 1st century Christians for what they were. At Acts 19:14, a demon once acknowledged to the exorcist sons of Sceva that he was acquainted with Jesus and Paul. So, it seems reasonable that the demons know each and every person whom Jehovah has anointed to be sons of the kingdom. Otherwise, how could they war against the individuals who are part of the seed of the woman, as the Scriptures say they do?

No doubt the sudden appearance of hundreds and then thousands of anointed Christians in the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century alerted the demons that the final harvest was soon to commence and that the war of the Great Day of God Almighty was looming near.

Since, apparently, Jehovah's declaration of 120-years more will not be heard by human ears, perhaps, though, Jehovah has made announcement of 120-years more only in the hearing of his spirit creatures. Perhaps in that knowledge, Satan immediately began sowing the newly sown field of wheat with his own weed-like imitations and preparing his world for the ultimate showdown with the kingdom.

Perhaps Satan was allowed to over-reach Russell and the early Bible Students in order to implant the notion that 1914 was the year of Christ's presence. And with Jehovah's permission, the demons could then pull the trigger on WWI and the rest of the "operation of error" would then fall into place.

The Devil and his angels certainly know if they were thrown out of heaven in 1914 or not. And if they were not, would it not suit their purpose to perpetuate the lie among Jehovah's people that they were?

Remember, the demons have always tried to insidiously insinuate themselves into Christ's congregation—with some measure of success. Judas sat with Christ at the Passover table, even as Satan entered into him to impel him in his last dastardly deed. Then, there were the super-fine apostles of Corinth; prominent elders apparently, whom Paul identified as treacherous agents of the Devil disguised as ministers of righteousness.

Consider too, back when Paul was preaching there was once a demon-possessed girl who took up "witnessing" in behalf of Christ; telling people to listen to Paul. So, through their proxy the demons actually took up preaching the truth—for their own wicked purpose.

The point of all this is that 1914 may be a fraud and not the beginning of Christ's kingdom as Jehovah's Witnesses have been led to believe. However, that does not mean that the end of the world is any farther away. Nor does it mean that Jehovah's Witnesses are not the true Christian faith. On the contrary, while the Watchtower is hinting that God's day of reckoning is perhaps 30-years down the road, it would appear that the stage is finally set for Christ to arrive as unexpectedly as a thief in the night to initiate judgment upon the house of God.