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Jehovah's Witnesses is Founded
Charles Taze Russell attends a meeting in Pittsburgh where a preacher named Jonas Wendell preached about rejecting traditional Christian beliefs. Russell became fascinated and decided to create his own religion where he taught people that God was going to come back to Earth and destroy it before the battle of Armageddon. -
Three Worlds and the Harvest of this World
Three Worlds and the Harvest of this World was a book published by Russell and it was all of the teachings and beliefs that he held. It became the guidelines for Jehovah's Witnesses for the next 40 years. It claimed there were parallels between the Jewish and Gospel ages, and suggested the "new creation" would begin 6000 years after Adam's creation. -
The Watchtower Magazine
As more and more people began to follow Russell's philosophies he decided there needed to be a way to keep people's interests and update them. Russell created a magazine called Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence. Also known as The Watchtower this magazine was sent to subscribers everywhere. -
Watch Tower Society
Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society is formed and becomes the administrative agency for Jehovah's Witnesses with Russell as the president of it. They would publish books and pamphlets with new doctrines and sermons that became fundamental for the religion. -
Expansion Begins
In 1900 the first branch of Jehovah's Witnesses was opened in London and then Germany, Australia, and Switzerland followed in the early 1900s. Then, in 1908 the headquarters moved to Brooklyn, NY. -
Door to Door Preaching Begins 1927-1940's
Rutherford becomes the president of Jehovah's Witnesses. The door-to-door Jehovah's Witnesses that we see today are established and encouraged to spread their doctrines to people all over. Rutherford encouraged people to refuse to salute the national flag and that prompted a ton of violence. Tons of Witnesses were killed, arrested, and charged with crimes. -
1942-1975
Nathan Homer Knorr became president of the Watchtower Society. He instituted a new translation of the Bible and began hosting international assemblies for Witnesses to attend all over the world. The rules became much stricter under Knorr such as eating meats and attending birthday parties. During Knorr's control, the congregation grew from 100,000 to over 2 million Witnesses. -
Predictions
1975 was a big year because everyone thought this was the year of Christ's returning to Earth and him beginning his 1000 year reign. In a 1974 issue of the Watch Tower Society's newsletter, it was commended that the Witnesses should sell their homes and property to devote themselves to preaching in the "short time" remaining before 1975. After this huge event never came in 1975 the Watch Tower Society apologized to the Witnesses for leading them in the wrong direction. -
1976-Present Day
After 1975 came and went Jehovah's Witnesses decided to restructure their governing body. They broke up into 6 committees to complete different tasks. This was officially when the WatchTower publication turned into Jehovah's Witnesses. The world headquarters were completely revamped and moved locations and changed people to Warwick, NY in 2004. Since then the doctrines have changed a few more times, but with each change, the Witnesses continue to teach that Armageddon is going to happen.