In 1914 what came to be known as The Great War and later World War 1 started. Also, according to the Bible Students, the epoch known as the “Gentile Times” came to their end. This was a message promoted for nearly 40 years. Charles Taze Russell’s first known writing on the subject of the chronology appeared in George Storrs’ Bible Examiner magazine in October 1876.
When 1914 ushered in the war, much publicity was given
to the Bible Students’ views. A well-known example was the article in the New York World for August 30, 1914:
However, with the Bible speaking clearly about end
times and world distress, along with the unprecedented scale of conflict that
unfolded in 1914, it was not surprising that others outside the Bible Student
community made a connection. This article reviews just a handful of alternative
views the public could choose from.
Typical of the genre was the work of H C Morrison who
wrote The World War in Prophecy,
published in 1917.
Heny Clay Morrison
(1857-1942) carried the title Reverend and was a DD. Although from a Methodist
background, he was editor of the Pentecostal
Herald, and his book was published by the Penticostal Publishing Company.
Writing in 1917,
Morrison believed a dispensation was ending and saw “the signs of the times” in
current events, He states on page 94 that “the times of the Gentiles are almost
ended.” A literal Millennium will follow with (page 93) “the inauguration of
the Kingdom of God on earth.” But apart from blaming Germany and the Kaiser for
nearly all current woes he is rather short on detail and there are few
scriptural references. However, I would imagine this position would characterize
many books published in America and Britain at this time.
Several writers would
access the prophecy of “seven times” and calculate them as totalling 2520
years. One example was that of Jessie M Collis. Her small book The Great War as Foretold in the Bible
was published in London in 1915.
In it she quotes from a
book published the previous year: The War
and Prophecy by W.S. Collis M.A. (probably a relative). This states “that
‘the Times of the Gentiles’ have run their course, and that the full period of
2520 years vassalage…to the world powers expires this year (1914).” Great
things are expected for 1933 regarding the literal establishment of the Kingdom
of Judah in Jerusalem.
The 2520 year time
period also features in a book by George Harold Lancaster (1882-1950). Lancaster
was a Church of England clergyman, whose work has subsequently been referenced
in works on Anglo-Israelism (the belief that the ten lost tribes can be traced
down to Britain and perhaps America). He published Prophecy, the War, and the Near East (fourth edition in 1918).
Lancaster spends some
time discussing the Gentile Times and the 2520 year period, but has a variety
of possible starting dates. For example, on page 171 he makes vague prediction
for 1923 and 1934 yet ahead.
Returning to the belief
that the Gentile Times ended in 1914, we have the book World War and Bible Prophecy (1918) written by Harry F. Howard (1873-1948).
Howard was born in New
Haven, Connecticut. He was a building contractor who spent his career
constructing roads. But his obituary in the Portsmouth
Herald for 27 October 1948 mentions that he also wrote “numerous works on
religion and Bible prophecy.” The cover of World
War and Bible Prophecy explained what he believed God had revealed on both
the course of the war and its aftermath.
According to Howard the
World War fulfilled prophecy and 1914 marked the end of the Gentile Times. In
support of this, he quoted from various sources which included A E Hatch’s Handbook of Prophecy (1913) and issues
of The World’s Crisis from 1915 (both
publications of the Advent Christian Church), and also material from newspapers
like the Boston Globe and the Christian Herald.
Of perhaps greater
interest, his supporting references included Charles Taze Russell. From page 5
of his book:
Several other books on
prophecy and the Great War were also to mention CTR directly or indirectly. One
of these was by Marr Murray. In 1915 he published Bible Prophecies and the Plain Man, with Special Reference to the
Present War.
Murray was quite a
prolific author at the time. Other works included The Christians’s War Book, The Russian Advance, and Drink and the
War from the Patriotic Point of View. In this era, someone of this name
translated books into English from Russian, and was also a prolific short story
writer. Whether this is the same person it has not been possible to establish.
His book on prophecy discusses
the seven times computation of 2520 years
(see pages 19-20) and, depending on where you start the calculations,
gives various possible concluding dates for the Times of the Gentiles, the last
being 1923.
And then he mentions
the work of Pastor Russell, unfavorably. In listing apostasy in the last days,
top of his list is Watch Tower theology – from page 31 – “Millennial Dawnism,
which denies the deity of Christ.”
According to Murray,
God is on the Allies side in the conflict, and he presents a whole chapter on
whether the Kaiser is the foretold Antichrist.
His reasoning includes
the following (transcript from page 302):
“The Kaiser also possesses the number of the Beast.
He was born on January 27th, `859. On January 27th, 1914
he was just 660 months old and 6 months later the war broke out. From the date
of his birth to the opening of the great war in which he has flung down his
challenge to fate was within a few days of 666 months. Moreover, in the words
“Der Kaiser Wilhelm II” there are eighteen letter or 6 + 6 + 6.”
Having set this all up,
he then decides that the real Antichrist is still to come, because the real
Antichrist is a military genius, and on current performance, the Kaiser isn’t…
Another writer to
mention CTR in a negative light is Theodore Graebner.
Dr. Theodore Conrad Graebner
(1876-1950) was a prominent Lutheran minister (Rev. and DD) and author. He was
a professor of theology and editor of papers like the Lutheran Herald and Lutheran
Witness for over 40 years. His father, grandfather, four siblings and one son,
all became Lutheran clergy.
In 1918 he published Prophecy and the War.
Unlike our other
examples, the whole point of Graebner’s book was to attack those who believed
the war had prophetic significance. Graebner emphatically did not. He attacked
the concept of the Gentile Times ending in 1914, and he attacked calculations
like the “seven times” and “a day for a year.” He also reserved his special ire
what he called “the soul destroying heresy of Pastor Russell.” According to
Graebner its believers were destined for hell.
For our final example,
we return to one who did believe in
prophecy being fulfilled, but who had an interesting slant on this. And yet
another one who felt the need to single out Pastor Russell for dishonorable
mention, this time in personally fulfilling Bible prophecy.
Deitrich William Langelett (1871-1965) was born in Illinois, USA, but his parents came from Hanover. His book The World-War in the Light of Prophecy (by the Rev. D W Langelett but copyrighted by Pastor Langelett), was first published in German, but translated and published in English in America in early 1915.
His special take on the
Great War is expressed on the title page.
It is interesting that
Langelett felt the need to take a swipe at Watch Tower theology in some detail.
Starting on page 83 Langelett’s explanation of Revelation 16 v.13 is that
unclean spirits come out of the mouth of the dragon – which is the Devil – and out
of the mouth of the beast – which is England – and finally out of the mouth of
the false prophet – which is Charles Taze Russell. The unclean spirits include
hostile attacks made by Russell “against every holy institution of Church and
State.” Most of the space is then taken up with Langelett’s detailed explanation
of the Gog of Magog prophecy of Ezekiel. According to the title page the
villain Gog has to be England, and he further explains that Magog is India. In
his version of replacement theology the land of Israel that Gog unsucessfully
comes up against is none other than Germany and Austria.
It was an interesting
viewpoint, especially as expressed in America. One wonders how Langelett fared
when America entered the war in 1917 on the side of the Allies. After the war
he no longer called himself either Reverend or Pastor. By the 1930 census he is
a tallyman in a lumber yard, by 1940 a farm laborer, and by 1950 he is listed
as unable to work, although he was 79 at the time. He never married, appears to
have had no family, and received a Lutheran funeral when he died in his mid-90s
in 1965.
So summing up, these are just a selection of books that came out while the Great War was raging. Anyone reading their Bible about signs and then observing world events would at least have to consider making a connection. And the work of Pastor Russell in heralding the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 would be well-known at that time. The spread of the Bible Student message through mass meetings, the Photodrama of Creation and the printed page made sure of that. It provoked a negative reaction from several writers, but even that may have sent some readers in search of Watch Tower publications to check for themselves.