REVELATION ITS GRAND CLIMAX AT HAND!/Chapter Twenty One - A Time for Fervent Prayer - Continue

 Can we determine when this happened? Yes, we can, by examining the context, together with historical developments early in the Lord's day. (Revelation 1:10) During 1918 and 1919, events on earth harmonized remarkably with scenario  described at Revelation 8:1-4. Forb40 years before 1914, the Bible Students-as Jehovah's Witnesses were then called- had been announcing boldly that the times of the Gentiles would end in that year. The distressful events of 1914 proved them correct. (Luke 21:24; King James Version; Matthew 24:3, 7, 8) But many  them also believed that in 1914 they would be taken from this earth to their heavenly inheritance. That did not happen.  Instead, during the first world war, they endured a time of severe persecution On October 31, 1916, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, Charles T. Russell, died. Then on July 4, 1918, the new president Joseph F. Rutherford, and seven other representatives of the Society were transported to the  Alanta, Georgia penitentiary, wrongly sentenced to long years in prison.

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