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Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the TruthJehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
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In 1876, when Russell had first read a copy of Herald of the Morning, he had learned that there was another group who then believed that Christ’s return would be invisible and who associated that return with blessings for all families of the earth. From Mr. Barbour, editor of that publication, Russell also came to be persuaded that Christ’s invisible presence had begun in 1874.i
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Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the TruthJehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
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i This was influenced by the belief that the seventh millennium of human history had begun in 1873 and that a period of divine disfavor (of equal length to a former period considered to be one of favor) upon natural Israel would end in 1878. The chronology was flawed because of relying on an inaccurate rendering of Acts 13:20 in the King James Version, belief that there was a transcription error at 1 Kings 6:1, and failure to take into account Biblical synchronisms in the dating of reigns of the kings of Judah and of Israel. A clearer understanding of Biblical chronology was published in 1943, in the book “The Truth Shall Make You Free,” and it was then refined the following year in the book “The Kingdom Is at Hand,” as well as in later publications.
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