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1918—One Hundred Years AgoThe Watchtower (Study)—2018 | October
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REACTION TO THE FINISHED MYSTERY
For several months, the Bible Students had been distributing the book The Finished Mystery. Honesthearted readers reacted positively to the Bible truths it contained.
E. F. Crist, a traveling overseer in Canada, told of a couple who had read The Finished Mystery and accepted the truth in only five weeks! He said: “Both husband and wife are fully consecrated and are showing wonderful progress.”
One man who received the book shared it with his friends immediately. He was “struck” by its message. He recounts: “I was walking down Third Avenue [and] I was struck on the shoulder by what I thought was a brick, but, alas, it was ‘The Finished Mystery.’ I brought it home and read it all. . . . I have since learned that it was a preacher . . . who threw the book from his window in a rage . . . By that one act of his I firmly believe that he converted more people to a living hope than by any other act of his life. . . . Through this preacher’s wrath we now praise God.”
That preacher’s reaction was not unique. Canadian officials banned the book on February 12, 1918, alleging that it contained seditious and antiwar statements. Shortly thereafter, officials in the United States followed suit. Government agents searched the Bethel Home and the offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and California, seeking evidence against the leading members of the organization. On March 14, 1918, the U.S. Department of Justice banned The Finished Mystery, claiming that its publication and distribution hindered the war effort, a violation of the Espionage Act.
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1918—One Hundred Years AgoThe Watchtower (Study)—2018 | October
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The Finished Mystery figured prominently in their debate. Regarding it, the official record of the U.S. Congress states: “One of the most dangerous examples of this sort of propaganda is the book called ‘The Finished Mystery’ . . . The only effect of it is to lead soldiers to discredit our cause and to inspire . . . resistance to the draft.”
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