The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society's published expectation, under president Joseph Franklin Rutherford, that 1925 would see the resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful figures from before Christ, as evidence of the nearness of God's kingdom. The date passed without the expected resurrection, and the Society allowed the specific expectation to recede from its teaching without the kind of formal, public acknowledgment it later gave the failed 1975 expectation.
Facts
Fulfillment
Documented ResponseUnlike the 1914 date, which the movement retained and reinterpreted, and the 1975 date, which it later publicly addressed, the specific 1925 expectation was allowed to recede from Watch Tower teaching without a comparable formal acknowledgment; Beth Sarim itself was sold in 1948. Historians of the movement, M. James Penton among them, document the 1925 failure as a significant cause of membership loss and internal disillusionment in the years that followed, distinct in character from the movement's handling of its other dated expectations. 1 Origins
Attributed Author / CompilerJoseph Franklin Rutherford, second president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. 1 Debunked
Claimed FulfillmentThe resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and other faithful figures from before Christ, expected in 1925, alongside the general nearness of Armageddon. In anticipation the Society built a house in San Diego, Beth Sarim, deeded in trust for the resurrected patriarchs. No resurrection occurred, and Rutherford himself lived in the house until his death in 1942. 1 Dating
Predicted Date1925, as taught in Rutherford's 1920 book Millions Now Living Will Never Die. 1 Date Attributed1920, in Millions Now Living Will Never Die. 1 Attributions
TraditionThe Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, predecessor of Jehovah's Witnesses. 1 Sources
Primary SourceJoseph Franklin Rutherford's Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1920) sets out the claim; the Beth Sarim deed and its 1948 sale are documented in the secondary scholarly histories cited alongside it. 1 Connections
Attributed To
Source Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's WitnessesM. James Penton
Belongs to Tradition
Source Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's WitnessesM. James Penton
Sources
1. Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses
M. James Penton, University of Toronto Press, 2015
Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change
George D. Chryssides, Routledge, 2016
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