The Reluctant Apostate: Leaving Jehovah's Witnesses Comes at a Price

by Lloyd Evans

On close inspection it became obvious to me that the year 1919, which continues to carry enormous significance among Witnesses, had absolutely no correlation with any time periods mentioned in the Bible. It simply happened to be the year that early president Joseph Rutherford and some of his associates had been released from prison, having spent nine months incarcerated under charge of sedition. (More about this in Chapter Seven.) Because their exploits were deemed of great significance in the history of God’s people, 1919 had been superimposed on Revelation’s prophetic narrative. The three-and-a-half-year period leading up to Rutherford’s sentencing on June 21, 1918, just about stretched backwards into the final days of 1914 (December 21) and was thus identified as the “42 months” of Revelation 11:2, 3.