I'm not really proposing to participate in this. But I was intrigued by this suggestion that the 1914 prediction was in fact correct and, in an invisible way, Jesus has returned has returned and the end times/Last Days are here and have been for over 100 years.
I hardly need say that nobody who is not already a believer is going to see that as anything but self - delusionary. Even the oft - seen claim that the founding of Israel in the 20th c was prophecy coming true and this was the End Times coming - invisibly for the last half a century. And there have been many end of world predictions since then and they have all failed in any and every appreciable way.
Sure, there are always wars and rumours of wars. But that is an ongoing joke amongst skeptics:
"There will be rainstorms, and car crashes, and electricity will fail!"
"Wah! prophecy!"
Not arguin' just sayin'
and putting notice that prophecies that don't pan out, as well as everyday coincidences (I've seen a few dillies in my own atheistic life), are NOT in any way whatsoever reasons to reasonably think that anything is coming to pass or that (other than retrospective prophecy - 'predicting' after the event (1) prophecies coming true. and that's why I don't have have a dog in this fight. Just that nobody who doesn't either already have Faith or is utterly gullible and too lazy to look up 'failed prophecy' is going to buy this 'prophecy' stuff, which seems to consist of either excusing why they don't happen, or saying nothing about it, hoping nobody will remember and making the next one.
But we do remember, and the failure of the JW's at least is to be seen on Wiki
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society publications have made a series of predictions about Christ's Second Coming and the advent of God's Kingdom, each of which has gone unfulfilled. Almost all the predictions for 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918 and 1925 were later reinterpreted as a confirmation of the eschatological framework of the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, with many of the predicted events viewed as having taken place invisibly. Further expectations were held for the arrival of Armageddon in 1975, but resulted in a later apology to members from the society's leadership.
English researcher George D. Chryssides has argued that although there have been some "unrealized expectations", changes in Watch Tower chronology are attributable more to changed chronological schemes, rather than to failed predictions. The Watch Tower Society has acknowledged errors, which it said helped "sift" the unfaithful from its ranks, but says adherents remained confident that "God's Word" had not failed.[2]
And other such predictions are no better. Remember the May calendar prediction? We're still here. Did anyone see that slimy preacher and his crack across America nonsense? I'm not a violent man, but I've never seen a face I so wanted to hit, other than Nigel Farrage.
(1) the siege of Tyre is the test case here. Spun as a prophecy, it is written after Alexander's conquest and we can even place it because it describes a ruined Tyre with the causeway (made of the rubble of mainland Tyre) connecting to the island. It was all deserted and a place for fishermen to spread their nets.
But that wasn't the end of Tyre as the prophecy makes. It was rebuilt and visited by Jesus and Paul and exists today. Failed prophecy - where not retrospective history, and Daniel's 'prophecy' is the same. Retrospective history written just before the Maccabean revolt. You can even give the year when the 'prophecy' goes wrong. 260 AD or something. I could look it up.