The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

258 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
Three years later, in the article “Birth of the Nation” in The Watch
Tower, March 1, 1925, a new interpretation of Revelation 12:1–6
was presented in accordance with the new understanding of the
setting up of Christ’s kingdom, to the effect that the kingdom had
been “born” in heaven in 1914. That year Jesus Christ “took unto
himself his great power and began his reign: the nations were
angry, and the day of God’s wrath began. —Ezekiel 21:27;
Revelation 11:17, 18.” 42
C-2: The “downtrodden” city of Jerusalem relocated
But what about the trampling of Jerusalem by the Gentiles? At the
end of 1914 the city of Jerusalem was still occupied by a Gentile
nation, the Turkish Empire. In an attempt to “explain” this
embarrassing fact, Pastor Russell argued that the persecution of the
Jews at that time seemed to have practically stopped all around the
world, and he saw in this a confirmation of his belief that the
Gentile times had expired. 43
However, in December, 1917, more than one year after Russell’s
death, an interesting thing happened. On December 9, 1917, the
British under General Allenby in alliance with the Arabs captured
Jerusalem and thus made an end of the nearly seven-centuries-long
Turkish occupation. This event was looked upon by many
Christians as a very important sign of the times. 44
The deliverance of Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917, together
with the so-called Balfour declaration of November 2, 1917 which
proclaimed that the British Government supported the
42 The Bible on Our Lord’s Return (1922), p. 93.
43 The Watch Tower, November 1, 1914, pp. 329–30; Reprints, p. 55–68.
44 Christian commentators of several different denominations regarded this event as a
sign of the times. It will be remembered that as early as 1823, John A. Brown, in
his The Even-Tide, ended the “seven times” in 1917. In his opinion 1917 would see
“the full glory of the kingdom of Israel . . . perfected” (Vol. 1, pp. xliii f.) Later in the
same century the British expositor Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness, too, pointed
forward to 1917 as a very important date: “There can be no question that those
who live to see this year 1917 will have reached one of the most important,
perhaps the most momentous, of these terminal years of crisis”—Light for the Last
Days, London, 1886, pp. 342–46.
Aware of these predictions, eight well-known English clergymen, among whom
were Dr. G. Campbell Morgan and Dr. G. B. Meyer, issued a manifesto which
among other things declared: “FIRST. That the present crisis points towards the
close of the times of the Gentiles. . . . FIFTH. That all human schemes of
reconstruction must be subsidiary to the second coming of our Lord, because all
nations will be subject to his rule.” The manifesto was published in the London
magazine Current Opinion of February 1918 and subsequently republished by
other papers throughout the world.
Although this manifesto has been cited several times in Watchtower publications
in support of the 1914 date, it was actually issued in support of the 1917 date and
resulted from Allenby’s “liberation” of Jerusalem in the latter year.