The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

52 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
We know of no reason for changing a figure: to do so would
spoil the harmonies and parallels so conspicuous between the
Jewish and Gospel ages. 57
Answering another reader, he said:
The harmony of the prophetic periods is one of the strongest
proofs of the correctness of our Bible chronology. They fit
together like the cogwheels of a perfect machine. To change the
chronology even one year would destroy all this harmony,—so accurately are
the various proofs drawn together in the parallels between the
Jewish and Gospel ages. 58
These arguments were further backed up by articles written by
the Edgar brothers of Scotland. 59
Growing doubts
So in 1904 Russell was still as convinced of his dates as he was in
1889, when he wrote that the understanding of these time features
was the “sealing of the foreheads” mentioned at Revelation 7:3. 60
As the 1914 date drew nearer, however, Russell became more
and more cautious in his statements. Answering an inquiring Bible
student in 1907, he said that “we have never claimed our
calculations to be infallibly correct; we have never claimed that they
were knowledge, nor based upon indisputable evidence, facts,
knowledge; our claim has always been that they are based on
faith.” 61
The dates no longer seemed to qualify as “God’s dates,” as he
had stated thirteen years earlier; now they might be fallible. Russell
even considered the possibility that 1914 (and 1915) could pass by
with none of the expected events having occurred:
But let us suppose a case far from our expectations: suppose
that A.D. 1915 should pass with the world’s affairs all serene and
with evidence that the ‘very elect’ had not all been ‘changed’ and
without the restoration of natural Israel to favor under the New
Covenant. (Rom. 11:12, 15) What then? Would not that prove our
chronology wrong? Yes, surely! And would not that prove a keen
disappointment? Indeed it would! . . . What a blow that would be!
One of the strings of our ‘harp’ would be quite broken! However,
57 Ibid., October 1, 1904, pp. 296, 297 (= Reprints, pp. 3436, 3437).
58 Ibid., August 15, 1904, pp. 250, 251 (= Reprints, p. 3415). Emphasis added.
59 Ibid., November 15, 1904, pp. 342–344; June 15, 1905, pp. 179–186 (= Reprints,
pp. 3459, 3460, 3574–3579).
60 C. T. Russell, The Time is at Hand, p. 169.
61 Zion’s Watch Tower, October 1, 1907, pp. 294, 295 (= Reprints, p. 4067).
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