• Marked Days During the “Time of the End”
    Our Incoming World Government—God’s Kingdom

    • 30. Who sets up the “disgusting thing” that causes desolation?

      30 Here, for our guidance in understanding matters, we must bear in mind that religious Babylon the Great does not place or establish “the disgusting thing that is causing desolation.” The political elements of this system of things do this. For the “one thousand two hundred and ninety days” to start, both requirements must be met, namely, the “constant feature” must be removed and the “disgusting thing that is causing desolation” must be put in place. The removing of the “constant feature” took place during the “appointed time, appointed times and a half” that ran their course during World War I, from December 28, 1914, to sundown of June 21, 1918. The “constant feature” had to do with Jehovah’s “holy people,” whose spiritual “power” was dashed to pieces back there.

      31. What was the “constant feature” offered by Daniel’s people?

      31 In 537 B.C.E. the prophet Daniel’s people were released from ancient Babylon by the conqueror, Cyrus the Persian, and they returned to the land of Judah to reestablish Jehovah’s worship at Jerusalem. There, at the end of the seventy years of desolation of their homeland, they proceeded to “build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt sacrifices upon it, according to what is written in the law of Moses the man of the true God.” (Ezra 3:1, 2) From then on the “constant feature” of each day was offered by the priests, with the exception of a temporary interruption by the Syrians during the days of the Levite Maccabees in the second century B.C.E. (Exodus 29:38, 39) What, though, was the “constant feature” of each day that the spiritual Israelites were offering up to God at the beginning of the “time of the end” in 1914?

      32. Of what did the “constant feature” since 1914 C.E. consist?

      32 It did not consist of animal sacrifices offered upon an altar at Jerusalem in the Middle East. Such sacrifices ceased to be offered there in the year 70 C.E. at the destruction of Jerusalem and its gorgeous temple by the Roman legions. Years before that, the Christian apostle Peter wrote, saying that the anointed spiritual Israelites “are being built up a spiritual house for the purpose of a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5, 9) These “spiritual sacrifices” include “a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips which make public declaration to his name.” (Hebrews 13:15) After the Gentile Times ended in 1914 and God’s Messianic kingdom was born in the heavens, the “sacrifice of praise” as part of the “constant feature” that was offered by the spiritual Israelites consisted particularly of bearing witness to the established heavenly kingdom in the hands of Jesus Christ.​—Matthew 24:3, 14.

      33. When was removal of the “constant feature” accomplished?

      33 By harassing the anointed Kingdom witnesses and finally by dashing to pieces their spiritual “power” for proclaiming God’s kingdom that must supersede all man-made governments on earth, the warring nations suppressed the Kingdom witnesses and thus removed the “constant feature.” This was accomplished by June 21, 1918. For nine months and four days thereafter the sentenced officers of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and their colaborers lingered in federal imprisonment, awaiting their being released on bail for a new trial and exoneration from all the false charges. Their unjust imprisonment for so long acted as a great deterrent to the offering of the “constant feature” by the Kingdom witnesses. But what about the “disgusting thing” that desolates?

      34. How was the “disgusting thing” brought into existence?

      34 The “disgusting thing that is causing desolation” is the international organization for world peace and security. This was first designed by the peace conference that assembled in Versailles, France, on January 18, 1919. The victorious war allies drew up the peace treaty that was submitted to the German delegates on May 7, 1919. On June 28, 1919, the German and the Allied delegates signed this peace treaty at Versailles. The international organization for world peace and security, then known as the League of Nations, was part and parcel of that peace treaty, and when the governments involved ratified the signed peace treaty, the League of Nations went into force.

      35. How did the clergy of Christendom back up the League of Nations?

      35 Prior to that, when the peace conference that paved the way for the League of Nations met on January 18, 1919, the clergy of the Church of England and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America had come out in favor of the proposed League and pressed for the creation of it. The clergy hailed it as “the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth.”

      36. So, when did the 1,290 days begin and end?

      36 If, now, we measure 1,290 days from that marked date, January 18, 1919, when the eight representatives of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society were still under restraint in the Atlanta federal penitentiary, where do we end up? According to the Bible, those 1,290 days are the equivalent of three lunar years and seven lunar months. According to the lunar calendar, January 18, 1919, fell on Shebat 17, 1919. Three lunar years from then would lead up to Shebat 17, 1922, or February 15, 1922. Seven lunar months counted from that would end with Elul 16, 1922, or at sundown, September 9, 1922. So did the 1,290 days or three lunar years and seven months end at a significant time? The historical facts answer Yes!

      37. How was the following day, September 10, 1922, marked?

      37 The following day, September 10, 1922, a Sunday, proved to be the sixth day of a nine-day international convention of the International Bible Students Association at Cedar Point, Ohio, U.S.A. It was entitled on the program as “Activity Day.” The feature of the day was the public address to an audience of 18,000, by the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. At the close of his oral argument, the speaker submitted to his audience a resolution called “A Proclamation,” which set forth a challenge to all the world rulers. This Proclamation was meant, not for just those conventioners, but for all the world, and subsequent to the Cedar Point convention it was published in tract form and distributed by the tens of millions of copies in many languages.

      38. What featured September 9, 1922, itself, and September 8?

      38 The preceding day, Saturday, September 9, was entitled “Consecration Day” and was marked by the mass baptism of 361 men and women in symbol of their dedication to God through Christ. However, Friday, September 8, was entitled “The Day,” which featured the address of the Society’s president on the theme found in Matthew 4:17: “The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand.” (AV) Leading up to the climax of his address, the speaker said:

      “Why, then, deliver the message to those who do not understand? Will any one hear? The Prophet of the Lord answers: ‘Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.’​—Isaiah 43:8-12.

      “Thus we see that those of the temple class are clearly designated as the Lord’s witnesses at this time, to bring a message of consolation to the people, that the kingdom of heaven is here, . . . ”

      So, with all due fitness, the Society’s president could close his rousing speech with this exhortation: “Advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.”

      39. How was Monday, September 11, 1922, marked?

      39 Immediate opportunity to advertise was offered on the day after the public talk and the challenging resolution adopted by all the conventioners. That Monday, September 11, 1922, was entitled “Service Day,” and the conventioners sallied forth into the field service, more keenly aware than ever that they were advance publicity agents of God’s glorious kingdom.

      40. What expression of God’s wrath was thus started publicly?

      40 Later on, it was discerned that the public message and the resolution adopted in connection with that public message was the start of the fulfillment of what was foretold in Revelation, chapters eight through sixteen. What was that? The sounding of the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven last plagues of Jehovah’s wrath upon this doomed system of things.

      41. What supreme issue was thus coming to the fore universally?

      41 Calculating the 1,290 days of Daniel 12:11 in this here-given way, do we find that they terminated at a very significant time? We have every reason to believe so. There can be little question that the 1,290 days thus calculated mark an epoch for Jehovah’s “holy people” in this time of the end. The supreme issue before the whole universe was then coming to the fore, namely, Jehovah’s Universal Sovereignty.