World War I and Bible Prophecy

      In 1914 what came to be known as The Great War and later World War 1 started. Also, according to the Bible Students, the epoch known as the “Gentile Times” came to their end. This was a message promoted for nearly 40 years. Charles Taze Russell’s first known writing on the subject of the chronology appeared in George Storrs’ Bible Examiner magazine in October 1876.

     When 1914 ushered in the war, much publicity was given to the Bible Students’ views. A well-known example was the article in the New York World for August 30, 1914:

     

However, with the Bible speaking clearly about end times and world distress, along with the unprecedented scale of conflict that unfolded in 1914, it was not surprising that others outside the Bible Student community made a connection. This article reviews just a handful of alternative views the public could choose from.

     Typical of the genre was the work of H C Morrison who wrote The World War in Prophecy, published in 1917.

     

Heny Clay Morrison (1857-1942) carried the title Reverend and was a DD. Although from a Methodist background, he was editor of the Pentecostal Herald, and his book was published by the Penticostal Publishing Company.

     Writing in 1917, Morrison believed a dispensation was ending and saw “the signs of the times” in current events, He states on page 94 that “the times of the Gentiles are almost ended.” A literal Millennium will follow with (page 93) “the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.” But apart from blaming Germany and the Kaiser for nearly all current woes he is rather short on detail and there are few scriptural references. However, I would imagine this position would characterize many books published in America and Britain at this time.

     Several writers would access the prophecy of “seven times” and calculate them as totalling 2520 years. One example was that of Jessie M Collis. Her small book The Great War as Foretold in the Bible was published in London in 1915.

     

In it she quotes from a book published the previous year: The War and Prophecy by W.S. Collis M.A. (probably a relative). This states “that ‘the Times of the Gentiles’ have run their course, and that the full period of 2520 years vassalage…to the world powers expires this year (1914).” Great things are expected for 1933 regarding the literal establishment of the Kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem.

     The 2520 year time period also features in a book by George Harold Lancaster (1882-1950). Lancaster was a Church of England clergyman, whose work has subsequently been referenced in works on Anglo-Israelism (the belief that the ten lost tribes can be traced down to Britain and perhaps America). He published Prophecy, the War, and the Near East (fourth edition in 1918).

    

Lancaster spends some time discussing the Gentile Times and the 2520 year period, but has a variety of possible starting dates. For example, on page 171 he makes vague prediction for 1923 and 1934 yet ahead.

     Returning to the belief that the Gentile Times ended in 1914, we have the book World War and Bible Prophecy (1918) written by Harry F. Howard (1873-1948).

     Howard was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a building contractor who spent his career constructing roads. But his obituary in the Portsmouth Herald for 27 October 1948 mentions that he also wrote “numerous works on religion and Bible prophecy.” The cover of World War and Bible Prophecy explained what he believed God had revealed on both the course of the war and its aftermath.

     

According to Howard the World War fulfilled prophecy and 1914 marked the end of the Gentile Times. In support of this, he quoted from various sources which included A E Hatch’s Handbook of Prophecy (1913) and issues of The World’s Crisis from 1915 (both publications of the Advent Christian Church), and also material from newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Christian Herald.

     Of perhaps greater interest, his supporting references included Charles Taze Russell. From page 5 of his book:

    

Several other books on prophecy and the Great War were also to mention CTR directly or indirectly. One of these was by Marr Murray. In 1915 he published Bible Prophecies and the Plain Man, with Special Reference to the Present War.

    

Murray was quite a prolific author at the time. Other works included The Christians’s War Book, The Russian Advance, and Drink and the War from the Patriotic Point of View. In this era, someone of this name translated books into English from Russian, and was also a prolific short story writer. Whether this is the same person it has not been possible to establish.

     His book on prophecy discusses the seven times computation of 2520 years  (see pages 19-20) and, depending on where you start the calculations, gives various possible concluding dates for the Times of the Gentiles, the last being 1923.

     And then he mentions the work of Pastor Russell, unfavorably. In listing apostasy in the last days, top of his list is Watch Tower theology – from page 31 – “Millennial Dawnism, which denies the deity of Christ.”

     According to Murray, God is on the Allies side in the conflict, and he presents a whole chapter on whether the Kaiser is the foretold Antichrist.

     His reasoning includes the following (transcript from page 302):

“The Kaiser also possesses the number of the Beast. He was born on January 27^th, `859. On January 27^th, 1914 he was just 660 months old and 6 months later the war broke out. From the date of his birth to the opening of the great war in which he has flung down his challenge to fate was within a few days of 666 months. Moreover, in the words “Der Kaiser Wilhelm II” there are eighteen letter or 6 + 6 + 6.”

     

Having set this all up, he then decides that the real Antichrist is still to come, because the real Antichrist is a military genius, and on current performance, the Kaiser isn’t…

     Another writer to mention CTR in a negative light is Theodore Graebner.

     Dr. Theodore Conrad Graebner (1876-1950) was a prominent Lutheran minister (Rev. and DD) and author. He was a professor of theology and editor of papers like the Lutheran Herald and Lutheran Witness for over 40 years. His father, grandfather, four siblings and one son, all became Lutheran clergy.

     In 1918 he published Prophecy and the War.

     

Unlike our other examples, the whole point of Graebner’s book was to attack those who believed the war had prophetic significance. Graebner emphatically did not. He attacked the concept of the Gentile Times ending in 1914, and he attacked calculations like the “seven times” and “a day for a year.” He also reserved his special ire what he called “the soul destroying heresy of Pastor Russell.” According to Graebner its believers were destined for hell.

     For our final example, we return to one who did believe in prophecy being fulfilled, but who had an interesting slant on this. And yet another one who felt the need to single out Pastor Russell for dishonorable mention, this time in personally fulfilling Bible prophecy.

     Deitrich William Langelett (1871-1965) was born in Illinois, USA, but his parents came from Hanover. His book The World-War in the Light of Prophecy (by the Rev. D W Langelett but copyrighted by Pastor Langelett), was first published in German, but translated and published in English in America in early 1915.

     His special take on the Great War is expressed on the title page.

    

It is interesting that Langelett felt the need to take a swipe at Watch Tower theology in some detail. Starting on page 83 Langelett’s explanation of Revelation 16 v.13 is that unclean spirits come out of the mouth of the dragon – which is the Devil – and out of the mouth of the beast – which is England – and finally out of the mouth of the false prophet – which is Charles Taze Russell. The unclean spirits include hostile attacks made by Russell “against every holy institution of Church and State.” Most of the space is then taken up with Langelett’s detailed explanation of the Gog of Magog prophecy of Ezekiel. According to the title page the villain Gog has to be England, and he further explains that Magog is India. In his version of replacement theology the land of Israel that Gog unsucessfully comes up against is none other than Germany and Austria.

     It was an interesting viewpoint, especially as expressed in America. One wonders how Langelett fared when America entered the war in 1917 on the side of the Allies. After the war he no longer called himself either Reverend or Pastor. By the 1930 census he is a tallyman in a lumber yard, by 1940 a farm laborer, and by 1950 he is listed as unable to work, although he was 79 at the time. He never married, appears to have had no family, and received a Lutheran funeral when he died in his mid-90s in 1965.

     So summing up, these are just a selection of books that came out while the Great War was raging. Anyone reading their Bible about signs and then observing world events would at least have to consider making a connection. And the work of Pastor Russell in heralding the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 would be well-known at that time. The spread of the Bible Student message through mass meetings, the Photodrama of Creation and the printed page made sure of that. It provoked a negative reaction from several writers, but even that may have sent some readers in search of Watch Tower publications to check for themselves.