The last of those 16 older Bethelites (workers at the Jehovah’s Witness headquarters in New York) pictured on the May 15, 1984 Watchtower have been identified. Previously, we only had the last names of two of the people in that picture.
Watchtower leaders had this group pose for this picture on the cover of their main journal to give credence to their then held belief that those alive from the generation which saw the events of 1914 transpiring (supposedly indicating Christ’s enthronement in heaven as king that year, accompanied by turmoil on the earth) would not pass away before the End of the World. (This teaching has since been revised.) Various friends have helped identify these Bethelites that were pictured and using the Social Security Death Index (a public record) we were able to establish that this representative group from that generation have all passed away. The last member died in 2008.
An updated graphic is below. There is no copyright on this graphic so feel free to re-post and distribute it freely:
For complete coverage, see:
The Bethel “Generation of 1914″
A Memorial to a False Prophecy
