ABSTRACT
Few homeowners have failed to see a Jehovah's Witness at their front door. Well trained in their Theocratic Ministry Schools, Witnesses calmly announce that God's Kingdom will soon rule the earth. If pressed about the specific date for the Millennium's arrival, they often reply that only Jehovah God knows the precise time but that the end will surely come within the lifetime of the generation which witnessed the events of 1914. Yet it was 1914 that was originally to see the glorious New Order, according to the Watchtower's founder Charles Taze Russell. Indeed, within their history Jehovah's Witnesses have often set specific dates for the coming of the Apocalypse. Far from destroying the movement, the disconfirmation of these prophecies revealed the distinctive strength of the Watchtower to withstand fundamental challenges to its faith. While their growth far exceeds that of mainline American churches, Jehovah's Witnesses have not attracted the widespread public or scholarly attention that many less dynamic denominations receive. Yet their responses to failed predictions are intriguing, for they depart not only from conventional wisdom but from widely held academic theories concerning reactions to disconfirmed prophecy.
