C.T. Russell's Great Pyramid Scheme

If you've done enough research on the Jehovah's Witnesses and their founder, Charles Taze Russell, you would know that C.T. Russell was a great enthusiast when it comes to the Egyptian pyramids. He referred to the Great Pyramid as "God's stone witness and prophet," claimed to be able to see divine omens in them and wrote about them in his works. Interestingly enough, the Watchtower Society has since then disowned these ideas from their own founder and now views the Great Pyramid as "Satan's bible."

One of the strangest "revelations" that he claimed to have received from the pyramid was that he calculated from the length of the passages the date for the end of the world. Unfortunately for C.T. Russell, the prophecy did not come true, and the Watchtower Society has had to edit its own official publications to cover their tracks. One of the most telling examples of this is from the publication , Thy Kingdom Come. In the original 1897 edition, this is what it says:

So, then, if we measure backward down the "First Ascending Passage" to its junction with the "Entrance Passage," we shall have a fixed date to mark upon the downward passage. This measure is 1542 inches, and indicates the year B.C. 1542, as the date at that point. Then measuring down the "Entrance Passage" from that point, to find the distance to the entrance of the "Pit," representing the the great trouble and destruction with which this age is to close, when evil will be overthrown from power, we find it to be 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years from the above date, B.C. 1542. This calculation shows A.D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years B.C. plus 1874 years A.D. equals 3416 years. Thus the pyramid witnesses that the close of 1874 was the chronological beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation--no, nor shall ever be afterward. (link)

After that whole messy affair with the 1914 prophecy, however, the text in this page was altered, and the 1916 edition now says this:

So, then, if we measure backward down the "First Ascending Passage" to its junction with the "Entrance Passage," we shall have a fixed date to mark upon the downward passage. This measure is 1542 inches, and indicates the year B.C. 1542, as the date at that point. Then measuring down the "Entrance Passage" from that point, to find the distance to the entrance of the "Pit," representing the the great trouble and destruction with which this age is to close, when evil will be overthrown from power, we find it to be 3457 inches, symbolizing 3457 years from the above date, B.C. 1542. This calculation shows A.D. 1915 as marking the beginning of the period of trouble; for 1542 years B.C. plus 1915 years A.D. equals 3457 years. Thus the pyramid witnesses that the close of 1914 was the chronological beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation--no, nor shall ever be afterward. (link)

If C.T. Russell is to believed on this one, then it would mean that the Great Pyramid actually grew by 41 inches since he first measured it! Kidding aside, this is the kind of thing that the Watchtower Society does in order to cover up its tracks. In doing so, however, they expose themselves for what they really are. And what does the bible say about all of this?

But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. You may say in your heart, "How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?" When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)