Prediction of Armageddon / beginning of the end times for the year 1914 (Q949624)

Russell believed that Christ had returned invisibly in October 1874, and that he had been ruling from heaven since that date. A "time of trouble" began then that would mark a gradual deterioration of civilized society leading up to the end of the "Gentile Times", with a climactic multi-national attack on a restored Israel, worldwide anarchy, and the sudden destruction of all world governments in October 1914. After the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, Russell reinterpreted 1914 as the beginning of Armageddon.