Page "Joseph Franklin Rutherford" Paragraph 29

From 1925 he developed the view of the battle of Armageddon as a universal war waged by God rather than Russell's belief that it was the decline of human society into social, political and religious anarchy.

Rutherford based his interpretations on the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Psalms as well as additional material from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.

An article in the January 1, 1926 Watch Tower introduced new emphasis on the importance of the name " Jehovah "; from 1929 Rutherford taught that the vindication of God's name — which would ultimately occur when millions of unbelievers were destroyed at Armageddon — was the primary doctrine of Christianity and more important than God's display of goodness or grace toward humankind.

In 1932 he published an interpretation of a passage in Ezekiel describing the attack on Jerusalem by Gog of Magog, in which he predicted an intensification of persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses that would culminate in God intervening on their behalf to begin the battle of Armageddon, which would destroy all opposers of God's organization.