Watchtower material on Parousia topics
Used the term “second coming”
WT Nov 1, 1935 “From and after Pentecost the true followers of Christ Jesus looked for his coming again, and that was the great thing that attracted their attention. It was about 1874 that the true followers of Christ Jesus began to have their attention fixed upon the second coming of Christ Jesus, and thereafter much was published concerning the same. (See The Watchtower, February 1881, pages 3, 4.)”
WT June 15, 1938 “When on earth Jesus gave his great prophecy concerning his second coming and the end of the world (Matthew, chapter twenty-four). Chapter six of The Revelation parallels that prophecy, and is a tableau in which Christ Jesus is the chief actor.”
First mention of parousia in 1914 instead of 1874
WT Sept 15, 1930 “from the beginning of the Lord’s presence in 1874 the Devil used the Papal system as the chief opposing instrument of God’s kingdom and that the Papal system will meet its final destruction at the beginning of the reign of Christ. ”
WT June 15, 1938 “It is Christ Jesus who opens the “seven seals” of the book “in the right hand of him that sat on the throne”, thus proving that no man can open the prophecies; but God permits his men to understand the prophecies after the seals are opened. It does not even follow that a man would understand the prophecies as soon as the seals are open. It can now be seen that the events pictured in the first five seals were fulfilled from A.D. 1914 to 1918, but the meaning thereof man could not understand until after the coming of the Lord to his temple, in 1918. Prior thereto the faithful church had been applying the prophecy of Matthew twenty-four to the events that came to pass from A.D. 1874 to 1914. Not until after 1918 was it understood by the church that these sealed events apply after 1914; and hence the seals were not open to or discerned by the John class, that is to say, by the remnant, until after 1918, and, in fact, very little until after 1922.”
