Watchtower Scrambles As Jehovah's Witnesses Doubt 'The End' Is Near

A recent morning worship talk posted to jw.org opens with a question Watch Tower now knows its members are asking: "Why hasn't Jehovah brought it sooner than he has?" The speaker, Christopher Mayver, a helper to the Governing Body's Service Committee, didn't say some people wonder. He said "we wonder." That means active Jehovah's Witnesses are already asking it, and Watch Tower knows they are.

Watch Tower has told Witnesses to be patient for as long as I can remember. That part isn't new. What's new is how openly the organization talks about people running out of patience, and how openly believers say it themselves. The talk is Watch Tower's response to two things happening at once: members who no longer believe the end is near, and a rapid-fire series of rule changes that is rattling the people in the seats. The fix it offers is the same one they've always offered: wait longer, don't ask questions, stay close to the organization.

Active Witnesses Are Running Out of Patience

Ten days before the talk went up, a believer posted this on JW Talk, a forum meant for active Jehovah's Witnesses, where you're supposed to be an active member to get an account:

I wonder if we are being fooled and this system never going to end. Seems like we grasping for anything to be it and the sun comes up and the sun goes down. I'm getting tired of it. Either do it or don't.

My professional background as a software developer in the marketing space has taught me that for every person who posts a comment or review, a huge number are thinking the same thing and not saying it. You see it on my YouTube channel: compare the number of views to the number of upvotes to the number of comments. Very few people say what they're thinking in public. If that Witness was willing to post it, a great many others are thinking it. That's especially true in a religion that punishes dissent the way Watch Tower does.

Look at how the forum responded. One of the site's volunteer staff, an active Witness and not a Watch Tower official, replied the same night in the way Watch Tower would:

This is not Jehovah's fault. It's the fault of impatient, imperfect, eager, tired, hurting people yearning for this system to end.

Ten days later, the morning worship talk carried the same message: it's not Jehovah's fault, it's you.

The second half of Mayver's opening line matters just as much as the first: "things are going so fast that it's hard to keep up even with ourselves." Almost eight minutes into his talk, Mayver reveals what is going so fast, and it isn't the world. It's the organization.

I was born and raised in the religion, and here is my read on the whole talk. Watch Tower's hold on Jehovah's Witnesses has always been the claim that the end is near. The end is so close, so give us your time, your career, your lack of education, your retirement. The people in the Kingdom Hall seats just aren't believing it anymore. It's been too long. The boy has cried wolf too many times. At the same time, the organization keeps changing the rules, and that rattles Witnesses too. Watch Tower may not want to change those rules, but it has gotten into so much hot water in courts and governments around the world that it doesn't really have a choice.

Impatience Is Compared to Adam, Saul, and the Israelites

Mayver opens by warning how dangerous impatience is:

The one who is slow to anger has great discernment, but the impatient one displays his foolishness.

That's Proverbs 14:29. He then offers what he calls warning examples:

We have Adam and Eve, for instance. They hastily took matters into their own hands without consulting with Jehovah, and we know what the results of that are. We think of also King Saul, who impatiently disobeyed Jehovah instead of waiting for Samuel to help him worship Jehovah. He lost his kingship because of that. We think of the ancient Israelites. They became impatient with Moses and Jehovah in the wilderness and they lost out on entering into the promised land.

Look at who he's comparing people to. Adam and Eve, in Watch Tower theology the cause of the fall. King Saul, who didn't remain faithful. The Israelites who died in the wilderness for lack of faith. These are the people he lines up with someone who asks, "If the end is near, why isn't it here?" after decades of being told by Watch Tower that it is very near.

What Mayver leaves out is where that impatience came from. Witnesses didn't invent the idea that the end was around the corner. It didn't come out of the rank and file in some standard congregation. They were taught it by Watch Tower, in talks exactly like this one. In fact, Mayver himself gave a talk in 2018 that created the kind of impatience he now says Witnesses shouldn't have:

Jehovah is telling us today to stop, look, and listen. Look around you. Discern the times that we're living in. We're living in the last days. The end is very near. The great tribulation is about to take place. Now, today we are receiving a very clear message from Jehovah God's organization through Jesus Christ and through the faithful and discreet slave that the great tribulation is imminent.

Imminent is the word he chose, and he said it was what Jehovah has been telling them through his word and his organization. Now the same man quotes "the impatient one displays his foolishness." He told Witnesses it was imminent and about to take place. They believed him, and now asking why it hasn't happened is foolish?

Why Watch Tower Gets Scared When Witnesses Get Impatient

When Jehovah's Witnesses get impatient, Watch Tower gets scared. The August 2023 Watchtower spells out what happens:

If we were to become impatient, we might get tired of waiting and start drifting away from the truth.

"The truth" is what they call the religion. The organization has the truth and nobody else does. The real danger Watch Tower sees isn't a danger to the individual Witness but to the organization. People get tired, stop supporting it financially or with their labor, and leave. A Witness who stops believing the end is close stops having any reason to put up with everything else Watch Tower throws on them.

"Jehovah's Day, and Not Ours": The Verse Watch Tower Uses When the End Doesn't Come

Mayver's next move is to appeal to another scripture:

Proverbs 16:20 says, "The one who shows insight in a matter will find success. And happy is the one trusting in Jehovah." So, we have to stop and think about Jehovah's thinking... 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12. There it says that we await and keep close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah. Did you notice the point there? It's Jehovah's day, and not ours.

This is not the first time Watch Tower has used that verse when the end didn't come. In 1975, Witnesses were expecting the end because the organization had spent years building up to it. It strongly implied the end was coming in 1975, which of course it didn't. It took five years, but the March 15, 1980 Watchtower finally addressed the disappointment. It conceded that some of what it said about 1975 sounded more like a probability than a mere possibility. That's about as close as Watch Tower has ever come to owning a failed prophecy. Then, to settle people down, it reached for this verse:

Peter said that Christians should rightly be awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah. It is not a certain date ahead.

Forty-six years later, the method hasn't changed. When the date fails, 2 Peter 3:12 comes out to remind you that it was never really about the date.

"It's Not a Target Date for Jehovah"

The line I think tells you the most about this entire talk comes next:

Jehovah is the king of eternity... Jehovah has an exact time for bringing his day, for accomplishing his will. Everything has a prescribed time, and nothing can affect it. It's not a target date for Jehovah. He is not affected by a problem in the supply chain, or an inclement weather, or bad political situation.

That made me laugh. It may not be a target date for Jehovah, but for Watch Tower it has been nothing but a series of target dates.

For years, the Awake! magazine carried a promise inside its cover. The October 22, 1995 issue read:

This magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away.

That is a deadline, and they printed it in every issue. The very next issue, November 8, 1995, read:

This magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure new world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things.

The 1914 generation disappeared in the very next issue, with no date mentioned at all. The November 1, 1995 Watchtower that came out with that change described all those years of generation counting this way:

Jehovah's people have at times speculated.

Notice they put it on the rank and file, "Jehovah's people." They don't refer to the leadership, the people who made the predictions and published them on the masthead.

Go back further. The May 1, 1971 Watchtower said:

Only approximately 6 years left until the end of 6,000 years of human history.

The May 1974 Kingdom Ministry then praised the people who acted on that:

Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly, this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end.

After it was over, the July 15, 1976 Watchtower told disappointed people that it was not the word of God that failed or deceived them, but that their own understanding was based on wrong premises. They blamed the rank and file. It wasn't their prediction. It wasn't their strong implication. It wasn't their praise for people who sold their homes because there was such a short time left. The organization sets the clock, but when the clock runs out, it blames the members.

Anthony Morris and the Year 2020

That didn't stop in the 1970s. At the 2021 annual meeting, Anthony Morris, a former Governing Body member, told a story about older Witnesses who used to tell his young sons they'd never graduate from school in this system. He said that on the drive home, his sons were troubled and asked whether it was true. His answer:

Look, and let me tell you, these people saying these things were longtime servants. Experienced people. If any of you are guilty, God loves you, he forgives you. If you did that back then, you didn't help anybody. But I'm going to give you a big confession... I told them, I said, "Look, you boys remember, you got to keep on the watch. This thing could go on and be ready for it to go to 2020." Honest. I mean, we're talking almost 40 years. Almost 40 years. I felt pretty safe with that.

He picked a year he thought was safe, and he's telling the story after 2020 with the end not having come. Look again at where he places the blame. The longtime servants who believed it are the ones who need forgiving. There's no mention of the organization that printed "only approximately 6 years left" and then praised people for selling their houses and pioneering.

Even true believers see through this. In August, on that same forum, one of the forum staff floated the idea that maybe Jehovah doesn't have a set date at all and said that would be easy to accept. An active member answered:

If there were such an adjustment, we should roll with it, but I think many would be stumbled. It would feel as if we really don't know anything.

That's the problem with the "exact time" claim. If there's no fixed date, then everything Watch Tower has pushed, the urgency, the sacrifice, "the end is very near," starts to look like they never knew anything at all. They were guessing. And that's actually correct. They don't know, and if you're a believing Christian you already know why they can't. Jesus himself said that nobody knows the day or the hour, not even him, but only God. As a believer, the only thing anyone could do, including Jehovah's Witnesses, is live according to their beliefs and principles and wait on God to act when he's ready. Maybe it happens soon, maybe it doesn't. Banking on what would happen and when has left destruction, disappointment, and unnecessary hardship in the lives of millions of rank-and-file Witnesses. Yet Watch Tower is still trying to convince people the end is near.

The Astronaut Illustration and the Overlapping Generations Teaching

Mayver next quotes three scriptures about speed (Habakkuk 2:3, Zephaniah 1:14, and Revelation 22:20) and then turns to time itself with an illustration:

Perhaps we could think of the astronauts that are in the International Space Station. You know, they do one orbit of the Earth every 90 minutes. So, within a 24-hour period, they experience 16 sunrises and sunsets. Now, how do they keep track of time and avoid becoming anxious or confused about what to do and what time it is?... Well, they have a standard for time, and that is the Greenwich Mean Time. Though they speed around the globe, they do not get confused as to what their real time is... Well, in a very similar way, what is real time for you and me? Our real time is Jehovah's time. Jehovah has given us enough insight regarding where we are in the stream of time so that we can stay in step with him and also see how quickly Jehovah's day is coming.

The trouble with the analogy is that Greenwich Mean Time doesn't get adjusted every time the astronauts notice it's wrong.

And what is the "insight" about where we are in the stream of time? It used to be the 1914 generation, but that was jettisoned from the Awake! masthead in 1995. What's left is what the April 15, 2010 Watchtower introduced: that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who had seen the start of the Great Tribulation. Yes, the infamous overlapping generations teaching. Two groups stretched across more than a century, put together as one generation to keep the 1914 clock running.

Believing Witnesses know how that sounds. In September on JW Talk, one of the forum staff wrote:

People living in 1914 are all dead, so it needs to either mean something else or point to a different starting date.

Another staff member put it even more bluntly:

The previous understanding we had for most of last century was simple and easy to understand. Unfortunately, it was incorrect. We're running out of ways to define generation.

Think about how significant that is. People who believe enough in Watch Tower's doctrines to run a forum for believing Witnesses, on their own time, are pretty much admitting the overlapping generations concept is nonsense and Watch Tower needs to admit it was wrong. And this comes from some of the religion's strongest defenders.

Four Generations Who Expected the End

Watch Tower has been reading "rushing toward its end" and "approaching very quickly" to Witnesses for generations, literally. At that same 2021 annual meeting, Morris read a letter from a longtime supporter of the faithful slave:

I come from a long line of people who believed in keeping an expectation of the end. My mother died just last year. And she always felt that the end was close at hand. She just knew that she would live to see it, but she didn't. She had first learned the truth from her mother-in-law, my grandmother, an anointed Christian who often told me that she hoped to see the end come in her lifetime. She didn't. She had learned the truth from her mother who died when I was a teenager and firmly believed she would see the end in her lifetime. She didn't. And she, my great grandmother, had learned the truth from her mother-in-law who died long before I was born and surely felt the same way about seeing the end. She didn't. And here I am now in my seventh decade of life firmly believing that I will see the end very soon. So, what does that mean? That I'm just another one in a long line of delusional people?

He went on to give two reasons why not. The first:

The evidence that the end is near keeps growing. I've seen signs of the end that even my mother never saw, such as the recent pandemic.

The second was that each family member who served Jehovah led a good, productive, useful life. He closed by saying:

I can hardly wait to tell my mother just how close the end was when she finally closed her eyes.

Four generations, each one completely sure, and each one incorrect. As for the first reason, every one of those four generations had its own signs and was just as sure. Look at the two World Wars, which Witnesses really believed were sure signs. As for the second, I believe his family lived good, useful lives. But that answers a different question. Nobody is asking whether his grandmother was a good person. The question is whether the promise she was given was true. Watch Tower aired this as a faith builder despite its many predictive failures.

Here's someone in that same situation right now. On JW Talk on October 8, an 82-year-old Witness wrote about sorting through the furniture in his retirement apartment after losing his wife earlier this year:

At some point in time, if the new system does not arrive before then, my son will have to decide what to do with the furniture.

He added that many, including himself, had thought the end would come in 1975.

The organization knows people like him exist, and it's writing for them. The November 2025 Watchtower, in an article dedicated to older Witnesses, says:

Perhaps you are saddened by the possibility that the end of this system will not come in your lifetime.

Watch Tower had to write that to people who were once told the end would come before they finished high school, because now they're all very old.

The Whirlwind of Changes Behind "Things Are Going So Fast"

Mayver then moves to the second thing making Witnesses anxious:

In the meantime, Jehovah has given us plenty to do in the work of the Lord. And it's hard to keep up with it, isn't it? Today, we're experiencing a whirlwind of activity in the organization that we have never seen before. Really, we're seeing the fulfillment of Isaiah 60:22, where it says the little one has become a thousand, and Jehovah is speeding up the work.

"Hard to keep up with" is a serious understatement, and "a whirlwind of activity in the organization that we have never seen before" is also true. But ask any Witness what is going so fast that it's hard to keep up with, and they won't say the preaching work. They'll say the doctrinal and organizational changes. In just three years:

• Publishers have stopped having to report their hours in the ministry.
• Brothers can wear beards.
• Sisters can wear pants to the Kingdom Hall.
• Ties aren't always required for brothers.
• The "judicial committee" phrase was retired.
• Witnesses can say hello to someone who has been disfellowshipped as long as they come to the meeting, and can invite them to the meeting.
• Toasting became a conscience matter.
• Higher education became a conscience matter.
• A person's own blood became a personal decision in March. You can store it and use it in surgery later.
• In September, the four main components of blood became a conscience matter, which effectively means the vast majority of blood transfusions are now sanctioned by Watch Tower.

At the annual meeting on October 3, Jeffrey Winder of the Governing Body listed these changes. The question he asked right afterward is the telling part:

Jehovah's confidence in us is reflected in the responsibility he entrusts to us... in the field ministry, publishers are no longer reporting their activity anymore. How we deal with ones who have been removed from the congregation. Might we call one and invite them to the meeting? If they come, will we say a greeting? Well, each Christian must decide. Similarly, each Christian decides whether they will pursue additional education, whether they will toast or clink the glasses... So, in March, Governing Body update number two, the use of one's own blood in medical procedures and treatments is something that must be decided by each Christian. And then, just 2 weeks ago, Governing Body update number six, Christians must decide whether they would accept or donate any of the four main components of blood in medical and surgical care... But it raises some questions. How important are these decisions that are left to each Christian to decide? How does a Christian approach making a conscience matter decision? And how can we protect our precious unity when adjustments like these are made?

You don't ask a question like that about unity that is safe and secure.

Here is how people on the inside are reacting. On JW Talk after the blood update, a Witness who says they've served nearly 50 years wrote:

I must admit this announcement has left me crying several times through the day. I feel like this entire world is simply too much for my mind and heart to comprehend and cope with.

Another active member wrote:

No one knows what is going to change the following day. Just imagine defending the blood position strongly a day before the update was released.

Another:

I like changes, too, but too many changes too often is not good for anything.

Another listed them the way you'd list the stops on a ride: blood, beards, dress code, generation, anti-types for removal. These are all believing, active Witnesses on a forum where that thread was held for moderation, so we can only assume many posts never made it through. These people are shaken.

Is the Work Really "Speeding Up"?

Mayver calls all this the fulfillment of Isaiah 60:22 and says "the little one has become a thousand." The Bible actually says "will become." "Has become" is an old Watchtower headline. The January 1, 2000 Watchtower said, "Hundreds of thousands are added each year," and that was true. That year Watch Tower reported about 289,000 baptisms. In 2025, it reported only about the same number of baptisms, even though there were more than 3 million more Witnesses doing the preaching. How is that the work speeding up?

To be fair, Watch Tower's headline count is at a record high. It reported a peak of 9.2 million publishers in 2025, the highest it has ever had. But "speeding up" is a claim about acceleration, so look at the pace. By Watch Tower's own figures, the organization grew almost 6% a year in the 1980s. Over the last 10 years it has grown only about 1% a year, and it has been slower every decade in between. In the United States, baptisms are down 34% since 2014, and Bible studies are down 40% since 2016.

Then listen to how the organization itself uses "speeding up the work" lately. At the 2024 annual meeting, Winder read the same verse and said that because Jehovah is speeding up the work, there is a need for more workers. But he was recruiting for Bethel and construction, not the preaching work. At this year's annual meeting, two years later, Bethel volunteers were told they'd be reviewed at ages 30, 40, and 50 because, in the speaker's words, Bethel work continues to simplify. Even the 2024 Pioneer School textbook says, "Today, we see the kingdom preaching work speeding up with pioneers at the very forefront." On the same page, it admits it has become increasingly difficult in some lands to find people at home.

So no, the little one hasn't become a thousand. The whirlwind isn't growth. It's just change.

Mayver's Answer: Stay Close to the Organization

What Mayver wants you to do about it:

Now, more than ever, it's imperative for us to stay close to Jehovah's organization so that we can stay in sync with his timing of things. Keeping alert to flashes of spiritual light that come to us by means of the faithful and discreet slave.

That's his answer to both problems. Tired of waiting? Stay close to the organization. Rattled by the changes? Stay close and watch for flashes of spiritual light, which just means more changes to come.

Here is what "stay close" means when the cameras are only on Bethel. This is from a Bethel morning worship talk on October 6, three days after the annual meeting. This one was never posted to jw.org:

Be obedient to those who are taking the lead among you and be submissive. That's the encouragement. Now, that may be put to the test when the ship takes an unexpected turn. But, we obey the new direction because we have trust and confidence in those taking the lead... Now, what does it mean in that verse when it says, "Be submissive"? There's a very interesting comment in the study notes. Notice what it says. It says it can include the idea of doing something even when one is not inclined to do it or remains unconvinced. So, what do we do if the faithful slave speaks the word of God and yet we are not convinced by the reasoning or are not initially inclined to adopt a change in direction? We certainly don't want to remain unconvinced... Don't be quick to argue. Don't argue against the instruction or query divine instruction. Make sure we get it clear, even if we don't immediately understand it or we struggle with a change of direction.

The speaker then offered an example of "new light" from 1925, when the March 1 Watchtower, titled "Birth of the Nation," presented a new understanding of Revelation chapter 12 that differed from what Brother Russell had presented. A brother's words were put on screen:

We sat down and studied it all night until I could understand it very well, and it was a great blessing for me because many of the brothers left the truth at that time. That was a lesson to me to watch out that I didn't lose the truth, but to stick to the faithful slave class, as that was Jehovah's instrument to help us learn his word.

Watch Tower wouldn't say these things to Bethelites, the people supposed to be the most devout, if it didn't have serious problems with this. And the example it picked to make the point was one where, in a brother's words, "many of the brothers left the truth." Watch Tower is fully aware that people leave when it changes doctrines and policies. It said so out loud at Bethel. Publicly it comes out softer: stay close, stay in sync.

It isn't just Bethel. In December 2023, the announcement sent to bodies of elders along with the beard update said:

Any who seek to run ahead of the chariot trying to force change prematurely or who lag behind it hesitating to support changes that have come from the faithful slave are not keeping pace with Jehovah's organization.

This month, congregations studying the meeting workbook have a part titled "Keep Pace with Jehovah's celestial chariot." You can't get ahead of their changes, and you can't be right in advance, which has happened too. You also can't fall behind. Either one is bad. You move when they move, or, as we say colloquially, you jump when they say jump.

"You Are Not Able to Bear Them Now"

That sets up the last thing Mayver wants to address: the future, and the changes you can't see yet, because more are coming.

And do we need to be concerned about how future events will unfold and what will happen and how we will get through the great tribulation? Well, here's another principle to keep in mind. John chapter 16 and verse 12. Notice what Jesus told his disciples. He says, "I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now." So, Jehovah gives us what we need right now to stay in step with him. We should not worry about what may come in the future. Jehovah will help us understand these things when we need to understand them.

Mayver frames that around the great tribulation. But consider where it sits in the talk: right after the whirlwind, right after "flashes of spiritual light." And the verse he chooses is about things you couldn't handle if you heard them right now. He doesn't say more changes are coming. He doesn't have to.

In 1979, the July 1 Watchtower used John 16:12 to explain the corresponding need for God's servants to correct and adjust their viewpoint. It added:

Too much light too soon can be shocking, perhaps even damaging.

Clearly they forgot about that.

There is also a public talk outline dated October 2001 that is still in the outline set issued in 2022, and it reads almost like a script for Mayver's ending. It says to not take the attitude that Jehovah is delaying, and to stay close to Jehovah's organization as information is progressively revealed on how to survive Armageddon. Twenty-five years later, they're still making the same two points: don't think God is delaying the end even though it doesn't come, and just stay close and we'll tell you what you need to know when you need to know it.

Believing Witnesses feel that coming. After the blood update, an active member on JW Talk wrote:

I think about the brothers who have been serving Jehovah for 40 or 50 years. I imagine that changes like this must be harder for them. And I also think about the changes that may be coming in the future.

Another wrote:

When there are additional changes that come, some of us could really be stumbled and really messed up.

"We should not worry about what may come in the future." But the people in the seats are already worried, and they're saying so out loud on a Witness-only forum.

"Jehovah Keeps Us in Real Time"

Mayver closes this way:

That's the way Jesus' disciples learned. After Jesus ascended to heaven and he sent the helper, the Holy Spirit, then they understood all things. And they also understood how to survive the destruction of Jerusalem. Clear direction was given to them at that time. They were always able to keep in step with Jehovah and the progression of his purpose. And the same is true for us today. By means of God's spirit-directed organization, Jehovah keeps us in real time so that we can keep in step with his purpose. Having this insight then can help us control our feelings and any sense of impatience anxiety. We thus can remain calm and patient because we know that Jehovah's day will come and he will give us the real life that he has promised.

Watch Tower doesn't operate on real time. It's a clock that gets reset every time it's supposed to run out, and the people who notice get told they're impatient, like Saul, like the Israelites in the wilderness, like Adam and Eve.

Here's why this matters so much to them. The end being near is the only real reason a Witness would give up their career, their education, their retirement, and their weekends. If the end stops feeling near, all of that just feels like an expensive mistake. So when people get tired, the organization doesn't give them a better answer. It gives them a tighter leash: stay close, don't argue, don't worry about the future.

The Witness on JW Talk who wrote "I'm getting tired of it. Either do it or don't" is not a foolish person. They believed what they were told and gave their life to it. Being tired after nothing happened isn't a character flaw. It's what happens when you're promised something over and over and it never comes, the logical, rational response to the boy crying wolf one too many times. And somewhere in a retirement apartment, an 82-year-old Witness who expected the end in 1975 is sorting through the furniture for a son to deal with if the new system doesn't come first.