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Doctrine changes · Claim record

On 31 May 1935, at a convention in Washington, D.C., the Watch Tower Society's president J. F. Rutherford announced that the great crowd was not a heavenly class at all but an earthly one, and the change was published in The Watchtower of 1 and 15 August 1935.

Claim ID claim-doctrine-chg-great-crowd-1935-earthlyConcerns 31 May 1935Explicit statement
Explicit statement · 31 May 1935 Verified

On 31 May 1935, at a convention in Washington, D.C., the Watch Tower Society's president J. F. Rutherford announced that the great crowd was not a heavenly class at all but an earthly one, and the change was published in The Watchtower of 1 and 15 August 1935. The Watchtower, 1 March 1985The Watchtower, 15 May 1995

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation calls the 1935 talk “the historic discourse” and “a bright flash of light”.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Shedding Forth Light Amidst Earth’s Gloom”

1 March 1985 · p.14 · par. 12 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“These flashes of prophetic light prepared the ground for the historic discourse on “The Great Multitude,” given May 31, 1935, by the president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, at the Washington, D.C., convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

Fixes the date and occasion of the 1935 change and notes that it was published in The Watchtower of 1 and 15 August 1935.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Document opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; the wording was read in full and the page number taken from the library's own page markers.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-d-w-1985-0301-1935-discourse

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Part 1—Flashes of Light—Great and Small”

15 May 1995 · p.20 · par. 18 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“In 1935 a bright flash of light revealed that the great crowd mentioned at Revelation 7:9-17 was not a secondary heavenly class. It had been thought that the ones mentioned in those verses were some of the anointed who had not been fully faithful and so were standing before the throne instead of sitting on thrones reigning as kings and priests with Jesus Christ.”

A two-part retrospective in which the organisation sets out its own record of changed teachings. This paragraph states the pre-1935 understanding of the great crowd and the 1935 change to an earthly hope.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Document opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; the wording was read in full and the page number taken from the library's own page markers.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-d-w-1995-0515-p1-great-crowd

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-doctrine-chg-great-crowd-1935-earthly/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.