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Doctrine changes · Claim record

Bible Students wore a cross-and-crown pin as a badge of identification, and the same emblem appeared on the cover of the Watch Tower from 1891 until 1931.

Claim ID claim-doctrine-cross-worn-and-printed-until-1931Concerns 1931Organisation's explanation
Organisation's explanation · 1931 Verified

Bible Students wore a cross-and-crown pin as a badge of identification, and the same emblem appeared on the cover of the Watch Tower from 1891 until 1931. Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, 1993God’s Kingdom Rules!, 2014

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation describes the change as progressive enlightenment: at the 1928 Detroit assembly the pins were ‘shown to be not only unnecessary but objectionable’.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, “Chapter 14: “They Are No Part of the World””

1993 · pp.199-201 · main text p. 199; box ‘Practices That Have Been Abandoned’, pp. 200-201 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“This holiday was celebrated yearly even by members of the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters staff at the Bethel Home in Brooklyn, New York. … For years, Bible Students wore a cross and crown as a badge of identification, and this symbol was on the front cover of the “Watch Tower” from 1891 to 1931. … In their “Daily Manna” book, Bible Students kept a list of birthdays.”

The chapter says the headquarters staff and the British and Swiss branch staffs decided to stop sharing in Christmas festivities, ‘so no Christmas celebration was held there after 1926’. A box headed ‘Practices That Have Been Abandoned’ carries the cross-and-crown and birthday statements, together with a photograph captioned as the last Brooklyn Bethel Christmas celebration, in 1926.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Chapter opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026. The Christmas sentence follows the page 199 marker; the box is labelled in the text itself as ‘[Box/Pictures on page 200, 201]’. The three quoted sentences come from those two places and are separated by ellipses.

Corroborated by. src-chg-p-kr-2014-ch10-refining

Notes. The same box also records the abandonment of the Great Pyramid teaching, which the site covers separately.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-jv-1993-ch14-abandoned

Primary JW publication Verified

God’s Kingdom Rules!, “Chapter 10: The King Refines His People Spiritually”

2014 · pp.102-105 · pars. 8-9, 12-13; boxes on pp. 102 and 105 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Yet, the Bible Students did not at the time clearly see the need to stop celebrating Christmas. It continued to be celebrated even by members of the Brooklyn Bethel family. … For many years, the Bible Students viewed the cross as an acceptable symbol of Christianity. … they proudly wore a cross-and-crown pin as an identifying badge. … Beginning in 1891, a cross-and-crown symbol appeared on the cover of the Watch Tower.”

The chapter dates the Christmas change to the years after 1926, quotes a letter of 14 November 1927 from Frederick W. Franz saying ‘The Bethel family has voted not to have Christmas anymore’, and lists the steps by which the cross was dropped: the 1928 Detroit assembly (‘not only unnecessary but also objectionable’), Preparation (1933) p. 239, The Golden Age of 28 February 1934 p. 336, and The Golden Age of 4 November 1936 p. 72 together with Riches (1936) p. 27 for the teaching that Jesus died on a stake. A separate box gives the earliest references against Easter (1928), Valentine’s Day (1929), birthdays (1936) and New Year’s Day (1946).

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Chapter opened on the Watchtower Online Library and re-opened for audit on 19 September 2026 and read in full. The Christmas sentences follow the page 102 marker; the cross sentences are in paragraph 12, which straddles the page 104 marker, so the first of them is on page 103 and the rest on page 104. The box on other holidays is headed ‘Exposing Other Holidays and Celebrations’ and follows the page 105 marker. Of the publications the chapter cites, only The Golden Age of 4 November 1936 was separately opened.

Corroborated by. src-chg-p-jv-1993-ch14-abandoned, src-chg-p-ga-1936-1104-cross

Notes. The box on other holidays gives the earliest published objection, not the date on which Bible Students stopped observing each one.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-kr-2014-ch10-refining

Claim page

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