Editing Jehovah's Witnesses (section)

===Further development===
From 1966, Witness publications and convention talks built anticipation of the possibility that Jesus' thousand-year reign might begin in 1975<ref>{{harvnb|Chryssides|2008|page=19}}</ref> or shortly thereafter.<ref name="Penton, 1997, 95" >{{harvnb|Penton|1997|page=95}}</ref>{{sfn|Botting|Botting|1984|page=46}} The number of baptisms increased significantly, from about 59,000 in 1966 to more than 297,000 in 1974. By 1975, the number of active members exceeded two million. From 1971 to 1981, there was a net increase of 737,241 publishers worldwide, while baptisms totaled 1.71 million for the same period.<ref name="Stark">{{cite journal|journal=[[Journal of Contemporary Religion]]|title=Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow So Rapidly: A Theoretical Application |url=http://www.kotiposti.net/raamattu/jt/doc/study-why-jw-grow-so-rapidly.pdf |year=1997|pages=142–143|access-date=July 16, 2013|author=Stark and Iannoccone|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412073649/http://www.kotiposti.net/raamattu/jt/doc/study-why-jw-grow-so-rapidly.pdf}}</ref> Watch Tower Society literature did not say that 1975 would definitely mark the end,<ref name="Penton, 1997, 95" /> though it was strongly implied. Frederick Franz, then–president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, stated at a 1975 convention that the [[great tribulation]] could be expected to start by the end of that year. Many Jehovah's Witnesses acted upon this information by quitting their jobs and preaching more fervently. After that prediction failed, ordinary Jehovah's Witness members were blamed for believing in the date rather than the Governing Body acknowledging responsibility. Membership declined significantly for a few years after the failed prediction.{{sfn|Chryssides|2022|pages=120-122}} 

Jehovah's Witnesses have not set any specific dates for the end since 1975. Their publications emphasize that "one cannot know the day or the hour", but they still believe Armageddon to be imminent. Verse 34 of [[Matthew 24]], where Jesus tells his disciples that "this generation will by no means pass away until all these things happen", was interpreted to refer to the generation of people alive in 1914. The initial teaching was that Armageddon would begin before the last person alive during that timeframe had died. The time limit was removed in 1995. This doctrine changed further in 2008, where ''generation'' was interpreted to refer to both the original anointed class and their remnant, the latter of which would be alive when Armageddon began. In 2010, the meaning of ''generation'' was re-interpreted to include individuals whose lives overlapped with anointed individuals alive during 1914.{{sfn|Chryssides|2022|pages=123-125}}