*** Millions Now Living Will Never Die! (book, 1920) pp.89-90 ***

As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase of the kingdom shall be recognized [...] Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the condition of human perfection.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1955 November 15, page 698 ***

Indignant against any wrongdoing toward these, Jehovah at his temple has been a swift witness against persons "that turn aside the sojourner [or, temporary resident] from his right." (Mal. 3:5, AS) Stirring up increasing interest in them, Jehovah caused to be preached from 1918 onward the startling public message "Millions Now Living Will Never Die," and in 1923 he provided the interpretation of "the parable of the sheep and the goats."

[Emphasis Added]

*** The Golden Age (magazine) January 19, 1921 p.240 ***

[An advertisement for the book "Millions Now Living Will Never Die!"]

Do these things appeal to you? Unending human life; perpetual health; [...] no more fear of the landlord, the doctor, the sheriff, the employer, of evil men and angels, of vicious animals, of dependent old age; no more blindness, lameness, deafnes, dumbness; to more bald heads, glass eyes, false teeth, or wooden legs; no more sickness, disease, or pestilience; no more ignorance or superstition; no more sorrow; no more tears!

No, we are not trifling: these things and more are absolutely sure, because they are promosied by the Word of God. The world has already ended, [...] earth's time of restitution, its springtime, begins to count in 1926.

When that time comes, all the above blessing will not come instantaneously, but will come speedily on those who live through the next five or six years of trouble.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1997 January 1 p.11 Let All Glorify Jehovah! ***

18 In the early 1920's, a featured public talk presented by Jehovah's Witnesses was entitled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die." This may have reflected overoptimism at that time. But today that statement can be made with full confidence. Both the increasing light on Bible prophecy and the anarchy of this dying world cry out that the end of Satan's system is very, very near!

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 2001 August 1 p.24 Grateful for My Precious Memories! ***

The Bible lecture "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" proved to be a timely witness in our extensive territory. On May 14, 1922, Stanley Rogers, a relative of Pryce Hughes, came from Liverpool to deliver this talk in Chirk, a village just north of our town, and later that evening at The Picture Playhouse in Oswestry. I still have one of the handbills specially printed for that event. During all this time, our little group continued to be strengthened by visits from three traveling overseers --pilgrims as we used to call them-- Herbert Senior, Albert Lloyd, and John Blaney.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Jehovah's Witness -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p.719 Noteworthy Events in the Modern-day History of Jehovah's Witnesses ***

1918 The discourse "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die" is first delivered, on February 24, in Los Angeles, California. On March 31, in Boston, Massachusetts, the talk is entitled "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living Will Never Die"

[Emphasis on word 'Will' in original]

*** Yearbook 1994 p.75 Greece ***

On September 28, 1920, the Simplon-Orient Express pulled into the station at Athens with the Watch Tower Society's second president, J. F. Rutherford, aboard. The newspaper Athina announced his talk on the theme "Millions Now Living Will Never Die." He also spoke on the Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, where Paul had given such an effective witness about 50 C.E. (Acts 17:22-34) Later, Brother Rutherford aptly wrote: "Greece is a priest-ridden country, but we believe the people are awakening to the fact that they have been duped and misled by their blind guides. We believe there is a wide field for a witness to the truth there."

[Emphasis Added]

*** Jehovah's Witness -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom chap. 22 p. 425 Part 2--Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth ***

What an exciting message they proclaimed--"Millions now living will never die!" Brother Rutherford had given a discourse on this subject in 1918. It was also the title of a 128-page booklet published in 1920. From 1920 through 1925, that same subject was featured again and again around the world in public meetings in all areas where speakers were available and in upwards of 30 languages. Instead of saying, as Christendom does, that all good people would go to heaven, this discourse focused attention on the Bible-based hope of eternal life on a paradise earth for obedient mankind. (Isa. 45:18; Rev. 21:1-5) And it expressed the conviction that the time for the realization of that hope was very near.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Revelation! -- It's Grand Climax At Hand, chap. 26 p. 173 God's Sacred Secret--Its Glorious Climax! ***

[Box on page 173]

Highlights of Jehovah's Trumpetlike Judgment Proclamations

[...]

2. 1923 Los Angeles, California: The public talk, "All Nations Now Marching to Armageddon, but Millions Now Living Will Never Die," called on peace-loving "sheep" to abandon the death-dealing sea of humanity.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1954 June 1 p.344 1926 Ushers In a Time of Great Happiness ***

34 Prior to 1926 Jehovah's people had very little in the way of equipment to work with. The seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures had served their purpose and were going out of stock. Booklets on "Hell" and "Our Lord's Return" also had served their purpose and were obsolete as far as requirements for Kingdom-announcing work were concerned. The later booklets Talking with the Dead? and Millions Now Living Will Never Die! served their purpose. The booklet Talking with the Dead? was a fine instrument to defend people from the attack of spiritism, then flooding the earth and causing many to try to communicate with their dead at the close of World War I; while the booklet Millions Now Living Will Never Die! vividly presented the Kingdom as a reality yet to come, with its grand possibilities of living forever on earth under that glorious government.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1955 April 15 p.236 Part 8: International Attempt to Destroy Society Fails ***

Courageously carrying forward their work against mounting odds, the band of valiant ones on March 15, 1918, released a new, newspaper-size, two-page tract, Kingdom News No. 1, headed "Religious Intolerance--Pastor Russell's Followers Persecuted Because They Tell the People the Truth--Treatment of Bible Students Smacks of the 'Dark Ages.'" Millions of this tract were distributed, exposing the clergy-inspired persecution of these zealous preachers in Germany, Canada and the United States. This tract furthermore advertised the historic lecture to be delivered March 24, 1918, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music by the Society's president, entitled "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die!" Three thousand heard this important lecture.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1955 May 15 pp.296-297 Part 10: Modern Restoration of True Worship (1919-1932) ***

[...] The campaign with the new book Millions Now Living Will Never Die! was vigorously carried on at this time, necessitating the printing and distribution of large quantities of copies of it. On this same subject public lectures, together with much newspaper advertising, were conducted the world over. In fact the campaign was so impressive that the title itself is still a byword among many in America and Europe to this day.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1963 May 15 p.294 Taking Liberties with the Truth ***

Then again, truths may be stated in such a way as to imply a false conclusion, which is another way of playing free or taking liberties with the truth. Thus one William J. Whalen, a Roman Catholic "layman," who advertises himself as an authority on Jehovah's witnesses, and even boasts of his being objective in his appraisal of them, that is, to be honest and free from emotional bias in discussing them, stated in a magazine article regarding the former president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, "Though he coined the watchword, 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die,' the judge died in 1942."

Now, both statements are true. Rutherford did coin that statement and he did die in 1942. But what is not true is the implication expressed by the word "though," as if Rutherford expected to be one of those "millions." As Whalen well knows, the witnesses of Jehovah teach that there is one salvation for all those exercising faith in Jesus Christ, but two destinies, an earthly one and a heavenly one. The heavenly one, which is for Jesus Christ and the members of his "bride," is limited to 144,000, and to gain that destiny it is necessary that one die. Rutherford had the hope of realizing that destiny and so expected to die. The "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" slogan he applied only to the "great crowd" of "other sheep," mentioned in the Scriptures at Revelation 7:9 and John 10:16, whose destiny is an earthly paradise. Therefore it is palpably dishonest, a taking of liberties with the truth, for a man who professes to be an authority on Jehovah's witnesses and claims to be writing objectively, so to misrepresent matters, as though Rutherford himself expected to be one of the 'millions now living that will never die.'

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1966 February 15 p. 117 Identifying the Present-Day Beneficiaries ***

7 World War I dragged on for years, and the remnant were persecuted as never before, but they saw no "great multitude" come en masse out of the many religious systems of Christendom. Then, as World War I neared its climax, on Sunday, February 24, 1918, the then president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society delivered in Los Angeles, California, the talk "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die." It held out a hope of never dying off the earth but of surviving the "great tribulation" that had begun on the earth, clear through the battle of Armageddon and into the new order of things under God's heavenly kingdom by Christ. This talk did not identify the earthly survivors of Armageddon as being the "great multitude" of Revelation 7:9 (AV). It considered them just as people in general who are devoted to righteousness, even though they were not dedicated to God or were not spirit-begotten.

8 Five years later, in the same city of Los Angeles, on Sunday, August 26, 1923, the same speaker addressed an audience of more than 30,000 on the subject "All Nations Marching to Armageddon, But Millions Now Living Will Never Die." This speech was the climax to an eight-day convention of Jehovah's people. On the previous afternoon he spoke to the convention on Jesus' parable of the "Sheep and Goats" as given in Matthew 25:31-46. In this talk he identified the "sheep" class as being the earthly class that will survive Armageddon into God's new order under the heavenly kingdom. At the close of the talk he read and moved adoption of a Resolution of seventeen paragraphs, the last of which appealed to the sheeplike people, "that they individually and collectively declare themselves on the side of the Lord and in sympathy with his cause, and be ready to receive the blessings of God's kingdom which he has prepared for them from the foundation of the world." However, no specific effort was made to gather such "sheep."

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1967 August 1 p.473 Joys, Trials and Blessings in the Service of Our God ***

"MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE"

The following year, 1920, the theme "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" was proclaimed in Germany as in so many other parts of the world. The German booklet bearing that title was released and public lectures on the subject were presented wherever a hall could be engaged. I can well remember following up the lectures with distribution of the booklet, and keeping record of people who manifested interest. Handbills and placards advertised the talks. One night I had the privilege of pasting signs on traffic centers throughout Leipzig. How satisfying to see the Alberthalle, largest lecture hall we could get, crowded out by an audience of 4,000, many of whom had to stand!

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1968 July 15 p. 438 Determined to Praise Jehovah ***

So much did I appreciate the advancement in Bible knowledge that I was making with the aid of these Watch Tower publications, I decided to send for $100 worth of literature in Greek and English. I determined to do my best to share in praising Jehovah by interesting others in such a wonderful, enlightening message. Soon I was passing out such timely publications as Millions Now Living Will Never Die, Can the Living Talk with the Dead?, and Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation. I was right at home in restaurants, and so these were the first places I would go to find other Greeks.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1983 July 1 p.18 The Live Men of Faith Who Will Never Die ***

3 Men and women of this 20th century were alerted to this remarkable hope on Sunday, February 24, 1918, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. There for the first time the then president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society gave the public address entitled "The World Has Ended . . . Millions Now Living May Never Die." This was at the very time when World War I, which had sucked in the United States of America, was nearing its climax. Further delivery of that epoch-making Bible lecture was interrupted, especially when shortly afterward, on May 8, 1918, the president of the Watch Tower Society and seven associates of his at the Brooklyn, New York, headquarters were arrested.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Yearbook 1975 p.127 United States of America (Part Two) ***

THE "MILLIONS CAMPAIGN"

Contributing to disciple-making work in those days was a new preaching activity--the "Millions Campaign." It featured distribution of the 128-page book Millions Now Living Will Never Die, placed with the people on a contribution of 25c a copy. The book was used in conjunction with a public-speaking program that began on September 25, 1920, and that centered around a lecture (originally entitled "The World Has Ended--Millions Now Living May Never Die") given by J. F. Rutherford in Los Angeles on February 24, 1918, and published in the new book in 1920.

In retrospect, Lester L. Roper says: "Then came my time for a public talk on the subject 'Lift Up a Standard for the People, Millions Now Living That Will Never Die.' I was accustomed to dealing with the public, but that was different. I felt the floor would come up and hit me in the face any time. And I guess it did take intestinal fortitude, as then we had only a very small number in the truth in all the world--and to tell them 'Millions now living would never die'!"

Millions Now Living Will Never Die eventually was translated and published in various languages. Unlike the "pastoral work," which had consisted of lending books to the people, copies of the "Millions" book were placed with them on a contribution, and interested persons could later obtain volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. The "Millions Campaign" lasted for some time, and a great witness was given by this means. Newspaper notices and billboards with the words "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" were used to bring it to public attention. So extensive was the campaign that the slogan has been remembered through the years.

Recalling the effect of the "Millions Campaign," Rufus Chappell writes: "We had offered the publication Millions Now Living Will Never Die in and around Zion [Illinois] and the results were of interest. I remember a large, flashing electric sign over the Waukegan Dry Cleaners building on North Sheridan Road about five miles from Zion, which said, 'We Dye for the Millions Now Living Who Will Never Die.' This was a very popular subject at that time, and many people had questioned the phrase and learned the truth from this publication."

[Emphasis Added]