1 CLOSE OF THE GENERAL CALL - 1881

Bro Russell pointed out clearly the event that marked the ending of the
70 weeks (490 Years) of Daniel's prophecy in AD 36 -- the conversion of
Cornelius, when the Gentiles began to be received into God's covenant
favor. He set forth clearly additionally the 1845-year parallel in volume
2, page 235 and volume 3, page 217-18.

"As in the type the date, 3 1/2 years after Jesus' death, marked the end of
all special favor to the Jew... so we recognize 1881 as marking... the
close of the High Calling."

Thus this date, October 1881, and the conjoined closing of the general
call to the High Calling is very significant and important to God's people
since then, in that it affects the hopes and eventual standing in God's
arrangement and reward in the Kingdom of many of them, though comparatively
few are aware of this. The end of the general call did not mean however,
that the door of opportunity to enter into the Body of Christ was then
forever closed to new entrants. Bro Russell states in volume 3, page 361 "
that the call proper ended in October 1881, while a period would follow
during which, though the general call had ceased, in order to supply the
places of some already among the called who, under trial, will be found
unworthy of the crowns allotted to them when accepting the call." Indeed, all 144,000 were in in a probationary sense in 1878... and the 3.5 years that followed were the special testing time on these brethren. By the Fall of 1881 a significant number of them had proven unworthy and were cast aside and others began to be called in to take their places.