Three Worlds; or Plan of Redemption

"The Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World; or Plan of Redemption" was a 197 page book published by Nelson H. Barbour And Charles Taze Russell in 1877.

The title page read as follows: "THREE WORLDS, and The Harvest of this World.—A Brief Review of the Bible Plan of Redemption, Which Spans Three Worlds: “The World That Was,” “The World That Now Is,” and “The World to Come;” with the Evidences That We Are Now in the “Time of Harvest,” Or, Closing Work of the Gospel Age." This wording was based on the King James Bible translation of 2 Peter 3:6,7.

Contents of the Book

The book combined the two author's beliefs; mainly the combination of theological restitution with bible time prophecies. Though these subjects had been presented before the publishing of the book, C.T. Russell felt the book was: "the first to "combine" the idea of restitution with time-prophecy."

The idea was presented that Christ's second presence began in the year 1874 C.E., and would be followed by a forty year harvest period. This harvest period would be followed by the end of the times of the Gentiles(King James Version) or the appointed times of the nations mentioned in Luke 21:24. It was presented that the seven times found in the bible book Daniel Chapter 4 was the beginning of these gentile times, spanning two thousand five hundred twenty years beginning in 606 B.C.E. By their calculation they believed the end of the gentile times to be the year 1914 C.E. The book explained it this way:“Hence, it was in B.C. 606, that God’s kingdom ended, the diadem was removed, and all the earth given up to the Gentiles. 2520 years from B.C. 606 will end in A.D. 1914, or forty years from 1874; and this forty years upon which we have now entered is to be such ‘a time of trouble as never was since there was a nation.’ And during this forty years, the kingdom of God is to be set up (but not in the flesh, ‘the natural first and afterwards the spiritual’), the Jews are to be restored, the Gentile kingdoms broken in pieces ‘like a potter’s vessel,’ and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and the judgment age introduced.”—Three Worlds or Plan of Redemption, pp. 83, 189.

The belief that the gentile times ended in 1914 C.E. is still held by Jehovah's Witnesses today.