Am 31. Mai 1935 gab der Präsident der Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, auf einem Kongress in Washington, D.C., bekannt, dass die große Volksmenge überhaupt keine himmlische, sondern eine irdische Klasse sei; die Änderung wurde im Wachtturm vom 1. und 15. August 1935 veröffentlicht.

“These flashes of prophetic light prepared the ground for the historic discourse on “The Great Multitude,” given May 31, 1935, by the president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, at the Washington, D.C., convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

“In 1935 a bright flash of light revealed that the great crowd mentioned at Revelation 7:9-17 was not a secondary heavenly class. It had been thought that the ones mentioned in those verses were some of the anointed who had not been fully faithful and so were standing before the throne instead of sitting on thrones reigning as kings and priests with Jesus Christ.”