Jehovahs Witnesses taught that Armageddon would occur in 1914,1915,1918,1921,1925,1932,1941 and 1975. Who is the father

by Little Imp 33 Replies latest jw friends

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  Bungi Bill

  Nickolas,

  Thanks for that.

  I well remember that speech - recorded copies were played in all the Kingdom Halls shortly afterwards.

  Notice, though, how he cherry-picks his quotes from the 1966 book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God.(pg. 29-35):

  - That book actually went a little bit further than giving Adam's birthday as sometime during the year 1975.

  - It included a certain phrase that left the thought hanging there that Armegeddon would coincide with this.

  - The words "how appropriate it would be " were used to describe the outcome if God were to end the system at the time of Adam's 6000th "birthday."

  Certainly, that is impression that anyone reading that book would have got:

  I know:

  - My mother received a copy of that book, just after it was released. I can remember like it was yesterday her conclusion after she had finished reading it, i.e. "Armegeddon is going to happen in 1975." My mother was by nature a cautious person, who would never make any sort of a remark until she had thoroughly thought the matter through - yet that is what she deduced from what the Watchtower Society said in that publication.

  This was obviously the conclusion the WTS wanted us to arrive at.

  Yet, in his speech of Feb 10, 1975, F.W. Franz tried to have us believe that the Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God book did no more than give 1975 as the 6000th anniversary of Adam's creation.

  It would seem that the rewriting of the history about 1975 started when that year had hardly begun - and has not stopped since!

  Bill.
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  Nickolas

  Let me transpose an exerpt from the speech, complete with Franz's word whiskers, when he talks about the time immediately after Adam's 6,000th birthday:

  "And we should not jump to, ah, wrong decisions on that account and say, well, the time after September 5, 1975 is indefinitely long and so it will allow for me, ah, to realise my, ah, human aspirations. Getting married, raising a family and kids or, ah, ah, going to college for a few years and learning engineering and signing a signed, ah, petition as an engineer, civil engineer or electrical engineer or some other prominent, ah, fine paying job. No! The time does not allow for that, dear friends! The time is short! As the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, ah, chapter 7, ah, and verse 29. The time left is reduced!"

  No ambiguity there. How many lives were ruined by this pathetic man and his corrupt society?
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  The Finger

  My older brother and my brother in-law are about the same age. They have only ever met once briefly at about the age of 30. They went to school 6000 miles or so apart. Unyet both left school as soon as the legal requirement for schooling had been met and entered the pioneering. The one factor in their decision was the teachings of JW as both were raised as witnesses.

  In 1996 when I had a discussion with some Elders about my views of the "truth" one of the points discussed was education and the detrimental effect on many by the teachings of 1975 and the "generation" How this made many make decisions they would not normally have made. The view expressed by the Elders was that it had nothing to do with the organization and was only every a personal decision made with the influence of ones parents.

  Being honest about the situation would have been much better I think, and for me the lack of honesty is the worst thing.
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  Bungi Bill

  "Nothing to do with the organisation" and only a "very personal decision made with the influence of ones parents."

  Talk about denial!

  As seen in the transcript above by Nickolas, Fred Franz's Feb 10 1975 speech approached its climax with a specific warning about "going to college for a few years."

  The only reason I ended up not going to university was because of interention from the elders;

  - they still had some pull over my father at that stage, and got it stopped.

  (Unfortunately, this came up 12 months before my father told the JWs to proceed to the "far queue.")

  That sure was a "personal decision" all-right!

  Bill.
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  designs

  Bungi- good memory, we couldn't be appointed Servants or Pioneers if we were going to college.....(because the End was so close and college was worldly).
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  AgentSmith

  I was six years old, and I recall the excited conversations the adults were haveing about '75. And how some famlies 'fell away' in '6 and '77

  Even before I walked away from all the BS, I questioned how so many could get it so wrong. By then my father (elder) was playing his part in the cover up.

  AS
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  Nickolas

  We need a high profile documentary. I've recently been involved in another thread in which one of the participants, member of this board since April last year and who has made over 1200 posts, had not been aware of the 1975 failure. Isn't that unusual? Another poster on the same thread spoke of a 1974 speech made by Freddy Franz that contradicts his 1975 speech. Copies of the latter are widely available but I can't seem to find a copy of the 1974 speech. Anyone have one, or were they all erased by the WTBTS? If they were erased, what motive would the WTBTS have to destroy recordings of what it had said? I remember books of cassette tapes in the Kingdom Hall back in the mid 70's. Was the 1974 speech sent around to the Kingdom Halls? Was it erased? Was there a coverup?

  Technology has changed a great deal since the mid 70's. The internet didn't exist. Whatever it is you and I say on this board, whatever is recorded and becomes part of the public domain, should be considered to be a permanent record, because it will never go away. Back in the 70's there was a great deal of potential to cover up information but getting caught at it was devastating. Remember the Watergate scandal? It wasn't the fact that a handful of goons broke into the Democratic party office at the Watergate hotel that brought down the president of the United States but the fact that he tried to cover it up. Did the WTBTS hierarchy try to cover up 1975?
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  Berengaria

  I would have been 14 when that talk was given, and Dodger Stadium was our assembly point. I've been trying for years to dredge up more details of a talk I vaguely remember hearing at that time. It started with nothing but the very dramatic sound of a clock ticking. I wonder if this was it. It was scary, it was urgent, and it made all the "trappings" of life seem a pointless waste of time.
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  Nickolas

  I would have been 14 when that talk was given, and Dodger Stadium was our assembly point. I've been trying for years to dredge up more details of a talk I vaguely remember hearing at that time. It started with nothing but the very dramatic sound of a clock ticking. I wonder if this was it. It was scary, it was urgent, and it made all the "trappings" of life seem a pointless waste of time.

  So, are you saying you heard it too, Berengaria? Memories of a 14 year old can be reliable, but they won't be as generally sharp as an older listener's, who might have been paying more attention than a boy who is really feeling his hormones for the first time (as I clearly remember it was like when I was 14.)
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  Berengaria

  I'm 95% sure that I was there, I can only remember a talk that focused on '75 and that it started with a ticking clock. For years, that's all I have been able to pull out of the memory banks. Since we always went to Dodger Stadium, I have to assume we were at that talk. I just remember feeling .............hell, I remember feeling guilty! Somewhat fearful.

  I would have been a boy crazy young girl at the time. I clearly remember the guy I had a crush on while working in the food service tent