Does anyone remember the big 6 month Bible study push during the mid 1990s?

by neverendingjourney 43 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Hope4Others
    Hope4Others

    My Dad took the 6 month program in the 70's.....he failed....

    Said he could not live his life that way...he was a smart man...

    hope4others

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney

    Thanks, A@G

    I was a pioneer only for a year and a half, but it was the longest year and a half of my life. I didn't think my memory was failing me because the big controversy at that time was how strictly to follow these guidelines. It was easy for all of us to see how absurd it was, but then again, these orders were coming from Jehovah. What was a faithful JW to do? The dissonance was incredible.

    In the grand scheme of things, it was short-lived and relatively unimportant, but it stood out to me because it was the biggest controversy during the time when I was most active as a JW. For someone who lived through the 70s, this was surely familiar ground, but it was brand new to me.

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney
    I do remember that push!! I had forgotten until now. I think it was to get everyone more actively involved b/c the end was right around the corner. Excited and rejuvinated about the end coming.

    That's how I remember it as well.

  • Awakened at Gilead
    Awakened at Gilead

    So compatring this to Blondie's post from the 10/96 km, the push only lasted a while... from the time of the assembly until they realized all the backlash from the r&f... so this push lasted about a year or so....

    Just a blip in the JWs memory...

    I was really gung ho though... since it meant that Armagonnangitya was closer than ever.... I was special pioneering at the time.

    Glad that's over.. I have a real life now

  • james_woods
    james_woods

    I was around for the 1975 six months study push.

    It was solidly ignored by every single pioneer I knew. People were not waiting in line to get to study with us. A bona-fide bible study was so hard to obtain that nobody was going to euthanize what few they had.

    This was merely another example of the society trying to build up the ante-75 frenzy. The problem with it was how flat it all fell in 1976.

    BTW - it was also taught that the "Truth" book was made small and pocket-size so that the bible studies could be accomplished in short order. Needed to get them baptized quickly, to save as many as possible before the end. Nowadays, probably a lot of the witnesses have never seen or heard of that "old system's last study manual", the bombshell of God, the little blue "Truth" book.

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney
    I was really gung ho though...

    So was I. I think the only people who took this seriously were us gung ho types. Those folks who'd been around a while, especially those who lived during the pre-75 push (I didn't know there had been such a push), surely had heard that tune before and were not all too eager to follow orders lockstep. Plus, as James points out, studies are hard to come by, and especially those people "reaching out" for privileges (often studies are prerequisites to move up the ladder) weren't too eager to drop the few they had.

    I'm glad you have a real life now. I do as well, sort of. I still have to contend with my JW family. As long as I want to be able to communicate with them, JWs still have a minor degree of control over my actions. I have to make sure my non-JW ways don't become too readily apparent. Such is life.

  • Mary
    Mary

    Yes, I remember that.......Since the "governments" were declaring 1986 as the "International Year of Peace", the WTS used that to their advantage. While they did not say that 1986 would bring about the GT (ever mindful of the disastrous events merely 11 years previously), they did not hesitate to subtley use this as another tactic to work everyone into a frenzy with 'how close The End' was. Of course, when The End did not show up, they simply went on their merry way.

  • still_in74
    still_in74

    I actually brought a man into the "truth" using the Knowledge book right around the time the emphasis shifted from 6 months for a slower pace, so I remember it well.

    Within 2 years his wife of 17 years and his family left him. I will never forgive myself for what I did to this man

  • booby
    booby

    I can remember the assembly when the truth book was released and the six month study explained, and yes I can remember the queasy feeling that know the end had to be imminent. What a fool I was, but as has been pointed out it was not long before it was dropped as being important, because as has been pointed out, if you dropped a study, then what. I do wonder if partly it shows how out of touch the gb is with the real world. Did they possibly think that this would push the pubs to find new studies, studies that just did not exist?

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    Fast Spiritual Food at your local "McKingdom Hall"...."I`d like an "Elder Burger"..A side of "JC Fries"..And..A super-sized "Armageddon Cola".........Thank you Sir.Please pay at the window!...................Laughing Mutley...OUTLAW

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