1975 failed prediction?

by Garrett 84 Replies latest jw friends

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  Garrett

  heyo,

  your favorite garrett here. So, I'm about to have an elder tell me allll about the failed 1975 doctrine. Some points I brought up:

  since jehovahs spirit is perfect and so is its direction, how could jehovahs organization as a whole make a false prediction about the end times?

  If you answer imperfect men, the. What stops the other religions from using the same excuses? What makes us different? What stops the org from making the same mistake in the future? How do we know that our teachings aren't mistakes that could be changed?

  what should I expect? I was talking to this sister and she said she was going to ask an elder since she herself seems quite unsure about the subject. She even said that perhaps jehovah removed his soirit from the, and that's why they made the prediction.

  hopefully this works!

  Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!
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  prologos

  Since you brought the question up, expect a put down. You are a danger to the unity (control of the GB) in the congregation. expect a warning to say the least, if not jc action.
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  OUTLAW

  what should I expect?

  
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  ToesUp

  They will deny, deny, deny they predicted 1975! They have been for years. It was all the R&F mistake (as usual).
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  CalebInFloroda

  In the town I grew up in, in South Texas, a few Witnesses got together and created a bumper sticker that read: JEHOVAH is coming! They posted these things all over town, on bus benches, phone booths, newspaper stands (and a few cars).

  They showed up beginning late 1974. I remember noting how the black lettering had faded and the white background had oddly turned a yellowish pink by 1977 when my brothers and I passed one by on the way to see the first Star Wars film that summer so long ago.

  Yep, they did indeed preach and believe this. They deny it because most of them today weren't there.
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  Joe Grundy

  I never was a JW, yet I am aware of the '1975' debacle (as I am aware of the 'Beth Sarim' for 'returning princes' fiasco and others).

  It seems to me (though I stand to be corrected) that WTBTS - as ever - wish to rewrite their history ;'1984' style, failed prophecies being just one aspect of it. Once upon a time, that was easier than it is today. Here on JWN we have eye-witness testimony, always crucial, and enough of it to be historically significant.
  

  As an outsider, my view is that the more evidence of their history, whether by recorded eye-witness testimony, recorded documents, etc., the better.

  During a recent FS visit to my house a JW who claimed to be an elder and to have been a baptised JW for nearly fifty years claimed to have no knowledge of any significance of the year 1975. I told him that there was no point in talking to him because he was either dishonest or had no knowledge of the WTBTS.
  
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  Bungi Bill

  If you answer imperfect men, the. What stops the other religions from using the same excuses?

  Apparently, being wrong is a prerogative only of the WTS/GB.

  If any other religious group is wrong, it is false doctrine, and they are in for the big chop come Armageddon. (No ifs, buts or maybes about that!)

  However, if the JWs were wrong about something, "The Society (or GB) will correct itself" and it is merely just another example of the "New Light" that keeps getting "brighter and brighter". That excuse applies to no other religious group though - let it be noted!

  Bill
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  Finkelstein

  Garrett one thing you could mention is the WTS, under F Franz its leading bible theologian at the time, reused a fictitious dating scheme of mankind existence of 6000 years from Adam to our modern times.

  It was used previously by C T Russell around the early 1900's and again by Franz in the late 1960's. to create 1975.

  Its an impossible dating calculation nevertheless but it guess it was thought to be provocative enough and engaging that it was used twice.
  

  The WTS. has always been a pretentious fraud run by men who own their own publishing house..

  People are subjected to its fraudulent commercialization and exploited for labor and money to sustain the Publishing Corporation.
  
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  JWdaughter

  I have people close to me from Pakistan who remember 1975 predictions that they learned of while IN Pakistan. There are indeed JWs there(and they preached that date a LOT there) and there have been for many years. They are open (There are large Christian groups in Pakistan, particularly in the more southern areas) in their faith for the most part, as most Christians are. The non-trinitarian aspect of the WT teachings is a door opener to Christianity as a whole to Muslims and Hindu's alike (a lot of both also in S. Pakistan). Officially, I don't know if they are recognized, but unofficially, they are not hiding.

  While you hear of horrible instances of religious based crime(well, even in OUR country), for the most part, they get along fine among all three religions. The family I am close to has Hindu doctors and Christian drivers and maids who are treated as family members and were honored guests in the home I was visiting. It is noteworthy that those who become Christian are usually from the lower castes and are coming from a disadvantaged social position-but they are just like every Indian I have ever met-they are crazy about getting their kids educated and helping them move up a few levels of the social ladder(both Islam and Christianity don't support the caste system though it lingers in some areas. I wonder how the love of education and upward mobility translates among the JWs who are at best, ambivalent and at worst, hostile towards higher education? I only met Catholics while there.
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  SimonSays

  When the book Life Everlasting came out. To those JW’s that understood, the WT was attempting to draw parallels to man’s existence, the 7 millennium. But just like everything else, those JW’s that were new or didn’t understand the premise took 1975 to mean the fulfillment of Christ presence and overstepped their expectations, by overshadowing what had been published earlier.

  But if you consider the Watchtower of 1976, it was made clear about the disappointment which the WT never shied away from. I guess you would have to have been there to fully appreciate the meaning of 1975 rather than what you read in jwfacts.