by Garrett 84 Replies latest jw friends
There is a scripture which the wts has never quoted. "No man knows the hour nor the day..."
Zeb,
They actually did quote that scripture in a 1968 magazine article that was entitled Why Are You Looking forward to 1975?:
- in which they warned that this was "not the time to hide behind" that particular scripture.
Bill.
Jehovah‟s Witnesses
insist that they did not produce a single clear statement predicting with 100%
certainty that Armageddon would come in 1975, the truth is that they directly
stated in their publications that it will take place in the twentieth century! Take a look at these statements:
But then it also speaks of a group of people preaching about the righteous kingdom of God, a war of God against all wickedness, followed by a paradise earth without death - all to be realized in the twentieth century. (Awake! February 22, 1961, p. 5, article The 20th Century In Bible Prophecy);
That now-operating kingdom in heaven will, within the twentieth century, cleanse the entire earth of wickedness. (Awake! February 22, 1961, p. 7);
What day was Jesus speaking of? The beginning of World War III? No, Zephaniah 2:3 identifies it as "the day of Jehovah's anger." Revelation 16:16 calls it the "war of the great day of God the Almighty," Armageddon. This war will come in the twentieth century. It will come right on schedule, as have the wars, food shortages, earthquakes and other events' fore told. This generation will see its fulfillment. (Awake! February 22, 1961, p. 8);
Shortly, within our twentieth century, the “battle in the day of Jehovah” will begin against the modern antitype of Jerusalem, Christendom. (...) Jehovah‟s “sword” of warfare will cut off from this position that Christendom‟s clergy claim for her all religionists who depend upon her having an acceptable standing with God. However, Jehovah‟s “sword” will not be applied merely to those adhering to Christendom. It will also be brandished against “all flesh from south [Christendom] to north.” Religionists belonging to all the rest of the world empire of false religion will feel the cutting edge of Jehovah‟s “sword.” Their being non-Christians will not cause them to be spared. (“The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah‖ - How? 1971, pp. 216-217).
Ephesians 3:11 This is according to the eternal purpose that he formed in connection with the Christ, Jesus our Lord, by means of whom we have this freeness of speech and free access with confidence through our faith in him. (NWT)
I think is a key scripture regarding 1975.
SimonSays mentions the book Life Everlasting and I remember discussing this with an elder some years ago when he came to discuss something i'd said. The book published in 1974 God's "Eternal Purpose" Now Triumphing For Man's Good on page 9 mentions Ephesians 3:11 and how in the Emphatic Diaglott it reads "according to a plan of the ages, which he formed" Based on this different translation the Watchtower of 1881 published an article The Plan of the Ages and gave and explanation of the Chart of the Ages evidently a similar chart was in the book The Divine Plan of the Ages published in 1886.
There is I believe a connection therefore between this book in 1974 with the words Eternal Purpose in the title and the book in 1886 with the words Divine Plan in.
The book in 1974 I don't believe mentions the date 1975 however it does talk about the 7th creative day and that Armageddon will not be part of the last thousand years of the 7th creative day but will occur before it and that 6000 years of the 7000 years had almost expired.
page 131
"The first half or 'evening' period of God's seventh creative 'day' was now closing, 3,500 years from the creation of Adam and Eve. The morning of this creative 'day' was due to begin at 526 B.C.E."
This was under the heading, "Morning of the seventh Creative day begins 526 B.C.E."
Page 51
"Evening of the Seventh Creative Day begins 4026 B.C.E."
Page 53
"At the beginning of this 'seventh day' almost six thousand years ago God 'proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred.'"
The last chapter of the book is "Making the Seventh Creative 'Day' Sacred" page 187.
on page 189 talking about Satan the Devil it reads,
"For six thousand years he and his seed have been allowed to continue their effort to make it seem to be a cursed day unsacred... During the thousand years that the Great Serpent and his demon seed are abyssed, Jehovah will reverse all the wickedness."
Page 190
"...God's seventh creative day will end up blessed, sacred, sanctified. Jehovah having blessed that day six thousand years ago..."
Page 186
"With all his earthly seed destroyed at Har-Magedon,"
it then asks the question "Are the original serpent and his invisible demonic seed to be left on the loose in the vicinity of our earth down to which they have been ousted from heaven? No!"
"By removing the Serpent and his demons from the nieghborhood of the earth and hurling them into the abyss and sealing them up there, bound as with chains for the next thousand years. Revelation 20:1-3 pictures this, not as a part of the war at Har-magedon, but as a follow up of that war."
In the Watchtower publication God's Kingdom of A Thousand Years Has Approached pages 206-211 it tells how the editor and publisher of Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence calculated the presence of parousia of the heavenly Bridegroom began in the year 1874 based on the six thousand years since Adam and Eve sinned.
On page 209 it says that this was changed in 1943 in the book The Truth Shall Make You Free and this moved the six thousand years into the 1970's
So 1975 arrived at by the six thousand years calculation seems to have been the second time that the calculation of six thousand years had led to wrong conclusions. I think if one takes the dates given in the book and does the maths calculations with that Armageddon is not part of the last one thousand years of Christ's reign and the fact the book was published in 1974 in my opinion it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that Armageddon must occur by the autumn of 1975 even though the date may not be given.
The WT can deny it all they want. I was there I I witness it first hand. It was not just the R&F dub that believe this, it was pushed by the society at the time. One quote from many is the Oct 8th 1968 Awake,
What do they mean when they say in 1968, "It means that only a few years, at most, remain before the corrupt system of things dominating the earth is destroyed by God."?
[QUOTE FROM AWAKE MAG ABOVE] "Jesus was obviously speaking about those who were old enough to witness with understanding what took place when the "last days" began." [Bold added]
And just WHY was it so OBVIOUS then, but totally FU<#ING WRONG now?
Doc
I was at "a special talk" in Toronto given by a GB member before 1975. Like the Quebecois say and put it on their license plates Je me souviens. It means "I remember". The talk was at the old maple leaf gardens center,it was packed to the rafters and many couldn't get in so they went across the street and picked up garbage in a park until their buses departed, many remarked at the time " now wasn't that special witness for Jehovah".
All the bullshit predictions they say they never made were in that talk.
Promoting jwfacts as irrefutable truth once again. The objective words is “imply” for those that didn’t understand the significance of 1975. Research!!!
I mentioned previously that F Franz the leading bible theologian at the time used a previously used dating scheme of 6000 years of mankind's existence, that the WTS had used 60 years in the past by C T Russell in creating a superficial date of October of 1975. A deceiving fraud that Franz probably drew up from reading old Watchtower literature.
Secondly if one carefully reads the exact words of Jesus Christ, he admonished any of true followers to not make a time on god's own sacred time and thats particularity the reason why other Christian based faiths have not done so.
Yet look what the WTS has done 1874, 1914, 1925, 1975 etc.
But I guess those other religions dont have a publishing house operating at its core and they aren't pressed to make up things to attract attention to their published goods, like how the WTS historically has done.
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.
A few links to audio recordings of 1970's convention talks where 1975 was highlighted.
What would you be expecting to happen after listening to the following convention statements between 1968 and 1975, year after year? These comments were all bellowed from the platforms, sometimes by the GB themselves, to packed arenas...
"It almost seems as though Jehovah has provided meat in due season because he has held up before all of us a new goal, a new year, something to reach out for and it just seems it's given us so much more energy and power in this final burst of speed to the finish line. And that's the year 1975."
"There's only 8 years until '75. How little time there is left"
"We're going to listen to [the Societies] agonizing entreaties "Brothers get in" because they know what's coming. And it's coming fast and don't wait until '75. The door's going to be shut before then."
"As one brother put it, 'Stay alive 'til '75'"
"Not really a full 83 months remains, so let's be faithful and confident and we will be alive beyond the war of Babylon; we will be alive beyond the war of Armageddon" (spoken in Nov 1968, so 83 months later would be Oct 1975)
"What are you going to do with China, how are you going to get into China, how will you have reached all those people there, how are we ever going to reach them by 1975?"
"There are a dozen inexorable forces at work right now that are converging together inside of this decade that will spell disaster for this system of things, and there is nothing that no human can do to prevent it"
"We had that advice about 1975, Not changing a thing! Not changing a thing!... We have stronger reason to see that the middle 70's are going to see the complete change in earths affairs"
"Now our enquiries around the world of the brothers as to what they're expecting to occur between now and the end of 1975 has revealed that some are very sanguine about matters in the near future, and they're expecting the great tribulation to occur, and the destruction of Babylon the Great, and the annihilation of all the political systems of this world, and then the binding Satan and his demons and their abyssing, to occur before this year is ended, this year 1975"
