WT Society holds EXTREME Responsibility for 1975 and False Expectations

by flipper 140 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Red Piller

  I was too little to understand what was going on. Years later, folks in the hall would tell me tales of brothers who "jumped ahead of the org" by looking to 1975. "How foolish they were!" Finding out the truth has been shocking. These are really disturbing stories.

  The environment didn't really change in the 80's. We'd all do the math. "If someone was 10 in 1914, then they'd understand what was happening. So, now in 1984, they're 80. This generation is near its end". And we counted the decreasing partakers in the yearbook. One brother was discouraged from college:"do you realize it will be 1990 when you graduate?? This system will be long gone, by then!"

  truly an organization without remorse or conscience.
• 

  Rattigan350

  You know what???

  I really don't care about 1975 or anything about such prophetic accusations.

  NOT RELEVANT AND NOT IMPORTANT.

  I don't see why anyone else care either.
• 

  Reopened Mind

  First of all, the Society has never been good at taking responsibility for their false prophecies expectations.

  I was 20 in 1973 when I was baptised after having studied several books with girls I met at school. They had convinced me that the big A would be coming in 1975 by showing me "the signs of the last days" alongside the made-up WT chronology. I married in 1974 primarily to have someone to go through Armegeddon with. When 1975 came and went unevenfully the spin doctors and aplogists of the congregation went to work. "We know the season but not the day and hour." "Although Six thousand years of mankind's existence ended in 1975, we do not know how long Adam was alone before Eve was created." "We don't know Jehovah's timetable." etc., etc. Speculation pushed the date of the worldwide destruction back for at least 20 years. Within those next 20 years we had two boys, hubby had become a MS, then elder, I pioneered; in other words we had become deeply entrenched in WT world. We were so entangled that even if we had realized we had been duped it would have been extremely difficult to extricate ourselves from the organization.

  As Smiddy says the 60's were a tumultous time with the threat of nuclear annihilation looming. It is easy to see how the WT grabbed hold of this opportunity to promote Armageddon. They just capitalized on the fear of the times to promote their own agenda. Now they have to settle by saying Armageddon is coming "soon", whatever that means.

  Of course we finally did extricate ourselves from the organization. It took a move to a totally dysfunctional congregation, a newspaper article, the internet, along with our own nagging doubts to finally wake us up.

  Reopened Mind
• 

  cobaltcupcake

  Reading the experiences of you who lived through the thick of the 1975 fiasco, it's a wonder anyone stayed in the TRUTH afterwards. I was only 8 years old in 75.

  The WTS had some really good spin doctors at that time. There was a whole lot of talk about not "serving for a date" and about us not knowing Jehovah's timetable, and "he who has endured to the end is the one that will be saved." Oh, and about now that 6000 years of human existence has passed the end has to be extremely close.

  It was also considered nearly apostate to talk about expectations for 1975 or about being disappointed. Most everyone simply swallowed their disappointment and kept trudging on.

  Flipper - You and I are the same age. I was 15 in 1974 too and remember well the hype. My father started studying in 1971, and by the end of 1972 he was in full '75 frenzy. He moved us to a new home that was closer to the KH, he sold a piece of property (that would be extremely valuable now), quit his well-paying job and started cleaning offices, put the entire family on an "austerity program," and went pioneering. Oh, and he sold our big Chevy Impala and bought a VW Beetle to save money on gas (the oil crisis of the time having spiked gas prices up to an unimaginable 39 cents a gallon).

  And he pushed my brother and me to get baptized because he felt we were of the "age of reason" and therefore responsible for our own salvation. And when I say "pushed" I mean using an electric cattle prod.
• 

  Finkelstein

  Rattigan350 says .....

  I really don't care about 1975 or anything about such prophetic accusations.

  NOT RELEVANT AND NOT IMPORTANT.

  So if the WTS. and head leaders conjured up a lie to promote the distribution and proliferation of the organization's

  published goods, which inadvertently caused a extreme amount of anxiety and stress, even so much to push people to suicide.

  This is irrelevant and of little importance ?

  A devious corrupt venture imposed upon people who people had put their own personal faith, heart and lives toward.

  This doesn't bother you the least ...... really ?

  I wish I had a picture of the 14 year boy to show you who hung himself behind a Kingdom Hall in 1975, who was said to be overwhelmed

  by the soon to come Armageddon.

  Maybe that might spark your integrity and human compassion.
• 

  irondork

  Finkelstein: I wish I had a picture of the 14 year boy to show you who hung himself behind a Kingdom Hall in 1975, who was said to be overwhelmed

  Was this event covered in a local news paper somewhere? Tried searching archives and found nothing.
• 

  Finkelstein

  This happened back in 1975 or late 1974 in a congregation that was close to the one I was attending.

  I doubt that would be any on line information on it.

  Suicides get played down a bit in comparison to homicides.

  What I remember about the event is that I was close to guy who moved to that Hall who got to know the fellow

  and it was clear to him that he had a lot of anxiety and doubt about what was suppose to happen that year.

  I think there was some other problems this kid was facing, typical for a young teenager but the info from people who knew him

  the immediately soon to come Armageddon was very much on his mind.

  Nice going Watchtower boys.
• 

  Quandry

  Ah, yes. 1975. Thanks for the walk down memory lane, flipper.

  In 1973 I worked with a lovely JW girl and began asking her questions out of curiosity. She and her JW roommate came over and began a study with my husband and me. I was so amazed by her knowledge of the Bible. When we talked about the big A she flipped to many different scriptures and I was again so impressed. (At the time, I did not realize she had a "Make Sure" book bound with her Bible and was consulting it frequently) I distincly remember asking her about how much longer this system had left-she said about two years, and that we really needed the knowledge from the Bible to survive. We immediately threw ourselves into study, and in December of that year, 1973, were baptised in an old Kingdom Hall in Jacksonville, Florida that had a pool underneath the stage.

  I knew of people who sold their homes and got small travel trailers to "simplify" their lives before the coming "end of this system."

  Of course, it turns out, some people were "over zealous" and "read too much into" the words from WTS publications. So, not only was I stupid enough to be taken in by 1975, but was idiotic enough to blame myself for believing what they published. Yep, it really is an interesting look into the psychology of belief and how humans can be manipulated.

  I no longer ask anyone questions about religion, no matter how curious I am......
• 

  Ucantnome

  Recently there was a thread about a Daily text which mentioned Korah and waiting on Jehovah for a clearer understanding or adjustments.

  I understood that 1975 was based on the end of 6000 years of man's existence.

  I also understand that this wasn't a new thought but was something Pastor Russell believed about 1874 and later they faithful slave came to adjust the chronology as being 100 years off so it moved to the mid 70's.

  Pastor Russel had a book The Divine Plan of the Ages published in 1886

  In 1974 the book God's Eternal Purpose now Triumphing for Man's Good was published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc

  Ephesians 3:11 'This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,' (NRSV)

  In the book God's Eternal Purpose now Triumphing for Man's Good on page 9,

  "Based on this different translation of the Greek text in Ephesians 3:11, there was published in the September,1881 issue of Zion's Watch Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.by the editor and publisher Charles Taze Russell, the article entitled "The Plan of the Ages," This gave the explanation of a full-page diagram called "Chart of the Ages." ... A similar "Chart of the Ages Illustrating the Plan of God" was embodied in the book entitled "The Divine Plan of the Ages," published by C.T. Russell in 1886."

  ( I have to admit I'm losing the will to live typing this but anyway.)

  Russell published his book in 1886 the other one was published in 1974. In the 1974 book it stated "MORNING OF THE SEVENTH CREATIVE DAY BEGINS, 526 BCE. page 131. (not the quote i wanted but it will have to do)

  Almost a hundred years later and waiting on Jehovah as a Witness was producing this.

  maybe i misunderstood something, but i was a pioneer in 1975 made some bad decisions based on my beliefs.
• 

  MrFreeze

  How can you not hold them responsible? The WT for JW's is on par with the Bible. Maybe they never specifically said that 1975 was going to be Armageddon, but they sure hinted at it. They used just enough double talk so they could try to weasel out of it.