A date in the mid 1970s was talked about among Witnesses in the late 1940s. Marcus Bach mentions this in one of his books, and I certainly remember it. The book New Heavens and New Earth (1953) had a chart in the back that furthered the discussion. As I recall there was a similar table in one of the 1954 Watchtowers. The 1975 fiasco ows nothing to the Armstrongites and everything to F. W. Franz's wild imagination.
Did Jehovah's Witnesses Plagiarize HWA's False Prophecy Of 1975?
by Bangalore 29 Replies latest watchtower bible
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trebor
Awake! October 18, 1966 page 19:
"In what year, then, would the first 6,000 years of man's existence and also the first 6,000 years of God's rest day come to an end? The year 1975."
Our Kingdom Ministry March 1968 page 4:
"Just think, brothers, there are only about ninety months left before 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth is completed. Do you remember what we learned at the assemblies last summer? The majority of people living today will probably be alive when Armageddon breaks out..."
Watchtower August 15, 1968 bound volume page 499:
"Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly…It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years."
Our Kingdom Ministry June 1969 page 3:
"…in view of the short time left, a decision to pursue a career in this system of things is not only unwise but extremely dangerous....Many young brothers and sisters were offered scholarship or employment that promised fine pay. However, they turned them down and put spiritual interests first."
Watchtower, October 15, 1969 bound volume page 623:
"More recently earnest researchers of the Holy Bible have made a recheck of its chronology. According to their calculations the six millenniums of mankind’s life on earth would end in the mid seventies. Thus the seventh millennium from man’s creation by Jehovah God would begin within less than ten years...Would not, then, the end of six millenniums of mankind’s enslavement under Satan the Devil be the fitting time for Jehovah God to usher in a Sabbath millennium for his human creatures? Yes, Indeed!"
Our Kingdom Ministry page 3 May 1974:
"Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end."
The Truth Book, primary study aid for Jehovah’s Witnesses to use with Bible Students published prior to the year 1975 reads as follows on page 9 under ‘Grand Blessings from God Near at Hand!’:
“Also, as reported back in 1960, a former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, declared that our time is "a period of unequaled instability, unequaled violence." And he warned: "I know enough of what is going on to assure you that, in fifteen years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in."
The Truth book published after 1975 changed the wording to remove the 1960/15 year reference.
The Watchtower Society knew exactly what they were doing and most certainly supported and promoted 1975 as being 'the end'.
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Apognophos
A date in the mid 1970s was talked about among Witnesses in the late 1940s. Marcus Bach mentions this in one of his books, and I certainly remember it. The book New Heavens and New Earth (1953) had a chart in the back that furthered the discussion. As I recall there was a similar table in one of the 1954 Watchtowers.
Wow, I hadn't heard this. I thought no one was talking about 1975 until the '60s.
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Bungi Bill
David17,
You have talk about the "stress" that the WTS put on Jesus' words in Matt 24:36.
The Watchtower of August 15 1968 had this cautionary statement to make about that particular bible verse:
"This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows" (Matt 24:36)
So, yes, you are correct in that the WTS did cite those remarks of Jesus:
- however, these weren't always cited in the same manner as you and other JW apologists would have us believe!
Bill.
(PS: Being an avid reader of everything printed by the WTS during those years, I can remember all that like it was yesterday)
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Heartofaboy
"This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows" (Matt 24:36)
That's right Bill, that scripture was used by the society to keep up the momentum of the preaching work & expectations of what 1975 would bring, not to calm things down.
They were telling us to ignore Jesus' words & not make the mistake of thinking 'How could the GB know the day & hour if Jesus said nobody knows'.
I remember it well.
If you weren't there David17 please don't presume to tell us what we heard & read from the WBTS in the years prior to '75.
The 'Truth' book was released with big fanfares as being a completely new style of teaching aid & to get as many people into the organisation as possible before 1975.
The 'Truth' book was designed to be studied from start to finish within a 6 month period & if the 'student was not a JW at the end of the 6 month study the society 'kindly' demonstrated to us on several occasions how to drop the student that wasn't progressing to baptism at the breakneck speed the soiety deemed essential in view of the encroaching year of 1975.
It was to be a momentous campaign!
Then as trebor says the 'Truth' book was surreptitiously altered by the WBTS & the 6 month study programme ran out of steam.
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Heartofaboy
bttt
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NeonMadman
So did H.W.Armstrong predict the earth/world was going to be destroyed or not , or was it just ambiguous wording that people have misconstrued .
1975 in Prophecy, by HWA:
http://www.herbert-armstrong.org/Books%20&%20Booklets/1975%20in%20Prophecy%20 (1956).pdf
Can't get this to hyperlink for some reason - the system won't pick up the 1956 in parentheses, but it's an essential part of the URL. Try copying and pasting rather than clicking the hyperlink.
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Nathan Natas
This Old Goat agrees with OldGoat (above) that it is simply a coincidence that both cults picked the same date.
The thing that matters is HOW they arrived at the date 1975, and the Watchtower's Bible-based© Chronology provided the magical arithmetic framework for the selection of 1975 since at least 1918, when H. W. A. was about 20 years old, and it wasn't until the late 1930s that the WWCOG was established.
HWA's theology was largely influenced by the Church of God, Seventh Day which is a distant cousin of Watchtower theology.
In 1931 Armstrong became an ordained minister of the Oregon Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day).
1975 in Prophecy was a warning to the reader of what was scheduled to happen after February 1972 . The timeline was uncertain and, although the title of the booklet was specific, 1975 was not mentioned in the text in relation to Biblical prophecy. All specific dates within the booklet were in relation to events or outcomes not specified by the Bible. The biblical prophecies are ambiguous as to their timing.
The booklet was written in 1956 during the Cold War years. It stated that the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia and other English speaking ("Israelite") nations, contrary to popular cultural belief, would neither be attacked nor destroyed by the Soviet Union, but that a nuclear World War III would destroy these countries. The attack would come from a German dominated United States of Europe led by a Nazi-style dictator (identified as The Beast), and dominated by a religious leader who would probably be a Roman Catholic Pope identified as the Antichrist.
In the aftermath of the nuclear attack one third of the populations would be dead. Another third would then die as a result of simultaneous attacks from abnormal weather patterns which would create drought, destruction and epidemic diseases. The remaining third would then be taken into slave labor camp captivity by the United States of Europe.http://www.cgca.net/pabco/5proph.jpg
[above, an illustration from 1975 in Prophecy. The illo is the work of Van Wolverton, who followed HWA and illustrated horror comic books for a living]
Thanks to wikipedia for most of the content above.
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Watkins
I'm sure the extreme religious fanatics, Armstrong and Franz, were aware of each others' speculations as they both were in the cult/publishing business. Going by Old Goat's info, it looks like the wt had the original bad idea. I suspected that. The long, tenacious roots of failed prophecy is historical wt.
W
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Wozwozza
Hi all
In 74-75 I did my first study with an elder who told me 75 was it for the big A and that was the general feeling of the others at that time ,it was fever pitch excitement times
