1975---- DID IT REALLY BOTHER YOU?

by minimus 41 Replies latest jw friends

  • WhyNow2000
    WhyNow2000

    It never really bothered me--personally. But as an accountant I see "brothers and sisters" who have not retirement plan because during their prime of youth they put the "the kingdom" first. Now decades later are worried about retirement. I feel like telling them the truth about the truth. But I am in the shadown who is fading. All I can do is try to help them with what resource thee possess. So does 1975 really bother me. No it does't. It makes me sick.,

  • DanTheMan
    DanTheMan

    One of the interesting things Ray brings out in CofC is how the org's growth had slowed to almost nothing in the early 1960's. Then, starting in 1968 with the announcement of 1975 being of possible significance, they started coming in in droves, giving them a momentum that, in spite of the post-1975 fallout, continues to this day.

    My question to JW's is - If Jehovah is the editor of the Watchtower, as Freddie Franz once stated, then did he use 1975 as a trick to get more people saved? Or did he do it to test the loyalty of JW's, to see whether or not they were serving for a date? Does God use lies or build false hopes to recruit people, or to test them?

    It is interesting to speculate where the org might be today if FF had never come up with the 1975 thing. I think that they would be a much more mainstream religion, instead of a quickly sinking cult.

  • libra_spirit
    libra_spirit

    Didn't you know? 1975 was the end, this is the new system, the seventh mellenium. God is resting, and by the way congratulations..you made it!

    The arrogance of man to think he can start counting time and then set a date for the creation of the earth. All other dates came from that date and are really meaningless are they not. Time is linear, it is not broken up into such neat little chunks. The whole idea of a year "one", rediculous. Look at some of the other calandars, the chineese one is intresting. Thier year "one" is way farther back then ours. The counting of time in itself does not give it meaning, 1000 year chunks are not special to anyone in particular, and yet thier is a rise in cult activity around these times when our numbers change from lots of 9's to lots of zeros. It's all a bunch of superstition I think, a way to use numbers to scare people. Because we all have 10 fingers and our number system is based on 10 digits, 1000 years may seem like a godly bigger then life thing to us. However imagine a race with 9 fingers and a base 9 system, thier magic numbers would all be different and still have no meaning to anyone but them. They would get excited in the year 1888 cuz 2000 would be the next year. Our counting of time as humans does not give the time some special quality. The starting point of our counting is arbitrary, and so are the passing of chunks that we define using our very rare base 10 number system.

    Did 1975 bother me? It most definitly did bother me. Instead of everyone being involved in something worthwhile, we were all eagerly awaiting the end of this wicked old system of things. We wasted all our time knocking on doors spreading hype and didn't really accomplish anything to be proud of some 27 years later. We didn't do one charitable work, we didn't heal one person, we didn't love the sick or help the needy, we didn't even watch out for each other. We didn't save one soul, we didn't live forever on this earth. We were lost in a vision of granduer, a lie. It was a waste of time!

  • garybuss
    garybuss

    libra spirit wrote:

    Did 1975 bother me? It most definitly did bother me. Instead of everyone being involved in something worthwhile, we were all eagerly awaiting the end of this wicked old system of things. We wasted all our time knocking on doors spreading hype and didn't really accomplish anything to be proud of some 27 years later. We didn't do one charitable work, we didn't heal one person, we didn't love the sick or help the needy, we didn't even watch out for each other. We didn't save one soul, we didn't live forever on this earth. We were lost in a vision of granduer, a lie. It was a waste of time!

    Best paragraph I ever read on the subject. Thanks!

    gb

  • thewiz
    thewiz

    '75 was bad enough but the "not-so-new-anymore" teaching of the generation floored me. i still haven't recovered. someone, "help! i've fallen and i can't get up!"

  • teenyuck
    teenyuck

    I was terrified.

    I was 13 and had been recently baptized. I was waiting for the end to come. Nothing.

    Then the cover up and denial.

    It has annoyed me for years.

  • mevirginia
    mevirginia

    dsgal

    I had married an unbeliever when 1975 rolled around and was not attending meetings. Let me tell you, I got scared every time there was a thunderstorm. I was glad when that year passed. Sounds silly, huh?

    No that doesnt sound silly at all.

    Even though I did not believe a month day or year could possibly be predicted, and I always believed it was wrong to attempt to do so, I would get those frightening feelings every time there was an earth quake or something horrible happening anywhere in the world/wars breaking out etc I would wonder if this was the beginning of the end.

    Ozzie ,

    is that a conspiracy theory perhaps? Are there more members today then there were in 1974? I would think so. Even if a large percentage left after 1975.

  • StinkyPantz
    StinkyPantz

    I was negative 3 at the time but my father once told me that he and my mother waited until after 1975 to have children so that we wouldn't have to live in this wicked system. . . well three children later (25, 23, 13) this "wicked system" is still here. . .

    And yet they remain hardcore Dubs. . .

  • ozziepost
    ozziepost
    is that a conspiracy theory perhaps? Are there more members today then there were in 1974?

    Mevirginia,

    G'day.

    No, it's no conspiracy theory. Check out the book "Crisis of Conscience" -Fourth Edition, where the author, Ray Franz documents this.

    A similar thing has occurred around the change in the "Generation" teaching in 1995. Since then, many have either become "lukewarm" or departed from the dubs altogether. The WTS recognises this and has documented it, as well as having District Convention talks dealing with the downturn.

    For this reason, it could be expected that the current downturn in the Western world will 'plateau' and return to increases, except for one thing: the internet. And that brings us to us being here, eh?

    Cheers, Ozzie

  • animal
    animal

    1975... yep, it effected me... I wont post the details again, look thru my earlier posts.

    Needless to say, it is why I still hate JWs

    Animal

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