1970's Fred Franz prophecy books and current events

by Gorbatchov 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  Gorbatchov

  I am convinced that world history will go on and on, and don't believe in an end time scenario.

  But... And...

  When events occure like Trumps Tomahawk strike on Syria, Putting bombing a place and many, many coalitions are made with friends and enemies, my thought are going back to a 40 years ago, when I was a litle boy raising up in a cold war naval harbour town in Northwest Europe. My JW grandfather learned me to investigate history. The bookstudy was in those years filled with long time ago and current history. It all came together in Fred Franz's prophecy books. The king of the north, the south and army's, tanks and rockets were the subject all culluminated in Armageddon.

  So the world has not changed since then.

  Do you still have this feeling with current events?

  G.
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  Ucantnome

  I was just reading about the king of the north in the Your Will Be Done On Earth and looked up in a book of maps of the bible that I have, the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Empire. It was interesting to read. My father done the family study with us using that book when I was about 9 I would have rather have read my comic.

  I don't have the same feeling I had when I was a witness regarding current events.
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  sir82

  Not really,

  If the feeling ever surfaces, I only have to remind myself of the dozens if not hundreds of spectacular failures of WTS "prophecies". Literally nothing has turned out as they expected.

  I agree, there was a certain coherence to FF's delusions back in the cold war era. Even if utter fantasies, they were internally consistent, and if you were predisposed to following WTS doctrine, you'd probably be on board.

  Today there is virtually nothing left of that WTS mythology. It has crumbled into the ash-heap of history, with not even so much as an ash left behind. When my generation dies out, all the "King of the North / South" nonsense will be utterly and completely forgotten forevermore.
  
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  WingCommander

  Oh man, that type / anti-type Fred Franz bullsh*t really takes me back. I remember in the 1980's everyone was looking forward to the King of the North being unmasked, the turn on world religions by the UN, and then the cry of "Peace and Security!" In the early 80's in particular, everyone was whipped up into a state of fright and paranoia. Movies like, "The Day After", etc didn't help. WWIII was just around the Cold War corner! Then Chernobyl happened. Then the Berlin Wall fell. Then it was all over. Fred Franz died in 1992. The 1995 "generation change" took any remaining fire and wind out of the WT prophetic bullsh*t sails. In hindsight, it was all over. The last 20 years, have been nothing but smoke and mirrors for the WT. Polishing the prophetic turd. Rebranding the turd, and selling it to a new, unknowing "generation." Now, we see even more rebranding, modernizing, downsizing, glamourising, advertising, and mindless crap. The WT is but a shell of it's former self. When people say "this isn't the religion I was born into, I don't even recognize it," they aren't kidding. I'm 37. I sure as hell don't recognize it, and neither would my deceased parents.
  
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  steve2

  Reagan's gung-ho militarism of the 1980s had the JWs convinced this was it. He's been out of office for almost 30 years and we now have another drongo leading the USA with more raised sensationalism about this being it.
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  littlerockguy

  The religion has changed so much I'm surprised they even still call the buildings they have meetings in Kingdom Halls.
  
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  Bungi Bill

  Do you still have this feeling with current events?

  
  

  Not at all - woke up to that one long ago!

  Admittedly, Crazy Fred could tell a good story - and some of it might have been true, too! (e.g. Your Will Be Done On Earth).

  The fact is, every generation - almost every decade, even - has had its "doomsday" scares, which groups like the JWs are quick to capitalise on.
  steve2 has listed one such example (out of many), when Ronald Reagan was elected US president. When that happened back in 1980, the WTS was quick to inform us that a device known as "The Doomsday Clock" automatically moved itself forward to just several minutes before midnight. (Nobody seemed to know where exactly this device was located, but it very definitely rolled the time forward to almost midnight !)

  
  
  
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  Calebs Airplane

  Reminds me of the yellow book "1000 years" where I was continuously confounded by references to Gog of Magagog and twisted personal interpretations by Whacky Freddy of Bible prophecy. I was about 10 years old or so. What a strange time.
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  Gorbatchov

  It was a strange time! Indoctrinated by working class history crazyness...

  G.
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  Finkelstein

  Franz hyped up the fear mongering as he was suppose to being the head editorial writer for the WTS. at the time and exploited WW1 and WW2 to support the doctrine of mankind is living in the last days " End Times ", which was really strategic marketing for the published literature.

  Franz was a Fraud
  

  The other thing this novice bible theologian didn't understand is that the prophesied King of the North attacking the King of the South had to do with the two separate controlled kingdoms of ancient Hebrew Israel (north) and the southern kingdom of Judea below it.