by Steel 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Is it true that in 1975 the watchtower falsely predicted the end of the world and a great number of the membership quit and just a few years later they turned disassociation into disfellowshipping? - yes and yes.
The WTS predicted Armageddon (the end of this system) would come in 1975.
The WTS also had a scandal in 1980/81 when a number of JWs at Bethel left. They were called apostates due to believing in the heavenly hope.
Wasn't 1981 when Ray Franz left. I thought that's when they made disassociating a shunnable offense to keep people away from him. Or am I getting dates mixed up. I'm terrible with timeliness at times. I wasn't there for it anyway.
Wasn't 1981 when Ray Franz left - yes, I think so.
It all happened at the same time. I read about it a few years ago via Randy Watters.
A group of bethelites were dismissed (and disfellowshipped, too) because they were caught discussing the Bible on their own. This group of people questioned the WT dogma of two types of Christians. They thought that all Christians should have a heavenly hope.
Ed Dunlap is another name I remember ...
Was disassociation always considered disfellowshippping?
i formally disassociated in about 1973. this was at the end of a committee meeting i was asked to attend even though i wasnt aware of any "wrongdoing" on my part. i had already told the congregation servant i had serious doubts about my beliefs and didnt want to be a jw anymore in 1971.
the committee decided there was "no case to answer"..but i took the opportunity to tell them i wasnt a witness anyway--so from now on i was Mr..not Brother Sutton if anyone met me.
i was never shunned, never lost any jw friends, and was always treated politely if i occasionaly attended a meeting with my jw wife ( to keep her quiet ). My jw parents accepted the fact i was no longer a jw. My lifestyle was normal---no smoking no gambling no promiscuity...just boring really.
Is it true that in 1975 the watchtower falsely predicted the end of the world?
Yes they did. I heard it again and again at assembly after assembly.
It started at the 1966 series of District assemblies. A special talk was given outlining that 1975 was the expected date of the start of the 1000 year reign. After that, it was repeated over and over at the Kingdom Halls. My KH even indulged in a countdown of how many more visits householders could expect from the witnesses before the end came. Our KH was at 9 more visits and counting. My own parents became need is greaters on the strength of it.
HEY VIENNE:
I went into your posts from two years ago and it says you have a masters and a PhD..WOW, how did you manage that at age 12 and a half??
Am I missing something? Did you take over your mother’s posting account at some point??
I thought your posts sounded just a little too sophisticated for somebody supposedly turning 15 years old in March.😮
Oh, with regard to 1981, I knew some of the JWs involved in that fiasco.
Thanks, Tameria 2001. When my never-raised-jw husband listened to that for the first time, and heard:
Stay Alive til '75
He just started laughing.
He has a revised post-1975 chant:
No more after '34 (the reference is to 1914 + 120 years given humans before their destruction by God
dubstepped, yes Ray was asked to leave Bethel in 1981 and an announcement was made in the KM.
But...he and his wife, started associating with a congregation in Gadsen, AL. Shortly after that, an elder that knew Ray quite well before the event in 1981, disassociated himself. Perhaps because of that, the WTS realized they had to make Ray like kryptonite to other jws.
So they made a new policy, that jws who associated with disassociated jws, could be disfellowshipped for that and made it retroactive. Ray and his wife, had continued to associate socially with this man and his jw wife, while still attending that congregation, without any repercussion. But after the policy changed, Ray was df'd retroactively. But Ray's wife was not df'd although she had also associated socially with that disassociated man. After the WTS df'd Ray, he started writing his books, which first came out in 1984. Ray stopped thinking that somehow the WTS could be redeemed.
