Is this the earliest WT reference to 1975?

by Splash 30 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Splash

  I thought that the 1975 thing started in the mid to late 60's, but it seems the seeds were sown two decades earlier.
  Is this the earliest reference to it?

  w44 9/15 p.280 par.28

  18 How many today are awake to the fact that the Lord Christ Jesus, by his resurrection of the faithful bride members that slept in death, is taking his "bride" unto his Father's house and the marriage of the Lamb has begun' ...

  They do not say, 'It is a long time yet to the wind-up, and, according to the present understanding of Bible chronology, six thousand years of human history will end first in the coming seventies and till then it is a long stretch to serve the Lord continuously and undividedly.'

  ... They keep their eye and heart on Jehovah's kingdom, and not on the time clock. It The present is the time to serve the Lord, while your individual opportunity is here! Who guaranteed to you that you individually will last till the seventies or even till tomorrow'.

  ... Hence make the most of your own present. Do not take chances and say, 'According to Bible chronology it will be some years yet, and I shall have time to get into Jehovah's royal service after I have grown some years older. Therefore I will use the present time for going after the same things as do the Gentiles who live for the present. But in the distant tomorrow, or in the final cubit of my life-measure before the battle of Armageddon, ah, then I shall get in real earnest and give my full time, strength and means to the Lord's service.'
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  slimboyfat

  Good find. Can I ask HOW you found it? It always interests me how people go about finding out stuff like this. Not just random reading of 1940s Watchtowers?
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  Splash

  Can I ask HOW you found it?
  

  The March 2016 WT has a revised teaching on when Babylon the Great took God's people captive.
  (For info it is now the 2nd Century CE, not 1918.)
  When new light comes out, I like to go back and search for what the WT used to teach, and catalogue the flip-flops.

  In this instance, a search of the WT CD ROM led to w77 10/1 where in an unrelated paragraph (p.14 par.12) it quotes from the 1944 WT but uses elipses (...) in the quote.

  Knowing how WT use elipses to remove critical information, I looked up the 1944 WT (I have the complete set as PDF's) and saw the reference to the seventies in context.

  To see if there were any earlier instances I scanned the PDF's from 1915-1944, and this was the first occurrence.

  Simples! (squeek!)
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  never a jw

  You are the best. No splash in here goes unnoticed.
  
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  jookbeard

  is a great find
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  Finkelstein

  Actually the 6000 year dating calculation of mankind's existence was used by C T Russell in the early 1900's.

  My personal guess is that J Ruthertfraud opened up some of Russell's old publications and just reused this false incalculable dating calculation.
  

  Just some more intellectual dishonesty by the WTS. editorial writers as propaganda to enhance the proliferation of the WTS's literature.

  When your distributing the WTS's literature to the public, your doing Jehovah's service and will appease him before his eyes and that's a good thing considering judgment day is just around the corner.
  
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  Londo111

  Excellent research, Splash!

  That's the real difference between an "apostate" and a JW.
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  eyeuse2badub

  The wtbts has made sooooo many predictions, offered soooo many dates, and soooo many formulas to arrive at such dates, that sooner or later one of them might just fit the circumstances. "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while."

  But great find never the less!

  just saying!

  eyeuse2badub
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  slimboyfat

  Good detective work splash. I wonder if there are any other hints going back. I know the original date was 1874 and I think they changed it by 100 years because of a variant in Exodus - is that right? And added a year, just for sparkle and pixie dust (year zero blah blah) and hey presto 1975! So they probably talked about it at other times between 1874 and 1944. You would imagine.
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  Finkelstein

  It's sometime laughable to see what men will pullout of their asses with the intent to allure people to the literature they publish.

  Personally I think they are endeavored to lie based on their preconceived notion that since they are presenting this information as bible truths and interpretations that this would cover over or cloak themselves with virtuous intent.