My family dealt with the disappointment/relief like most JWs. Carry on, pretend it didn't happen. I recall my father the PO at the time telling others that they had read too much into it.
1975 !
by Sea Breeze 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Lightgrowsbrighter
This is the dark side of JW leadership that in their arrogance they refuse to acknowledge. 50 years later, the leadership STILL demands unquestioning allegiance and claim a vague special line of communication with Jehovah as the 'faithful slave'. Ironically, they fit perfectly the comparison in Acts 20: 29,30 as 'oppressive wolves...twisting things to draw away disciples after themselves.'
-
Balaamsass2
I was bedside when mom died in pain with regrets a dozen years ago. Her dying words after 75 years as a JW ..."I thought I would happily skip into the new system young, with all my family". All I could do was say: I know..and squeeze her hand.
The remainder of all her JW family and friends died disappointed, sick and old, a few years ago. No one got to pet a lyon in the Alps....and all were too broke from serving Watchtower to afford to even visit the Alps.
Don't repeat their mistake.
-
Halcon
Anyone care to describe in more detail what was happening as 1975 turned into 1976 for JW? Those first few weeks of 1976 for example. It seems that they couldn't just discard 1975 all that quickly?
-
LongHairGal
BALAAMSASS2:
Yes, that’s the biggest lesson current Witnesses need to take away from this story: whether they lived through 1975 or not... Don’t repeat their mistakes. If anybody studies WT history there were several.
All those older Witnesses from previous generations went to their graves with unfulfilled expectations.. Imagine the sacrifices these people made??
To think I just missed the 1975 thing because I didn’t come into the religion until several years later. But, I am grateful. Sorry for all those Witnesses who did crazy things like quitting jobs or selling homes and possessions and having to start over. No apologies. Just STFU and carry on the bullshit. I’m not surprised many left the Witness religion after that.
If I had known about this major failure - I might not have gotten involved with the Witnesses. As it was, I could be suffering today if I had listened to those hateful bastards back then telling me to quit my job.. Thank God I obstinately refused!
-
Halcon
Also, what were JWs doing on December 31st? Were they camping out at the kingdom hall, at groups at home?
-
Sea Breeze
I think October was the month that got wispered around a lot.. By Dec. 31st, most were probably already in denial.
-
Jazzbo
I remember it very well because I saw it from beginning to end. People just flat lost their minds over it and there was an unbelievable level of smugness about knowing something that no one else knew. I was one of the ones that was excoriated by the true faithful because I kept saying, "no man knows the day or the hour" and people just didn't want to hear that. I was sitting with a bunch of young people early in 1974, drinking beer and eating pizza and they were tearing me up because of my lack of faith, told me I probably wouldn't survive because of it. Strangely enough in 1977 I was drinking beer and eating pizza with the same bunch of people. I took the opportunity to remind them of what took place in 1974, funny, not one of them would admit to remembering it.
-
raymond frantz
Most of the 3 congregations in my little island in Greece became Wirnesses prior to 1975 in these 10-15 years, the aftermath was followed by a purge of those that questioned the date.Many brothers and sisters sold houses, stored food for the incoming tribulation and penalised on the aftermath.I was only 7 and only found out years later
-
Jazzbo
I was just remembering the summer of 1966, it was Sunday evening and quite a few of us were at the park playing tennis. One, not too very bright, guy and his wife had gone to an early convention. He came screaming into the park going about 90 honking his horn and shouting out the window of his car. He slid to a stop and jumped out waving a copy of "Freedom of the Sons of God" and shouting "the new system will be here in 1975"! Everyone crowded around and he kept saying, "they said it, they said it, and it's right here in the book. I took the book out of his hand, found the relevant section and read it. I'm a pretty fast reader. I read it again. Then I looked at him and said, that's not what it says. He just kept saying, "but that's what it means, they said that's what it means". Literally everyone else was buying it, but I wasn't. Things kind of went down hill from there. I heard a few mutters of 'apostasy' in various quarters. I decided I'd had enough tennis for the evening and left.
