by somebodylovesme 11 Replies latest jw friends
I am doing a project on the rhetoric surrounding the 1975 Armageddon prophecy. I've read all the research and quotes online... now I am interested in any personal testimonies. I have heard a few stories, such as Witnesses accruing massive credit card debt in '74 and early '75 and quitting their jobs. I was just wondering if anyone has any other anecdotes they would like to share that I could anonymously add to my brief section on the effects of the prophecy.
Thanks in advance. ;)
SLM
I wasn't old enough in 1975 to have been cognizant of what was going on, however, years later I did hear right from the bro who was going in service then an interesting story.
He said that he was preaching the end was coming in '75 and after it came and went, he personally went around to all his calls and apologized!
Pretty big of him - I think I woulda been hiding for awhile, licking my wounds and planning personal computers, the internet and a discussion board to 'deal' with being deceived lol.
boa
I wasn't a JW those days and therefore have no personal story BUT i just came across a quote i never saw online before:
*** w60 10/1 p. 582 "Get Out of Her, My People"! ***
Dean Acheson, former United States secretary of state, declared our time to be "a period of unequaled instability, unequaled violence and revolutionary change." He stated: "I know enough of what is going on to assure you that, in 15 years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in." He also commented on public apathy in regard to such warnings, saying: "We can be told that all sorts of things are going to happen. We never believe it until it's happened. Then it's too late to deal with."
I know a man who was an extremely active JW before 1975. He put all his energies, physical and emotional, into the religion. He got very tired after years of struggling, and pinned a hope of relief on 1975. When it didn't come, he had a major emotional breakdown, and nearly committed suicide. He gradually recovered but was never an active JW again, and today is rather bitter about having been so deceived.
AlanF
I was thirteen at the time and believed I would never go to high school or colege thank God I survived I remember one sister starving her kids so they could be ready for the great tribulation.
I became a JW with part of my family in 1972, when I was 13 years old. We were in a highly 1975-centered congregation, although my father had some doubts about the date (because "no one knows the day and the hour"). I remember asking an elder: "What would you do if it doesn't happen in 1975?" His answer was "I don't even ask myself the question: it will happen in 1975!"
In 1973 and 1974, when the first oil-crisis was taken by most witnesses in our area as a ultimate "sign", my father made stocks of foodstuff (flour, sugar, and so on), anticipating a shortage that never came. Most of it was lost to weevils. He also sold his very valuable vineyards in Beaujolais, which I most regret...
Curiously, we hardly noticed when the date went by. We were just too busy with the preaching and cong. routine, which went on all the same.
It was June of 1975 and for the first time the Society published ( may have been the July issue etc.) that it doesn't seem likely that October would be the start of the end. The article was devastating to me because I thought they were waiting just like I was waiting. Right up to the Fall of 1975.
I was at a "get together" and asked one of the old timers to walk with me. He was of the "Annointed" and had partaken of the Emblems since he was a young man. He was about 65 years old or older. Anyway, it was June and we walked and talked. I thought he could help me because he was of the "Annointed" and he knew many of the Governing Body. (Knorr had stayed at his home several times) I asked him about the article and told him I was troubled by the fact that the Society had basically not waited but had concluded that it probably will not come in the Fall. He pondered and told me the "Brothers" know what their doing and I should not doubt them. He then asked me if i believed they were the "Chosen" appointed over Christ's belongings. I said I was having some trouble with that because I had studied so much material that I couldn't understand why they spoke things such as ".. it was time for Jehovah to reveal to his people etc." or " Jehovah" revealed this or that to his people", when later the interpretation would change. I said I didn't have a problem with things being changed but why did they have to say "Jehovah" revealed it. I told him it was a form of "sensationalism" to do it that way and that I couldn't help but feel a spirit of arrogance. When I said the word "arrogance" he stopped walking and violently backed up and waved his finger at me , "Satan's got you " Horrified I started crying. "Ooooooh he's got you" and angrily he turned and rushed away, leaving me in tears, weeping. . I never trusted him again . He would give talks at Circuit and District assemblies. I couldn't grasp what was happening, I was so confused. In time I began to understand what was going on and I felt very sorry for everyone.
Our congregation was a bit conservative, which is to say that few were outwardly effusive about 1975. But when talks touched on the subject ("we might not know the day and hour, but we may have some idea of the year..." wink, wink) a fair few would get flushed with excitement and there was an air of near giddyness after those meetings.
My parents were as hopeful as the rest. While my father did not quit his job to pioneer, it was at this time that a pattern was set where debts were allowed to get out of hand and no financial plans were made for the future -- "The end will soon be here."
Sometime after 1975 and before the WT "apology" of 1980, my mother's pent-up disappointment burst out at a book study touching, I think, on false promises. My mother brought up the whole '75 thing, uncharacteristically in front of the whole group, and even quoted from a few old watchtowers. The conductor and my elder dad tried to convince her that no such thing had really been suggested... it was just overenthusiasm, etc. She agreed to let it drop until they could discuss the matter after the study, which they did in private. On the way home my father kept repeating the stock answers while she sat in stony silence. After a few days of brooding, my mother decided to come to her senses and "trust in Jehovah." I have since heard her explain to others that no such thing had really been suggested... it was just overenthusiasm, etc.
somebodylovesme,
Is this for a school project? Will you be sharing your findings with us?
I knew a man who had a very lucrative garbage business for the rich people in town. (And their throw aways were way better than Goodwill)... He and his brother sold the business in order to pioneer in 1974.
Of course the money ran out.. and Armegeddon didn't come.
