Here's an excerpt from my story. I was a 18 years old in 1966 when the Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God With Liberty and Justice For all Except Dubs book came out, so I remember those nine years of frenzy very vividly..
The Fervor Over 1975
If anyone reading this was not in the Organization in the late 60's and early 70's, and has been told that most Brothers and Sisters at that time were over-zealous and speculative about what was to happen in 1975, don't believe it. I was there through it all.
When such new and unprecedented directives were given to the publishers about such things as a set length of six months for conducting Bible studies, which afterwards we must "cut off" the would-be sheep if they had not yet decided to get baptised, what else were we to think? The "end" must be at hand, just around the corner, must it not? The Society was doing everything in its power to convince us that THIS time, for SURE, Armageddon was just around the corner.
When such statements as "this involves a matter of weeks" and "just think Brothers, only 90 are months left before.", were published, what else were we to think?
When the Kingdom Ministry relates the reports of brothers and sisters selling everything they owned to pioneer, and then states something like, "certainlythis is a fine thing to do in the remaining short.", what else were we to think. Jehovah was directing his Organization thorough His Holy Spirit, was he not?
A young brother I knew and who was only 25 at the time, told the Elders in our Congregation that he would soon lose his teeth if he did not get them fixed very quickly. He preferred to let Jehovah fix them since the New Order was so close. Well, what did the Elders say? Did they ask him to use restraint, to use caution, to not put too much emphasis on 1975? No, they did not. What else were we to think?
When graphs are published which outlines each millennium, and puts the beginning of the 7 th millennium right smack in the fall of 1975, what else were we to think?
When, at every corner in the literature, we see the words "trustworthy", and "reliable" Bible chronology regarding the year 1975, what else were we to think?
When we see great influxes of new Witnesses joining the flock, in apparent fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the years just preceding 1975, what else were we to think?
When we knew full and well that the joyous excitement among the brothers and sisters regarding 1975 would of COURSE filter it's way back to the Governing Body, and yet we saw no hard evidence of the Society "putting the breaks" on our expectations, what else were we to think?
No, gentle reader, we witnesses at that time were not out-of-control, wildly speculating and jumping to conclusions on our own. We acted in accordance with what was fed to us. We were cleverly seduced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and acted in accordance with that seduction. We were seduced in a manner similar to the way Eve was seduced by Satan in the Garden of Eden. That is as fitting an analogy as I can come up with.
Fortunately, I did not stick around long enough to see it when several years later the WTBS turned around and betrayed their own brothers by accusing THEM of jumping to conclusions, by saying such hypocritical things as "No, we did not say that".
Contrary to what is now taught, most of us were very sincere about trying to glean from the Society's publications what 1975 was to be all about. We eagerly awaited every magazine, and poured over every single word, and honestly did not try to "make more" out of what was written than what was actually written.
Farkel
