Yah , I guess it was about that time that the witnesses came around our house . I still don't remember hearing anything about this date , tho I was young my oldest sister took to the religion and she never said anything about the world ending . I mean jeeze even if you look at what Rutherford said , "millions now living will never die " I guess the only place you can point the finger is right at the GB . I think it sick how they would want people to believe that there was no connection to these predictions and the WTBTS . They clearly need to fess up and apologize instead of denial . Sure according to them it was all the evil slave trying to raise doubts by calling them on this crap .
The story of my life (part 9- 1975: the date comes)
by onacruse 30 Replies latest jw friends
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gumby
I agree with Willyloman.......congregations varied on their take of 1975. Part of the reason for the varied expectations were how the C.O.'s in the various congregations treated the 1975 hype. For instance...we had a CO named Bro. Neil when I lived in Arizona before and after ' 75 and this clown actually would look at his watch and say concerning armaggedon...."well brothers, we have 1 year, 6 months, and 12 days before mans 6000 years are up and this old system ends".
It was idiots like him who geared dubs up for specific times for armageddon. Actually, I suppose if you were a CO at that time and heard for yourself any of the GB speak at assemblies regarding '75 or got wind of things they said concerning it.....you may have acted the same.
If any doubt the validity the society promoted such ideas, then look at the Kingdom Ministry for 1974(can't remember the month) when the statement was made about "many selling their homes and spending the remaining months in fulltime service to Jehovah. You can also read their publication called "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God" book. It clearly shows mans 6000 years since creation ending in 1975 and then stating "it's only reasonable to conclude the 7th Day would follow"....that meaning the 1000 year reign of Jesus.
BTW Craigster....I called you back ya know
Gumby
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bikerchic
*waves "hi" to Gumby!
"many selling their homes and spending the remaining months in fulltime service to Jehovah."
In our Congregation the CO did exactly that and he even sold his business along with autos, motorcycles, boats and his airplane. When the big A didn't come he left town in disgrace, really he was so embarrassed by his actions that he left the state to get away from it.
Several years later he moved back with his Empire of worldly goods back and then some. He also wasn't as gung-ho a JW anymore either.
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I quit!
Over the next few years, however, I met many, many JWs who had made serious long-range decisions in the years leading up to 1975 -- not getting their kids teeth fixed, quitting their jobs to pioneer "where the need was great," going into massive debt, selling their homes, etc. Many of these actions, which seem bizarre now, were actually sanctioned by the WTS in the early 1970s, both verbally and in print.
This is similar to what I remember of that time period. I remember lots of witnesses selling their homes to move where "the need was great". It was usually some place they wanted to live but saying they were moving to "where the need was great'' just made is sound more theo. A lot of them move back into the area (So. Cal) after several years but couldn't afford to buy again as the prices went way up and they had spent whatever money they had made off of the sale of the property. If they had kept their houses they would be paid off by now and worth between 500k and one million dollars.
I also remember there was sense of urgency in field service around that time. There were special tracts to hand out. We weren't supposed to spend much time talking to the house holder because the time was short and the important message had to reach everyone. I don't even remember what the silly things were about but apparently everyone needed to have one. It's funny because when I have mentioned this witnesses online they deny that this ever happened and have accused me of lying about it. Big Brother has erased the memory.
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luna2
I came in well after 1975, but I've often pondered if I would have been one of those who woke up when this prophecy turned out to be a dud or if I would have been one of the deniers. Perhaps it would have depended on how much of the seamy underbelly of the WTS I had already been exposed to and how much damage believing the hype caused in my life.
It worries me that I'm so gullible. Someone comes to my house, tells me a fairy tale, and I embrace it. I wanted to believe that I was chosen and special somehow and I clung to that for so long. Anything negative became a test of faith. Any unfavorable report was made by people who were blinded by Satan. This is one of the things I've been struggling with most, the fact that I was so ready to be deceived. I really wonder what I would have done with 1975.
Great stuff, onacruise!
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dedpoet
I didn't become a jw until 1992, but I can remember a dub I worked with in 1974/75 boring us all to tears with his preaching at work. Every available moment he seemed to be trying to hand out tracts to his colleagues. Most of us took his warnings of impending doom with a huge pinch of salt, but a couple of guys started attending kh meetings with him, and one of them even got baptised as a jw early in 1975. When 1976 came, and we were all still alive, he left the lie and, as far as I know, never returned. As for the guy who got him in, he was pretty disappointed when nothing happened, and soon left the company we were at. I don't know if he's still a dub or not. Remembering all that makes me wonder how I fell for it all myself in 1991.
Great story Onacruse, keep it coming
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lawrence
We had COs reserved on the subject, and others like James Brown continually pointing to Tisri 1975. We left it all, and began pioneering where the need was greater. We believed it, and pounded doors to save lost souls. Who was lost?
Craig, thanks for your installments!
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onacruse
Narkissos:
I have a question here: why October 1st? Was it an exact day expectation in the mind of American JWs?
No, I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that. Mind you, I was combining many things: my own predeliction for mathematical certainty (after all, 1 + 1 always equals 2, doesn't it?); the correlation the WTS had made for many decades between the creation of Adam and the sacred Hebrew calendar (thus, the October 1 date), the insistence that the creative days were literally 7,000 years each; and the even more telling insistence that the Millenium must be just that: 1,000 full, undiminished years.
It all came together so clearly for me!
But what difference would it have made if it was October 10, or November 24, or Christmas Day? In any case, I would have been equally disillusioned.
As an aside: I didn't intend that this part of my life story become an argument about what "did or didn't happen" or "who thought what or didn't" in the WTS at that time, though I can certainly relate to what many of you have said! And, insofar as by far the majority of JWs today never lived through those years, then perhaps sharing our collective memories will serve an educational purpose, at least for a few.
As an example: I mentioned the "apostasy" of the late 1920s, when approximately 75% of JWs (though they were not then called such), left the WTS, primarily because of Rutherford's increasingly heavy-handed squeeze on the brotherhood. As one reads the rantings and railings of Rutherford, with Fred Franz always at the ready to provide twisted theological interpretations for support, over the next ~20 years, it becomes so obvious that what happened post-1975 was an exact copy of Organizational behavior.
However, I don't think there will be a repeat. The WTS has long since stopped printing the intensely detailed and convoluted charts and graphs and chronological tables and calendric calculations that made those "glory years" so eventful.
In a way, I miss those days, when we would go to an assembly, "knowing" that some new truth was to be revealed, and then staying up as late as we could to read, cover to cover, the latest revelations from Jehovah, at the gracious hands of His anointed Governing Body.
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vitty
I was sitting in a bath, at the age of 14, crying my eyes out. My family had left the truth when I was 9, but they and I still believed armageddon was comming. I was begging Jehovah to not kill my baby sister and nephew, I bargained that he could take me but save them !!!!!
I was a basket case to the run up of 75, but never felt relieved when it came and went, only that id had a repreave for a later date, Now thats sick
Onacruse, im really enjoying your experiences.
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Narkissos
Thanks Craig.
Waiting for part 10!