1975 Reaction (page 3)

MrMoe

You Know - huh? Talk to me like I'm 5 and explain what you just said in plain English?

i too was too young to know what happened in '75 (in fact i was born in '75)....but this is an issue ive heard so much about since ive been recently out of the org. and searching for my own answers. its so true jws claim that it was never an official date when you ask them, that some acted individually, but that it never came from the stage or the fds. my question is, do any of you have access to the actual articles to refute this? ive heard there is an article, i think it was in the theocratic ministry, that stated very plainly and clearly that 1975 was it, time to sell your homes, etc. anyone know which article/articles preached this date??

aa

detective

You know said: "And according to Christ himself..."

Are you sure you don't mean "according to so and so who said according to Christ himself..."?

I thumbed through my bible and couldn't find the gospel according to Jesus. Go figure. Unless Jesus is speaking directly with you? Invisibly and inaudibly perhaps?

MrMoe 2

I have a scanned copy of a chart saying 1975 from a 1968 Watchtower. Who wants to e-mail me and get it to post here (since I still can't figure out how to post a pic on a thread?)

borgfree

Dream on You Know,
I was born into a family of JWs in 1938, I would never go to school as the end would be here before I would start school. I remember the miracle wheat thing, the great pyramid thing, no vacinations, no organ transplants, etc.,etc.,etc.

Look into the Society's history before you waste any more of your life on the lie.

joelbear

You Know actually may have something here. I called my Mom last night, 75, a witness for 56 years. She has long given up hope on seeing the end, but says, she couldn't live without the meetings and field service, they keep her going.

I've always recognized 2 specific traits about me that made me a bad JW, 1) impatience, I was not willing to bet on a future reward and give up the pursuit of an enjoyable life now, 2) independence, I was not willing to submit to beliefs and rules that I found illogical.

Both of these would put me in the category of not willing to "wait on Jehovah".

Of course, most witnesses don't really do this either. Basically witnesses live the way they want to live. It is only the witnesses who really buy into the "put off life" mentality that really get burned and end up with anger issues. It is the same now I am sure.

hugs

Joel

D wiltshire

You Know,

How can you be so thick in the head?

[quote]
The 1975 fiasco was totally predictable and inline with the premature expectations that the apostles continually suffered from. Even well into the apostolic era, there was the general expectation that Christ's return was imminent.
[/qoute]

Did the apostles predict a date and publish it to all the congreations, and hint to all that if they sold their homes and pioneered this is a good thing because the end was only months away?

Did they give a false hope based on chronology and faulty reasoning in oposition to Jesus words " that no man knows the day or hour not even the Son of man?

If they made any prediction it truly was by God's spirit and came true.

Did they keep telling everyone that the light would get brighter and brighter to cover up their mistakes?

Anyone can see there is a big difference between the apostles of Jesus's day and the GB of today.

You Know

You Know - huh? Talk to me like I'm 5 and explain what you just said in plain English?

Okay, I'll try: Jesus said that even heaven and earth would pass away, but not one particle of a letter of his prophecy would go unfulfilled. That was his way of emphatically stating the impossibility of his prophecy failing to come true. Part of Jesus' prophecy about his return had to do with the increasing of lawlessness and the love of the greater number cooling off. The WT has long understood that to mean that there would be an increase of crime in the world. But...that's not the way the word "lawlessness" is used in Scripture. Remember what Jesus says to those who claim to prophesy in his name and perform powerful works in his name? He will say to them: "Get away from me you workers of lawlessness!" So these lawless ones are not petty street criminals, but rather they are those under the influence of the apostate man of lawlessness. Are you with me so far?

So then, the lawlessness that is due to increase must be the same sort of apostate lawlessness that Christendom has been mired in for centuries. That is not generally recognized yet, and it certainly wasn't recognized back in 1975, but Jehovah's gradually unfolding purpose definitely calls for a final decisive outbreak of rebellion and apostasy among Jehovah's people that will separate the wheat from the weeds along very defined boundries. Because not one word of Christ's can fail, that shows why there was no way that 1975 could have been the time of the judgment. But, that is no longer the case now, obviously.

Interestingly, as regards the chronology that led to the 1975 speculation, and I recall an astute brother pointing this out back in 1973-4, Adam was formed first, as we know, but, the 7th day of rest didn't begin until after Eve's creation. Because we only have Adam's lifespan, we can only pinpoint the year of his birth. That, however, is not when Jehovah rested. His great Sabbath didn't begin until after Eve was created. And that's when the 6000 years would logically begin ticking, from that point. And there is simply no way of knowing how long of an interim there was that Adam was alone in the garden. Apparently though, it was a considerable period of time, at least as we reckon time. That's why Adam cried out at Eve's creation: "At last!"

Now what is intriquing, is that according to Jewish law, a priest had to be 30 years old before he could take on the full duties of the priestly office. That's why too that Jesus was not baptized until he was 30 years old even though he wasn't a Levitical priest. If Jehovah God followed that principle with Adam, so that Eve came into existence 30 years after Adam, then the 7th day of Creation would have begun 30 years later. If the 1000 year reign of Christ is to commence on the 6000th year of the Sabbath, so that the conclusion of the kingdom's rule synchronizes with the end of Jehovah's great Sabbath, then 2005 would likely be the year. That even allows for the prescribed period of the tribulation. Well see.

/ You Know

thewiz

find an original printing (?1966?), small bound "Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God" book. Printed on the very thin NWT paper (I don't remember if it is in the full sized ed). In there you will find a table that lists 1975 as the end of mans 6000 years on earth and that 2975 would be the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ. To me it appears to be a bit more than just a suggestion.

Also, the whole Adam and Eve thing that was saying, "well Eve could have been conceivably created so many years later so we would need to add this to that, blah, blah, blah. to get the REAL end of 6000 years." -A clear indication that their thinking hadn't changed on setting dates.

Also, look at the March 1980 WT. Where the society came as close as they possibly would ever get to admitting only partial fault in the whole 1975 debacle.

Jigrigger

Hi Mad-A,

Here is a good example of how the Society used publications to suggest that the big A was to happen within "a few years" from the time this was written (1969)
For example
the 5/22/69 AWAKE! on page 15 said this:" If you are a young person, you also need to face the
fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things.Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Therefore as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on its way to its finish, if not actually gone!

This is just one of several examples where IT WAS THE WBTS and not "just a few over-zealous individuals" who were responsible for the 1975 fiasco.

It never ceases to amaze me how the loyal dubs who were around the time period starting in the mid/late sixties seem to have forgotton all of the references to 1975 contained in Society literature, and instead adopt the Society's current view that all the expectations concerning 1975 were the result of a few individuals who weren't "waiting on Jehovah".

Jrig

1975 Reaction