What did the Watchtower Soceity REALLY say about 1975?

Elsewhere

Well, read for yourself!

Click Here to download the Oct 8th, 1968 Awake! magazine that talks about the year 1975

BizzyBee

Please don't make me read it again, David - I get nauseous.

Question:

As close a reign as the elders keep on the congos, why would they allow the talk of 1975 to escalate? You notice that they are all over porn, hairstyles, glasses, shirts, marshmallows, tatoos, etc., how could they let publishers talk about 1975 being the year for Armageddon for over 7 years - and not write an article clarifying their position, until AFTER the fact? Surely "scuttlebutt" of that magnitude reached Brooklyn prior to that?

anewme

I really had no personal tools to refute the high charisma of the Society in those days.
I was naive, impressionable and sick about the state of the world, Vietnam, drugs, and all.

There was a huge assumption that the end was coming because of articles like these. All the witnesses were beaming and glowing with confidence, selling their homes, quitting their jobs, giving up school to pioneer and help as many as they could to come into the org!

Kingdom Halls were hives of activity and enthusiasm! The conventions were thought to be of historical importance! When people met and became friends they would talk about being friends forever.
We made vows to Jehovah in those days and meant them from the bottom of our hearts.

I remember those days. Seeing the cover of that mag brought back so many memories of alot of zealous witnesses who are now dead.
Wow.
Thankyou Elsewhere for presenting it to us. I wasnt crazy. Millions of us became believers back then of a dream.

drew sagan

At that is the biggest point to be taken BizzyBee, if it was an honest mistake they would have taken care of it much eairler.
Same thing with 'this generation', fixed only when absolutely necessary.

Hecklerboy

Yep, I can see how silly it was for the R&F to get all excited about 1975.

I mean the society did come right out and SAY that the end was coming in 1975. They just said that according to all of this overwhelming evidence it MIGHT come.

damselfly

That seemed really familiar to me, I think my family had that bound volume.

2 questions ~ Do the bound volume and the loose magazine differ in wording at all?
~ Do you have the link to the time magazine article about 1975?

La Capra

That scan is so good, I can almost smell the unique smell that paper and two color ink had, back in the late 60s and 70s. What a blast from the past. WTBTS used those same graphics, until the late 70s, I think, when they changed the logo. But when they went to the offset four color presses, in the 80s, the paper feel and the smell was never the same.

I'm always amazed at how scans of artifacts from my past life scratch different parts of my memories....

Shoshana

james_woods

I recall a very few of the more reasonable brothers try to slow down this train wreck in around 1974 and the first months of 1975. At the same time, the society speakers were milking this for all it was worth because they liked the big increases from the hysteria.

The society itself pretty much hid under their desks until it was obvious that the numbers were really dropping by 1977 and 1978.

I will never forget a CO giving a talk to the elders (with invitations to comment) in 1978 on "why are the numbers going south?" Talk about some embarrassed silence, with a few limp-wristed things said like - "materialism", "Satan is very active", etc...

Finally, one good old honest brother about 75 yrs of age and from a little country cong. stuck up his hand and said "Maybe its because things just did not come to pass!"

He just got stared down and told that there was nothing ever taught by the society that "did not come to pass". This jerk of a CO then went on to say that it was all the lazy brothers fault and that the slackers were probably the ones who assumed "for themselves" that 1975 meant something.

anewme

Oh thats right. I remember brothers saying that there was a great "falling away" from the truth after 1975.
That we must prove ourselves to be faithful. "Now begins the ENDURANCE TO THE END that the scriptures speak of"
The great waiting period began....the symbolic ark of the organization with its great ramp still open to the masses.

What did the Watchtower Soceity REALLY say about 1975?

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