Nathan KNORR announced the big A was coming in 1975 to best friends....

by restrangled 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  restrangled

  I have posted this under various topics but it just keeps getting skipped over. I don't care how many times the WTBS denies the 1975 predictions, if a member of the GB told his good friends, and they in turn told their friends doesn't that amount to over riding anything written prior to and after 1975?

  The PO in our hall was in his 50's and a very good friend of Knorr's. He went to visit him in 1974 and Knorr firmly told him Armageddon was going to start in 1975. The PO wasa good friend of my father's. It was passed on to my Dad. I will not repeat what I have written in other threads, but I do believe this deserves some attention.

  After 1975 came and went my Mom still has letters she wrote to the Society quoting Knorr to the PO and the society's response. She has refused to let anyone see these letters.

  I don't care what has been written in publications, a member of the GB ie: (Knorr) was running around saying 1975 was it.

  r.
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  Nathan Natas

  I have no doubt that Knorr really believed that Freddy was a brilliant Bible scholar, and the story is that he was really, really, really pissed when Armageddon did not come.

  But what else could he expect from Franz, who fabricated the entire 1925 fiasco simply to facilitate the relocation of JFR from Brooklyn where he got in the way to San Diego Ca where he could drink and wench in solitude.

  Fred Franz was insane.
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  Skimmer

  Yes, Freddy was nuts. His biggest mistake was to be surrounded by sycophants and so not realize that he himself was capable of error. Knorr was also deluded by the same mechanism.
  
  "When King Saul dies..." was a saying heard in Bethel in the late 1970s as reported by Ray Franz and referred to his uncle Freddy Franz. Freddy was sure that 1975 would be the Big A until he decided that it was going to be a year earlier; this did leak to some congregations.
  
  Changes did occur shortly after King Saul Freddy met his maker in December 1992; this was the beginning of the end of the 1930 generation doctrine that linked the Big A to those living in 1914. I'll wager that had been plenty of GB opposition to the generation doctrine but it took Freddy's death for the decision stalemate to be broken.
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  garybuss

  I remember it all well. I was 22 years old in 1966 and I never missed an assembly from 1949 through 1975. I heard Knorr and he believed it or made me think he believed it. Knorr's belief was the peg that made it all work. Knorr was a malevolent dictator with a messianic complex.
  
  Franz would go on for 2 hours in a 1 hour time slot and I didn't have a clue what he said. I thought I was the dummy. Franz didn't sell himself that I saw. He talked. And talked.
  
  The farther from the top we got in that era, the more dogmatic the speakers were. The district and circuit servants were the ones shoveling coal to the fire. They also were in charge of damage control in 1976. Of course they failed miserably and lots of us left. Lots of us were ready to leave in 1974, we just wanted to see the fat man fall.
  
  
  
  
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  Amazing

  I attended a talk by Nathan Knorr in 1972 where he said to look out for 1973. Of course he led up to the Big A in 1975. We were all looking forward to 1975. Sure enough, the gas shortages started in 1973 ... but, we were so screwed up at the long gas lines in and around the SF Bay Area, that we did not think about what Knorr said ... of course 1975 came and went ... and here we are 31 years later poking fun at the whole thing. The truth is stranger than fiction.

  Jim Whitney
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  TMS

  Knorr was more pragmatic. I doubt that he truly "believed" in the 1975 projections. I've heard a few Knorr quotes repeated by insiders that sounded as if he viewed a lot of the prophetic material of the WTBS as "speculative". Nathan knew how to run a company, but the abstract stuff didn't do much for him.

  tms
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  read good books

  I think Freddie (Fritz) France was crazy alright, crazy like a fox, all the wacky predictions sure helped the society and the society big wigs build a small empire in New York. Don't feel sorry for Freddie the freeloader, feel sorry for all the ordinary decent people whose lives were wrecked by his made up baloney.If the Catholics are right and there is a Hell, Freddie is probably in it along with Knorr and all the religious phonies and hucksters who have deceived people down through the ages. Elmer Gantry could take some tips from Fred Franz.
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  zagor

  Nathan Homer Knorr was not only a member of GB but the president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. i.e. Numero Uno. (I thought he wasn't a member of GB, but I've just checked and you're right he was.)

  I agree with you, they promoted the idea of 1975 and then tried to put the blame on people who had "false expectations" ... I mean one thing is sincirely beliving something, and I'm pretty sure that many would have forgiven them if they openly addmited it was a major screw up on their part. It would have infused a new spirit among R&F. Instead, they've chosen to put blame on R&F for having overhyped expectations. Thats unforgivable. If you want to find biblical parallel to it, it woud definetely be when Adam blamed god for giving him a wife who made him sin.
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  hamsterbait

  Zagor -

  After saying that 1925 was more clearly marked in the Bible than 1914, that the chronology could not be changed even if they wanted to - because it was from God,

  In 1926 the WT$ blamed the R&F for expecting the faithful of old, and Armageddy in 1925. Satan put false hopes and expectations into the hearts and minds of the Friends etc.

  They have been handling this kind of cockup + crisis for 140 years, and are now experts.

  ( EXPERT : EX = "has been" ; sPERT = "drip under pressure")

  HB
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  fullofdoubtnow

  I don't remember Knorr at all, he was dead before I joined, and by then the wts had somehow got the jws to forget about 1975. The official line about brothers running ahead of themselves was all I was ever told, but research since then has told me a differrent story - they preached the end was coming in 1975 relemtlessly in the late 60's and early 70's, with the blessing of the gb to do so.