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The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life ( published in 1968) was partly responsible for a great spurt of growth in the late 60s and early 70s with hundreds of thousands of people deciding to get baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses. The 1968 edition of the "Truth" book also provides a historical look at how the year 1975 was viewed by Jehovah's Witnesses at the time.

The book "The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life" and the Year 1975

The book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life was first published by the Watchtower Society in the year 1968. Jehovah's Witnesses quickly began wide distribution of the book. The first printing was 5 million copies. Introduced at the same time was a six month Bible Study program using the "Truth" book as the textbook.

The May 15, 1969 Watchtower, pp.309-312, addressed those who had been studying with the new book for six month. Due to the "short time left" those who were not responding by attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall were likely to have their study discontinued.

Have You Been Studying for Six Months?
ARE you among the over one million persons who are at present being helped by Jehovah's witnesses to learn what the Holy Bible teaches? If you are, likely you are using the Bible-study aid TheTruthThatLeadstoEternalLife. Undoubtedly it has helped you to learn many wonderful things about God and his will for mankind….
In view of the short time left in which to do their work, Jehovah's witnesses do not continue to study the Bible with any who fail to respond to its urgent message within six months. The nearness of this system's end compels them to use their time in the most effective way possible. So they feel obligated to spend their time calling on someone else who might respond by attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall and by speaking to others about the Bible truths learned. Thus it may be that if you have not as yet responded by even becoming a regular attender at some of the congregation meetings, the one who is studying the Bible with you may cancel that study arrangement in order to give his time to someone else. This arrangement is not meant to be harsh, but the urgency of the times in which we live demands it. There are millions of persons who need spiritual help and God's servants want to reach all they possibly can.

Doubtless some people did not respond. But, many more did respond. Beginning in 1969, the number of people baptized by Jehovah's Witnesses dramatically increased to well over 100,000 per year and continued on for several more years. The final total number of copies printed of the "Truth" book was well over 100 million.

Beginning in 1976, however, the number of baptisms dropped significantly.

In 1981, a revised edition of the "Truth" book was released. The only changes in the text dealt with mention or allusion to the year 1975. For example, paragraph 9 of the first chapter was reworded.

1968 version:
9 Many men who study world events are convinced that a great change is definitely in the making. The famous writer Walter Lippmann said: "For us all the world is disorderly and dangerous, ungoverned and apparently ungovernable. Everywhere there is great anxiety and bewilderment." He added that all this "marks, I believe, the historic fact that we are living through the closing chapters of the established and traditional way of life." Also, as reported back in 1960, a former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, declared that our time is "a period of unequaled instability, unequaled violence."
And he warned: "I know enough of what is going on to assure you that, in fifteen years from today, this world is going to be too dangerous to live in."

1981 version:
9 Many men who study world events are convinced that a great change is definitely in the making. The famous writer Walter Lippmann said: "For us all the world is disorderly and dangerous, ungoverned and apparently ungovernable. Everywhere there is great anxiety and bewilderment." He added that all this "marks, I believe, the historic fact that we are living through the closing chapters of the established and traditional way of life." Also, as reported back in 1960, a former United States Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, declared that our time is "a period of unequaled instability, unequaled violence." Based on what he knew was then going on in the world, it was his conclusion that soon "this world is going to be too dangerous to live in."

A similar secular reference to 1975 was eliminated from paragraph 11 of chapter 10:

1968 version:
11 During and after World War II widespread food shortages added to the distress. Shortly after the war Look magazine observed:
"A fourth of the world is starving today. Tomorrow will even be worse. Famine over most of the world now is more terrible than most of us can imagine. . . . There are now more people hunting desperately for food than at any other time in history."
More recently, the book entitled "Famine—1975!" said concerning today's food shortages:
"Hunger is rampant throughout country after country, continent after continent around the undeveloped belt of the tropics and subtropics. Today's crisis can move in only one direction—toward catastrophe. Today hungry nations; tomorrow starving nations.
"By 1975 civil disorder, anarchy, military dictatorships, runaway inflation, transportation breakdowns and chaotic unrest will be the order of the day in many of the hungry nations."

A totally new quotation is supplied for the 1981 version:

11 During and after World War II widespread food shortages added to the distress. Shortly after the war Look magazine observed:
"A fourth of the world is starving today. Tomorrow will even be worse. Famine over most of the world now is more terrible than most of us can imagine. . . . There are now more people hunting desperately for food than at any other time in history."
More recent reports have shown that a constant lack of adequate food, resulting in chronic malnutrition, has become the "major world hunger problem today." The London Times reported:
"There have always been famines, but the scale and ubiquity [presence everywhere] of hunger today is on a totally new scale. . . . Today malnutrition is said to affect more than a thousand million people; perhaps as many as 400 million live constantly on the brink of starvation."—June 3, 1980.

Page 191 of the 1968 version advertises the next two books prospective converts should read:

"Press OntoMaturity"!
Now that you have considered some basic Bible truths, you need to continue in spiritual growth. So you will want to do as the apostle Paul advised: "Now that we have left the primary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity."—Hebrews 6:1.
To help you do just that, we strongly recommend that you read these two informative books:
"Things in Which It Is Impossible For God to Lie"
"Life Everlasting – In Freedom of the Sons of God"

Included as part of the description of "Life Everlasting – In Freedom of the Sons of God" is this:

A chart of Bible chronology revealing that few years remain for this present wicked system of things.

The January 1, 1967 Watchtower, page 28, had also referred to this chart which 'revealed that few years remained':

But, without a doubt, nothing has created more interest in this textbook than the first chapter with its chart and fine information regarding the 7,000 years of God's rest day. The observation that 1975 may well mark the beginning of mankind's great Jubilee has intrigued many.

The 1981 edition of the "Truth" book no longer recommends either of these books and now recommended two newer books which did not discuss the 1975 date. These were:

True Peace and Security—From What Source?
"Let Your Kingdom Come"

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For further on the views of Jehovah's Witnesses on the year 1975 at the time the "Truth" book was released, one can view online the entire October 8, 1968 Awake! , pp. 13-16:

http://www.reexamine.info/60s/g68_Oct_8.pdf

The secular news journal Time magazine also referred to the expectations at that time in its issue of July 18, 1969 in an article entitled "Witnessing the End":

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901074-1,00.html

The downloadable version mentioned above by Atlantis is the original 1968 version.

need scans of truth book revisions

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The book "The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life" and the Year 1975

"Life Everlasting – In Freedom of the Sons of God"

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