Lets talk about 1975

by lola28 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  lola28

  Ok here's what I need, theres a group on Facebook that has a kid that claims the events of 1975 are nothing but rubish, basically he says that it was the publishers who just started rumors, this is where you guys come in.

  I want to show him that The Society is responsible for 1975 that they did in fact lead millions to believe the end was coming that fall, that people actually DID make dramatic changes in their lives ( getting dunked, selling houses, not having children, moving where the need is greater) you get the drift. I need the following:

  • Watchtower, Awake and any other publications where they even hinted at the 1975 date
  • And I think the most important would be to get some of you to tell me everything you know about 1975.
  • And experinces, who of you made some drastic changes in anticipation of 1975?

  Lola
• 

  What-A-Coincidence
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  cabasilas

  This recent thread discusses a 1968 Awake! that discussed the predictions for 1975:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/140072/1.ashx

  There's a post by Atlantis there where you can download that Awake in PDF to read for yourself and you can share it with the JWs you're discussing with.

  Hope that helps!
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  jwfacts

  The Awake that Cabasilas mentions is a classic. Also here are a list of quotes that you can show him from http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/1975.htm
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  AllTimeJeff

  ***

  w688/15p.499par.30WhyAreYouLookingForwardto1975?***

  30

  Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man’s existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ. If these two periods run parallel with each other as to the calendar year, it will not be by mere chance or accident but will be according to Jehovah’s loving and timely purposes. Our chronology, however, which is reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible), at the best only points to the autumn of 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth. It does not necessarily mean that 1975 marks the end of the first 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh creative "day." Why not? Because after his creation Adam lived some time during the "sixth day," which unknown amount of time would need to be subtracted from Adam’s 930 years, to determine when the sixth seven-thousand-year period or "day" ended, and how long Adam lived into the "seventh day." And yet the end of that sixth creative "day" could end within the same Gregorian calendar year of Adam’s creation. It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years.

  Notice how Franz presumed to speak for Jehovah, and that the margin for error was weeks or months, not years.

  There are others....
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  cabasilas

  Here's a link to a chapter by Ray Franz (former Governing Body member, now ex-JW) on 1975:

  http://web.archive.org/web/20031209184316/http://users.volja.net/izobcenec4/coc/9.pdf
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  Sunspot

  I sometimes wonder if we had the internet back before 1975, if there would have been all the hype that we were subjected to in the local Kingdom Halls back then. We were always hearing AND DELIVERING the URGENT MESSAGE to get onto the Ark (WTS) before the END came.

  We heard the brothers talk about this date in the public talks, in the Kingdom Halls, at get-togethers and discussed between doors or when waiting in the car while others were "on calls". We picked up on EVERY THING that was said or that possibly pertained to the upcoming destruction of every ONE but US, and hung on every paragraph in every WT publication that mentioned this event. Sisters yakked about this on the phone with one another.

  I knew those that sold homes and bought little trailers to go where the need was great....and had sacfriced having families until AFTER ARMAGEDDON which was right around the corner. We were always ON THE THRESH HOLD of this happening. I doubled up on my personal studies of WTS bible aids to hasten finishing up my "two publications" that Jehovah required of me to complete. I was "under the wire" being baptized n 1972.

  We were instructed not to have a "study" go longer than six months because there were far too many folks "out there" that wanted to study and we were needed to bring them onto the Ark as well. NOW there are people that are going into YEARS of "studying" with JWs with NO urgency in view.

  But, as I said....I have to wonder if we HAD the internet back then....would this Watchtower hype have been squashed so that the 1975 fiasco would never have gotten off the ground? People now say "it never happened that way" but those of us that LIVED with this and lived THROUGH this.....know better.
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  AWAKE&WATCHING

  Now this is why I love you guys.
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  ferret

  I lived through 1975 and where did the publishers get all the hype, it was from the watchtower study, not from any other source.
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  skeptic1914

  What I remember about that time period is this:

  - burying a Bible under a rock in front of our house (in case of persecution)

  - being convinced that my first child (born April 1975) would never be born in this system or born in a concentration camp; would never go to school...graduate...you get the idea.

  - scoffing at the idea of saving for retirement. (that hurts)

  Skeptic1914