Instructions on how to download reduced size PDF versions of the book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God (in both a searchable format and in an ultra small format) will appear towards the end of this post.
Background on the book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God
Credit goes to:
http://www.freeminds.org/history/1975.htm
When it was released in 1966, the book Life Everlasting in the Freedom of the Sons of God immediately caused a lot of excitement among Jehovah's Witnesses with the mention of the year 1975 as the "appropriate" time for the beginning of a Jubilee rest for mankind. This is referred to on pages 26 to 30 (italics added):
The time is fast drawing near for the reality that was foreshadowed by the Jubilee of liberty to be proclaimed throughout the earth to all mankind.... Most certainly the near future would be the most appropriate time for it. God's own written Word indicates that it is the appointed time for it.... In this twentieth century an independent study has been carried on that does not blindly follow some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, and the published timetable resulting from this independent study gives the date of man's creation as 4026 B.C.E. According to this trustworthy Bible chronology six thousand years from man's creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E..... So in not many years within our own generation we are reaching what Jehovah God could view as the seventh day of man's existence.
How appropriate it would be for Jehovah God to make of this coming seventh period of a thousand years a sabbath period of rest and release, a great Jubilee sabbath for the proclaiming of liberty throughout the earth to all its inhabitants! This would be most timely for mankind. It would also be most fitting on God's part, for, remember, mankind has yet ahead of it what the last book of the Holy Bible speaks of as the reign of Jesus Christ over earth for a thousand years, the millennial reign of Christ.... It would not be by mere chance or accident but would be according to the loving purpose of Jehovah God for the reign of Jesus Christ, the "Lord of the sabbath," to run parallel with the seventh millennium of man's existence.
A chart appeared at the end of the first chapter that outlined the Watchtower Society's understanding of biblical chronology from the view of a 7,000 year rest day and how that would relate to 6,000 years ending in 1975.
How the Watchtower Society explained the significance of this chart can be seen in the way they advertised the Life Everlasting book. Page 191 of The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life (1968 edition) refers to the chart this way:
"A chart of Bible chronology revealing that few years remain for this present wicked system of things."Raymond Franz gives a good description of how the 1975 prediction was played out amongst Jehovah's Witnesses before and after that date in his book Crisis of Conscience. The chapter "1975--The Appropriate Time for God to Act" from his book can be read here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031209184316/http://users.volja.net/izobcenec4/coc/9.pdf
How to download the PDFs of Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God:
There are two versions. The ultra small version is bookmarked, but not searchable and is only 6.23 MB. This file is small enought to fit as an email attachment for many. It can be downloaded from this filesharing site:
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=b1e97e8ef6fc8f3829b640e30c7b2a36
Once you go to the above page, looks towards the bottom and once the golden download button appears, click on that and the download will begin.
The searchable version PDF of the Life Everlasting book is 12.17 MB. Some interestng searches might be: 1975, six thousand, 6,000, jubilee, etc. It's at:
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=258018c1eede80f4d9236f18fd4bbdc8
The searchable version is too large for some email systems, but can be sent on some, such as gmail.
Of related interest are some Awake! magazines from that era that also pushed the 1975 date. These have been mentioned before, but there's a new one to add:
October 8, 1968 Awake! "Is It Later Than You Think?" (See pagea 13-16):
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=4085412f6140029d2c479f6bb98d9e63
October 8, 1966 Awake! (See pages 17-20):
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=5efe11c796e9a000631895595911dbd6
January 8, 1968 Awake! Page 19 of that issue quoted a Secretary of State of the US and then observed:
He predicted that by 1975 this world would be too dangerous! Interestingly, this date is also the one indicated by the most reliable Bible research as marking the end of 6,000 years of rebellion of men and demons against God.This Awake can be downloaded here:
http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=6504c48bf58e8795d4702b6d9ecadfe4
So, if a JW tries to tell you that the Watchtower Society was not responsible for the expectations for 1975, share these PDFs with them. They speak for themselves.