My wife wanted to go visit some friends at another Kingdom Hall so I tagged along
to keep her happy. The elder giving the "public" talk brought up the 1975 myth.
He said, as he looked around the audience, "it looks like there are not a lot of brothers
and sisters here who were Witnesses like I was in the late 1960's. During that time
there was a lot of speculation about 1975. Many Witnesses read too much into what
the Society printed and in fact many sold their homes and quit their jobs because the
they thought the end was coming in 1975. Now we know that the Society never said
that the end was coming in 1975" At this point my blood began to boil because this
is a very sore subject for me because I bought the 1975 teaching hook line and sinker.
The elder continued "now the brothers who sold their homes and pioneered may have
appeared to be overly zealous but were they harmed? No, the served Jehovah full time
and put their trust in him. So because these brothers assumed the end was coming in
1975 it did not hurt them. There are times when the Society makes mistakes but they
are only human, we are not like the "other Church" where their leader is infallible"
I was ready to stand up and scream "you are lying" but I know what the consequences
of that would have been.
In looking around the audience I would estimate that there were about 15 out of 100
that were Witnesses in the early 1970's who expierenced the 1975 frenzy. In another
10 to 20 years the "stay alive till 75" generation will be dead and gone. Then 1975
will be just like another year in WTBTS history like 1914, 1918, and 1925. Witness alive
in that time period that they were going to see the end of the world and now they are
all nearly all dead. "The millions now living will never die" did die. Modern day Witnesses
know a little about those dates and what they believed back then, but today just shrug
it off and believe that now the end is near just like they were led to bleive in 1925.
Concerning the WTBTS teaching of 1975 never happening I always keep a little clip of the
5/22/69 Awake in my desk. Here is what it says and tell me if you think that they were
teaching in 1969 that the end was eminent. "If you are a young person, you also need
to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things........all evidence
in fullillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few
years........as a young person you will never fulfill any carreer that this system offers.
If you are in high school and thinking of a colledge education, it means at least four, perhaps
six of eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of
things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!"
40 years ago I believed and taught that crap. I gave up a college education because the
end was so near. Now I am old and will be retiring in a few years. Please if there are
any JW's wanna be's out there reading this or any lurkers who are not up over their head
in Watchtower doctrine, run away, get away as fast as you can before the WTBTS has its
teeth in you and your family because later on the only way out is death, disfellowshipment,
or the "fade". The fade is what I am in and it can take years to accomplish and even after
several years of not being associated and some Witness finds out that you were a Witness
you will have elders knocking on your door.
TooBad TooSad