by d 278 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Debator,
You won't accept the testimony from people who were there.
The WTS instructed JWs not to continue a study longer than 6 months if the person wasn't yet ready to be baptized because Armageddon was coming in 1975 and there was no point wasting any more time on such people.
It wasn't misguided JWs who came up with this.
It was organizational policy and instructions.
Thank you for those that have posted watchtowers to show that 75' wasn't an official teaching
for Armageddon but the 6000 year date since Adam....
Exageration, conspiracy theories and emotional manipulation from hearsay are poor debating tools......Debator-ReniaaTard
More than a few of us,have explained Pre-1975 to you..
You would have had your Ass Chewed Off and or been DF`d..
If you Disagreed with 1975 not being the year for Armageddon..
It is obvious to anyone reading your posts..
You ignore WBT$ Literature..
And..
The life experience of JWs who lived during that time in WBT$ History..
Your a Fool..
......................
...OUTLAW
I'm 54. I KNOW what it was like to hear CONSTANTLY about 1975~ They ABSOLUTELY pushed that yr. as the END until they needed wiggle room and had to back off.
Exaggeration, conspiracy theories and emotional manipulation from hearsay are poor debating tools.
So actually live video recording from the President of the WTS corporation giving a speech is just flimsy hearsay is it.
OK here's something you can do just to set the record strait, call a university or collage of theology,
ask to speak to a professor, then ask if its possible by using bible chronology to calculate 6000 years from Adam
forward to reach a specific date, you don't have to mention Oct.5 1975 as the JWS did or even mention that your
a JWS.
Lets put this so call dating scenario by the WTS. to the real test.
You say stand by the Truth Debater don't you, test the spirit as the bible says to.
( by the way one of those young people that I mentioned that committed suicide in 1975, I remember going
to his funeral at the Hall, I was a teen myself at the time, hardly what you call hearsay )
Farkel made a good comment about 1975 and all that went on back then.
I don't think he would mind if I posted it here
1975 for Deniers
Most of today's JWs were not members in 1975 or in the 9 years prior to 1975, so they were not eyewitnesses to what really went on during that period. I was a pioneer in that period, and I was an eyewitness to what went on.
Those JWs who are still active today and who were around in that period will typically say it was the "brothers" who "ran ahead of Jehovah" and "read more into" the 1975 prediction than what was actually stated. In fact, due to help from their religious masters they have even coined a pejorative stop-think phrase about it: "serving for a date." This phrase is a masterpiece of WTS deception. It implies greediness and selfishness on the part of those members who later left the religion, but who truly believed that was to be the start of Armageddon and the gateway to the Paradise Earth.long promised by their religious leaders.
The main excuse given is that the society never stated "for sure" that Armageddon would happen then. What excuse do they have then when District Overseer Charles Sunutko in 1967 got the assembly audiences all whipped up with his "Stay Alive 'Til '75!" slogan in his speech here:
Why did not the WTS clamp down on him or correct his "running ahead of Jehovah" comments and allow him to give several speeches on this theme to large JW audiences?
I'm not going to dwell on what the WTS did or didn't say about 1975 in this article. That's been done many times before. I'm going to present a significant piece of empirical evidence however, and let the readers draw their own conclusions.
I was at the 1968 Pomona, California District assembly and we were told something really BIG was going to happen there. It did. It was the release of the book "The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life." It was a very small book and not at all like the typical book released at conventions. It was topically arranged and designed specifically as a teaching book for our Bible studies.
Not that much later an even bigger bombshell was dropped. We were told in no uncertain terms that if our Bible studies had not progressed into going to meetings and going in field service within 6 months after the study was started we were to drop them. What was the reason? "The time is too short for dilly-dallying around." This was unprecedented in WT history.
"Six months and dump them" was our local slogan. "Go to hell in 6 months if you are not one of us, because you will die shortly at Armageddon" is what many of us thought.
I'm sure that "policy" was dumped not that long after the 1975 failure showed our massive urgency was just a pile of horse dung. It's now 35 years and a full generation later and even the 1975 date has been carefully removed from the WTS Time Lines of Significant World Events in their history and reference books.
So, this begs the question, is not the "6 month-and-drop-them" policy solid empirical evidence that the WTS wanted members to be deadly serious about 1975 and give their lives, treasures and souls to the service of the WTS to that end?
Sure it is. Those who bought into it and became disillusioned when the lie was exposed later were called evil ones who were "serving for a date." But the WTS got very rich in those years because of the huge growth in membership comprised of people who believed that what they were promised came from God.
To say that the Governing Body is a bunch of cynical old assholes is being way too kind to them, in my not so humble opinion.
Farkel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqN2XsVhL3Q
http://www.watchtowernews.org/media/video.htm
The WTS was careful and kept its assertions strictly from the platform, careful not to put it in direct written statements.
I was 23 in 1975 and I remember all the 1975 talk that started in 1966 and the majority of jws felt 1975 was a certainty. My family felt it could not be 1975, "at a time you think not" and that since Jesus helped create Eve, he knew when the 7th creative day began and would have known the day and the hour. A CO told us we would die in 1975 because we felt that way....we are all still here and he is dead.
Debator,
What difference does it make to you whether the Watchtower was or wasn't definite about 1975 being the date for Armageddon?
You believe in the Watchtower even though they have been THIS definite and wrong about Armageddon:
1/15/1872 WT: "The date of the close of that `battle' is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914."
"The Time Is At Hand", 1911 edition, p. 101: "... the battle of the great day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced."
Pastor Russell's Sermons, 1917, p. 676: "The present great war in Europe is the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures. (Rev. 16:16-20)."
I am wondering at the exageration on here? I remember 1975 as a time that many knew only ones running ahead of themselves truly thought it was Armageddon. We are always getting talks that the end is near from before that day to this. That being said I think those that wanted the reward rather than having a true Faith in Jehovah's promises were weeded out in 1975 for them it was a case of "Armageddon or else I'm leaving" which is very telling.
I was 16 in 1975. Does anyone have a copy of the Sept/Oct./Nov ??? 1974 KM that has the article praising people who are "selling their homes so they can pioneer in the LAST FEW MONTHS of this system of things."
"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. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Of the generation that observed the beginning of the "last days" in 1914, Jesus foretold: "This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur."-Matt. 24:34. Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in highschool and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or 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!" Awake!1969 May 22 p.15
11/8/74 Awake
Today there is a great crowd of people who are confident that a destruction of even greater magnitude is now imminent. The evidence is that Jesus’ prophecy will shortly have a major fulfillment, upon this entire system of things. This has been a major factor in influencing many couples to decide not to have children at this time. They have chosen to remain childless so that they would be less encumbered to carry out the instructions of Jesus Christ to preach the good news of God’s kingdom earth wide before the end of this system comes.—Matt. 24:14
March 1970 OKM
Now reports from the field show that Bible studies are being discontinued as publishers realize that the student is not making progress. This is entirely proper. There is no reason to spend our time with those who obviously are not really interested in doing something about the truths they are learning. Blah blah blah...
Read the whole farticle on your WTCD, Debator
"Yes, since the summer of 1973 there have been new peaks in pioneers every month. Now there are 20,394 regular and special pioneers in the United States, an all-time peak. That is 5,190 more than there were in February 1973! A 34-percent increase! Does that not warm our hearts? Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end." Kingdom Ministry May 1974 p.3 How Are You Using Your Life?
I was a little off. It was May 1974, yes...by all means...sell your home and pioneer.
