Children of 1975 (page 28)

Black Sheep

My Dad got locked up as a objector during WWII.

It didn't make him a better person.

It just made him more determined to justify his poor choices.

Here is something I posted 8 years ago on this site. If someone else has already posted this, my appologies for the duplication. Note how even though Fred Franz does not come out and say 1975 as the end of the system he was smart enough and uses a lawyer explaination to imply 1975.

*** w66 10/15 631 Rejoicing over "God's Sons of Liberty" Spiritual Feast ***
THE YEAR 1975
At the Baltimore assembly Brother Franz in his closing remarks made some interesting comments regarding the year 1975. He began casually by saying, “Just before I got on the platform a young man came to me and said, ‘Say, what does this 1975 mean? Does it mean this, that or any other thing?’” In part, Brother Franz went on to say: ‘You have noticed the chart [on pages 31-35 in the book Life Everlasting—in Freedom of the Sons of God]. It shows that 6,000 years of human experience will end in 1975, about nine years from now. What does that mean? Does it mean that God’s rest day began 4026 B.C.E.? It could have. The Life Everlasting book does not say it did not. The book merely presents the chronology. You can accept it or reject it. If that is the case, what does that mean to us? [He went into some length showing the feasibility of the 4026 B.C.E. date as being the beginning of God’s rest day.]
‘What about the year 1975? What is it going to mean, dear friends?’ asked Brother Franz. ‘Does it mean that Armageddon is going to be finished, with Satan bound, by 1975? It could! It could! All things are possible with God. Does it mean that Babylon the Great is going to go down by 1975? It could. Does it mean that the attack of Gog of Magog is going to be made on Jehovah’s witnesses to wipe them out, then Gog himself will be put out of action? It could. But we are not saying. All things are possible with God. But we are not saying. And don’t any of you be specific in saying anything that is going to happen between now and 1975. But the big point of it all is this, dear friends: Time is short. Time is running out, no question about that.
‘When we were approaching the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, there was no sign that the Gentile Times were going to end. Conditions on earth gave us no hint of what was to come, even as late as June of that year. Then suddenly there was a murder. World War I broke out. You know the rest. Famines, earthquakes and pestilences followed, as Jesus foretold would happen.
‘But what do we have today as we approach 1975? Conditions have not been peaceful. We’ve been having world wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences and we have these conditions still as we approach 1975. Do these things mean something? These things mean that we’re in the “time of the end.” And the end has to come sometime. Jesus said: “As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near.” (Luke 21:28) So we know that as we come to 1975 our deliverance is that much nearer.’

Pistoff

Either the WT genuinely believed 1975 was the real deal, very telling in itself, or they were deliberately deceitful.

Either one of those choices are unacceptable to me.

I LIVED THROUGH IT, so debator/Ren, shut the hell up.

You are a troll and a sucker to boot.

Ding

I believe in CoC Ray Franz indicated that the GB was genuinely surprised when 1975 turned out to be nothing and were scrambling to figure out what went wrong.

designs

'Math is hard' Fred Franz 1/1/1976

d

I was not alive in 1975 but I remeber reading it in one of their history books.

d

I remeber my sociology teacher made a mention of it. I was still a witness then but fading in 2008.This started my path to leaving.

molly1

For those of us that were in the organization in 1975 and prior it seems absurd that some one is trying to tell us that we are mistaken that the watchtower society never pointed to 1975 as when armegeddon would begin. I too remember it vividly all the talks about how close the end was, how we who were in our 20's would never grow old, those who left would not have time to return.....we were on a sinking titantic.etc one elder told me he remembers telling people at the door in 1975 that he would not be back talking to them in 1976 as the great tribulation was for sure coming in 1975. I remember all the talks that all the signs of the time of the end had been fulfilled and whenever the world says peace and security then sudden destruction will be upon them. well that was said and here we are in 2012. i am now 59 growing old and accepting my mortality. As a young person i remember being terroized by the pictures in the paradise lost to paradise regain book, the earth opening up swallowing up people and cars. everytime there was a threat of war between russia and the us (this was the pushing and shoving from the king of the north to the king of the south), earthquakes etc we thought armeggedon was about to start. they scared the living shit out of us constantly. as a child i remember being so frightened all the time....would i be swallowed up or would jehovah protect me. Talk about child abuse when i think about the terror they made me feel and others and to this day still spew this fear from the pulpit and especially at the conventions....it makes me sick..... they control by fear and lies. I left in 1985 when i woke up to the fact i was involved in a cult. My cousin and his wife are still witnesses and were there in 1975 to hear all this hype. when i saw my cousin in 2001 he was trying to get me to come back. when i asked him so when are they now saying that armegeddon is coming since they cannot claim the generation that seen the begining would see the end which according to them was 1914 (we were always quoted the average life span was 70 and if special might 80) he got mad and called me an apostate. They cannot stand their own literature being used against them.... It makes me think of a quote that fits the watchtower ... grucho marx said... who are you going to believe me or your lying eyes. for me i am glad i believed my lying eyes.

Sonny Crockett

Excellent posts here.

Children of 1975