It is very odd, they say they are in "The Truth" but the truth is exactly what they do not tell. When my husband and I were fading we used to say we were in "The Lies".
LI
Jehovahs Witnesses taught that Armageddon would occur in 1914,1915,1918,1921,1925,1932,1941 and 1975. Who is the father
by Little Imp 33 Replies latest jw friends
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Bungi Bill
Their own literature condemns them - no matter how hard they try to wriggle out of it afterwards:
- One of many examples being TheWatchtower of August 15 1968, which even ran an article entitled "Why are you looking forward to 1975?"
(i) The title itself is enough to convey to the reader that "the WTS says Armegeddon will happen in 1975."
(ii) Furthermore, the contents of that same article only reinforced this idea.
(I was an avid reader of their literature in those years, and well remember this article).
Now the JWs will have you believe that the Watchtower Society not ever claimed that the end was coming in 1975:
- if that were true, then they (the WTS) did a woeful job of communicating it!
Bill.
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Listener
There was another Watchtower article in 1968/1969 that stated it would be in the next few years.
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wheelwithinwheel
My dad cashed in his pension, quit his job, wrote to the society asking where the need was great and moved to the boonies. He bought a book called "Famine 1975", which the WT had quoted. He would bring it up on the podium, hold it up for all to see, and refer to it in his talks. He loved the book because he felt even worldly persons were comfirming the WT was right. We would also often hear a quote from some other nutcase specialist that said something like "In 1975 the world would be too dangerous to live in". As you may guess the book disappeared from our library soon after 1975 slipped by, the family moved back to civilization and the whole incident was quickly erased from his memory. 1975, never happened. Typical case of JW's being in denial.
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Bonnie_Clyde
Their own literature condemns them - no matter how hard they try to wriggle out of it afterwards: One of many examples being The Watchtower of August 15 1968, which even ran an article entitled "Why are you looking forward to 1975?"
I remember the excitement of that article too. Interestingly, when I mentioned this to my son-in-law about five years ago, he told me I was wrong. He said his family came into the "truth" about 1975, and they never heard anything about Armageddon coming in 1975. I believe what Witness 007 said above is true, that they started to downplay it earlier that year.
However, it was this conversation that ended my relationship with son-in-law, daughter, my father and several other relatives, and it branded me as an apostate.
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designs
They build close family bonds...............not
Fred Franz went on a whirlwind tour in 1974 to downplay his own prediction, political damage control.
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Little Imp
Thanks for your responses. They are most certainly in denial about it all.
They do, however, quote Fred Franz a lot I guess it's because of what Design said in that he downplayed his own prediction because he began to realise it might not happen.
LI
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james_woods
People, let's just remember this: There was a great (U.S. at least) "falling away" in the years just following 1975.
If the Watchtower never said something would happen in 1975, why did people get discouraged and fall away?
We actually discussed this in elder's meetings at the circuit assemblies at the time - what could we do to counter the dissappointment over 1975? The circuit overseers began the damage control - which basically was a coverup that the prophecy was ever made. We were instructed that the "falling away" was really due to Satan, people were lazy, the world was evil, and so on - but it was not suggested to mention the year 1975.
I know - because I was an elder, and I was there.
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Listener
Don't forget to include before the end of last century also.
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Nickolas
If you have the stomach for it, this link will take you to an mp3 file of the very long speech Fred Franz made on February 10, 1975 to 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in which he makes it very, very clear that Armageddon was imminent. Some exerpts have been taken from this speech and posted elsewhere, but it is not until you listen to the whole thing do you realise how damning the evidence is that "1975" was official Watchtower doctrine.