(marking)
No Rapture But JW's Shown 2 B The True Idiots
by Pig 54 Replies latest jw friends
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wasblind
As we all know the WTS pull the "New light" card to cover a false prediction on the generation that would see the end
My main objective is to show any apologist, in the WTS own words, they
are no different than Harold Camping
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willyloman
A lof JWs expected something big to happen in 1994. Then a 1995 article cautioned against "calculating" when the end will come followed by an adjustment in the interpretation of a generation.
Exactly. In the aftermath of 1975 the WTS was slow to acknowledge their mistaken timetable. They blamed it on the rank and file for "running ahead" and "over emphasizing" the date - when if fact it was the Society itself and its appointed spokesmen who kept the date alive in dub minds ("Stay Alive 'til '75!").
It was five long years before they finally published a watered-down "apology" for any role they "might" have played in leading folks on. At the same time, however, they insisted over and over again that while the date might not have meant all they had hoped, the end was still very, very near. Afterwards, the Society was extremely careful not to set any specific dates, at least not in print. But they did beat the "generation is 70 or 80 years" drum and tie those generational years to their pivotal date of 1914. It did not take a JW rocket scientist to figure out they were hinting that the end must come sometime between 1984 (70 years after 1914) and 1994 (80 years). In fact, this "quiet" teaching settled down the restless dubs and probably prevented more publisher losses during those years.
From then on, that time period became significant in dub minds. Those of us who were dubs then recall the collective sense that the end would be here prior to 1994. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and the Iron Curtain fell and "freedom" broke out in Eastern Europe, dubs were in a frenzy over the huge increase in literature placements and bible studies in this new virgin territory. Surely this was a sign that the end was just around the corner. How loving of Jehovah to put off the end until all our formerly enslaved brothers could have an opportunity to hear the life-saving message!
Remember?
When it got to be 1994, it felt like 1974 all over again. We were down to the final year. A lot still had to happen in a short period of time. From the platform you heard speakers say that 1994 could stretch into early fall of '95 because that was the length of the "service year."
Then, miraculously and right on time, in the fall of 1995, the WT published its infamous "generation" re-teaching. This was previewed for the careful listener in a talk in the summer district conventions, which alluded to the change. Then later it was elaborated on in print and studied by each congo. Suddenly, the "generation" didn't mean what it used to mean. The 70 or 80 years was a non-starter. And 1984-94 was toast as an end-time prediction.
If the WTS did not beat the drums in favor of the 1984-94 time frame, why did they feel the need in 1995 to explain to explain what happened, or didn't happen?
Subtle. That 's how they roll.
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Bungi Bill
willyloman,
Interesting - yet I recall none of it! (Despite having been an avid reader of everything that that lot printed, for the 28 years up until 1994).
Oh for sure, I, too, knew how to add 70 or 80 onto 1914, and come up with the years 1984 and 1994:
- but as to anybody placing any emphasis on this data, I knew of no such instance.
Perhaps I - and just about everybody else that I knew - had seen the 1975 letdown, and weren't going to get overly excited about a second (or third or fourth ) prediction. Also, I was never one for paying much heed to the JW "rumour mill."
Which has probably a lot to do with the fact that what you see depends very much on which lens you are looking at it through!
Bill.
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willyloman
Which has probably a lot to do with the fact that what you see depends very much on which lens you are looking at it through!
You're right, it does. In my 30 years as a dub I noticed each congo, even each circuit, has its own personality and it's own point of view on many things. Where I was, it was the consensus that the 1975 prediction was premature (not "wrong") and that the end could not poissibly delay beyond 1994 due to the Society's constant repetion of the generation teaching (before it changed in '95). As a result, anyone payhing attention was on tiptoes from '84 on.
On reflection, you're right that no one in authority got up in front of the congo or circuit or district audience and said in so many words, "the end will come between 1984 and '94," but we were reminded constantly in speech and in print that the generation of 1914 would see the end and that a generation was 70 or 80 years by Bible definition. We could do the math. In private conversations, I heard many elders voice that opinion openly. It helped them assimilate the 1975 Great Disappointment to know they WTS was only off by a "few" years.
It's my personal opinion the Society encouraged this kind of speculation, while being careful not appear to take the lead in it, because it kept a lot of us from walking away in the late 1970's (as many did). They were certainly aware of the speculation, otherwise why bother to change the definioton of "generation" as the 1994 service year came to a close?