I remember the 1970s in this cult. I started studying in 1974 and got baptized in January 1976. Many were disappointed and left in the years that immediately followed 1975, but the majority of us held on for various reasons. I think one of those may have been a seldom mentioned or remembered development which occurred in 1980. During the summer conventions that year, the WTS shouldered some responsibility for building up everyone's expectations about 1975. Note that I said "some" because it certainly refused to accept all, instead putting much of the onus for the disappointment squarely on the rank-and-file. After 1980, the Society never mentioned the 1975 fiasco again with the hope that its memory would fade in time. That strategy proved to be sound for very few who became Witnesses in the succeeding decades ever heard about those frenzied years when most of us believed that The End was truly near.
This cult survived the failed hopes of 1914, 1925 and 1975. The years following Charles Russell's death saw a loss of 75% of the membership, with barely 4300 publishers worldwide in 1918. Yet from that small number of a century ago, Witnesses have grown into the millions with adherents in virtually every country on the globe. The cult faced down and outlasted its most determined opponents like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It forced dictators like Cuba's Fidel Castro to finally capitulate and grant official recognition. The Chinese Communists, though still adamantly and staunchly opposed, have been unable to destroy them. So I don't think a scandal of any kind would lead to the cult's death.
That doesn't mean I think the WTS is invulnerable. History has many examples of movements that eventually collapses and came to nothing, and I think the rotten nature of this cult will lead to its demise. Its evil and corruption are beyond redemption and enough people will see that eventually. But that eventuality may well be many years away. Mormonism, founded nearly two hundred years ago, is still alive and kicking. Indeed, it is the fasted growing religion among those who profess faith in Christ and the Bible. There is dissension wthin and opposition without, but the Church carries on despite that. Nevertheless, it isn't in any danger of a catastrophic collapse. If the WTS dies swiftly, it will only be due to a combination of internal conflict within the Governing Body resulting in real and deep schisms and an awakening to the fact of its evils on the part of the rank-and-file.
Quendi