1975 end prediction

by FL_Panthers 83 Replies latest jw friends

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  steve2

  In 1973, a CO stood on the platform and held up his three fingers for the entire audience to see. He then intoned, "Brothers and sisters, we can expect the biggest change mankind has ever faced within the number of years represented by my three fingers." The entire crowded kingdom hall burst into spontaneous and sustained applause. I was in the audience excitedly applauding with everyone else.

  There is no video or audio copy of that confident pronouncement. But all the Witnesses present - if they were unstintingly honest-hearted - would know that up and down New Zealand, in kingdom halls near and far, similar date-centred pronouncements were being made.

  We even had a month-by-month countdown in the early to mid 1970s to 1975 in the Kingdom Ministry.

  It is the worst kind of human-originated dishonesty for the Watchtower and the Witnesses to deny the organization itself deliberately fanned the flames of speculation leading up to 1975. It may not have approved of every single utterance but it enabled the speculation and actively contributed to it.

  I would have had an unchangeable measure of deep respect for the organization if it had simply come clean after 1975 came and went and openly acknowledged its central role in fanning the flames of speculatory discourse that permeated the organization - both in print and in spoken word - from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.
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  ADJUSTMENTS

  http://www.jwfacts.com/images/g68onlyafewyears.jpg
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  DesirousOfChange

  What makes people think that 6,000 years is the end? How did someone come to that conclusion?

  Fred Franz told them so.

  I'm of that generation where we don't like to read.-Panthers

  Then you're pretty much f*cked. Go back to the Kingdumb Hall. You might fit right in there.

  I'm done with this thread.

  Doc
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  NewYork44M

  In the early 1970s my father got a vanity auto license plate with the number "1975." We were pretty cool within the congregation. No one can tell me that 1975 was not a big deal. I distinctly remember when I realized that my year of high school graduation coincided with the end of the world.

  Having the honor of graduating high school 1975 I can assure all that 1975 was a watershed year for the organization. Unfortunately this event screwed up my life. I have moved on but not without a lot of pain.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  Can someone give me a list of bullet points or do I have to read? Remember, I'm of that generation where we don't like to read.

  .

  Why post a topic if you have absolutely no interest in devoting even a few minutes to finding the answer to your question? Good grief, quit being so damn lazy!

  Incidentally, there is no "generation where we don't like to read". there's only people of various ages who invest no time in accumulating knowledge that will help them better themselves.
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  LostGeneration

  Really good thread here with personal experiences...unfortunately it will require READING!

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/200316/1/Children-of-1975#.U452RfldVn8
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  Ding

  As Barrold Bonds indicated, Freddy was really good at saying things in Watchtowerspeak, where every JW knew 1975 was going to be the end, yet he left just enough wiggle room that he could deny it all when it failed.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  At the risk of handing a dollar to a vagrant and he'll just buy booze with it, here you go:

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  "Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. 'The new book compels us to realize that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed,' said a conventioneer." (Watchtower 15/10/1966, p. 629)

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  "Just think, 1975 marks the end of 6,000 years of human experience.....Will it be the time when God executes the wicked?....It very well could be, but we will have to wait to see.' (Watchtower, 1/5/1967, p 262)

  .

  "Why Are You Looking Forward To 1975?"
  … "What about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam's creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion." (Watchtower, Aug. 15, 1968, p. 494)

  .

  "Yes, the end of this system is so very near! Is that not reason to increase our activity?...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)

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  and, after the spectacular crash and burn of all that was supposed to occur in 1975, the WT offered a lame assed "apology" in true WT fashion- which means it's not really an apology in the traditional sense of the term. Incidentally, the "apology" came five years after 1975. Really? Hardly convincing:

  "With the appearance of the book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God, and its comments as to how appropriate it would be for the millennial reign of Christ to parallel the seventh millennium of mans existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. Unfortunately, however, along with such cautionary information, There were other statements published that implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility. There were statements made then, and thereafter, stressing that this was only a possibility. It is to be regretted that these latter statements apparently overshadowed the cautionary ones and contributed to a buildup of the expectation already initiated....In saying anyone, the Watchtower included all disappointed ones of Jehovah's Witnesses, hence including persons having to do with the publication of the information that contributed to the buildup of hopes centered on that date. (Watchtower, March 15, 1980, p. 17-18)
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  Band on the Run

  I was a teenager, bored to death, listening to Freddie Franz. His announcement of 1975 was so shocking it got my attention. This was at Yankee Stadium. My family placed great creedance in Freddie. I knew JW history more than most b/c my family became active during Russell's tenure. With such a history, it would be common sense not to predict anything in detail.

  There is some talk that Franz qualified his remarks. I heard no qualification. It was emvbarassing. Eve's sexuality was part of the calculation. Bethel had to know how the Witnesses would take it. They never sent a formal letter qualifying it to kingdom halls. I wondered if I would live long enoiugh to see the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The law firm took me much later. Yankees lost.
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  steve2

  Unsurprisingly, Panthers has the ideal mentality for survival in JW-land. Lots of seemingly searching questions "backed up" with a low tolerance for making the effort to find the answers. The main question governing many pro-JWs minds appears to be, "Where's the snooze button?"