JEHOVAH ’S faithful people on earth publicly emphasized the importance of the dates 1914 and 1918 and 1925. They had much to say about these dates and what would come to pass, but not all they predicted came to pass. The predictions, as to the dates, were correct, but what came to pass could not be fully seen in advance. The failure to come to pass of some of the things predicted has afforded Satan’s agents in “Christendom,” particularly the clergy and the “man of sin,” an opportunity to ridicule and reproach the faithful servants of the Most High God, and to say of and concerning them and their published statements: ‘All their visions and predictions have failed; and such proves that they are all wrong, and that all their predictions for the future must fail.’ This the clergy use to turn the people away from God and his truth. Such was foreshadowed by what God said to Ezekiel: “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?’ (Ezek. 12:22) To be sure, no man can say precisely what day or year Jehovah’s battle at Armageddon will be fought, but it is easy to be seen that now conditions among the people are such as to indicate that a great crisis is near. Clergymen and politicians have predicted and continue to predict great success and prosperity for their man-made schemes. They speak against Jehovah’s witnesses. As to those who seriously and boldly continue obeying Almighty God, ecclesiastical and political “strong men” now say in substance that all such persons are ‘weak in the head,’ and that it will be many days before any final calamity befalls “Christendom,”From the 1938 Watchtower, page 269.
Rather similar to what the WTS said after 1975:
*** w80 3/15 p. 17 Choosing the Best Way of Life ***
5
In modern times such eagerness, commendable in itself, has led to attempts at setting dates for the desired liberation from the suffering and troubles that are the lot of persons throughout the earth. 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 man’s existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. There were statements made then, and thereafter, stressing that this was only a possibility. 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. It is to be regretted that these latter statements apparently overshadowed the cautionary ones and contributed to a buildup of the expectation already initiated.
Yeah, weak in the head. LOL
Craig