1975: Much ado about nothing?

by dutyfree 19 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  ozziepost

  G'day all,

  It seems that 1975 didn't happen!

  Ask any R&F JW about 1975 now and you'll get stares as if you've just blasphemed, or you'll get denial. Here we are a quater century after the event, and it's as if it never happened.

  Back when I was a lad, I never knew about the 1925 fiasco. It was never mentioned. In fgact, it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned of it.

  The Borg has a history of denying its unpleasant past by having the R&F actually believe that black is white, and vice versa.

  Ozzie
• 

  randawg

  I cant stop laughing at these stories about 1975 I was 11 in '75 ina little town of Sebring Florida It was just my mom and my brother we were scared, very scared I recall goig to the kingdumb hall my mom telling me all these old brothers will be able to play ball and other activities with my brother and I in the new system because my father wasnt around, he got smart and got out of the org. well mother is still a witness we'll talk of the ole days in perticular 1975 her memory doesnt serve her as well as mine I guess its her way of dealing with a very sad past,let alone the future. I cant help what Jws were thinking in 1914 1925 1935
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  JAVA

  Indeed, I was part of the 1975 JW generation. I remember taking a mountain vacation with another Witness family in 1974, and we thought it would be the last time the families would do that before the end. It amazed me a few years later when I brought this up to them how upset they became. They wrote a letter to my JW spouse saying I was trying to "stumble" them. It's unbelievable how some can deny the obvious in cult-like religions.

  As many already said, 1975 ended with the sounds of silence from the Tower. When Witnesses awoke on January 1, 1976 nothing changed for "Satan's world" nor for JWs, and outright questions about failed expectations was unthinkable for most Witnesses. However, the Tower's silent treatment started to have an effect.

  members received rebukes, not an apology, for putting faith in the Watchtower Society's expectation. As larc pointed out, the Tower did the same thing in 1925 (no, I wasn't there). In response I resigned as an elder in 1977, and by 1978 only attended a few meetings, and soon none at all.

  Yes, I remember it well--but of course only apostates have good memories. It seems that part of the brain is removed when one has "the Truth."

  --JAVA

  ...counting time at the Coffee Shop
• 

  Francois

  Well done, XJWBILL.

  Sorry, Chester, not all of us are young anymore - except in spirit and attitude. Don't let it fool you.

  But doesn't this thread and this story make you stop and wonder what ELSE the Borg has been up to in the last hundred years that there's no one around now who remembers it to blow the whistle?

  There's always "Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose" which amounts to an official JW apologia. But it's about some of the most public, egregious, execreable screw-ups of the JWs and their leadership. Perhaps some of you remember this book and some of its more inflammatory stuff: three-headed "miracle" wheat, Russell's pedophilia and drunkeness; Beth Sarim; and my personal favorite, the JWs jumping up and down and peeing on the floor because no one from "Babylon the Great" wanted to come out to engage in public debate with representatives of the GB.

  Hey, Governing Boobs, my invitation to debate is still on. Where are you?

  Anyhow. Perhaps we should start a project to document all the crap authored by "God's only channel..." in the entire history of the organization? I'll bet it would be just astounding.

  Francoise
• 

  Had Enough

  Just an added thought to my post on this thread, last night....

  Yes it may seem funny to read some of the things people did and said and thought...but more so, it is deplorably sad and sadly deplorable.

  So many of us were of various adult ages and still young enough to have made some different choices with our future if we hadn't been 'lead down the garden path' so to speak. They borg heaped guilt upon you before 1975 if you showed any signs of not being concerned the end was to happen any minute, and then after 1975, for having taken any actions that showed you jumped ahead of the society and thought on your own.

  And yes, I too have experienced pushing the thoughts of "what happened?" out of my head for many years still thinking "well, the end still can come at any time now because we are in the last days since 1914". So again, many more years went down the drain as far as planning for financially secure future in my senior years.

  Now, when the lights have finally come on, I find myself having to worry about what is the best way to prepare to have enough to live on when we retire.

  And yes, I too experience, the 'blank stares' from people who just have swept these things under a rock in their memories, when anything about the WTS's blame in all of this is mentioned.

  It's just not funny at all. I feel hurt, angry, humiliated, duped, sad, frustrated and a lot of other emotions thrown in.

  Where is the loving, fatherly concern that I truly, 100% believed the GB had for us, the possessions of Jesus, left in their care, to feed nurishment at the proper time?

  They are administering a slow poison in place of the nurishment, and those of us who have become aware of it in time, have saved ourselves but many of us still have the agony of watching our loved ones, who won't listen to our warnings, still being forcefed.

  Yes this is not funny....its heart-breakingly sad.

  Had Enough
• 

  Free2Bme

  yes it is very sad.
  We had some lovely old people in our congregation.Two I particularly remember -they were outstandingly spiritual.
  The old man had never married and seemed very lonely. His reason for living his 70 years without a companion? The society had advised them to put the good news first as Armageddon was so near!
  His sister must have been unable to resist her urge to marry but I don't think the counsel was directed as strongly at the sisters. She had been married for about 50 years. But she had never had children and you can guess why. Again the society struck with their timely advice.
  What a waste! These people died 20 years ago and the only legacy they left behind was the cash and property they left to the society.
  Just two ordinary old people out of the thousands whose destiny was mis-shapen by the WTBS about a century ago.
  And Armageddon is still round the corner...

  Dedicated to Alf with the biggest ears i've ever seen and a bit of a twinkle in his eyes.

  Free
• 

  waiting

  You're right, it was not funny. Very serious stuff happened in 74 and 75 to a lot of jw's who believed in the WTBTS. Along with two young men friends, I started studying at the age of 18 in 1968. One of the young men, Jeff Mills, would read far into the night, had 3 studies a week. (I wouldn't attend more than one, and would only stay for a hour - he would talk endlessly with the pioneer who studied with him.)

  Jeff and my soon-to-be husband & I were all in college when we started studying. We all quit college, as the end was so near. Jeff pioneered and barely supported himself selling Fuller Brush door to door. He went from job to job, could never work for another person. Jeff always had a problem with authority and also suffered from depression. He could also be extremely cruel in his words to people who cared about him. To those who didn't care - he was mild mannered to an excess.

  Jeff became an elder in 74 (quite inexperienced). By then, he had some authority with the sisters. He would come to our house and constantly talk about the end of this terrible system of things so shortly coming. He hung on every word, every inuendo, the WTBTS made. He almost drooled with the expectation of deliverance.

  He was having troubles with his wayward wife, who had left him and returned. He would buy her things to try and keep her - and then verbally and physically abuse her. Carol was a beauty who finally left him. He married another sister with 3 kids. She was black and he white - interracial marriages weren't popular in Indiana back then. Lived in a housing project where he wasn't accepted at all.

  Anyway, after 75, his depression became more pronounced. Then in early 1978, he had a small argument with his second wife while they were having a picnic alone in a children's park at night. She stomped away, only to come back in about 15 minutes to find that he had hung himself using the chain of one of the children's swings. She was a small woman - but managed to pick up his body weight (about 180 lbs) with one arm enough to release the chain around his neck with her other hand.

  I guess he just had enough of this crappy life. I don't think 1975 was the crucial turning point for him - but it sure didn't help to be so disappointed by his spiritual leaders whom he nearly worshipped.

  Another WTBTS casualty - Jeff Mills, Indianapolis, Indiana 1978.
  waiting
• 

  Amazing

  I started attending meetings in 1968 and started in Studying in early 1969 and was baptized in July 1970. 1975 was the biggest issue and news among JWs. Yes, cautions were issued, but only not to expect something at the stroke of 12 midnight January 1, 1975, but that all things would take place within a few months +/- around October 1975.

  Furhter, the excitement was so strong, that any who played down the 'urgency' of the times and the 1975 predictions were considered 'immature' and lacking a proper spiritual view. They were in grave danger!

  At the conclusions of the District Conventions in 1971, through 1974 the closing speaker would discuss the following year Convention in such 'iffy' terms as 'Jehovah willing we will meet once more this side of Armageddon' ... '...or the New System.' Or, times are so close to the end that the 'Society is not sure if we will be able to plan another Convention.'

  We will see you on the otherside Brothers! was the clarion call made from many Circuit and District Conventions and even visiting COs and DOs. This same sentiment was mentioned about the months just preceeding 1914 ... but, this time, ... anyone can see that this old system of things just can't last much longer ... the New Order is just right around the corner.' Yep, 26 years later we are definitely just right around the corner! - Amazing
• 

  ozziepost

  G'day all,

  thanks waiting for highlighting so vividly what it was like in the 'spiritual paradise' in the months and years leading up to 1975.

  Many reading your account may be too young to remember, or they may not have been Witnesses at the time.

  At the conclusions of the District Conventions in 1971, through 1974 the closing speaker would discuss the following year Convention in such 'iffy' terms as 'Jehovah willing we will meet once more this side of Armageddon' ... '...or the New System.' Or, times are so close to the end that the 'Society is not sure if we will be able to plan another Convention.'

  
  This was heard in Australia at the assemblies and conventions, too.

  the excitement was so strong, that any who played down the 'urgency' of the times and the 1975 predictions were considered 'immature' and lacking a proper spiritual view. They were in grave danger

  Your words should be a clear warning to all current Witness devotees and those currently studying with them of the dark side of Witness history.

  Thanks.

  Ozzie
• 

  MacHislopp

  Hello everyone,

  it is good to remember...!

  Around this part of the world the CO,PO and others would

  increase expectations with words like "...we are only months

  away...some brothers and sisters are really waiting for it"!!

  Now, as many of you have written in the post "1975 " has become

  the "ghost" or the "the things unheard of.." or even better

  "the fruit of the fervid imaginations of some ...sincere brothers

  and sisters"!!!

  Enough to make you sick.

  Agape, J.C. MacHislopp