Here are some more...
1974 "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)
1976 "It may be that some who have been serving God have planned their lives according to a mistaken view of just what was to happen on a certain date or in a certain year. They may have, for this reason, put off or neglected things that they otherwise would have cared for. But they have missed the point of the Bibles warnings concerning the end of this system of things, thinking that Bible chronology reveals the specific date." (Watchtower, July 15, 1976, p. 440)
Now take a look at the Watchtower of October 1 1955. What do the scriptures say about 'survival after death' ?
.....' It comes as no surprise that one Johannes Greber, a former Catholic clergyman, has become a spiritualist and has published the book entitled 'Communication with the Spirit World, Its laws and its purpose'
The Society ultimately stopped using Greber as a reference in 1983, when the following Questions from Readers appeared in the Watchtower:
- Why, in recent years, has The Watchtower not made use of the translation by the former Catholic priest, Johannes Greber?....But as indicated in a foreword to the 1980 edition of the New Testament by Johannes Greber , this translator relied on "God’s Spirit World" to clarify for him how he should translate difficult passages. It is stated: "His wife, a medium of God’s spirit world, was often instrumental in conveying the correct answers from God’s Messengers to Pastor Greber
.......
WATCHTOWER 1959 OCTOBER 1 QUESTIONS FROM READERS :
The literature published by the Watch Tower Society is published in the name of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Regardless of who may write certain articles, they are checked carefully by members of the governing body before they are published; so they are properly viewed as coming from the Society.