by Perry 35 Replies latest jw friends
I saw my uncle sell their house..... only later to feel and look like idiots. I remember all the buzz about the end coming around my own house. Since I was a naturally inqusitive child (the question why is not good for theocratic advancement) I was made to feel stupid for questioning, even at 7 and 8 years old.
I remember going to my bedroom and getting out the calendar and counting how much time I had left to live.
1975 affected me much the same way. I lived with my dad after my parents were divorced, and my mother was a witness. When we would visit, she would cry and tell my brother and I that she wasn't sure if Jehova would consider us "judged" as she was judged, (and therefore have everlasting life), or if we would die in Armageddon, (or was it "Harmageddon" back then?!) because we lived with our father - who was not a witness. It was very confusing and scary. I didn't look at any calendars to gauge my time left on Earth, but I do remember praying to him and asking him to please wait until I grew up and got married. I didn't want to have my life cut short before I really got to live it.
I was a teenager at the time. I remember thinking that Armageddon might come, but sort of hoping that it wouldn't. Also I knew that many people were joining the J-dubs out of the hope (or fear) that the end would come that year, and that some folks would be unhappy and leave when it didn't occur. I heard even in advance of the date that 1975 might be a test to see if some were "serving Jehovah for a date".
I'm glad my parents didn't have extreme reactions to the 1975 prophecy by selling the house or moving to where the need was great, etc. So when the end didn't come it was not a big deal at the time for us.
But at that young age I didn't know the manipulative nature of the Watchtower Society and how they used false expectations and artificial urgency to their own selfish end.
1975...the year they thought the world would end. Instead, Piph was born.
Actually, my family was disenchanted with all the hoopla. They reasoned that Jesus had been there when Eve was created and the 6th day ended and the 7th day dawned. Thus, if the millennium was to begin close to 1975, Jesus would have known the day and the hour. Also, we used the scripture that said that the end would could at a time people did not think it to be. That was in 1966. We weren't surprised when this article came out:
10/1/75 p. 579
The End of 6,000 Years of Man-Rule Approaches?What Has Been Accomplished?Does this mean, then, that mankind has now reached 6,000 years into the 7,000-year period that God ?blessed and made sacred? as his great "rest day"? Does it mean that Christ?s millennial Kingdom rule, as the final 1,000 years of that "rest day," is to be reckoned from September 1975??Gen. 1:27, 31; 2:2, 3; Rev. 20:1-6.
No, it does not mean that. Why not? Well, the Bible record shows that God?s creations on the "day" just preceding that 7,000-year "rest day" did not end with Adam?s creation. It shows a time lapse between the creation of Adam and that of his wife, Eve. During that time, God had Adam name the animals. Whether that period amounted to weeks or months or years, we do not know. So we do not know exactly when Jehovah?s great "rest day" began, nor do we know exactly when it will end. The same applies to the beginning of Christ?s millennial reign. The Bible provides us no way to fix the date, and so it does us no good to speculate when that date may be.?Gen. 2:18-25; Matt. 24:42, 44.
The ones quick to argue with my family from 1966 to October 1975, were not so quick to tell us we had been correct all along nor were they quick to wonder why we had know this "special insight."
I NEVER believed it. It went against scripture....To me, it was that simple.
I was SHOCKED!
I found out that year that the Bee Gees was not a girl band!
TimB
I was greatly relieved. I was terrified of Armageddon and I had 3 young children.
My mother spent all her money, which was considerable, because "1975 is coming". Now she lives in my basement. Damn............I would have been an heiress. Now I'm a "hundredaire".
It was the same for me as it was for Perry. I was 7 and 8 (for 7 days) in 1975. I had been hearing about 1975 since I could remember. I even vividly remember a "special talk" one cold night at the fairgrounds from a GB, (I was probably four-it was my first red coat-the one my mom made, I got the second red coat in first grade-store bought) who mentioned 1975 several times during the talk. My mom admits we went to a talk one cold night, that it was at the fairgrounds, but denies that 1975 was ever mentioned....I counted on a calendar how many days I might have left too. I couldn't sleep (except at the hall) because I was too afraid. And if I did sleep I had horrible nightmares about it. The nightmares continued until I was in high school, and my BS detector hit the red zone. Shoshana
Well, it was supposed to happen on my 9th birthday: SEPT 5th 1975 was the day I was supposed to die in Armaggedeon. Yes I heard my dad tell my older sister that he and she would be the only ones to make it that myself and my mother would die as we were not chosen to make it- I think it was the same year my dad, an elder, claimed to be annointed. (he by the way commited adultery several times on my mom before and after he became a witness and was finally disfellowshipped in '86 for it but get this reinstated in '94 I think it was- how? don't ask me! My mom never cheated on him but he told a bunch of lies about her and the elders never spoke to my mother to verify anything and he was reinstated! My mother will NEVER EVER go into a Kingdom Hall again as long as she lives) Yeah- an 8yo old to hear she was not good enough TO God would be destroyed BYGOD on her birthday. It was the day I started to really really hate the witnesses and the whole scene.
I D'AD myself as soon as I could get out of my father's grasp which was not til I was almost 20! But I did not attend much from late 18 on because my father was on several "business" trips and my mother did not drive.
,
KIRA
