I remember the pre 1975 years. Up until 1966 when the Freedom of the Sons of Good book tantalized the rank and file with 1975 and the 6,000 year end of human history. Of course, they left out that human history began with Adam but the 6th creative day ended with the creation of Eve. That time gap could not be determined Biblically.
1966
w66 10/15 pp. 628-629 Rejoicing over "God?s Sons of Liberty" Spiritual Feast ***To give aid today in this critical time to prospective sons of God," announced President Knorr, "a new book in English, entitled ?Life Everlasting?in Freedom of the Sons of God,? has been published." At all assembly points where it was released, the book was received enthusiastically. Crowds gathered around stands and soon supplies of the book were depleted. Immediately its contents were examined. It did not take the brothers very long to find the chart beginning on page 31, showing that 6,000 years of man?s existence end in 1975. Discussion of 1975 overshadowed about everything else. "The new book compels us to realize that Armageddon is, in fact, very close indeed," said a conventioner.
THE
YEAR 1975At the Baltimore assembly Brother Franz in his closing remarks made some interesting comments regarding the year 1975. He began casually by saying, "Just before I got on the platform a young man came to me and said, ?Say, what does this 1975 mean? Does it mean this, that or any other thing??" In part, Brother Franz went on to say: ?You have noticed the chart [on pages 31-35 in the book Life Everlasting?in Freedom of the Sons of God]. It shows that 6,000 years of human experience will end in 1975, about nine years from now. What does that mean? Does it mean that God?s rest day began 4026 B.C.E.? It could have. The Life Everlasting book does not say it did not. The book merely presents the chronology. You can accept it or reject it. If that is the case, what does that mean to us? [He went into some length showing the feasibility of the 4026 B.C.E. date as being the beginning of God?s rest day.]
?What about the year 1975? What is it going to mean, dear friends?? asked Brother Franz. ?Does it mean that Armageddon is going to be finished, with Satan bound, by 1975? It could! It could! All things are possible with God. Does it mean that Babylon the Great is going to go down by 1975? It could. Does it mean that the attack of Gog of Magog is going to be made on Jehovah?s witnesses to wipe them out, then Gog himself will be put out of action? It could. But we are not saying. All things are possible with God. But we are not saying. And don?t any of you be specific in saying anything that is going to happen between now and 1975. But the big point of it all is this, dear friends: Time is short. Time is running out, no question about that.
?When we were approaching the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, there was no sign that the Gentile Times were going to end. Conditions on earth gave us no hint of what was to come, even as late as June of that year. Then suddenly there was a murder. World War I broke out. You know the rest. Famines, earthquakes and pestilences followed, as Jesus foretold would happen.
?But what do we have today as we approach 1975? Conditions have not been peaceful. We?ve been having world wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences and we have these conditions still as we approach 1975. Do these things mean something? These things mean that we?re in the "time of the end." And the end has to come sometime. Jesus said: "As these things start to occur, raise yourselves erect and lift your heads up, because your deliverance is getting near." (Luke 21:28) So we know that as we come to 1975 our deliverance is that much nearer.?
"Let us make the most of the time and get in all the good hard work to Jehovah while the opportunity affords," he urged.
1967
w67 5/1 p. 262 Where Are We According to God?s Timetable? ***Interestingly, the autumn of the year 1975 marks the end of 6,000 years of human experience. This is ascertainable from reliable chronology preserved in the Bible itself. What will that year mean for humankind? Will it be the time when God executes the wicked and starts off the thousand-year reign of his Son Jesus Christ? It very well could, but we will have to wait to see. Yet of this we can be certain: the generation that Jesus said would witness those events is nearing its close. The time is close at hand. On God?s "timetable" we are in the closing days of a wicked system of things that will soon be gone forever. A glorious new order is immediately before us. This is, therefore, good reason for Christians everywhere to rejoice. Yes, they rejoice because fulfillment of their prayers for the kingdom of God is now at hand.?Luke 21:28.
1968---Truth book came out, with 6-month Bible studies "encouraged," 8 year old studies were told to be cancelled, if they weren't at the meetings in 6 months, drop em.
w68 8/15 pp. 500-501 Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975?One thing is absolutely certain, Bible chronology reinforced with fulfilled Bible prophecy shows that six thousand years of man?s existence will soon be up, yes, within this generation! (Matt. 24:34) This is, therefore, no time to be indifferent and complacent. This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father." (Matt. 24:36) To the contrary, it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end. Make no mistake, it is sufficient that the Father himself knows both the "day and hour"!
w68 5/1 pp. 271-273 Making Wise Use of the Remaining Time ***Eight years from the autumn of 1967 would bring us to the autumn of 1975, fully 6,000 years into God?s seventh day, his rest day.
6 After 6,000 years of misery, toil, trouble, sickness and death under Satan?s rule, mankind is indeed in dire need of relief, a rest. The seventh day of the Jewish week, the sabbath, would well picture the final 1,000-year reign of God?s kingdom under Christ when mankind would be uplifted from 6,000 years of sin and death. (Rev. 20:6) Hence, when Christians note from God?s timetable the approaching end of 6,000 years of human history, it fills them with anticipation. Particularly is this true because the great sign of the "last days" has been in the course of fulfillment since the beginning of the "time of the end" in 1914. And, as Jesus said, "this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." (Matt. 24:34) Some of the generation that discerned the beginning of the time of the end in 1914 will still be alive on earth to witness the end of this present wicked system of things at the battle of Armageddon.?Rev. 16:14, 16.
7 The immediate future is certain to be filled with climactic events, for this old system is nearing its complete end. Within a few years at most the final parts of Bible prophecy relative to these "last days" will undergo fulfillment, resulting in the liberation of surviving mankind into Christ?s glorious 1,000-year reign. What difficult days, but, at the same time, what grand days are just ahead!
8 Does this mean that the year 1975 will bring the battle of Armageddon? No one can say with certainty what any particular year will bring. Jesus said: "Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows." (Mark 13:32) Sufficient is it for God?s servants to know for a certainty that, for this system under Satan, time is running out rapidly. How foolish a person would be not to be awake and alert to the limited time remaining, to the earthshaking events soon to take place, and to the need to work out one?s salvation!
1969
w69 2/1 p. 70 The Meaning of Present World Distress ***
More recently, the book entitled "Famine?1975!" by William and Paul Paddock said concerning today?s food shortages, on pages 52, 55 and 61: "Hunger is rampant throughout country after country, continent after continent around the undeveloped belt of the tropics and subtropics. Today?s crisis can move in only one direction?toward catastrophe. Today hungry nations; tomorrow starving nations. . . . By 1975 civil disorder, anarchy, military dictatorships, runaway inflation, transportation breakdowns and chaotic unrest will be the order of the day in many of the hungry nations."
1970
w70 5/1 p. 273 An Ingathering Affecting All Mankind ***How close we may exactly be to the end of the present divisive system of things cannot be predicted, as Jesus reported that even he did not know the day or the hour at the time of his earthly ministry. (Matt. 24:36) However, Bible chronology which indicates that Adam was created in the fall of the year 4026 B.C.E. would bring us down to the year 1975 C.E. as the date marking 6,000 years of human history with yet 1,000 years to come for Christ?s Kingdom rule. So whatever the date for the end of this system, it is clear that the time left is reduced, with only approximately six years left until the end of 6,000 years of human history. (1 Cor. 7:29) This corroborates the understanding of Jesus? words that the generation alive in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I would not pass away until the end comes. Only a short time, then, remains for persons who love righteousness to show God that they want to be in his "ark" of protection and live to see the blessings of the new system of things.?Matt. 24:34-42.
1974
w74 12/15 pp. 764-765 Benefits and Rewards from Being Spiritually Secure ***And now, as the critical year of 1975 enters, it may well be asked: Has the Most High God of prophecy made a name for himself? The answer is self-evident, Yes! By whom? Not by Christendom or by Jewry, but by Jehovah?s Christian witnesses!
w74 12/15 pp. 765-766 Benefits and Rewards from Being Spiritually Secure ***Only from the end of the year 1928 was the prospect opened up to the spiritual understanding of the anointed remnant of the "Israel of God" to survive the "war of the great day of God the Almighty" at Har?Magedon and enter here on earth into Jehovah?s righteous new order. (See The Watch Tower under date of December 15, 1928, page 376, paragraphs 35, 36.) And now, as the year 1975 opens up, some thousands of the anointed remnant, still alive on this earth, look ahead to realizing that joyful prospect. The increasing "great crowd" of their sheeplike companions look forward with them to entering the New Order without interruption of life.
1975--the end does not come?
w75 10/1 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. (the AID book did say that Eve and Adam were created in the same year) 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.
1976/1980
w80 3/15 pp. 17-18 Choosing the Best Way of Life *** In its issue of July 15, 1976, The Watchtower, commenting on the inadvisability of setting our sights on a certain date, stated: "If anyone has been disappointed through not following this line of thought, he should now concentrate on adjusting his viewpoint, seeing that it was not the word of God that failed or deceived him and brought disappointment, but that his own understanding was based on wrong premises." 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.
Interestingly the WTS dones not reference the 7/15/1976 to 1975 in the WT Index. Note the material before that statement.
w76 7/15 pp. 440-441 A Solid Basis for Confidence ***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 Bible?s warnings concerning the end of this system of things, thinking that Bible chronology reveals the specific date.
12 What do Jesus? own words show concerning the proper attitude as to the end?to look for a date, or what? He said: "Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be instantly upon you as a snare. For it will come in upon all those dwelling upon the face of all the earth. Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man."?Luke 21:34-36.
13 Did Jesus mean that we should adjust our financial and secular affairs so that our resources would just carry us to a certain date that we might think marks the end? If our house is suffering serious deterioration, should we let it go, on the assumption that we would need it only a few months longer? Or, if someone in the family possibly needs special medical care, should we say, ?Well, we?ll put it off because the time is so near for this system of things to go?? This is not the kind of thinking that Jesus advised.
14 Then what did Jesus and the apostles mean when they spoke of being alert as to the signs of the end, or as to "awaiting and keeping close in mind the presence of the day of Jehovah"? They meant for us to be absolutely confident that the day will not come one moment later than Jehovah purposes. Peter said that this should prompt us to "holy acts of conduct and deeds of godly devotion," being watchful that we are living by Bible principles and that we are busy proclaiming the Kingdom message and convincing people of the urgency of turning to God. (2 Pet. 3:11, 12) All of us can make improvements in our worship of God, cementing a closer relationship with him. Perhaps we have up to this time done the best we can, and have made improvements as we went along. Does the fact that the end is very near, then, mean to us that we should make big changes in our way of living and serving God? Not necessarily so. However, there may be major improvements that we Scripturally need to make. Also, if there are areas in our life in which we can ?buy out? time from vain pursuits in this system we should do it. In this way, many have continued to experience the joy of full-time "pioneer" service over the years. All of us can check to see what we can do.?Eph. 5:15, 16.
15 But it is not advisable for us to set our sights on a certain date, neglecting everyday things we would ordinarily care for as Christians, such as things that we and our families really need. We may be forgetting that, when the "day" comes, it will not change the principle that Christians must at all times take care of all their responsibilities.
I wonder if they were the JWs that were doing this in 1974?
km 5/74 p. 3 How Are You Using Your Life? ***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.?1 John 2:17.
Then from a peak of 13.5% the numbers started to drop and finally in 1978 a decrease of 1% was recorded.
1974 13.5% increase
1975 9.7% increase
1976 3.7% increase
1977 1.0% decrease
yb78 p. 32 1978 Yearbook of Jehovah?s Witnesses ***Kingdom preaching activity from 216 countries under the supervision of 96 branches reached a peak of 2,223,538 publishers. This was a decrease when compared with the year 1976. There are various factors contributing to this. With a decrease in the number of those reporting, it is understandable that the hours spent (321,424,305) of those reporting would be less.
1978 1.4% decrease
yb79 pp. 23-30 1979 Yearbook of Jehovah?s Witnesses ***There has been an overall 1.4-percent decrease in the number of Kingdom publishers. This has had a bearing on the decline in other features of the work as far as the totals are concerned. There are individual countries where increases continue, whereas other lands show a leveling off or a drop in activity. While 95,052 new ones were baptized in expression of their faith, thus declaring themselves to be disciples of Jesus Christ, this has not resulted in a proportionate increase in the number of Kingdom publishers. On the contrary, there were 2,086,698, on the average, who shared in making known the "good news" compared with 2,117,194 the year before. The peak number of publishers came to 2,182,341, which is also below that of last year. It is obvious that for one reason or another a number did not share in giving a witness each month, and others became inactive.
How should we view this situation? There is certainly no need to become unduly disturbed and lose our spiritual balance. As with all other things, Christians let God?s Word adjust their thinking and set things straight in their minds. Jehovah always provides them with needed direction in his own time and way. He never forsakes his people. (1 Ki. 8:57; Ps. 94:14) During this new service year, we will confidently look to him, praying for his guidance and working to retrieve any who have strayed. (Matt. 18:12-14) If there are those in our congregations who have slacked their hand, efforts should be made, especially by those who are undershepherds, to encourage them kindly by word and, above all, by setting a good example.?Heb. 12:12, 13; 1 Cor. 11:1.
km 2/78 p. 1 Branch Letter ***Perhaps by this time you have noted on page two of The Watchtower and Awake! that there have been some decreases in the number of magazines printed. One reason for the decrease in magazine placements has been the fact that more and more emphasis has been put on witnessing to people, engaging the householders in Bible discussions, rather than merely placing literature with them. Another cause has been the drop in the number of new subscriptions that the brothers have been getting. This has necessitated a cutting back in the production of the magazines
1979 0.5% increase
yb80 p. 11 1980 Yearbook of Jehovah?s Witnesses ***
That there truly is cause for thanksgiving can be seen from the fact that in spite of slight decreases in literature placements during the 1979 service year there was an increase of about 14 percent in baptisms for a total of 113,672. There were also increases in hours, about 4 percent, and also slight increases in return visits and home Bible studies.
In 1981 a series of articles starting to be written about "apostates" and the WT headquarters cleaned house because they did not take responsibility for misleading the rank and file. It was about this time that JWs were forbidden to gather together in small, informal groups to study a WT publication and/or Bible. Exception, 2 families might do so but that was looked at with suspicion too. The DF doctrine was tightened and cruelly applied.
w82 9/1 p. 18 "Beloved Ones, . . . Keep Yourselves in God?s Love" ***Whereas God, by his spirit, assured the unity of those loving him, those ungodly ridiculers tried to "make separations," or "distinctions," endeavoring to carry on a separating work among Jehovah?s people. (Jude 19, New World Translation, 1950 edition, footnote; Psalm 133:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:10) Although the ridiculers spoke against faithful responsible men in the congregation, the ungodly ones expressed admiration for individuals who could benefit them. (Jude 8, 16) Like the Pharisees, they looked down on the humble, godly members of the congregation. Rather than gathering with the Lord, they tried to scatter. Even today some try to draw the unsteady away into private groups, supposedly for "Bible study." This could never promote love for God, Christ and the Christian congregation.?Luke 11:23.
w81 8/15 pp. 28-29 Serving Jehovah "Shoulder to Shoulder" ***
In serving Jehovah "shoulder to shoulder," we need, as Zephaniah so often emphasizes, to cultivate the quality of meekness. When we make mistakes, as all imperfect humans do, let us be ready to acknowledge them, even as the "faithful and discreet slave," made up of imperfect fleshly men, has had to make corrections. However, let us never be critical of the grand body of truth that Jehovah has built up among his united people over the past 100 years, and which, by correction and adjustment, has come to shine ever more brightly on "the path of the righteous ones."?Prov. 4:18.
14 From time to time, there have arisen from among the ranks of Jehovah?s people those who, like the original Satan, have adopted an independent, faultfinding attitude. They do not want to serve "shoulder to shoulder" with the worldwide brotherhood. (Compare Ephesians 2:19-22.) Rather, they present a "stubborn shoulder" to Jehovah?s words. (Zech. 7:11, 12) Reviling the pattern of the "pure language" that Jehovah has so graciously taught his people over the past century, these haughty ones try to draw the "sheep" away from the one international "flock" that Jesus has gathered in the earth. (John 10:7-10, 16) They try to sow doubts and to separate unsuspecting ones from the bounteous "table" of spiritual food spread at the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah?s Witnesses, where truly there is ?nothing lacking.? (Ps. 23:1-6) They say that it is sufficient to read the Bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such ?Bible reading,? they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom?s clergy were teaching 100 years ago, and some have even returned to celebrating Christendom?s festivals again, such as the Roman Saturnalia of December 25! Jesus and his apostles warned against such lawless ones.?Matt. 24:11-13; Acts 20:28-30; 2 Pet. 2:1, 22.
w83 3/1 pp. 24-25 What Is Our Position Toward Opposers of the Truth? ***Such opposers do not find joy in sharing in the great work of making disciples. Rather, they subtly approach others who are already Witnesses, speaking in such a way as to weaken the resolve of these faithful ones to carry out in full their dedication to Jehovah. The thought is conveyed that since Jehovah is such a loving God, he surely would not require all those wanting to please him to engage in such a difficult work as preaching from house to house and having to endure the persecution from opposers of the truth. No, they may argue, all that God wants us to do is to be good persons, care for others in a physical way and love our neighbors.
Now the WTS just counts on most JWs to have been born after 1975 or have not been JWs then. Then the rewrite history by omission.
Blondie
