willyloman said:
The story quoted Franz as telling his followers that the end of 6,000 year's of man's existence on earth would end in October, but that expectations that the worldy system would vanish at that time were "not necessarily" accurate. "It depends," the newspaper quoted Franz, "on how long Adam was here before Eve was created." In Franz' mind, the gap between Adam's and Eve's creation would correspond to the gap between October 1975 and the actual "end" date.
The Bible describes Jesus as becoming a full grown man at age 30. So if Adam preceded suit, it could be that good old Jehovah gave him a wife, Eve, at age 30. Which means that we'd better watch out for October, 2005!
I remember this well because there was intense debate at the KH about what this meant (it was the first time they'd heard that argument). The concensus seemed to be that since Adam was perfect, it wouldn't have taken very long to name all the animals so it was probably just a matter of "weeks or months," not years. One respected elder in our congo pointed out that the "service year" that began in September '75 ran until the end of August '76, so there was still plenty of time for the timeline to be fulfilled.
I heard Nathan Knorr give his last major talk at an August, 1975 district convention at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York City. He almost lamented that Armageddon had not yet come, but hinted that, just as happened in 1914, big things could happen suddenly between August and the end of the year. By then, I was jaded enough that it just sort of rolled off my back like so much popcorn. I think it was the same for most JWs, since for a couple of years it seemed to me that most local JWs (not the Society) had lost enthusiasm for 1975. So much had been expected, and so little had happened. Sort of like what happens today, when the Society prints the same tired old nonsense about Armageddon being right around the corner, and JWs take it all in stride and ignore it.
Quentin, the book you're thinking of is indeed the 1959 book Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose. Most were dark green, although a tiny number were medium blue. I think, though, that you're confusing the table of chronology you remember with a different book, since JWDP contains no such table. Perhaps you're thinking of the 1944 book The Kingdom Is At Hand, which does contain such a table. Or possibly some Watchtower magazines from the 1950s. Hard to say.
I don't think that the Watchower Society looks very far ahead at anything. The facts indicate that for many decades they've been mostly reactive, in terms of any doctrinal or predictive stuff. Since 1975, they've been nothing but reactive, since they whipped their own asses bigtime. As has been said, never ascribe to malice what can better be ascribed to stupidity. WTS leaders are extremely stupid. Only their lawyers have any smarts, but because the lawyers think the leaders are divinely directed, what we have is a situation where stupid leaders rely on smart lawyers to tell them what to do, but the smart lawyers rely on the stupid leaders to tell them what to do. A certain recipe for disaster.
AlanF