Around 1965 I was being exposed to the Jehovah's Witnesses. My older sister was being called on and started studying. At the same time my parents were having problems and eventually divorced. After studying for several months with the witnesses my father asked me to not make any decisions about religion until I had more experience. That was reasonable to me so I stopped the studies. Went thru high school and decided to start studying again. Looking back I can see that as a high school graduate that was not enough experience to make an informed decision about religion.
During my youth a lot was going on in the world that formed my "experience". Vietnam, Kennedy assination, Cuban missle crisis, 6 day war, and cold war. Other versions of religion caught my attention. I did a Bible study with Herbert Armstrong's group through the mail. Today I have learned that what influenced me were religions that were despensationlist, premillinarian, and determinist. Even my involvement with the Boy Scouts contributed to my decision to become one of Jehovah's witnesses. Weird isn't it?
In 1971 I was baptizied. Many years that I spent as a witnesses were very happy ones. I was a co-worker with God. Able to do more for a person than a doctor because what I did could help them to have everlasting life. You could say I was whole-souled and loving it. Looking back at the years between 1971 and 1980 I experienced a kind of "bubble". My witness world was similar, but a little different from the experience of others on this forum. My mentors were able to freely debate the end of the world in 1975. Three in particular would reason with me on the subject. One was adamant that 1975 would be the end. He retired and pioneered two years before 75 and two years after 75. A second elder was adamant that no one can know the day or the hour. The third represented a position that no matter what happened we needed to stay loyal to Jehovah because we did not dedicate our life with a date in mind. I combined the, "you cannot know the day and the hour" with "we do not serve for a date" viewpoint. 1975 came and went without slowing me down as a zealous witness.
In my recent journey of discovery I have compared my experiences with other witnesses. Two close friends, still active so will not talk to me after the announcement, related to me their experiences with 1975. They were not "all in" at the time. More distracted with the opposite sex kind of thing than serious about the "truth". However they have clear memories of their C.O. visits going something like this. "24 months to armageddon brothers", then on the next visit, "18 months to armageddon brothers", and so on. They just did not really care and brushed it off. Today a younger than me might say, "whatever".
One kind of funny but sad experience is when "Star Wars" came out many of us would joke: "I hope armageddon does not come before the next Star Wars movie comes out"
I am getting ready to go to work now. If I can answer any question before I leave I will. If not I will do so this evening.
Thank you all for your great comments.
