While I would agree there is no smoking gun that just says the world is ending in 1975,
The thought, though, was left hanging there - not once - but many, many times during the years 1966-1975. From that, it is obvious what the WTS wanted its readers to think:
- i.e. that 1975 was going to be the year that saw "this system" end.
That their publications presented 1975 as a "probability" rather than a mere "possibility" was even admitted to in the Kingdom Proclaimers book, that came out in the early 1990s.
Examples in writing are not hard to find. To cite just two of many:
- The one that kicked it all off Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God" (1966), which actually used the expression "appropriate" to describe the system ending in 1975.
- That 1968 magazine article entitled "Why are you looking forward to 1975?"
Particularly with that 1968 magazine article, even Blind Freddie (no relation to Mad Freddie!) could see the conclusion that the WTS wanted its readers to draw. And it worked! That is indeed what nearly all readers of those articles concluded.
This is just what was written during those years leading up to 1975. What was spoken from the platform (at the Kingdom Hall, Circuit and District Assemblies, opening of new branch facilities etc) was often much more pointed. Some of that has been preserved in tape recordings, such as Charles Sunutko's infamous 1967 "Stay Alive until 1975" diatribe.
So even if there is no actual, official, written statement to be found in which the WTS said outright in so many words that the end of the system would definitely happen in 1975, it certainly did nothing to discourage that idea, either:
- somebody here on this post has used the term "threw gasoline" onto the situation. That would have to be the very kindest thing that could be said about the WTS's conduct over this matter during those years 1966 -1975. (Never mind that their 1963 All Scriptures Inspired publication cautioned against speculation about this date. By three years later, that had become "Old Light" - to be replaced by "New Shyte"!)
Bill (who was an avid reader of everything the WTS printed over the years 1966 -1994)