this is from my previous post
'In 1968 the belief was the tribulation had started in 1914 and had been cut short . The brother who brought my parents,in told them one day u will put the radio on and Armageddon will have started just like those roman armies that returned to Jerusalem in 70.'
I believe that this view was changed in 1970 and the Watchtower of January 15th had an article regarding it. On pages 52 it makes the comment that in the Watchtower of May 1st 1925 the suggestion was set out that the tribulation had begun in 1914 and God had stopped the World War 1 in November 1918 allowing an interval of activity of the anointed remnant for sheep like ones to be saved.
It mentions that at this time the bible timetable presented in the 1889 book The Time is at Hand was thought to be correct and it says 'Hence it was not calculated that six thousand years or man's life on earth were yet to end during the 1970's'
It further mentions that the interval between the first part of the tribulation is 51 years and not over if this view was correct.
On page 53 it says if the suggest for cutting short the great tribulation in the middle were true as suggested in 1925 then 'Then the time interval between the opening part of the "great tribulation' and the closing Armageddon part thereof will prove to be around five times as long as the length of the "great tribulation"
My mathematic skills are not particularly good but this 'will prove to be five times as long' is I think arrived at that 51 years had passed by since 1918 and the war was about 4 years and there was six years approx. to autumn of 1975 from this January Watchtower which would make ten years if Armageddon was to start soon, 5 times 10 is 50, about five times as long. Armageddon needing to be over by autumn 1975 so as not to encroach on the last 1000 years of Christ's reign.
Maybe not but the effect it had on my parents that although the belief had changed they still firmly believed that the end would come by the autumn of 1975. My father had a good job and was reasonably intelligent and had served as a servant and elder conducting the Watchtower study with pioneer children. In the year that this Watchtower change came about he made a decision to move and simplify his life somewhat which would enable him and us to do more in the 'truth' which we did. We didn't even have a television for some years. However if he had retained the house he sold then his estate would have been worth at least 4 times what it was when he died. His children lost out in a financial way but not just us as my children recently pointed out how it has and will effect them. This doesn't include the fact that I turned down a pension policy many years ago because I wouldn't be needing one due to the belief in the generation that will not pass away. I finished my education early due to the 1975 so as to pioneer. Not for my own personal gain. But I have also had to argue that it was due to the teachings of the Watchtower and not something I or my parents read into it that I made the decisions in my life. When I was leaving the JW and the elders came they clearly stated it was nothing to do with the Watchtower. Admittedly I could be wrong on some things.