A short while ago I had an elder from the local congregation of JW stop round at our house, he came in and we had a chat. The conversation came around to 1975 and he explained to me something along the lines of that some of the brothers and sisters had made too much of 1975 and their expectations and it was nothing to do with the Society and some thought they could borrow money and not pay it back etc. I offered to show him somethings regarding what was in print in the Watchtower and other publications regarding 1975 and how it relates to the Divine Plan of the ages, but he wasn't interested and left fairly quick. I don't think he had been born by 1975 and if he had been, he was a small child and not a witness at the time whereas I was.
I find that it is this sort of behaviour that is most annoying and not what was said at the time.
In the last day or so a photograph has emerged which shows my father in the very early 70's with his siblings they are smiling and having a drink. We believe that this is the evening where he gave away what would have been part of our inheritance. He/we would never need it. This wasn't because he was some spiritually weak person in the congregation, he had been a baptised JW for some years and served as a servant before the elder arrangement and then became an elder. He and my mother wanted to simplify their lives so as to have a greater share in the preaching and raising us with a view to pioneering which we later did. He was a man with faith, it wasn't for some personal gain that he simplified our lives and we lived on less and he gave away our part of our inheritance but it was to make use of the available remaining time to help in the preaching. Here are just a couple of quotes on faith.
Watchtower September 1st 1969 page 532.
'Jehovah has made many promises of things yet to occur, One may hope that such things will come to pass, but such expression may only be a whimsical wish, not real faith. Faith is more than just an expectation. It is expectation that is assured to such a degree that it is able to support , uphold and guarantee that what is hoped for will become a reality. This is the meaning of hypostasis, a word common in ancient papyrus business documents in reference to guarantees placed on the transactions.
...Substantially the words [hy.po’sta.sis and e’leg.khos] mean that faith gives to things future, which as yet are only hoped for, all the reality of actual present existence,; and irresistibly convinces us of the reality of things unseen and brings us into their presence.” The Expositor’s Greek Testament, Vol.IV page 352.
Watchtower July 15th 1961 page 423
‘And since faith is also “the assured expectation of things hoped for,” it follows that we must also have knowledge of what are the things we may and should hope for. Again, God’s Word provides us with the needed knowledge. It assures us that paradisiac conditions will be restored to this earth, and that on a world-wide scale, and that this restoration work can be expected to begin within the present generation.’
Now my father is dead and Armageddon didn't come in the 70's and so are his siblings that generation of the family passed away as did his father my grandfather who fought France in the First World War and that is why I'm irritated when someone who wasn't in the 1970's there tries to tell me how it was.
I am reminded of the scripture in the NWT Romans 11:11
'For the Scripture says: None that rests his faith on him wil be disappointed."
I think my father felt some disappointment phoning me up whilst he lay dying in his bed still talking of Armageddon in his lifetime.