Throughout the 1960's the anticipation slowly built to a crescendo. Armageddon was due at any time but for some years now no date had been given. The Society had learned from past mistakes not to be too specific. It had adopted a way of using innuendo and then leaving the rest to the over-excited imagination of the membership.
Then in 1966 the new book, "Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God" suggested a new date for Armageddon. Complete with charts, the Society claimed they were able to work out when the first man Adam was created. Working from this date they counted forward to produce another specific date. They declared:
"According to this trustworthy Bible chronology 6,000 years from man's creation will end in 1975, and the seventh period of a thousand years of human history will begin in the fall of 1975 C.E.…it would not be by mere chance or accident but would be according to the loving purpose of Jehovah God for the reign of Jesus Christ, the "Lord of the Sabbath," to run parallel with the seventh millennium of man's existence." (Pages 29,30)
The Watchtower and Awake! magazines continued to fan the flames of expectation:
"The immediate future is certain to be filled with climactic events, for this old system is nearing its complete end. Within a few years at most the final part of Bible prophecy relative to these "last days" will undergo fulfilment, resulting in the liberation of surviving mankind into Christ's 1,000-year reign. What difficult days, but at the same time, what grand days are just ahead." (Watchtower 1.5.1968 - Page 272)
"The fact that fifty-four years of the period called the "last days" have already gone by is highly significant. It means that only a few years at most, remain before the corrupt system of things dominating the earth is destroyed by God." (Awake! - 8 October 1968 - Page 13)
The Society were to later claim that they never actually said 1975 would bring the end of the system. True, it was only suggested. The Witnesses around the world arrived at the idea that 1975 would be the year, all by themselves! Naturally the Society did not discourage the excitement that swept through the movement. Far be it for the Society to tell its members what to think.
The fervour that followed had to be experienced to be believed. At a series of conventions around the world in the summer of 1968 a new book was introduced, "The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life." It has since sold over one hundred million copies.
I sat transfixed in the London assembly at Twickenham Stadium, as the speaker explained the reason for the book's release. This small book had been designed so that a weekly study of just one hour covering one chapter a week would complete the book in six months. All other Society books used in Bible studies with interested people were to be put aside.
This was now the book to use. If those we studied with did not show definite signs of getting baptised after six months we were to forget them and move on. Why? Because time was running out - so many people to save and so little time! We were told that the end was now so close that there was no time to waste.
The atmosphere was electrified. The inspired talks that followed brought the stadium to its feet in unanimous applause. Men fought to hold back tears. We were on the brink of entering "The New World." These wonderful men who, we believed, had direct communication with Jehovah God himself, were standing there before us and assuring us that all we had hoped and prayed for was almost here. I can honestly say that I have never experienced such euphoria before and I doubt I ever will again.
