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.
How can the WT claim it was just a few zealous ones that miss read that they were saying when in fact you can read thousands of stories like this that are very similar. My family story is much the same. My father sold the family house in 1974 because he was told to simplify his life. I think he regretted that decision for the rest of his life as at the time he was still a middle aged working man with a family and at least another ten years of working. He sold the house before the big real estate boom and lost out on thousands of dollars that could have went toward his retirement. So when some dub comes on here trying to minimize the WT culpability in all of this, they are full of it. It just makes me mad when someone tries to justify that cults action.
