Members sold their homes for 1975

Admitted

The Watchtower's own publications admit these facts. You can make this point from their library alone.

The deadline they set

In 1966 the Society announced that 6,000 years of human history would end in 1975. Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God (p.

29) said the seventh thousand-year period would begin in the autumn of 1975. The Watchtower of Aug 15, 1968 (p.

499) said the gap might be "only a difference of weeks or months, not years."

What people did about it

Kingdom Ministry of May 1974 (p. 3) praised members who were selling their homes and property to preach in the short time left.

Witnesses quit jobs. They put off surgery.

They cashed in pensions. An Awake!

of June 8, 1969 had already warned young people off higher education, since the end was near.

What happened next

Nothing happened in 1975. Then growth reversed.

Worldwide publisher numbers fell in 1977 and 1978, the first sustained drop in decades. In 1980 the Society took some of the blame in its own pages.

The Watchtower of Mar 15, 1980 (pp. 17-18) said the expectation was built by what the organization published, and named those responsible for publishing it.

Their answer, at full strength

They point out the hedges. The 1966 book itself said this did not necessarily mean the end would come by 1975.

The 1968 article warned against date-fixing. Much of the fever, they say, came from the members, who ran ahead of the printed word.

And the organization admitted a share of the blame in public. Critics quote that 1980 admission precisely because it exists.

No new date has been published since.

How strong is this argument?

They admit this themselves. But the hedging defense breaks on the same books.

"Weeks or months, not years" was printed. So was the praise for people selling their homes.

That is not grassroots excess. That is the publications.

The cost shows up in their own service-year statistics.

What to say

"Kingdom Ministry praised brothers for selling their homes because the end was close. What happened to those families?"

A modern estate agent's sign; a representative image, not a house sold by any Witness for 1975

The masthead of Awake!, one of the two magazines that carried the 1975 expectation

Personal Bible study; the 1975 date came from the Society's own published chronology

How they answer this — at its strongest

The 1966 book hedged, and in 1980 the Society publicly took a share of the blame.

Defenders point to the hedges. The 1966 book itself said the start of the seventh thousand-year period 'does not necessarily mean' Armageddon by 1975. The 1968 article warned against 'serious problems' from date-fixing.

The fever, they argue, was largely grassroots. Eager Witnesses ran ahead of the printed word. And this failure is unlike the others in one way. The Society took a share of the blame in public. Critics quote the 1980 Watchtower words because they exist at all. That marks out an honest body that corrects itself from a false prophet who never repents. No new date has been published since.

The verdict

They admit it themselves. But 'weeks or months, not years' was printed, not grassroots.

Graded admitted, on the strength of the Mar 15, 1980 Watchtower itself. In it the Society printed that its own books built the hope.

The hedging defense breaks on the same books. 'Weeks or months, not years' was printed in 1968. So was the 1974 praise for members selling their homes. That is not grassroots excess. That is the publications.

The human cost shows up in their own service-year figures. Lost schooling, lost careers, lost pensions. Plus the drop in numbers in 1977 and 1978. The pattern completes the 1874, 1914 and 1925 sequence. A dated public deadline. Then a flock mobilized. Then failure. Then the blame moved back to the flock. The 1980 words were a partial exception, and they were never widely aired.

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