The Watchtower was creating a lot of excitement leading up to the 1970’s, as can be seen from the cover of this Awake! magazine from October 8, 1968.
There are some topics Jehovah’s Witnesses would rather not discuss. One of them is 1975.
Ask a Jehovah’s Witness today whether the Watchtower predicted Armageddon in 1975, and many will simply say it never happened. That’s because the Watchtower now says it never happened, and since most JW were not alive in 1975, they naturally believe the Watchtower and fail to investigate. Others may tell you that individual Witnesses became overly excited and “ran ahead of the organization.”
I first attended a Kingdom Hall in 1976, shortly after 1975 had come and gone. During one meeting, I heard a comment from the platform about 1975. Odd, that the JW I was studying with had never mentioned 1975. Curious, I asked the Jehovah’s Witness studying with me about it.
She quickly dismissed the issue.
According to her, the Society had merely said that 1975 marked the end of 6,000 years of human history and that we were living during the period when Adam was alone before Eve was created. No prediction had been made. No big deal.
I believed her.
That was my undoing. Trusting her instead of researching for myself. Decades later I discovered what had actually been published.
Don’t be surprised, if you ask a Jehovah’s Witness about the Watchtower predicting Armageddon in 1975, and they flat out deny it ever happened. They no longer know their own history.
Today things are different.
The Watchtower’s publications have been preserved. We no longer have to rely on rumors, memories, or secondhand accounts. We can simply read what the organization actually published.
So what did the Watchtower really say about 1975?
Let’s look at the evidence.
Let’s Look at the Evidence
The idea that 1975 would conclude in Armageddon was introduced in 1966.
In this Awake! article, the Watchtower presented the idea that Armageddon was very near as a fact, not merely as an opinion or possibility.
“Does God’s rest day parallel the time man has been on earth since his creation? Apparently so. In what year, then, would the first 6,000 years of man’s existence and also the first 6,000 years of God’s rest day come to an end? The year 1975. It means that within a relatively few years we will witness the fulfilment of the remaining prophecies that have to do with the ‘time of the end.'”
Awake! 1966 Oct 8 pp.19-20
Awake! October 8, 1968
Below is some more evidence for what the Watchtower was predicting regarding 1975.
Often, JW will say the Watchtower never predicted Armageddon in 1975. The organization actually predicted the end of human history will begin in the fall of 1975. Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God (1966), p. 29.
According to this trustworthy Bible chronology, six thousand years from man’s creation will end in 1975… How appropriate it would be for Jehovah God to make of this coming seventh period of a thousand years a sabbath period of rest and release.” Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God (1966), pp. 26-30.
This article, published on the Jw.org official website also lends weight to the evidence that the Watchtower was encouraging Jehovah’s Witnesses to believe that the end was coming in 1975. Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975? — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
“the danger of sudden death is staring you in the face. … That is exactly the case with the warning that we speak of here, and there are reasons why it can truly be said to be the most urgent warning ever given. … It is to come within the generation that has already seen two world wars and it is only a few short years ahead of us.” Watchtower 1967 Apr 15 pp.243-244
At the 1967 District Convention, Wisconsin Sheboygan District Overseer Brother Charles Sinutko presented the talk “Serving with Everlasting Life in View”, making the following statement:
Short Ver. – Watchtower’s Charles Sinutko Jr. Assembly Speech on 1975 – “Stay alive till 75” Dalcour
“Well now, as Jehovah’s Witnesses, as runners, even though some of us have become a little weary, it almost seems as though Jehovah has provided meat in due season. Because he’s held up before all of us, a new goal. A new year. Something to reach out for and it just seems it has given all of us so much more energy and power in this final burst of speed to the finish line. And that’s the year 1975. Well, we don’t have to guess what the year 1975 means if we read the Watchtower. And don’t wait ’till 1975. The door is going to be shut before then. As one brother put it, “Stay alive to Seventy-Five“”
The Watchtower claims that some individuals got “over zealous” and “ran ahead of Jehovah’s Organization.” So millions of individual of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to the same conclusion without any persuasion from the organization? On the contrary, the Watchtower predicted the end for 1975 and claimed it was “meat in due season”
In November 1968, District Overseer Duggan announced at the Pampa Texas Assembly that “not really a full 83 months remains, so lets be faithful and confident and … we will be alive beyond the war of Armageddon…,” which therefore slated Armageddon by October 1975.
In 1968 Jehovah’s Witness leader District Overseer Duggan says “83 Months remain” before Armageddon.
“Just think, brothers, there are only about ninety months left before 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth is completed. Do you remember what we learned at the assemblies last summer? The majority of people living today will probably be alive when Armageddon breaks out, and there are no resurrection hopes for those that are destroyed then.” Kingdom Ministry 1968 Mar p.4
“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 parts of Bible prophecy relative to these “last days” will undergo fulfilment.” Watchtower 1968 May 1 p.272
Awake! May 22, 1969
Kingdom Ministry, May 1974
What Does the Aftermath Reveal?
In 1980, Watchtower admitted “considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975” from information printed in its publications.
The Watchtower implied the end would come in 1975. Millions of Jehovah’s Witnesses did not unanimously come to this conclusion by themselves.
“With the appearance of the book Life Everlasting-in Freedom of the Sons of God, and its comments as to how appropriate it would be for the millennial reign of Christ to parallel the seventh millennium of man’s existence, considerable expectation was aroused regarding the year 1975. … Unfortunately, however, along with such cautionary information, there were other statements published that implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility.” Watchtower 1980 Mar 15 p.17
How Can I Use This Information?
You might wonder how to use this information. You might think Jehovah’s Witnesses always claim “New Light” and will not pay attention to this information from fifty years ago. However, the Watchtower teaches origins matter.
What Does the Bible Really Teach? (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 2005), Chapter 16, pp. 159–160, “Do Origins Really Matter?”
If origins matter, then the origin of the Watchtower and its teachings also matter. What the Watchtower said in its early years matters. Because it claims to be “the truth”, and the “One true Religion”. If that were true, then everything it taught should always be true. Because truth contradicting itself means one of them was false. Truth doesn’t change. We may learn more about a certain subject, and add information, but the truth should never contradict itself or it wasn’t the truth to begin with.
So what was the truth about 1975? Was it true that Armageddon was coming soon? Was it true that Armageddon was coming in 1975 or shortly after in the few remaining months before Armageddon? Did Armageddon come and we missed it? Time has revealed that this was Not True.
The Watchtower has said, “Why put faith in a religion that lies to you?” The same could be said to a Jehovah’s Witness about the Watchtower. Why put faith in the Watchtower Organization when it has lied to you?
Questions to Ask a Jehovah’s Witness About 1975.
Has the Watchtower Organization ever predicted Armageddon?
What did the Watchtower predict about 1975?
The next time a Jehovah’s Witness tells you the Watchtower never predicted 1975, ask…”
IF the Watchtower was false in its prediction, what would that mean? (That they lied to you? That they were mistaken? )
IF the Watchtower were mistaken, why put faith in it?
Didn’t the Watchtower say they were not inspired and could make mistakes?
Why put faith in men that are not inspired?
Why not simply put faith in the Word of God?
JW Inform 
