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Predictions and dates · Claim record

The Watchtower of 15 August 1968 ('Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975?') asked whether Armageddon 'will be all over by the autumn of 1975' and answered 'Possibly', saying any gap between the end of 6,000 years and Christ's reign 'may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years'.

Claim ID claim-predictions-1968-weeks-or-monthsConcerns 15 August 1968Strong implication
Strong implication · 15 August 1968 Verified

The Watchtower of 15 August 1968 ('Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975?') asked whether Armageddon 'will be all over by the autumn of 1975' and answered 'Possibly', saying any gap between the end of 6,000 years and Christ's reign 'may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years'. The Watchtower, 15 August 1968

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The Watchtower 15 March 1980 p.17 admitted that some statements 'implied that such realization of hopes by that year was more of a probability than a mere possibility' and that these 'overshadowed the cautionary ones'.

Show the evidence (1 source)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975?”

15 August 1968 · pp.494-501 · pars. 29-30, 37 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man's existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ.”

The same paragraph (30) continues: 'Our chronology, however, which is reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible), at the best only points to the autumn of 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of man's existence on earth. It does not necessarily mean that 1975 marks the end of the first 6,000 years of Jehovah's seventh creative "day." ... It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years.' Par. 29: 'in the fall of the year 1975 ... it will be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam'. Par. 37: 'They have not dedicated their lives to serve Jehovah only until 1975.'

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on wol; the 'weeks or months' and 'all over by the autumn of 1975' sentences are on p. 499; 'only until 1975' on p. 501.

Corroborated by. src-w-1980-0315-p17-18

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-w-1968-0815-p494-501-1975

Claim page

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