Posted by Tom [Zachary] on November 03, 1999 at 20:13:00 {eZOTANvCI6MW5QGx.y.2PaEpA0ijdc}:
In Reply to: Response-Cygnus' Misquote posted by Greg Stafford on November 03, 1999 at 07:22:47:
Oh come on Greg! It's hardly fair for you to chide Cygnus for failing to quote the entire paragraph before you have made any attempt to deal with the sentences which immediately precede and follow the actual statement in question.
"This is, therefore, no time to be indifferent and complacent.""This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that "concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father."
"To the contrary, it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end. Make no mistake, it is sufficient that the Father himself knows both the "day and hour"!"
Study Question Why is this no time for indifference and complacency?
A faithful JW at the time could have toyed with the words of Jesus by moving the "end" far enough away in his mind that he became indifferent and complacent or he could have toyed with the words of Jesus by placing too great an emphasis on a chronology that seemed to indicate that the end was imminent but these are two very different things.
As far as the discussion of paragraph 35 was concerned, being "indifferent and complacent" and "toying with the words of Jesus" could only have been in a manner contrary to the keen awareness "that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end." The advice therefore was against dismissing the potential significance of the chronology pointing to 1975 on the basis that nobody knows the exact day and hour and not as you have suggested, against putting too great an emphasis on that self same chronology. The latter possibility would not have gone hand in hand with the type of indifference and complacency the paragraph was talking about and would not have been contrary to the keen awareness that the end of the system of things was rapidly coming to its violent end.
Tom