"Consider that Jehovah has not promised to keep good homes and others property when this evil system is destroyed. He promised to preserve Only life!" (Sat 1.04.1974. Cited by 10, 74).

And so, when ordinary Jehovah's Witnesses were selling off their possessions, the leadership of the The company negotiated the purchase of large real estate. And in a few years months before the "end of the world", in the summer of 1975, to expand the apartment administrative staff in New York, the 15-storey Tower Hotel is acquired (10, 73). It is difficult not to call such behavior hypocritical.

The autumn of 1975 passed. Armageddon did not take place and the perplexed questions. In its 12/15/1975 issue, The Watchtower instructed believers, What do they

“... Don't think about the date, but concentrate on the important preaching activity" (Quoted by 10, 71).

And the Watchtower of 1/01/1976 put forward the following explanation for the failure: from the creation of Adam to the autumn of 1975, 6000 years have indeed passed, but The Kingdom of God will come in 6000 years... after the creation of Eve. And

“... how many weeks, months, or years elapsed between the creation of the first men and women, we do not know" (quoted by 10:72).

For a more detailed explanation, see the Watchtower of April 15, 1977 Year. But for some reason, they blamed them for the unjustified "prophecy" not on the leadership of the Society, but on its ordinary members.

"It is possible that some of God's servants were guided in their plans misconceptions about what will happen on a certain date or in a certain a certain year... But they misunderstood the meaning of the Bible's warnings concerning the end of this system of things, for they believed that the Biblical The chronology indicates a certain date... It was not the word of God that proved to be untenable or deceived or disappointed, but his own understanding rested on false Premises... From Jesus' clear explanation, it follows that God's servants will never know beforehand the moment at which Christ will come to judgment" (Quoted by 10, 72-73).

But such explanations could not satisfy the most active part of the Jehovah's Witnesses, the so-called "pioneers," who devoted themselves entirely to the all his life to "proclaim the Kingdom" and to lead local organizations. Their number has sharply decreased. If in 1976 there were 196,656 of them (out of 2,138,537 Jehovah's Witnesses), then in 1978 there were 115,389 (out of 2,086,678 Witnesses Jehovah) (14. 47).

Nathan Knorr died on June 7, 1977, and on June 23 at a joint meeting Directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and New York, Vice-President Frederick was elected president of both corporations William Franz (14, 46; 10, 14).

He was born on September 12, 1893, in Covington, Kentucky. United States. Apparently, his parents were Presbyterians, since after graduating he entered the University of Cincinnati, where he studied to be a priest Presbyterian Church. Frederick learned about Russell's teachings from his elder brother, under whose influence he left the Presbyterian community and began to cooperate with the Bible Students.

"On November 13, 1913, he was baptized, and the following year he left from the university and joined the ranks of literary distributors (pioneers). On June 1, 1920, Brother Franz became a member of the Wefnl family in Brooklyn. Soon he was appointed "overseer of the department of distribution of literature, And in 1926 he was transferred to the editorial department... In 1945, Brother Franz became vice president of the Watch Tower Society (Watch Tower Society — G. D.) and other corporations united with it" (SB, 15.03.1993. – P. 31-32).

As we remember, he headed the activities of the New World Translation Committee and was the initiator of a campaign promoting the onset of Armageddon in 1975. The prophecy turned out to be false, but the campaign carried out significantly increased the human and material resources of the Watch Tower Society.

On March 15, 1980, The Watchtower issued an explanation concerning book "Eternal Life in the Freedom of the Sons of God". The journal said: