The Generation Atop The Skyscraper

by TD 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  TD

  One of the most famous photographs taken by the late Charles C Ebbets showed workmen casually eating lunch on the 69th floor of the GE Building during the contruction of Rockefeller center.

  This photo was taken 76 years ago, in the summer of 1932. A lot has changed since then. Many of the buildings you see below don't exist anymore. Safety regulations today are much more strict. (Take a look at what is in the left hand of the man on the far right of the photo....)

  We've had a lot of discussion on JWD lately about the most recent (re)definition of the "Generation" of Matthew 24:34 and a possible reinterpretation of the 1914 and 1919 dates.

  Some people have even said that the JW faith has thus freed itself from any time constraints regarding their long protracted expectation of the end.

  To that, I politely answer, BUNK!

  Take another look at the workmen in the photograph above. These were adults in the year 1932. It was this exact same age group that was asked to stand up at the JW convention just three years later in 1935 so they could be recognized as the "Great Multitude" of Revelation 7. In JW theology, the Great Multitude (aka Great Crowd) lives to see and actually survives armageddon.

  Late 90's is the absolute youngest any of these men could be today and the clock continues to tick.

  That ticking clock is chained to the collective JW neck. Freeing themselves of it will take much deeper changes to their theology than just the word games we have seen so far
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  AnnOMaly

  Eugh. I'm feeling distinctly dizzy looking at that photo. How could their stomachs allow them to eat lunch?
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  BurnTheShips

  Looks like they've been asleep on the Tower.
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  Awakened at Gilead

  Hey, isn't 1932 a marked year also.. maybe that's fulfilling some prophecy...lol
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  deaconbluez

  What's even more amazing is that a few seconds after that picture was taken, Iron Man showed up!
  
  
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  Mariusuk.

  Hve you seen the difference in the amount of people in photo 1 to photo 2

  I reckon there is a photo in between with people falling off that beam
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  Awakened at Gilead

  Deaconblues and Mariusk... LMAO...
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  Mickey mouse

  Great post. Don't you just love it when you put a lot of though into something and then a load of wise guys come along making smart ass comments?

  The only thing I would say is that in the past few years there is definitely less emphasis on the great crowd from the 1930's onwards seeing Armageddon. I do remember it from the deep recesses of my JW mind but JW's are not very good at accessing those parts of the brain. I think this concept will be quietly dropped along with the Nethinim and all the other theories that didn't pass the sniff test.

  Mickey.
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  deaconbluez

  I see what you're saying about the age of the people in the picture, but don't forget that the Watchtower has cleverly adjusted doctrine so that they are no longer held to time/date restraints in connection with Armageddon. They changed the generation teaching so that it NO LONGER is connected to a group of people living at a certain time, namely 1914. AND they changed their 1935 "anointed cut-off" teaching, so that now it is acceptable and expected that new ones will join the ranks of the 144,000. When you combine those factors with the decades-old teaching that they have held concerning some of the 144,000 will still be alive on earth when the end comes...now they have all the time in the world. Because they are recognizing younger ones as anointed now. They are poised to not be affected once it is clear how their teachings concerning 1914 have expired.
• 

  TD

  deaconbluez

  ...but don't forget that the Watchtower has cleverly adjusted doctrine so that they are no longer held to time/date restraints in connection with Armageddon.

  Like I said above, my response to that is to politely answer, BUNK!

  The great crowed doctrine in its present form competely refutes that idea. That's the whole point

  In JW theology, the heavenly hope was the only hope for Christians from the time of Penacost clear up until the time of the end.

  For JW's there is only one other hope for Christians --surviving the great tribulation as one of the "Great Crowd."

  There is no other option or third group.

  As JW's interpret it, John's perspective in the vision allows for absolutely no wiggling on this point whatsoever. --He was on the "other side" of the great tribulation in vision. (i.e. In the future.)

  He did not see a group of people hoping to survive, he saw a group of people that already had survived.

  Therefore when the JW's identified this group (In 1935) the clock started ticking. Armageddon has to occur in their lifetime --else they have been misidentified.

  It will take some serious doctrinal surgery to fix this. --Like I've pointed out, much more than the word games we have seen so far.