1914 ,the Generation that got tossed in the Garbage Can

by OUTLAW 97 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  TD

  Pre 1995 - the "generation" refers to individuals who were alive in 1914. The generation of 1914 would not pass away before the end of the system of things. This meant you would expect the end within 100 years of 1914, give or take.

  Post 1995 - the "generation " refers to individuals around at the time of christ's presence. These individuals being independant of 1914 or any other date. The end of the system of things is therefore no longer dependant on 1914.

  The most amazing thing to me is that Witnesses don't even seem to have the mental steam to define their terms and paraphrase the statement to see if the post 1995 definitions will evaluate to anything intelligible.

  For example, Pre 1995:

  This Generation = Individuals alive in 1914

  Pass Away = Die of old age

  All these things = The entire sign including Armageddon

  Put it all together and you get something like this:

  "Those alive in 1914 will not all die of old age until the entire sign is fulfilled and Armageddon occurs."

  However Post 1995:

  This Generation = People contemporary with the sign who take no note

  Pass Away = Destruction by God at Armageddon

  All these things = The entire sign including Armageddon

  Put this all together and you get something like this:

  "Those contemporary with the sign who take no note will not be detroyed by God at Armageddon until the entire sign is fulfilled and Armageddon occurs."

  --which is an obvious tautology. Of course no one will be destroyed at Armageddon until Armageddon occurs. The JW's have reduced the statement to a semantic nil while at the same time, patting themselves on the back for their "Clearer understanding."

  Try it get a JW to perform this simple exercise and see just how "Clear" their understanding is.
• 

  Gill

  Those old folk on the cover of that mag, must have stood there 'knowing' that they would never die!

  How sad!
• 

  drew sagan

  Excellent point TD
  
  They just don't want you to think about it. The more you think the more rebellious you become.
• 

  moshe

  Thanks for the WT cover, VM44. I have already started to make a handbill with it- I printed 4 covers to a page and will add text to the back side. I have found the easist way to distribute handbills , is to just drive through a KH at night and scatter a few in the parking lot. It would be impossible not to look at this picture and not think about it.
• 

  willyloman

  The generation of 1914 would not pass away before the end of the system of things. This meant you would expect the end within 100 years of 1914, give or take.

  Actually, they were much more specific than that. A generation, according to scripture, is "70 years, or 80 in the case of a mighty one" or words to that effect and this was used to suggest that the end would come by 1994 (1914 + 80) at the very latest. After the '75 disappointment, dubs began looking at the year 1984 (1914+70) as the next freeway exit, and many were certain that the end "had" to come within the 1984-94 time frame. Of course, the Society was not going to put this in print, having learned their lesson with the '75 date setting fiasco.

  THAT is why the "generation change" came about in 1995. Because '94 had come and gone with no end in sight, and they had to explain it away. Even as late as the end of 1994, there were some die-hard dubs trying to rationalize that the "1994 service year" ran to October 1995, so there was "still time." It was toward the end of that service year that the Society issued their new light teaching, which appeared in print in the Watchtower in November 1995 (written two months earlier).
• 

  Gill

  Willyloman - I was there. I remember 'seeing it' but still I didn't SEE IT!
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  I was 9 when it was changed in 1995, and I don't remember it. I asked a few of my JW friends around my age and none them had heard of it either. I found it amazing how easily the Society managed to cover up such a major teaching in such a short amount of time.

  Whatever doctrine is not constantly repeated in the Watchtower is forgotten. That is the plan. 10 years from now, virtually nobody will talk about it in the organization. It's almost forgotten now.

  GENERATIONS severely stumbled me. (In retrospect, GENERATIONS severely woke me up) It was beat into me during my indoctrination in the late 1980's that the end was "right around the corner."
• 

  MidwichCuckoo

  THAT is why the "generation change" came about in 1995. Because '94 had come and gone with no end in sight, and they had to explain it away.

  You mean that the end of a failed Prophesy coincided with New Light from God? Gosh, that was lucky.
• 

  Warlock

  Jerohobo................that's pretty good.

  First, it was the generation that was at the 'age of awareness' which, when translated, meant 12 to 14 years old. THEN it was changed to those BORN in 1914. I didn't even know it had even been changed until Blondie and someone else (forgive me, I don't remember who) posted that change. Then with the 1995 generation change, they had the nerve to say that the change did not affect their thinking on the arrival of Armageddon. If that really is the case, THEN WHY DID THEY MAKE THE CHANGE?

  This is what I mean when I say most did not, and still do not, see what a huge change of thinking this was. Do you understand what it means for those like me who were counting on the prophecy to be fullfiled in our time? We put off EVERYTHING, because we thought we were going to be living in the new system "very soon, any day now, just around the corner". I mean it will just make you sick thinking about it.

  DON'T YOU MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE. Get education, retirement, the whole bit. If you believe the scriptures then remember and DO NOT FORGET: No one knows the day or the hour.

  Warlock
• 

  sir82

  Wasn't the "generation of 1914 = people alive in 1914" idea one of Fred Franz's inventions?

  I've always speculated that they waited until a few years after his death to publicize the 180 degree turnaround in doctrine, out of "respect" for their late leader. They had to have known, well before 1995, that the teaching was bogus.

  No one has had the courage / imagination to replace any of his other goofy ideas, but that particular one was necessary, due to the timing issues noted above.