1914, Generation doctrine belief change!

by Gill 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  AlphaOmega

  The change in full... Sorry if it has been posted before (I guess that's one of the dangers of independent study OKM 09-2007 )

  *** w95 11/1 pp. 19-20 A Time to Keep Awake ***

  The "Generation" That Passes Away

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  Let us examine more closely Jesus’ statement at Matthew 24:34, 35: "Truly I say to you that thisgeneration will by no means pass away until all these things occur. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away." Jesus’ words that follow show that ‘nobody knows that day and hour.’ Far more important, he shows that we must avoid the snares surrounding us in thisgeneration. Thus Jesus adds: "For just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, men marrying and women being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be." (Matthew 24:36-39) Jesus here compared the generation of his day to that of Noah’s day.—Genesis 6:5, 9; footnote.

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  This was not the first time that the apostles heard Jesus make this comparison of ‘generations,’ for some days earlier he had stated concerning himself: "The Son of man . . . must undergo many sufferings and be rejectedbythisgeneration. Moreover, justasitoccurredinthedaysofNoah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man." (Luke 17:24-26) Thus, Matthew chapter 24 and Luke chapter 17 make the same comparison. In Noah’s day "all flesh [that] had ruined its way on the earth" and that was destroyed at the Flood was "thisgeneration." In Jesus’ day the apostate Jewish people that were rejecting Jesus was "thisgeneration."—Genesis 6:11, 12; 7:1.

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  Therefore, in the final fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy today, "this generation" apparently refers to the peoples of earth who see the sign of Christ’s presence but fail to mend their ways. In contrast, we as Jesus’ disciples refuse to be molded by the life-style of "this generation." Though in the world, we must be no part of it, "for the appointed time is near." (Revelation 1:3; John 17:16) The apostle Paul admonishes us: "Keep doing all things free from murmurings and arguments, that you may come to be blameless and innocent, children of God without a blemish in among a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you are shining as illuminators in the world." —Philippians 2:14, 15; Colossians 3:5-10; 1 John 2:15-17.

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  Our "shining as illuminators" includes not only displaying a clean Christian personality but, above all, fulfilling Jesus’ prophetic commission: "This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14) No human can say when that end will be, but we know that the end of "this generation" of wicked people will come once the witness has been given to God’s satisfaction "to the most distant part of the earth."—Acts 1:8.
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  timmycat

  Don'tcha' just love how when it's time for a monumental, 180 degree retreat from the big, fat, honkin' lies of the WTS - it been "Jehovah's people" at fault?

  But when it is "new light" - it's from "Jehovah's Faith and Discreet Slave"?

  This has been the biggest problem I have had, and the reason I am here.

  A question...how do you have the statement in a yellow block, how do i do that.
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  AlphaOmega

  This has been the biggest problem I have had, and the reason I am here.

  A question...how do you have the statement in a yellow block, how do i do that.

  Highlight the text that you want to make yellow, then...

  Have a look to the top-right of the REPLY box, to the left of the "A" with a red line underneath, you'll see a pen drawing a yellow line.

  Sometimes it "sticks" on and all your reply will become yellow, but as we are currently in a phase of worldwide Simpsons mania at the moment, it'll be quite fitting
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  Junction-Guy

  Yep, I was taught from infancy the literal generation of 1914. This is why I rushed into marriage in 1994. I thought I was soon to be destroyed, and I wanted to have as much a normal life as I could before I died at Armageddon. This lying cult manipulated my life and in turn affected my wife Amanda. I plan to expose this cult for the rest of my life.
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  cultswatter

  I know of several witnesses who left because of 1995
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  JCanon

  Again, the "end of the system of things" was a reference to the end of the time of the gentiles or the "appointed times of the nations" the system of things where the Jews were not in control of their own country. Thus what was supposed to happen within a generation of 1914, that means 80 years from 1914 and thus by 1994, was that the the "END of the gentile times" would occur, the end of the system where the Jews were in exile after 70 CE. That ended in 1947. So the prophecy was fulfilled.

  So many focus on the WTS not getting the generation issue correct but that still leaves us wondering if Jesus' words were not fulfilled if we apply that to 1914, which is a legit application since the signs begin with a world war (i.e. nation vs nation and kingdom vs kingdom). So along with acknowledging the JWs don't actually have the right understanding, it's good to see the correct understanding. Jesus was talking about the end of the Jewish system of things where the Jews were under the gentiles, and thus that ended in 1947. There is no problem with the "last generation" prophecies. Of course, also before that generation ends, the sign of the son of man was supposed to appear that confirmed the second coming, and that happened before 1994 as well.

  JCanon
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  Gerard

  Remember the resources (Quotes):

  http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/index.php/watchtower_quotes/
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  keyser soze

  They said those people were just serving Jehovah for a date or with a date in mind which is wrong, according to them.

  Isn't the fact that we were going to people's homes and spreading a lie at least somewhat important, especially to a religion that claims that it alone is the "truth"?
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  Alfred

  ...and this post was only a few years before the NEW generation definition... (that being that a generation is actually two overlapping generations)...

  when will the r&f ever wake up???
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  Caminante

  Alfred, actually this was a couple of months before they sent the February 15, 2008 issue to print, where the first change was published ('this generation' = the annointed).