by observador 175 Replies latest watchtower bible
Wasn't that the change in '95? That the "wicked" were the generation and the wicked will always be with us, they will not pass away until the end.
I never heard that the negative connotation of "this generation" was part of the '95 argument (but then I had already been out for nearly 10 years). If it were true it would be too funny.
Basically they claim Jesus finally ruled in heaven as of 1914 when all bad spirits were thrown to Earth. And then we must all wait till Jesus invisible but ever increasing number of helpers are deemed special enough to be in his gang to rule the New Earth. So that could take another hundred years or more - sorta it happens when it happens! AM I reading this right and if so why am I not surprised?
Dagney, you're right! ROFLMAO.
Watchtower 11/1, 95:
Saved
From a "Wicked Generation""O faithless and twisted generation, how long must I continue with you and put up with you?"—LUKE 9:41.
(...)
"ThisGeneration"—WhatIsIt?
9
When four apostles seated with Jesus on the Mount of Olives heard his prophecy about "the conclusion of the system of things," how would they understand the expression "this generation"? In the Gospels the word "generation" is translated from the Greek word ge·ne·a´, which current lexicons define in these terms: "Lit[erally] those descended fr[om] a common ancestor." (Walter Bauer’s Greek-EnglishLexiconoftheNewTestament) "That which has been begotten, a family; . . . successive members of a genealogy . . . or of a race of people . . . or of the whole multitude of men living at the same time, Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 1:48; 21:32; Phil. 2:15, and especially of those of the Jewish race living at the same period." (W. E. Vine’s ExpositoryDictionaryofNewTestamentWords) "That which has been begotten, men of the same stock, a family; . . . the whole multitude of men living at the same time: Mt. xxiv. 34; Mk. xiii. 30; Lk. i. 48 . . . used esp[ecially] of the Jewish race living at one and the same period."—J. H. Thayer’s Greek-EnglishLexiconoftheNewTestament.10
Thus Vine and Thayer both cite Matthew 24:34 in defining "this generation" (hege·ne·a´hau´te) as "the whole multitude of men living at the same time." The TheologicalDictionaryoftheNewTestament (1964) gives support to this definition, stating: "The use of ‘generation’ by Jesus expresses his comprehensive purpose: he aims at the whole people and is conscious of their solidarity in sin." Truly a "solidarity in sin" was apparent in the Jewish nation when Jesus was on earth, just as it marks the world system today.11
Of course, Christians studying this matter guide their thinking primarily by how Jesus used the Greek expression hege·ne·a´hau´te, or "this generation." He used it consistently in a negative way. Thus, he called the Jewish religious leaders "serpents, offspring of vipers" and went on to say that the judgment of Gehenna would be executed on "this generation." (Matthew 23:33, 36) However, was this judgment limited to the hypocritical clergy? Not at all. On a number of occasions, Jesus’ disciples heard him speak of "this generation," applying the term uniformly in a far wider sense. What was that?"This
WickedGeneration"
12
In 31 C.E., during Jesus’ great Galilean ministry and shortly after the Passover, his disciples heard him say to "the crowds": "With whom shall I compare this generation? It is like young children sitting in the marketplaces who cry out to their playmates, saying, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we wailed, but you did not beat yourselves in grief.’ Correspondingly, John [the Baptizer] came neither eating nor drinking, yet people say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of man [Jesus] did come eating and drinking, still people say, ‘Look! A man gluttonous and given to drinking wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’" There was no pleasing those unprincipled "crowds"!—Matthew 11:7, 16-19. 13 Later in 31 C.E., as Jesus and his disciples set out on their second preaching tour of Galilee, "some of the scribes and Pharisees" asked Jesus for a sign. He told them and "the crowds" who were present: "A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. . . . That is how it will be also with this wicked generation." (Matthew 12:38-46) Obviously, "this wicked generation" included both the religious leaders and "the crowds" who never came to appreciate the sign that was fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. 14 After the Passover of 32 C.E., as Jesus and his disciples came into the Galilean region of Magadan, the Sadducees and the Pharisees again asked Jesus for a sign. He repeated to them: "A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah." (Matthew 16:1-4) Those religious hypocrites were indeed most reprehensible as leaders among the unfaithful "crowds" whom Jesus condemned as "this wicked generation." 15 Toward the end of his Galilean ministry, Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him and said: "Whoever becomes ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him." (Mark 8:34, 38) So the masses of unrepentant Jews of that time obviously made up "this adulterous and sinful generation." Some days later, after Jesus’ transfiguration, Jesus and his disciples "came toward the crowd," and a man asked him to heal his son. Jesus commented: "O faithless and twisted generation, how long must I continue with you? How long must I put up with you?"—Matthew 17:14-17; Luke 9:37-41.
16 It was likely in Judea, after the Festival of Booths in 32 C.E., "when the crowds were massing together" around Jesus, that he repeated his condemnation of them, saying: "This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign. But no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah." (Luke 11:29) Finally, when the religious leaders brought Jesus to trial, Pilate offered to release him. The record says: "The chief priests and the older men persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas, but to have Jesus destroyed. . . . Pilate said to them: ‘What, then, shall I do with Jesus the so-called Christ?’ They all said: ‘Let him be impaled!’ He said: ‘Why, what bad thing did he do?’ Still they kept crying out all the more: ‘Let him be impaled!’" That "wicked generation" was demanding Jesus’ blood!—Matthew 27:20-25.
17 A "faithless and twisted generation," egged on by its religious leaders, thus played a key part in bringing about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifty days later, at Pentecost in 33 C.E., the disciples received holy spirit and started to speak in different tongues. Upon hearing the sound, "the multitude came together," and the apostle Peter addressed them as "men of Judea and all you inhabitants of Jerusalem," saying: "This man [Jesus] . . . you fastened to a stake by the hand of lawless men and did away with." How did some of those listeners react? "They were stabbed to the heart." Peter then called on them to repent. He "bore thorough witness and kept exhorting them, saying: ‘Get saved from this crooked generation.’" In response, about three thousand "embraced his word heartily [and] were baptized."—Acts 2:6, 14, 23, 37, 40, 41.
"ThisGeneration"Identified
18 What, then, is the "generation" so frequently referred to by Jesus in the presence of his disciples? What did they understand by his words: "This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur"? Surely, Jesus was not departing from his established use of the term "this generation," which he consistently applied to the contemporary masses with their "blind guides" who together made up the Jewish nation. (Matthew 15:14) "This generation" experienced all the distress foretold by Jesus and then passed away in an unequaled "great tribulation" on Jerusalem.—Matthew 24:21, 34.
19 In the first century, Jehovah was judging the Jewish people. Repentant ones, who came to exercise faith in Jehovah’s merciful provision through Christ, were saved out of that "great tribulation." True to Jesus’ words, all things prophesied occurred, and then the "heaven and earth" of the Jewish system of things—the entire nation, with its religious leaders and wicked society of people—passed away. Jehovah had executed judgment!—Matthew 24:35; compare 2 Peter 3:7.
20 Those Jews who had paid attention to Jesus’ prophetic words realized that their salvation depended, not on trying to calculate the length of a "generation" or of some dated "times or seasons," but on keeping separate from the evil contemporary generation and zealously doing God’s will. Though the final words of Jesus’ prophecy apply to the major fulfillment in our day, first-century Jewish Christians also had to heed the admonition: "Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man."—Luke 21:32-36; Acts 1:6-8.
21 Today, "the great day of Jehovah . . . is near, and there is a hurrying of it very much." (Zephaniah 1:14-18; Isaiah 13:9, 13) Suddenly, at Jehovah’s own predetermined "day and hour," his fury will be unleashed upon the world’s religious, political, and commercial elements, together with the wayward people who make up this contemporary "wicked and adulterous generation." (Matthew 12:39; 24:36; Revelation 7:1-3, 9, 14) How may you get saved out of "the great tribulation"? Our next article will answer and tell of the grand hope for the future
The"Generation"ThatPassesAway 10 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.11 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. 12 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. 13 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.
(As apparently nobody got my previous point so far)
Narkissos, you have a good point. I actually made an extreme analogy, but one that shows basically what you said: with some twisting, anything can be made holy or filthy.
It doesn't matter that the "generation" was talked about in a negative light before; now it applies to the all-righteous-super-holies anointed ones.
Well now they've made that change I'm going back
This was the thing that stumbled me 20 years ago, it's certainly about time, sheesh
Next Sunday morning I'll be sitting in the front row at the kingdom, finally the block has been removed !
oompa, I think this is big, not because it changes much for the average JW. It is big because 1) it changes a crucial doctrine just 12 years after a big change in the same doctrine, and 2) it makes something that for more than 70 decades used to apply to the wordly people, now applies to the very JW's cream of the crop.
If that level of bullcrap doesn't make a half-brain JW upset, I don't know what will.
Observador
My personal opinion is that these guys are simply doing all they can to present a foggy picture, so that no buddy is able to understand what they mean, and just give up trying to understand, and just … keep obeing.
To me, this is what they have been doing with the doctrine on blood, it has become so complicated that no r/f is able to give you a precise description, and it is also difficult for a “normal” judicial committee to pronounce themselves in complex medical blood treatment, that they are just finally going to give up having judicial committees on the blood issue.
This is also what they have been doing with the 1935 story. Now one knows anything anymore about WHEN the remnant call has or will end.
This puts the GB in a “safe” position, since whatever happens they will always be able to claim that they never stated this or that, and if anything happens, they will still be able to say, “well we told you that”.
I frankly believe that they are just making things non-understandable on purpose!
Nick!
Too bad, the '95 part about "this generation" being a negative phrase in the Synoptic/Acts context was exegetically sound (for once)
Methinks they won't get away with this in a single sentence. Wait for the QFR.
I wonder what Scholar thinks of the wonderful WT scholars and their chronology now
Narkissos, thanks for posting the excerpt!
It's becoming humorous isn't it, no, ridiculous is what it is. What, so now the wicked aren't the generation Jesus was speaking of? Now it swings back to the little flock in some bizarre leap of WT reasoning?
