Holy SHIT!!!!! Ray Franz predicted the new generation teaching as early as 1991!! now this is taken from the 2007 edition, but that is still three years prior to it happening. The account is from 1978!!!!!!! This is complete BULL SHIT!!!!! notice pg 479... the footnote is a MUST READ!!!!
Argumentation and Manipulation 479
Taking 15 years as a sort of minimum would, as the article said, have made the youngest of that "generation" nearly 70 years old at that time (1968). Ten years later, when that "youngest" member of the "generation" would have then been 80 years old, the October I , 1978,
Watchtower (page 31) made a slight shift." The 1968 publication had said Jesus' words "obviously" referred to persons old enough to understand and be "perceptive enough to realize the
import" of what took place in 1914. Now, ten years later, this was not so "obvious." Instead, the 1978 publication said it could include those who could "observe " such things as the 1914 war and other conditions. At the same time, it emphatically ruled out application to those who were merely newborn babies at that time. Two years later, the October 15 , 1980 Watchtower (page 31)
utilizing a statement in a popular newsmagazine, brought the point at which persons' could begin creating a lasting memory down to 10 years of age. Back in 1978, the Watchtower had said that "when it comes to the application in our time, the 'generation' logically would not apply to babies born during World War 1." The passage of yet six more years caused the illogical to become logical. The May 15, 1984 Watchtower (pages 4-7), reversed the previous position and,
by use of certain definition s (found in works of scholars of Christendom), now said:
These definitions embrace both those born around the time of a historic event and all those
alive at that time. If Jesus used "generation" in that sense and we app ly it to 1914, then the babies of that generation are now 70 years old or older ." So, whereas the October 8, 1968 Awake! had referred to 15year- olds born in 1914 as being (in 1968) 70 years of age, by 1984 fifteen years had passed and we then find the organization talking of babies born in 1914 being 70 years of age.
43 The reason for publishing this particular article was that Governing Body member Albert Schroeder, during a European tour that year, had, on his own initiative, been suggesting a new understanding of "this generation." He suggested its application to the generation of the "anointed" ones, a definition which would release it from being anchored to the 1914 date and allow for its extension for as long as any of Jehovah's Witnesses, whatever the date of their birth, professed to be of that "anointed class."
The Watchtower article was designed primarily to reaffirm the organization 's holding to its basic , traditional position built around 1914. See also Crisis of Conscience, page 257.
44 Underlining mine . The April 8, 1988, Awake!, pages 13, 14, repeated this position .
I know many have read Christian Freedom but has anyone made this connection yet? Its right there in black and white YEARS before it ever made it into a WT. I wasn't buying it no matter what but I wonder what DJ egg nogg thinks about this... or bane or any of the others... litterally twenty years before hand. But its "new light" right... holy shit... damn mosche, I may yet flipp the congregation the bird and walk out!
