Who Knows The Exact Current Interpretation of "Generation" Please!

by Bubblegum Apotheosis 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Vidqun
    Vidqun

    Thanks Mr. Flipper, that one don't fly even with a whole lot of imagination. One that I forgot to mention is TDNT, referring one to the Hebrew dour or Aramaic dar, meaning "age", "age of man", or "generation". Mentioning NT usage, it says "In the NT genea is common in the Synoptics... mostly denotes "generation" in the sense of contemporaries. This generation is to be understood temporally, always with a qualifying criticism, e.g., "evil and adulterous" or "unbelieving and corrupt". So, not even one lexicon editor goes the overlapping route. I call it dishonest scholarship, plain and simple. But it goes with the territory, it won't be the first time, and it won't be the last.

  • LostGeneration
    LostGeneration

    Bubblegum,

    If you haven't seen it, this is a great way to show JWs what they believe, because they simply don't know

    http://www.jwfacts.com/images/generationjw.jpg

    All of it uses WT references, so you can present it carefully as a "study project" you have done because you want to keep up with "advancing light"

  • cofty
    cofty

    That's the one, thanks LostGeneration

  • St George of England
    St George of England

    I've said this before but I'll say it again:

    (Matthew 1:17) 17 All the generations, then, from Abraham until David were fourteen generations, and from David until the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ fourteen generations.

    So from Abraham to Jesus 3 x 14 generations = 42 generations.

    Abraham born 2018 BC, Jesus born 2 BC so 2016 years = 42 generations

    2016 / 42 = 48 years per generation.

    Don't the GB read the Bible any more?

    George

  • Disillusioned Lost-Lamb
    Disillusioned Lost-Lamb

    According to wash-towel logic:

    1-Jayhoover's sense of time differs from ours, so "not excessively long" is a completely separate time frame for us puny humans.

    2-Lives overlapping has no discernable end (or beginning).

    By this you could rationalize the entire human race as being one big ass "generation".

    Sheesh, aren’t the loopholes clear enough? J

  • mP
    mP

    firstly a generation is almost always forty years in the bible. it was forty years for the questioning ungrateful hebrews accompanying moses.

    the problem with this prediction, is everyone here is repeating a number of mistakes.

    - every generation for the last two thousand years of xianity thinks jesus is predixting the end of their world. they thought the same thing in the year 999 and its no surprise the wts did the same by highlighting 1999 was magic.

    - everyone mixes upmwhat is literal and what is symbolic.

    the simple'fact is jc who lived in 30ish was predicting the fall of the world of his apostles within a generation. this happened when titus came and crushed the rebelleous jews, destroyed jeruslaem and the temple and climaxed with masada. most people dont realise masada'was'officially conquered om nisan 15 in the year 73. jesus made his predictiom just days before he died around nisan 15 year 33. in other words jesus words about this calamity has already happened.

    a more interesting question that can then be asked is who was the son of god that appeared at that time? josephus made this comment many times, that the messiah was titus the son of the god vespasian the new caesar. im sure most people know that nearly all caesars were labelled divine or a god. titua as the son of caesar became the son mof god. if you read jesus predixtion, we can see that history as recorded by josephus, was completed and furfilled exactly by titus. the messiah did come within a generation or'forty years, the problem is the gospels are political material, not supernatural nonsense.

    everybosy wants too much and is too self focused, the gospels are about a man whompredicts roman conquest. he also tells his disciples in the gospels to pay taxes, obey, be content slaves and be peaceful. this is very different from their recent hiatory of rebelling at any opportunity. there were many false messiahs, some had few followers,'others many. eventually they did manage to become free in the second century for a short while.

    i couls go on if anyone is interested and show what the gospels are really about.

    i wpuld suggest doubters verify my statements by checking with wikipedia and other sources for-

    - masada

    - false messiah

    - vespaisian

    - titus

  • AwareBeing
    AwareBeing

    WT's Recycled Generation Teaching

    "Let GOD be Found True, But Every Man A Lier" -Romans 3:4

    2) The Anointed

    Overlapping Anointed / o 6) o

    / / o 5) ...\ Anointed Again!

    / __ / __ / __ \ \

    / / \

    / o 4) Now The Wicked \

    1) Those at word's end o \ __ __ __ __ o 3) Those born around 1914

    This recycling chart was brought to you by the mind benders at HQ, NY.

    We greatly appreciate your full participation in these recommend recycling rules.

  • VM44
    VM44

    If one sees a picture of some parents with their childern one sees TWO generations that are contempoary with each other (that is, living at the same time).

    But The Watchtower tries to convince everyone that it is only one generation!

    So what is The Watchtower trying to pull off here?

    Torturing the definition of "generation" to suit its own purposes?

    Insulting everyone's intelligence?

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    As I previously pointed out in another thread, before the Society adopted this totally insane teaching, it readily recognized that separate generations may overlap without having the overlap render them as somehow comprising "parts" of a single generation.

    In the September 1, 1952 Watchtower, a QFR article posed the question: "Your publications point out that the battle of Armageddon will come in this generation, and that this generation began A.D. 1914. Scripturally, how long is a generation?" The response said in part:

    *** w52 9/1 p. 542 Questions From Readers ***

    Three or even four generations may be living at the same time, their lives overlapping. (Ps. 78:4; 145:4)

    Today, the Society would say that all four generations are really one generation, as they overlap together. In 1974, the Society again assumed that generations that overlap are, duh, separate generations:

    *** w74 1/15 p. 43 How One Language Will Bring Unity to Mankind ***

    There may well have been little change in Moses’ language from the original language spoken by Adam. Why? Because men then enjoyed very long life-spans, their lives often overlapping into five or six generations. Therefore, the language could have been passed down through only five human links between Adam and Moses, namely, Methuselah, Shem, Isaac, Levi, Amram. (Gen. 5:3-32; 11:10-32; 21:5; 25:26; 29:34; Ex. 6:16, 18, 20)

    So here again separate generations may overlap with each other and still be considered distinct generations. In 2001, with reference to the growth of Australia as a country, the Society wrote:

    *** g01 2/8 p. 22 Bound for Botany Bay ***

    The pace of change continued to accelerate from those early days, and within just three overlapping generations, the “fine and flourishing colony” grew into a multicultural nation.

    Because the three generations have overlapped, the Society today could just as well say that these are three groups comprising one generation, and that the generation of the Botany Bay colonists has by no means passed away. And similarly, they published in 2004:

    *** w04 1/15 p. 5 Promises That You Can Trust ***

    The Israelites were well received in Egypt in the days of Jacob’s son Joseph. The Egyptians later subjected them to brutal slave labor, but true to God’s promise, within a period of four overlapping generations from the time they entered Egypt, these descendants of Abraham were liberated from Egyptian bondage.

    The Society's own literature shows how much the new "understanding" is contrary to normal English usage, not to mention basic logic.

  • Alfred
    Alfred

    I asked an elder this question once...

    Where does it say in the Bible that Jesus was referring to the lives of annointed brothers?

    (i'm sure anyone here can pretty much guess what his response to that was, so I won't aggravate you so early in the morning)

    Also, assuming the generation happens to span 140 years, for example... 140 years could easily have been the overlapping lives of the "great crowd" or the overlapping lives of Catholics or the overlapping lives of any group for that matter...

    Why does this 140-year period herein referred to as the "generation that shall not pass" necessarily have to signify the lives of the "annointed"??? Is the Watchtower trying to give this period a mystical significance so that it carries more weight? What's the point of assigning this period of time exclusively to the annointed???

    These guys are totally full of sh*t...

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