A Jehovah's Witness explains the Watchtower Society's 'This Generation' doctrine....
http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/jehovahs-witness/T3HEH0TAFIUK6F9T3
What do you think about his explanation?
A Dummy's Guide to the 'This generation' doctrine
by Honesty 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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SafeAtHome
I think he is giving a convoluted definition of a generation. By his reasoning, my mother and I are of the same generation, she being born in 1920 and me in 1950, 30 years apart. He has people born 40 years apart being in the same generation. The dictionary definition of a generation is all of the poeple living at the same time or approximately the same age or peer group. I dont think I was in my mother's peer group! We have a family photo of my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, and my sister holding her newborn son. We always refer to at as the 5 generations photo, not the 2 or 3 generations photo. Witnesses will twist anything to fit their dogma: facts? We dont need no stinkin' facts!
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Honesty
Jehovah's Witnesses have their own dictionary because it contains 'accurate knowledge' found only in a kingdom hall.
You should see his other posts over on Topix.
The dude is a trip.
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wearewatchingyouman
Yeah, no. This is like saying the young men who fought in World War 1 and the yound men who fought in the Korean War are of the same generation. It just doesn't pass the common sense test.
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mauiboy
Extrapolate the reasoning here and one could claim Adam and Eve are of the same generation as we are. Never before has such pretzel logic been presented for supposed 'proof'of anything. Not to mention NO Biblical basis......and don't even try to bring up that lonely scripture in Exodus that can be shredded in a flash if presented as 'proof' of over-lapping generations. All a big, bad G.B. joke.
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Vidiot
One of the more photoshop-skilled JWN posters (Outlaw, you there?) should put together a "Jehovah's Witnesses for Dummies" or "The Watchtower for Dummies" gag pic.
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AlphaMan
Stupid me.....and all this time I thought a person's children was the next generation of the family.
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The Jehovah Witness religion has become an absolute joke. How can people still be a party to perpetuating this fraud? It's a cult.
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trebor
I think this:
http://savedfromthewatchtower.blogspot.com/2010/01/next-generation-is-this-generation.html
My favorite being...
The Insight on the Scriptures book Volume 1, page 917 makes this statement:
"A generation commonly refers to all persons who were born about the same time. (Ex 1:6)"
However, now the Watchtower Society states according to the April 15, 2010, Watchtower:
"It usually refers to people of varying ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period; it is not excessively long; and it has an end. (Ex. 1:6)"
Exodus 1:6 (And many other Bible verses) can be twisted to fit whatever current thoughts are behind Watchtower teaching.
History:
Generation (Mathew 24:34)...
-1927 = The Anointed
[Watchtower February 15, 1927 page 62]-1942 = Anyone alive to see 1914
[Watchtower July 1, 1942 page 204]-1995 = Wicked People alive today
[Watchtower November 1, 1995 page 19]-2008 = The Anointed
[Watchtower February 15, 2008 page 24]-2010 = Overlap Generations of the Anointed since 1914
[Watchtower April 15, 2010 page 10]The Watchtower Society’s teaching concerning the meaning of 'generation' as recorded in Matthew was first 'correctly' understood to be 'The Anointed' in 1927. But brighter light caused it to become an incorrect teaching of a couple of different things over the course of 81 years, only to return back to the original ‘correct’ 1927 teaching of 'The Anointed'.
However, in a little over two years that now has proved to be not completely accurate and needed more 'tweaking' to overlap generations of the Anointed since 1914.
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Phizzy
His/her explantion falls at the second sentence. Someone born in 1944 is most certainly of a different generation than someone born in 1944 !
In that time, forty years, it is more than likely that the third generation is about to be born. Grandad born 1904, has a child in 1924, that child has a child in 1944. All quite normal, and they are THREE generations.
However the JW's pitch this absolute nonsense, it is simply that, arrant nonsense.
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Magnum
It is so aseninely, ridiculously ludicrous and illogical that I don't even know where to start in refuting it.
Let me give one example:
“Let's give a reasonable amount of time for a generation let's say 40 years. So someone born in 1904 and someone born in 1944 are of the same generation.”
That’s a huge logical leap. This generation doctrine expert basically asserts that
a) if a generation is 40 years, then
b) someone born in 1904 and someone born in 1944 are of the same generation.
I don’t see the logic. I would never consider somone born in 1904 to be of the same generation as someone in 1944. The one born 1904 could be the grandparent of the one born in 1944. The two could actually be said to represent three different generations.
If Jesus meant what this person described when he used the term "generation" in Mt chap 24, then I would never call him a great teacher. JWs say that he taught in a way that lowly humble ones could easily understand. What this person says he meant is illogical, senseless, and not easy to grasp.
If there is a Jesus, and he said what he’s recorded as saying in Mt chap 24, then anybody who heard him and who had a decent amount of common sense would just readliy understand him to be saying that the group of people, or at least the bulk thereof, who were alive when he uttered those words would be alive when the end came – period.
If I stated that the current U.S. generation would witness the greatest earthquake the U.S. has ever seen, I would mean that the bulk of the population now alive would still be alive when the earthquake hits. It’s just that simple. So a 35-yr-old who heard my words could expect to see the earthquake (assuming my prediction is right) if he didn’t die prematurely.
edit: When I posted this, I hadn't seen what Phizzy wrote. Didn't mean to repeat.