A Dummy's Guide to the 'This generation' doctrine

by Honesty 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OnTheWayOut

  This is such bass-ackwards thinking.

  Basically, true blue believers think this way- Jesus said that "this generation" will not pass away before [YADDA] and the Governing Body has never been wrong before, so their adjusted thinking on this must be correct.

  The basic JW even feels like the GB are so much more wonderful than the churches because they are able to adjust when necessary instead of remaining rigid in their teachings.

  WAKE UP JW's. Could they simply be wrong in the first step? How and when did 1914 come about? Maybe their error lies in the very premise that "the last days" must have started in 1914. Research C.T. Russell and the Great Disappointment and JW's teachings about 1975 and see what is really wrong.
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  mynameislame

  So much for " God is a God not of disorder"
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  Island Man

  My definition of a generation would be this:

  a. A single tier of progeny in a family tree.

  b. Everyone sharing a particular historical context in their formative years. Everyone born within 10 years of, and living through the same historical event(s) being designated to define or identify the particular period.
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  A.proclaimer

  Still doesn't make sense as already pointed out, the way the generation is being defined is too along. Aside from that, Jesus referred to the generation that was living in his time, that saw his ministry which according to the Bible, did not pass when Jerusalem was destroyed. It wouldn't make sense that the people who didn't see 1914, who weren't alive back then or just babies too young to even understand, to even be part of that significant event.
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  AlphaMan

  The main thing is......the Jehovah Witness Governing Body did not change the "this generation" doctrine to the "over-lapping generation" doctrine until their "this generation" doctrine was going to run out of time and show them up for the false prophets they are.
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  Oubliette

  I have a question for anyone that believes this doctrine: What exactly was the actual evidence the WT writer was referring to when they used the word "evidently" in introducing this new belief?

  • "[Jesus] evidently meant that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who would see the start of the great tribulation." - Watchtower, 2010, April 15, p. 10

  I have searched and searched. As far as I can tell, the WT has never explained, nor provided any details regarding, what exactly their "evidence" was that prompted this significant doctrinal change.

  I'm just sayin' is all. It's kind of a big deal actually, don't you think?

  - Listen, Obey and Be Blessed: It's a cult! -
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  prologos

  or on the SAME QUESTION: wt January 15 2014 page 31 par.15: "we understand that in mentioning "this generation," Jesus was referring to two groups of anointed Christians.--

  we understand that how? why? How does wt know that Jesus knew that he was referring to two groups? are they mind-reading into the past of long ded people? their belated historical writers, copiest, forgers?

  Jesus did not even know that in that generation no sign would be seen in heaven and a global disaster bigger than the flood WOULD NOT occur during that generation.
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  thedog1

  The last two posts on this topic, by Oubliette and prologos, encapsulate the difficulty with the change in the generation teaching in 2010 and 2014. I must have been totally asleep in 2010 as I did not register this in the way I should have. It only made an impression on me when I had burst my brain trying to understand all the 'new light' in 2013 about all the changes in the July 15th Wt and all the stuff thereafter about the identify of the F&DS and so on. So after that I was alert to new reasonings, and when the Jan 15 2014 wt came along I was ready for it, in the sense that I DID NOT GET IT AT ALL IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE! We are due to study it soon, and as I take the WT study I am going to skip that week as in all conscience I could not support it.

  The two posters above nail it on the head when they stress how there is no scriptural evidence whatsoever for the assertions made in those two articles. For me this is desperately sad as I became a witness on the basis of bible evidence for arguments made. God help me if somebody asked me to try to explain it to them. The faith I have built up over the last 30 plus years has been eroded by these teachings in the last year. Then I dug deeper on foot of this and read CoC and In Search of Christian Freedom and currently reading The Gentile Times Reconsidered. How sad to see all your dreams shattered!
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  Apognophos

  I must have been totally asleep in 2010 as I did not register this in the way I should have.

  Yes, same here. I was shocked to learn about this change retroactively.

  I don't have a problem with identifying as a "generation" the people that lived at a certain point in time, even if that group includes multiple generations of family who were cognizant of that era's events. A lot of people are fallaciously confusing the two definitions of "generation". A familial generation is a different thing from a historical generation.

  The problem is that they've moved the "point in time" around which the historical generation revolves, from 1914 to 19??, where 19?? is the last possible year of overlap between anointed generations. As others have pointed out, since Fred Franz was of the (historical) generation that saw 1914, and he lived until, what, 1992?, then that means the new anchor point for a historical generation that will not pass away is as late as 1992.

  If they could provide any scripture at all that backs up the concept of centering the historical generation around this point, it would be different. They're saying that the act of knowing the generation that saw 1914 is the sign that defines the generation that won't pass away, and I don't believe any JW can say with a straight face that this makes sense to them.
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  Listener

  It would be more credible if they just came out and said they had no idea what Jesus meant when he said 'this generation'. They have made fools of themselves and they should be very worried as to why they even let themselves listen to whoever it was that originally came up with this concept. They have serious problems.