The 1914 Generation change

by Andyman 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  Andyman

  Beverly;

  How true. I have never heard anyone question what was said at assemblies or conventions. All they ever do is say how GREAT the information was.

  I have had some brtohers and sisters question things going on at the local level, but as soon as the elders get wind of it, and they always do because SOMEBODY always runs to them trying to get some points, they have a local needs talk about "never question" the elders. They would say how they were "handling" things, and don't get involve, don't talk with anyone else about how you feel, etc.

  I think this was usually a sore spot with them, because usaually it had to do with something that and elder or MS or their wives or family were doing that they SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN DOING!

  Oh well, I guess if we all just stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is PEACHY, we wouldn't have to think about all the problems![:l?]
• 

  Bod

  I can't believe it!

  I strolled away in '92 and I was unaware until today that they had changed the whole thing. I knew they would have to eventually, but nobody told me that they had.

  I'm amazed that there wasn't a mass walk out though. Will they believe anything in ten years time that they can prove is the truth now?

  Have they created any new prophecies since I left?
• 

  jack2

  It's been seven years since the change in the 1914 teaching, so assuming a growth rate in terms of baptisms of between 200,000 and 300,000 per year since 1995, that's between 1,400,000 and 2,100,000 JWs who may not know much about that teaching. Of course, many those were children or newer ones who may have some knowledge of that teaching and experienced living through it. But I guess what I am trying to say is that it really does not take all that long for something like that to fade from the collective consciousness of a group or from the mind of an individual. Given enough time, it all fades into the past pretty easily, which is evidently exactly what the Society counts on.
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  refiners fire

  November 1 , 1995 Issue of the WT I think the new light was revealed.

  The Watchtower are absurdly literal in some ways. October is a key month in their thinking. New Light is very often revealed immediately after October 22 because this is a supposed key Biblical date. As well. They held to the notion that "A generation is 70 or 80 years". Hence the new understanding was revealed Immediately post October 22, 1995. Considering the "generation" supposedly started October 22 1914 this is EXACTLY 81 years. Why the discrepancy of a year you may ask? Something to do with the commencement of the jewish year and the Org always uses this "Jewish year" calculation to "stretch" their expectations a year. As Russell did with 1914. Shifting to 1915.

  Hence, retrospectively, the "New Light" on the "generation" was revealed RIGHT ON TIME. The WT is becoming VERY predictable.

  Edited by - refiners fire on 14 November 2002 15:37:25
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  Latte

  I mentioned to a friend of mine that the 'generation change' bothered me greatly. She replied "No it hasn't changed!" It had gone completly over her head! and guess what?....She is the PO's wife! Talk about in the dark.

  A question re this topic I've wanted ask is: What books are now considered out of date and therefore not used for bible studies? I guess that it would account for quite a lot.

  Latte
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  refiners fire

  "People dont remember the previously held belief"

  I was watching Orwells "1984" 0n the TV the other night.Towards the end of the movie, the protagonist, Smith, is strapped to a gurney and "racked". Why? Because he REMEMBERS things happening that are not "orthodox". Smith REMEMBERS that, last year, His country was at was war with Eastasia. But the official party line is that the country is at war with Eurasia, and has always been at war with Eurasia. Smiths memory is therefore, officially faulty. This is no different than the Witness official view of things. Previously held truths are discarded and forgotten. When God speaks in 1995 and says "The generation is a figurative one", The previous belief that it was a literal one is swept from the collective memory. This is all nothing unusual, but is a manifestation of TOTALITARIAN organizations thruout history. Adolf Hitler in "Mein Kampf" explains WHY the newly altered beliefs of the Totalitarianism must be held as always having been held. You should read it .
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  refiners fire

  Immediately before his exile from Russia, Solzhenitsyn wrote to Leonid Brezhnev:

  "Your dearest wish is for our ideology and state structure never to change, to remain as they are for centuries. But history is not like that. Every system either finds a way to develop or else it collapses"

  Unfortunately, when a totalitarianism makes predictions, they become verifiable as true or false when the time alloted expires. So when time is up and they are verifiably false predictions, the Totalisms only option is to alter the thinking of the masses on the understanding of the prediction. Because the Totalism can NEVER be wrong on anything.

  One of the first things Gorbachev did when he commenced dismantling Russian communism was OPEN THE HISTORY BOOKS. Russian TV was flooded with exposes on historical coverups and deceptions on the part of the Totalist government.