“This generation will by no means pass away.”

by Fisherman 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TonusOH

  I think this is where we would apply Ockham's Razor. If someone spoke to me today about something that would last "for a generation" I would assume a fairly broad timespan, depending on the context. I'd guess 20-50 years, but not longer than that.

  But I think it's fair if there is a consensus that, in the time Jesus' words were spoken, the term he used may have had a different connotation. Is this the case? I'm guessing that a person in that moment, hearing that phrase, would expect that the 'end' would come in their lifetimes. Is there a commonly-accepted explanation for a longer term than that?
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  stan livedeath

  this--

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN5zw04WxCc
  
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  Vidqun

  I prefer Christendom’s explanation: All predictions will happen within a generation (Matt. 24:34). Also the generation that sees and experiences the "great tribulation" of vv. 21, 22 will not pass away until all the predicted things have occurred. Most commentators give the length of the tribulation as seven years. Jesus then used the fig tree as a natural illustration and not as a typical one. In other words, just as a budding fig tree is a sign that summer is near, so the great tribulation itself is a sign of the end of the age (Matt. 24:32, 33).
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  nowwhat?

  The bible itself says a generation is 40 years . Exodus and job. So since you are so adamant that 1914 is correct, the end should have came in the 1950's!
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  Vanderhoven7

  The generation Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24:34 is identical to the one he spoke about in Matthew 23:36.

  34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Mt 24:34
  

  36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. Mt 23:36

  And incidentally, wherever the Greek word “genea” appears alone in the gospels, it is used to delineate “one set of parents to the next”. However, whenever genea is preceded by the definite article “this” (houtos) before “generation”, “this generation” (houtos genea), in context, clearly covers the same group of people, i.e., “Christ's contemporaries”
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  Beth Sarim

  stan;

  ''the generation of 1914 has passed away.

  I hope i live to see the watchtower pass away.''

  the way things are going of late....you never know.
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  Beth Sarim

  BluesBrother;

  ''The Watchtower’s definition of a generation is just plain wrong and not in line with any dictionary that I could find.

  The fact that we are still here in 2022 shows that the “time of the end “ could not have started in 1914.''

  This is likely why they stick to the 1914 fallacy like glue.

  I cant remember where it was,,,,,but there was a video of David Splane doubling down on the fall of Jurusalem in 607BCE,

  Now, I'm sure more and more JWbots are questioning the entire dogma. With Splane doubling down like that a year or so back..,,,,tells me the Witnesses just HATE being proven wrong.
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  TonusOH

  I think they cling to 1914 because they have turned it into a legit prophetic moment in their history. The story they tell is of Russell discovering that 1914 would be the beginning of the last days and, lo and behold, World War 1 begins and a narrative is born. That narrative is easy to package and distribute: war begins, the world goes into decline, the only possible salvation is the kingdom of God with Jesus at the helm. Without the war, it's really just another end-times prophecy that does not convince anyone.

  Even now, when it's pretty easy to find out that Russell's predictions were many, that none of them amounted to anything, and that only by radically changing one of them did the WTS create the 1914 'prophecy', they do not let it go. To do so undermines the strong narrative that they used successfully for so long. The farther we get from 1914, the tougher it gets to prop it up, but I think they're too far along to try and salvage it now.

  I'm curious what they will do. I still think they will try to ignore it and minimize it as quietly as they can, hoping to cling to the credibility it once gave them but never actually having to face up to it.
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  DesirousOfChange

  
  

  Let's review: "It's a Cult!"
  
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  Vanderhoven7

  Actually Russell predicted 1914 would bring on Armageddon or the end of human government.