What is a generation?

by larc 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  bigboi

  This is a great thread. I never thought of it that way, ya old fogey!

  I hope Jan and yourself are doing well.
• 

  larc

  Hey bigboi,
  
  All young fogeys become old fogeys some day. It beats the alternative, ie, death.
  
  Jan and I are doing relatively well. I am going to get her fine quality kitchen knives sharped with no fear of being stabbed to death in my sleep. Hey, what else can you ask for in a marriage than that?
  
  Regarding the generation thing, I think it is good to make things literal and real, as I did on this subject. Too many young, eager, and zealous JWs have no sense of time. They seem to think that they are the first ones to go through the excitement of the end of the world prediction.
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  kgfreeperson

  While I agree that it is silly to think WTS cares about anything other than keeping people in line (for whatever reasons) I really do wonder what is going to happen when the message sinks in that the "new light" is that since we already have spiritual paradise, we don't really need earthly paradise. I really can't imagine that the majority of JWs are going to say, "Oh, ok." I think they're going to say "WHAT????? This is IT?????" and head for the door. But maybe I'm misunderstanding the new light.
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  plmkrzy

  It always seemed to me to mean the generation of a particular people and not a period of time according to what the definition of a generation is. If he was speaking directly to the generation of people that would not pass away without all things being fulfilled, it could have lasted for however long it took those people to pass away. What if those he was speaking to were already passed their prime and on a downhill swing? Or what if they were young adults? What was the average age of those he was speaking to at the time? In that case a generation could have lasted anywhere from 10 years to 90 years.

  Or what if he was describing of a generation of people that would be alive during the time of the end? It could still be a matter of only a short period of time such as a couple of years or as much as 100 years. Or what if he wasn’t even referring to age at all? What if he was referring to a culture of people as a generation? That could cover what…a thousand physical generations?

  In that case it happened before Jesus said it would. The first tribes that made it through the end of the ice age period to the Northern continent finally reached the land of plenty in South Dakota and now call themselves Navajo. They are the farthest most distant cousins of the aborigines in Australia whose ancestors went the other way

  My question would be, exactly what generation was he referring to? Whatever generation he was referring to would be connected during that particular time period.
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  blackout

  There seems to be some confusion here on what is a generation and what is a lifetime. A persons life span (70-80 years) is not the same as a generation.

  My family once took a five generation photo. Me, my mother, my gandmother, my great grandmother, my great, great grandmother. There were 20 years between each of us (on average) I was a baby, my great great granmother was 85. Thats 85 years of actual time and 5 generations. NOT one generation.

  Now the scripture says "this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." It doesn't say these 5 generations will by no means pass away.

  So the society says that the generation that saw the sign of christs presence will by no means pass away. What do they say IS the sign of christs presence? Do they say it is the sign at Matt 24? The wars and reports of wars etc? Or is the sign of his presence something else? Are they saying the sign of his presence is "this wicked generation"? I dont understand what they are trying to say with this new light and would like to be able to explain it to my family who are still in.

  Can anyone help me?
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  kgfreeperson

  Well, see, I look at this and it looks as if either whatever Jesus was predicting happened within 20 years of his death or he was no better a prophet than some others we could mention. But I'm no biblical scholar or eschatologist and all of this just baffles the sh*t out of me.