1995 generation change

by Gorb 122 Replies latest jw friends

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  slimboyfat

  Yes Gorb, the 1990s was a time of doctrinal “adjustments”. There was also the relaxation on “alternative service” in place military service. Which was a huge issue in some countries. Plus the whole “vindication/sanctification” thing, which has now been reversed to more of less the original teaching. This was another huge change, considering how prominent “vindication” used to be in the old literature. So much so that one time it was “vindication” described as the most important part of our message, and even that the purpose of Jesus coming to the earth was to vindicate Jehovah’s name first and to save mankind second. I don’t think they’ve returned to going that far in the recent literature. There was also the new idea about the “given ones” to draft in non-anointed brothers onto the Governing Body committees. As you say, the new cooperation with outside historians on the Holocaust too, resulting in a special history unit also at Selters in Germany—since closed down by Ted Jaracz in 2007.

  And don’t forget perhaps the most significant change of all in the 1990s: abandoning all charges for the literature, essentially ending the era of Watchtower functioning as a publisher of religious material and morphing into something else, the ramifications of which they are still grappling with financially.
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  mickbobcat

  Changing the meaning of a word to something it has never ever been defined as is a huge deal. It was also a pillar of the cults belief system. Those alive in 1914 would be alive to see the end of this system of things. What changed? Time ran out. They cult did not see new light, old light kicked their assholes. They cheated by changing the rules to the game mid play. I still have my old 84 BF showing the anointed as the generation that would not die. Now all those pictured on that page who were actual anointed are all tits up. The cult is evil and they lie. Anyone who says its not big deal is an idiot. They removed one of the main pillars of the cult by cheating. But they have done this over and over and the stupid keep eating the shit sandwich and asking for more. How dumb does one have to be.
  
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  slimboyfat

  The new generation teaching is just barmy. It is barely coherent. If I was a JW apologist I can’t even begin to imagine how to mount a defence of it, other than to say that we believe JWs have the truth on other grounds, and leave it to Jehovah to clear up the confusion.

  The strangest thing is they had a perfectly workable revision to the generation teaching in 1995 when they said it was the wicked generation of the last days and that the wickedness would last up to Armageddon. I think even mainstream commentators read “this generation” as a reference to wicked contemporaries rather than a specific group of Christians. Then they went a shot themselves in the foot by replacing the 1995 revision with utter nonsense about overlapping lifetimes.

  Incidentally some Christadelphians read “this generation will not pass away until all these things occur” as meaning “this race of people will not pass away until all these things occur” referring to the Jews as a people now restored to Israel. An interpretation that is not available to JWs since they dropped Jews as being prophetically important in the early 1930s. The word “generation” in Greek can apparently also mean an ethnic group rather than a time period.
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  TD

  Slim,

  A person has zero prospect of surviving an event they won't live to see. Therefore it would have been impossible to be a "prospective" member of the great crowd in the year 1492, for example, because here we are 500+ years later.

  What you're suggesting, if I'm understanding you correctly, is the removal of that chronological element, which would create a third distinct group of Christians who do not actually fall into either of the two categories that JW's believe are described at Revelation 7 & 14.

  I can't find anything like that in their literature. They've taken in recent years to describing the earthly hope in equivocal terms, that distract from what they believe Revelation 7 is specifically describing, but sloppy language is not much to base a conclusion on.

  The existence of other sheep apart from the great crowd during the Christian era would create a bunch of other doctrinal problems as well, especially since JW's believe that with a few rare exceptions, everyone gets resurrected anyway.
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  slimboyfat

  There were already people who don't fit into either the great crowd or the 144,000 in Revelation, such as Lazarus and John the Baptist for example. And there always were prospective members of the “great crowd” from 1935 onward who died before Armageddon and therefore didn’t live long enough to be part of the “great crowd” who survive the Great Tribulation. So I’m not really sure what your objection is. Those of the other sheep who are alive through the Great Tribulation comprise the “great crowd” of Revelation 7. Those of the “other sheep” who die before Armageddon are not part of the “great crowd”. It has always been the case that not all the “other sheep” will be part of the “great crowd”.
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  waton

  I still have my old 84 BF showing the anointed as the generation that would not die. Now all those pictured on that page who were actual anointed are all tits up. gone

  mbc: why would their timely death be a problem? it actually fulfills current wt prophecy, which has it, that all partakers will have to die before Armageddon, the Great Tribulation.

  Loesch should listen to the other Austrian, W. Pauli who said " that is so bad, it is not even wrong "

  because Jesus never said the generation would die before Armageddon, the greatest disaster to ever hit the human race. He said the generation would survive, and die, pass away afterward.
  
  
  
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  Diogenesister

  Slim So much so that one time it was “vindication” described as the most important part of our message, and even that the purpose of Jesus coming to the earth was to vindicate Jehovah’s name first and to save mankind second. I don’t think they’ve returned to going that far in the recent literature.

  This made me hugely uncomfortable. In my gut it felt wrong.
  
  
  
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  LoveUniHateExams

  Yep, the 1995 generation change first started me doubting.

  The way the governing body just painted themselves into a corner then walked out the room, getting paint everywhere on the carpet.

  Bastards!
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I knew some old timers (1940’s) witnesses who dropped out after the ‘95 change. It was a real slap in the face for them, as they were old by then and had been hanging on with the generation belief.
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  StephaneLaliberte

  I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I was not too stubbled by it. I mean, I already didn't believe that teaching when I got baptized in '92, so, it didn't come as a surprise and I didn't care much about it.

  It was only much much later, like in my early 30s, that, on this board, someone wrote that they preached about this date right on the magazines. That was the purpose of the magazine, that the generation that saw 1914 wouldn't pass away. It is only then that it dawned on me that the preaching work was somewhat bogus. If you go out and preach something false to billions of people in hundreds of languages, it is still false. The wide distribution doesn't make it true. That was part of the elements that slowly drove me out of the cult with my family.