by Big Tex 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
It's good to bring it up. It has been the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation's largest error in my life. Larger than the 1975 issue that I was a part of.
Really? Do you think this is a bigger error than the whole Faithful and Discreet Slave teaching? Since that gives them carte blanche to act in Jehovah's name, as the only "approved" channel of God.
However, I do agree that this "generation" teaching is something that is a mistake of Biblical proportions.
Hunyadi
You have to upload photos, jpgs, gifs, etc. You can't link your hard drive to the Internet. There is an option for uploading here. Click on "files" just under your Inbox.
Chris
The sad part is the "new light" on the now, ever-expanding, non-ending, ever-present "Generation" was accepted without hardly a fuss or question from the rank & file.
This is true!
I've tried to discuss the generation change with some from the congregation. They just don't see it as such a big deal.
wannaexit
The Generation of 1914 has not passed away. They're here invisibly.
Devon
Tex, The slave idea is based on assumptions equal to belief in God in believing Witness's minds. The generation that would never die was not based on assumptions directly. It was a direct teaching . . . a claim . . . a dogmatic claim . . . and it failed after being taught for a whole generation. The 1975 thing was just a recruiting tool . . . a blip on the radar screen. The generation teaching was THE core reward. This was the promise Witnesses were working for . . . their payday. Many will deny that, but it's true. And it was taken away and nothing has been installed to take it's place. The big drift is well underway.
Now their only reward is the pain of death after all, and decay, and the nothingness they feared. Feared so much they were willing to do that which was not normal or enjoyable. Feared so much they sacrificed comfortable living, families, health, and romance. Now immortality . . . the reward they worked for is gone.
Sure many still long for am imminent Armageddon but it's just them alone now . . .whistling in the dark, like a child out alone at night. The corporation they thought was speaking for God has withdrawn their offer and now the Corporation is more and more moving away from claiming to be the magical mystic with divine access and special powers of scripture interpretation. They had to move away from the claim . . . they were too bold too often and too wrong too many times.
Now they seem more comfortable to just be seen as Bible readers who wind their way though the maze of reality and texts that they obviously don't understand. Content to accumulate property and cash accounts and happy to be keeping busy keeping order from the dis-order they have created. They have six million people between them and the unemployment line. That must feel pretty good.
The Governing Body class is an abstract idea. The Generation that would NEVER die was a particular promise. Now a promise broken.
It's going to be hard for them to salvage their credibility because they have so diffused their power structure. Everything is done by committee now and the committees are run by committees. They will never have another clear leader and that's what they really need. GaryB
I see 2034 being mentioned again (120 years after 1914) but I don't see the significance. If 120 years is used to equate to the limit of time God gave Noah then in the current period the 120 years must have begun when the Watchtower Society started preaching about the end. That was in 1879 and the 120 years expired more than three years ago. To suggest that the warning was given in 1914 is stretching it a bit, but then again the Society is good at stretching doctrine. The "generation" almost doubled in duration until 1995 when it reached breaking point. I am sure that if the Watchtower Society survives after 2014 they will keep tacking 120 years on every significant JW date they can.
3rd
Hi again, Gary B.
Awesome insights as usual! Love your stuff.
skiz/David - Your input is appreciated! I think you just don't know Gary B. yet - he's very tongue in cheek when he uses that kind of rambling format. See the difference when he gets serious? Check out his writings on Randy Watters' site - some of it is downright hilarious. Enjoy!
Best wishes to all.
One way they will get around nothing happening in 2014 is that it took 120 years for the flood to come after Noah was given his commission to build the ark. No matter that people don't live now as long as Noah did. They will say that generation has many, many timeframes just as Day in the Bible has many timeframes.
I hope they don't read this thread, the gov bod, because I might have just given them their out.
Oops.
Heather
Gary B said:
"The generation teaching was THE core reward. This was the promise Witnesses were working for . . . their payday. Many will deny that, but it's true. And it was taken away and nothing has been installed to take it's place. The big drift is well underway."
Pertinent insights like this are precisely why most of us spend time on this board. Gary, you nailed it. There's a scripture somewhere that says, "Expectations postponed make the heart sick." JWs had serious expectations for a long me and they've been postponed indefinitely. Now, most JWs are sick at heart about it. That explains what you call the "big drift."
If expectations POSTPONED make the heart sick, what happens when expectations are NEVER REALIZED? A more serious form of sickness sets in. And what happens when expectations turn out to be unrealistic and, if fact, total fabrications. That's when the heart takes a punch to the solar plexus.
In congregations all over the country, witnesses are manifesting the sickness in their hearts by becoming more critical of the "friends," more insular, less loving, and in some cases, more hard-line in their thinking. These are all defense mechanisms, a mass reaction to the heart-sick epidemic among them.
It explains a lot, including why former elders, pioneers and other "pillars of the congregation" are looking for the door.
