I like this one though - it rolls off the tongue nicely.
Yes - you're lucky it wasn't already taken too.
1914 ,the Generation that got tossed in the Garbage Can
by OUTLAW 97 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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MidwichCuckoo
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moshe
They mentally streched out the 1914 generation to 100 years in length. I think after the year 2000 a lot of the older JW's would have had to realize the 1914 dates were wrong, but most have not made the connection that their anointed remnant teachings hinge on that 1914 date,too. In case anyone is interested , the odds of living to age 100 are 1 in 10,000 in the USA- to age 105 about 1 in 100,000. I think that if the WT did an honest census of the Kingdom Halls they would find they have Zero JW's left alive who were old enough to remember the outbreak of WW1 in 1914. Well maybe one, on life support- and she got removed from the rolls for being inactive.
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VM44
Time to show this famous Watchtower cover. --VM44
Does anyone know the names of these people?
--VM44
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Seeker4
"What did you think and how did you feel when you found out the Generation of 1914,now means nothing?"
I literally thought, "Well, the WTS is really trying to cover their ass on this one," a sentence that a brother at the next circuit assembly repeated to me exactly.
The last talk I gave before leaving the TMS was a six minute explanation of the implications of all the then-recent changes - 1914 generation, sheep and goats, King of the North, etc.
My point on 1914 was this: "Members of the 'generation' mentioned in Matthew 24, that would not die out before all these events occured, could be people born in 1900, people born in 1950, people born tomorrow, or people born in 2050, as long as they all share the same viewpoint and attitude toward the coming of the Kingdom." You should have seen the mouths drop on that one. One older sister came up and thanked me for the talk afterward, saying this was the first time she actually understood what all these changes really meant.
Then I very quickly faded away from meetings etc, and left the Witnesses completely. The generation change was the catalyst for me leaving.
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LongHairGal
I was around when they changed the generation teaching and was not the least bit surprised that it happened. After all, they WERE running out of time! Something HAD to give.
Nevertheless, I felt like I was sucker-punched just like everybody else there. The worst of it was HOW the information was presented. They just slipped it in very sneakily like the rats they are like it was nothing. No special heading on the magazine or anything. One would assume that an important teaching such as this one would at least merit special attention.
They just insulted our intelligence and acted as if we had no long term memory and wouldn't know the difference.
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drew sagan
Lol!
Not only where they tossed in the garbage can, but trash collector picked it up the same day, hauled it to the city dump, and buried it deep into the earths crust.
I never whas around JWs when this teaching was in play, but it is toally crazy how they younger ones know almost nothing about it. -
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BluesBrother
It was spun in a very positive way, although it left most of us confused . I did not know it at the time, but for me, I think it was the beginning of the end
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w9511/1p.14par.18SavedFroma"WickedGeneration"***18
What, then, is the "generation" so frequently referred to by Jesus in the presence of his disciples? What did they understand by his words: "This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur"? Surely, Jesus was not departing from his established use of the term "this generation," which he consistently applied to the contemporary masses with their "blind guides" who together made up the Jewish nation. (Matthew 15:14) "This generation" experienced all the distress foretold by Jesus and then passed away in an unequaled "great tribulation" on Jerusalem.—Matthew 24:21, 34.
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Those Jews who had paid attention to Jesus’ prophetic words realized that their salvation depended, not on trying to calculate the length of a "generation" or of some dated "times or seasons," but on keeping separate from the evil contemporary generation and zealously doing God’s will. Though the final words of Jesus’ prophecy apply to the major fulfillment in our day, first-century Jewish Christians also had to heed the admonition: "Keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man."—Luke 21:32-36; Acts 1:6-8.w95
11/1p.17par.6ATimetoKeepAwake***6
Not only must we pay attention to the inspired prophecies concerning these final days of a wicked system but we must anchor our faith primarily on the precious sacrifice of Christ Jesus and God’s marvelous promises based thereon. (Hebrews 6:17-19; 9:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; 2 Peter 1:16-19) Eager to see the end of this evil system, Jehovah’s people have at times speculated about the time when the "great tribulation" would break out, even tying this to calculations of what is the lifetime of a generation since 1914. However, we "bring a heart of wisdom in," not by speculating about how many years or days make up a generation, but by thinking about how we "count our days" in bringing joyful praise to Jehovah. (Psalm 90:12) Rather than provide a rule for measuring time, the term "generation" as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics.
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Does our more precise viewpoint on "this generation" mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all! Though we at no time have known the "day and hour," Jehovah God has always known it, and he does not change. (Malachi 3:6) Obviously, the world is sinking further and further toward terminal ruination. The need to keep awake is more critical than it has ever been. Jehovah has revealed to us "the things that must shortly take place," and we should respond with an absorbing sense of urgency.—
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Gill
BB - Nice to read that crap again!
Funny how 'we are not mean to speculate on how many day or years make up that generation' but the WTBTS can speculate constantly on how Armageddon is mean to be 'just right ahead', 'just round the cornor', the 'clouds of armageddon are swiftly approaching', and they can keep changing their minds on this whenever they choose and everyone has to just nod their head and agree with the BS they keep spouting.
The WT shot itself in the foot with this little change. I wonder when it will shoot itself in the head, with a really BIG doctrinal change!
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Leolaia
Another fact is that the Society used the "1914 Generation" teaching to buttress their speculation about 1975 and promoted it for two decades after the failure of the 1975 prophecy as their chief chronological indicator of the nearness of the end. For all the caveats they gave to the 1975 prophecy, they were quite bold and dogmatic about the 1914 generation. So confident they were about it that they told college-age youths in the 1960s that they "will never fulfill any career this system has to offer". To suddenly drop this dogmatic teaching without apologies is an insult to all the people who put their lives on hold on account of it.
The following articles I've excerpted best show this dogmatism, but thanks to the way the WT CD-ROM is designed, they are not available to the average JW:
*** g68 10/8 p. 7 How Do We Know We Are in the "Last Days"? ***
How can we be sure we are living in the period of time called the "last days"? Aside from chronology, what definite proof is there that this era began in the year 1914? How long a time is covered by it? When will it end?
The phrase "last days" comes from Bible prophecy such as that recorded at 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1, where the apostle Paul states: "In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here." It is the same time period that Jesus Christ referred to when his disciples asked him what the sign "of the conclusion of the system of things" would be. --Matt. 24:3.
This time period has a definite beginning and a definite end. It is similar to the last day of the week, which has a definite beginning at midnight and a definite end twenty-four hours later. During the time period of the "last days" certain events would take place, after which God would bring the period to an end by crushing out of existence this present wicked world.
The events that Jesus, the apostle Paul and other Bible writers bring to our attention were all to take place within the same generation. (Matt. 24:34) These events would identify which generation's lifetime would embrace the "last days," much as your fingerprint identifies you. Your fingerprint contains a pattern of marks, or lines, different from what any other person has. Likewise, the "last days" contain their own pattern of marks, or events, that all come together to form a "fingerprint" that cannot possibly belong to any other generation.
Remember, however, that it is not just one of these events by itself that is crucial, although each is highly significant. All of them must come together in the same generation, like the different lines that come together on one of your fingers to form your fingerprint....
However, some persons may here state: "Well, wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, crime -- these are all features of human living in every age. It would not be difficult for anyone to predict that they would occur again. And such a prophecy could apply to many periods."
Is this true? No, it is not, as thoughtful reasoning will show. It is one thing to foretell such events or conditions, it is another thing to foretell them on the scale indicated, as affecting the entire globe; to foretell that they could occur concurrently in only one generation; to foretell that they would come at the time indicated in Bible prophecy. That is why the publishers of this magazine called attention to the year 1914 as far back as 1879, pointing out that disastrous conditions would begin then....
So do not misread the evidence. It is all there, and it is positively overwhelming, particularly so because the evidence has continued in force for more than half a century now! And if all this is not the fulfillment of Bible prophecy concerning the "last days," then what does it require? What more could be expected in the way of fulfillment?
For your own welfare, you should face the fact that all the many lines of the "fingerprint" for the "last days" stand out sharply, crystal clear. They allow for only one meaning: that we have been in the "last days" since 1914!
*** g68 10/8 What Will the 1970's Bring? ***
The fact that fifty-four years of the period called the "last days" have already gone by is highly significant. It means that only a few years, at most, remain before the corrupt system of things dominating the earth is destroyed by God. How can we be so certain of this?
One way is by noting what Jesus said when he gave his great prophecy about the "last days." After he listed the many events that would mark this period, he also stated: "Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." -- Matt. 24:34.
Jesus was obviously speaking about those who were old enough to witness with understanding what took place when the "last days" began. Jesus was saying that some of those persons who were alive at the appearance of the "sign of the last days" would still be alive when God brought this system to its end.
Even if we presume that youngsters 15 years of age would be perceptive enough to realize the import of what happened in 1914, it would still make the youngest of "this generation" nearly 70 years old today. So the great majority of the generation to which Jesus was referring has already passed away in death. The remaining ones are approaching old age. And remember, Jesus said that the end of this wicked world would come before that generation passed away in death. This, of itself, tells us that the years left before the foretold end comes cannot be many.... [O]f this we can be sure: The 1970's will certainly see the most critical times mankind has yet known. The deterioration in human relations -- within families, communities, cities and nations, and between nations -- will worsen, not improve. (2 Tim. 3:13) If the 1970's should see intervention by Jehovah God to bring an end to a corrupt world drifting toward ultimate disintegration, that should surely not surprise us.
*** g68 10/8 p. 23 A Time to "Lift Up Your Head" in Confident Hope ***
Still some persons may say: "How can you be sure? Maybe it is later than many people think. But maybe it is not as late as some persons claim. People have been mistaken about these prophecies before."
True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date. Some have gathered groups of people with them and fled to the hills or withdrawn into their houses waiting for the end. Yet, nothing happened. The "end" did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing?
Missing was the full measure of evidence required in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them.
But what about today? Today we have the evidence required, all of it. And it is overwhelming! All the many, many parts of the great sign of the "last days" are here, together with verifying Bible chronology.
Take a simple illustration: Suppose on a hot day at the beginning of summer, someone told you that winter was coming within a week because he had seen some trees without leaves. But those trees could have died from disease or age. So, by itself that would not be enough evidence that winter was approaching. Especially so when none of the other trees had shed their leaves, when the heat continued day after day, and when the calendar told you it was just the beginning of summer. You could rightly dismiss the claim of winter's nearness as unfounded.
What, though, if months later you went outside each day in the afternoon and found the temperature approaching the freezing point, with dull gray clouds scuddling across the sky? What if you saw that all the trees that were not evergreens had shed their leaves? And what if you, upon inquiring, found that the autumn harvest of crops had taken place weeks ago, and that the migrating birds and animals had already taken leave for warmer climates? What if your calendar showed that the autumn months were at their close?
Would you still doubt if someone told you that winter was coming very soon? Would you say he was just guessing or merely expressing his own idea? Or would you acknowledge, on the basis of solid evidence, that he knew the facts and was telling you the truth?
After expressing the many parts that make up the sign of the "last days," Jesus used a similar illustration with regard to another season, summer, saying: "Note the fig tree and all the other trees: When they are already in the bud, by observing it you know for yourselves that now the summer is near." (Luke 21:29, 30) Then, as recorded at Matthew 24:33, 34, he added: "Likewise also you, when you see all these things, know that he is near at the doors. Truly I say to you that this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." We today have all the many parts of that sign, nearly forty of them, being fulfilled within the same generation, and we have God's timetable, his "calendar," showing that the time has nearly run out for the present unrighteous system of things. This is very different indeed from the situation with those who proclaimed an "end to the world" in earlier generations....
The time remaining for a decision is short. The opportunity is still before you, like the open door of the ark built by Noah before the Flood, and like the open gates of Jerusalem when Rome's armies temporarily withdrew. But that door of opportunity will soon close for all time. Prompt action is vital if you would be among the happy survivors of this present system's destruction.
*** g69 5/22 What Future For the Young? ***
If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Of the generation that observed the beginning of the "last days" in 1914, Jesus foretold: "This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur." --Matt. 24:34.
Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way toward its finish, if not actually gone!