"This Generation Will Not Pass Away"

by TooBad TooSad 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  TooBad TooSad

  The well written post yesterday by OnTheWayOut got me thinking about the doctrine on "This Generation". From 1965 to 1975 this

  WTS doctrine was in their top 7 doctrines right behind: 1) only 144,000 go to heaven, 2) the earth will be turned into a paradise,

  3) God is not a trinity, 4) not to take blood, 5) hell is not hot, 6) be no part of the world, 7) this generation will not pass away until of

  of these things are fullfilled. In my younger days up to the time I was an elder in the 70's, this doctrine was always held out as proof

  that the end can't be too far away. I remember being taught that for someone to realize that something changed in world history in

  1914 the person would have to be at least 13 to 15 years old. So with this divine inspiration as I sat through the meetings I would

  count on my fingers from 1914 to 1974 is 60 years now add on 15 years and these old timers are 75 years old. At the time I only

  new one person who was 75 and how much longer can he hang on? Then as time passed well now you did not have to be 13 to 15

  in 1914 but had to be born by 1914 which added 15 years until the generation would pass away. The WTS knew they had a ticking

  time bomb on their hands and they had to do something. When the article came out in the Watchtower in 1995 and I read the

  article at home and my mouth dropped open I realized that one of the WTS building blocks for the end being so near had just be desolved away

  with some ink and paper. I thought that this is going to create alot of angry feelings and heated debate in the congregation.

  Remember that the study articles are received several months before they are studied by the congregatiion. To my surprise

  there was no concern, no heated debates, no what is going on here. One of the WTBS major doctrines just got dropped and

  no one noticed. During the Watchtower study of the doctrinal change I sat their in disbelieve as everyone answered the questions

  like obedient little children as the main dotrine that I believed over 30 years just got explained away. The single doctrine that I believed

  in that gave me hope that things can not go on much longer. The really sad thing is that probably 75% of the witnesses did

  not even give it a second thought or even realized that there was a change in doctrine. My mother who never misses a meeting

  still talks about the generation will not pass away.

  This is just toobad and toosad.
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  Brother Apostate

  Q: How many Governing Body members does it take to change a lightbulb?

  A: They don't change it, instead, they call the resulting darkness "New Light".
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  dmouse

  Yes, I remember talking about it with my P.O. father-in-law at the time. When this Watchtower first came out I saw right away that this was a majorchange, but most JWs, including my father-in-law, just couldn't or wouldn't understand that. He was convinced until the day he died, several years later, that nothing had changed.

  I really believe that many old-timers, even now, simply refuse to accept the 'new light', hanging on with the forlorn hope that they will see the end of 'this generation' in their lifetime.
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  VM44

  What about the "Millions Now Living WILL NEVER Die!" campaign from the 1920's?

  In the Proclaimers book there is a picture of an outdoor literature booth containing stacks of the Finished Mystery books ready to be sold. The banner about the booth says "Millions Now Living Will Never Die. This means literally what it says! Investigate!"

  The Watch Tower has NEVER apologized to the people who joined up because they believed that slogan.

  --VM44
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  OnTheWayOut

  I never pre-read the study articles when they first came out. I would skip them and then read
  them for the first time while preparing for the WT study. I got a lot of slack for that from
  die-hard readers, saying I should read cover-to-cover before "placing" them. That was another
  thing that caused me to make sure I didn't say everything that I did.

  Anyway, there wasn't any discussion, even from the die-hards. The most I can recall is someone
  saying during mid-week, "This Sunday's study is very enlightening. Looking forward to it."

  The WTS is used to this reaction. If they distribute "new light" slowly enough, not too many
  people leave the organization over it. Hell, it took me 12 more years to resign over it.
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  Elsewhere

  You have to remember that 98% of JWs don't read the literature or listen to talks with their brain engaged. Instead they flip their brains off and just coast through the meetings with hardly a word registering in the cognitive portions of their brains.

  It's no wonder hardly anyone noticed that earth shattering change.
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  DannyHaszard

  
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  DannyHaszard

  
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  Save My Soul

  This was the turning point for me. I was the same way. This is a MAJOR change in everything, Am I the only one to see it. I spoke with several elders, " Hey, the empreror does not have on any clothes on and it is cold in the room" No one made a big deal about it. I was very disturbed for years. I now see that most JWs do NOT think, therefore changes, really are not changes, this is how we have always believed. The logic does not make sense unless you place 20 or more hours in FS every month.

  It is truly sad that so many people are drinking the Kool-Aid and enjoy it.
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  heathen

  What's even stranger is they didn't even come up with some decent replacement light on the issue . That scripture is not promising the," this generation", inherit the kingdom or the conclusion of this system of things . In fact when you look at it more closely it sounds as if it does pass away before end of the world . The WTBTS comes up with an invisible generation which is just as stupid . All they did there was look around and see that there is nobody in the org. from the generation of 1914 they can promise eternal life too, it has nothing to do with any scripture revealing new interpretation .