Hello everyone ! Thanks for the replies ! Please keep them coming. I'm interested in your takes on this " generation " subject. Unfortunately I have to travel out of town and do janitorial jobs all day and then all night Tuesday night ; so I won't be back to reply till Wednesday morning , however I'll reply individually to each of you then. Till then stay healthy and Peace out, good day now ! Mr. Flipper
Can You Stand One More Thread on " Generation "?- Check this Out- Weird !
by flipper 32 Replies latest jw friends
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Quirky1
Interesting thread. I have to agree with other posters that this just another ploy to keep the R&F happy and in "expectation" even if tribulation doesn't happen in thier time like they have been taught.
Think about it, if you had been told all your life that ones living in this time would see Armageddon and you see those that you know starting to die off and you yourself start approaching that same demise, wouldn't you start coming to a conclusion that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't going to be the case?
You would see them second guessing, and the WTBS cannot allow them to do that. They have to shed "new light" to keep them pursuing the interests of the WTBS, even if it is acknowledging a mistake in their timeline and the newly annointed ones.
IMO, It is all part of their smoke and mirrors that they have been doing since their beginning and all thru their time. What else is new?
Quirky1
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Awakened at Gilead
Restrangled:
They kept harping on 1919 as the opening door for all the FDS. Am I nuts, or has that date never really been important before?
My gilead Bible has 1919 written all over it. Apparently you haven't been doing much personal study lately as 1919 is THE most important date in the history of the Universe!!!!!!
Or so I was told.
But the proclaimers book doesn't have that much on it, so actually 1919 was what woke me up at Gilead.
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Homerovah the Almighty
I just see the change as a necessary marketing strategy to maintain that ever present tower and the folks who stand on top of it.
A new light had to be implemented for that reason.
Power and corruption always seems to go hand in hand doesn't
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NewYork44M
If I remember correctly, the now infamous 1995 wt generation new light article defined generation two separate unrelated ways in the course of the article.
The wt can be a little loose when it comes to definitions.
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potleg
How many times will the society keep re-inventing itself? As many as it takes to attract new members and keep them.
Do you think that if they had held on to Russells teachings of pyramidology and the divine plan of the ages they would be this big fat rich corporation? No Way.
If they still used Rutherfords tactics of information marches and sound cars blasting venom in front of churches they would have the millions of followers they have? Not a Chance.
Could they still hold peoples attention as Franz did with types, anti types, days, weeks of years, assemblies fulfilling scriptures, Cedar Point (Yawn) I think Not.
Their target audience has shifted, people don't have the attention span and interests that they once did. Fred Franz and the like have become museum pieces. Thier books have no appeal and so are abandoned, they've become revered has beens. Yesterdays stale bread.
Now were in the era of "look at the pretty picture of fruit pickers and don't worry about the details too much."
The vast majority of JWs don't really care about the generation thing as long as they keep getting reassurance that happy times are just around the corner. This is becoming even more central the WTs survival as poorer, less educated folks from third world countries are exposed to their message.
It reminds me of the europeans trading with native people...give us your land for these shiny glass beads and the like. Except now it's give us your life for these nice pictures and empty promises.
As time goes on, all that we see now will be put aside. New Light will flash and the organization will yet again shed another slippery skin... just like the snakes in the grass that they really are.
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joelbear69
The Watchtower reasoning accomplishes several things.
1. It eliminates the need to set dates and puts in the mind of
witnesses that the date is "soft" and fluid.
2. It allows professed annointed to continue to run the society
and the society can choose who to promote to annointed so they
can be on the governing body.
3. It intermeshes the idea of "the end" with "annointed" thus
deflecting thinking from why there are more annointed now. its
just because the end hasnt come yet. -
OnTheWayOut
I was indoctrinated into the JW's by their "1914 Generation" teaching.
The 1995 change did not sit well with me, but I tried to go along until I had
to investigate- which I eventually did.
The 2008 change would have been my second major change on this if I had
still believed. I NEVER EVER would have sat still for it. I would have opened
my eyes in 2008, if not sooner already, and said that enough is enough with
this religion of "Never mind what we said, listen to what we are saying now." -
potleg
OnTheWayOut, I agree with you 100% but we are in the minority. I don't see a mass exodus in the millions.
I think the WT growth will grind to a halt and then begin a slow protracted decline due to some leaving and others dying. Most importantly they are losing the upcoming generations.
The glory days of double digit sustained growth are over in my opinion.
As more time passes their predictions take on a comical look. A fools comedy of errors. They'll try a soft aproach, then a hard line, then something else, who knows what, but they and their flip-flop doctrines have been exposed and can't be hidden anymore. Thats the trouble with putting things in writitng, isn't it? Sometimes it comes back to bite you in the arse.
Who let the dogs out?
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Rapunzel
Whoever wrote down the words - "This generation shall by no means pass away..."- as recorded in the gospels, was speaking to people living back then at that time. People living back then at that time were expecting their "saviour" to return imminently; they were expecting the immediate appearance of the messiah.
The people who recorded the Bible were writing for their contemporaries; they were not even thinking about people who would be born thousands, or hundreds, or even scores of years later. The Bible was not written for people living in our day and age; it was directed NOT at us. Unfortunately, people in every age subsequent to the Bible have imagined the Bible as being addressed to them. People of every age have fallen victim to this fallacy, this delusion. The idea that the Bible contains any "prophecy" relevant to us is asinine and ludicrous. There is simply no way that people living in our twentieth century can hope to find any prophetic glimpse into the future by reading the scriptures. It's time to surrender the risible, 2000-year-year-old delusion that the Bible contains any "prophecy" at all.