I took the '1914 Generation' prophecy seriously, did you? Do you even remember it?!

by nicolaou 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  yknot

  I was fine with the 95 change, even got into a snippy fight with the Nazi PO back in '94 over someone being a representation of a generation without being of that generation similar to a Civil War widow who was born long after but married a man who had served in when he was 12 or 14 years old. When the 1995 change was unveiled I was like a cat with a canary.

  From there I was like a lot of Dubbies and set my sights on 2014 and 2034.

  Then of course I found this site and within in a little over a month the 2007 AM dropped all association with 1914. From there I read snippets of CoC and ISoCF and am happy to be fully release from anything 1914.

  The really sad thing is realizing how much more nicer the PO might have been if they had dropped the 1914/Generaton thing sooner. His entire platform was the end is nigh due to 1914. How different many of our live would have been .....
• 

  yadda yadda 2

  What Nellie said, but for me it was reading it in the Watchtower study article on a Sunday morning rather than at an assembly. I felt like the rug had definitely been pulled out from under my feet and began to wonder, "if they were wrong on this, what else have they got wrong...". It's what got me questioning and independently researching outside of the WT box.
• 

  GermanXJW

  Firstly, our Service Overseer had got the WT 11/1/95 from the Branch before us because of personal connections. He hinted there was a big change but he told us to wait until there was the official delivery of the magazines. Then it was told from the platform at an assembly that there was to be a change in that magazine that we should be looking forward to. Then we got the magazines but the WT study was just as if nothing big was happening. For me, this was interesting. I had already read CoC before then.
• 

  Mickey mouse

  Like Nellie I couldn't understand back in '95 why other people appeared not to be bothered by the change in definition of "this generation". Now I realise people were but like me they could not voice their misgivings. As a pioneer "the generation of 1914" was a cornerstone of my ministry.

  LOL @ Billy's "generation crash I&II".
• 

  iceguy

  Wait! Your all saying its 2009 and were not in the "New System"? I wish someone would have told me that before I decided to pet this Lion I'm sitting next too!
• 

  TooBad TooSad

  When I was an elder this was the main teaching that kept me going. I was not 100% sure about

  staying alive till 75. After 1975 came and went I still had hope in the "this generation." In the late

  1980's I started to fall mentally out of the truth and stepped down as an elder. When the generation

  doctrine was dropped I was not surprised. What I was surprised is how easily it got changed during

  the Watchtower study in 1995 without anyone even questioning it.

  TooBad TooSad
• 

  joelingeorgia

  actually, this doctrine was one of the first that I determined could not be true. it didn't have as much to do with keeping me with the witnesses than the fear of losing my friends.
• 

  Homerovah the Almighty

  Sure millions did swallow the whole " many now living will never die bullshit " thats why many became JWS in the first place

  and more importantly god is going to destroy people that are not associated with his earthly organization.

  So its a mixture of falsehoods that they built their power and money out of.
• 

  truthsetsonefree

  Yes and No. I mean how could I not take what the "FDS" said seriously? On the other hand for me, like for many JW's Armageddon wasn't exactly real. I mean year after year nothing happens. It's hard to maintain the urgency.
• 

  warmasasunned

  i came into the jws about 84, what appealed to me was that this "religion" had a sell by date. so of course my reasoning was if after so many years all these wonderful things didnt come about, i could walk away. of course things never work out the way you plan, i became a very devoted witness, doing all the spiritual things and really enjoyed it for many years .as the years rolled along, i became very unhappy i had marriage problems, nothing to do with the jws as my then wife was also a jw, i became aware that i wasnt happy, sick of the routine,sick of my marriage...so i left, still beliving that it was as they say not a religion but the "truth". what disturbs me about the "truth" and friends who still are witnesses (though i would never voice this to them for obvious reasons), is that this whole 1914 change completely underminds what jws stood for, now your just a religion like any other, you cant keep changing beliefs, then turn round and say "hey we got it wrong,but we didnt mean any harm, sorry to all of you who based your entire life on it for the last 40 or 50 years". i think everyone who belongs to any "religion" needs to take a good long look at themselves and say why am i doing this, all "religions" and i mean all work on the basis of control, why and for what reason there are many, ask yourself does beliving in "god" mean i need to be controlled, and i aim this at all religion.