my wife went to the assembly on "new light" sunday. she came home and asked me how long i thought a generation was, i told her to look it up in the dictionary. she did.. 30 years.. really? no kidding..
The official "how did they react to the new light" thread
by PYRAMIDSCHEME 45 Replies latest jw friends
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PYRAMIDSCHEME
Very few even knew about the 2008 change, and I think about that many care about the 2010 change.
Maybe they don't care because they KNOW deep down its going to change again anyway and so it means nothing.
If you don't like the doctrine wait ten minutes, it'll change.
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NewYork44M
I remember when the new light occurred circa 1995. I had been anticipating a change, but the change was emotionally devastating. At the end of the Wt study, I looked around and, clearly understood that NOBODY GOT IT. My reaction was WTF!!!!!!
I an not surprised with your experience.
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jwfacts
I remember when the new light occurred circa 1995. I had been anticipating a change, but the change was emotionally devastating. At the end of the Wt study, I looked around and, clearly understood that NOBODY GOT IT. My reaction was WTF!!!!!!
NY44M -I had exactly the same experience. That was when I clocked out from the organisation emotionally.
I would have loved someone to answer at the meeting and say "Before 1995 they taught x. Then they taught y. Then in 2008 they taught z. Now we have new light that the generation is zz. Isn't it great how Jehovah keeps giving up new light?"
One thing to remember is that half the Witnesses now attending were not around in 1995. There were only 5 million then and 7 million now. On top of that 3 million have gone missing in the last 15 years, so much of the 7 million are new. So half the people at the meeting do not really know what was taught in 1995 and do not comprehend this as a change of any significance.
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Black Sheep
They try to pretend they don't have a problem with it, but really, they only don't have a problem with it because they don't think about it.
As long as they don't have to explain it to anybody, they can maintain a semblance of sanity and decorum.
Learn every trick answer and diversion they are likely to use and then make them explain it to you. If you have a reference that proves them wrong, get them to read it to you. Your mission should not be to tell them they are wrong. It should be to get them to tell you they are wrong.
They are not all going to leave in droves. This medicine takes time to work, and it has to be taken more than once.
Cheers
Chris
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steve2
Quite franky, my dears, The Watchtower has known for more than a few decades that it loses far far more people to Apathy than it does to Apostasy.
A yawn may not be as disruptive in the short term as a bright spark of apostate thinking, but Apathy takes its toll very sllllllloooooooowwwwwlllllllyyyyyyy as the years trudge by and the damn end still doesn't come.
The modern-day JW is a boring person with a bored outlook.
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Lunatic Faith
I remember in 1995, I was pioneering and an older sister was devastated by the news. She said, "Well, that means Armageddon could be 20 years away!" I assured her the date hadn't changed, it was not 20 years away. I couldn't see what the big deal was, I was fully immersed. Now, I understand. I spoke with an older brother right after the Watchtower study last spring. He used to be an elder. I asked him what he thought of the new understanding. He shook his head and with apparent disgust, said, "I don't understand any of it." I thought he spoke volumes with those words.
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SlipnSlide
My family acts as if nothing has happened. My father-in-law seems more willing to spend more time in the ministry, field service, etc. Well, he ain't the brightest individual.
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miseryloveselders
I posted this some time ago, and some of the details have escaped my memory, but last year's district convention during the talk that explained "this generation", I saw something entertaining. I was doing the attentant thing, which every year I swear I'm never going to do again, but ever year some brother whom I've never met nor heard of, somehow gets my phone number and asks me if I'd be available as an attendant, and every friggin year, I say yes.
Anyways, I got tired of sitting up in peanut heaven watching my section. So I decided to take a walk, I'm a brother with an attendant badge, so that gives me immunity, almost as much immunity as the sisters who use their infants to walk around in a circle at the stadium so they don't have to pay attention to the boring program. Well I walked downstairs to the top of another section and I stood several feet away from a section designated for older ones and those with disabilities. I must have stood there, leaning against a wall for about 5 minutes or so, and the speaker got into the part about "this generation." I can't recall how he led into that part as it was last summer, but when he did, there was this older couple who probably should have died along with the previous generation. Anways, the husband, when he realized what the speaker was getting ready to discuss, he shook his longtime wife's shoulder, and she acknowledged him, and they both listened intently with notepads in hand. I almost lost it! The way he shook her, you could tell it was something that had been on their minds, and they were waiting desperately for some explanation. It was both fascinating in a Nat Geo kind of way, and hilarious because it was really important to that older couple.
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Ding
I would think that older ones who knew the old interpretation and fully expected to see the new system arrive in their lifetimes would realize what a major change this is. Of course, they wouldn't be likely to raise the point during a Watchtower study.
Interestingly, in CoC, p. 214, Ray Franz writes that when Albert Schroeder (GB member) visited Europe in 1978, "he was suggesting to others that the expression `this generation' as used by Jesus in Matthew chapter twenty-four, verse 34, applied to the generation of `anointed ones' and that as long as any of these were still living such `generation' would not have passed away. This was, of course, contrary to the organization's teaching and unauthorized by the Governing Body. When the matter was brought up, following Schroeder's return, his suggested interpretation was rejected and it was voted that a `Question from Readers' be run in a forthcoming issue of the Watchtower reaffirming the standard teaching regarding `this generation.' (See the Watchtower, October 1, 1978)"
I don't have a copy of that WT. Perhaps someone could look that Question and answer up and tell us what the WT said. Did they specifically mention alternate definitions of "this generation" or simply give the usual definition.