by zoiks 58 Replies latest jw friends
Consider a family gathering, the grandparents, parents, and grandchildren together, and talking with each other.
Would anyone consider the grandparents and grandchildren to be of the "same generation"?
Furthermore, suppose the grandparents lived through World War II, could anyone reasonably claim that the grandchildren also were of the same generation that saw the War?
Another thought occurs to me:
By restricting that "2nd overlapping group" to "those were anointed before Franz's death in 1992", it also serves to marginalize the thousands of "new anointed" who have begun to partake in recent years, particularly since the 2007 WT article saying "well heaven's door wasn't shut in 1935 after all".
The R&F will now likely think of them, "well, maybe they are anointed and maybe not...but they're certainly not part of that overlapping group who were contemporaries of the anointed group who saw 1914." And they'll come to view them as of lesser importance.
Pretty brilliant move when you think of it - introduce one new teaching, and whammo! With one fell swoop, you (1) restore a "sense of urgency" and (2) indirectly infer that all those young "new anointed" are irrelevant.
Hey, MS
I think many JWs are of the belief that one is anointed at his/her baptism (just like Fred Franz apparently was, also Jesus himself), whether they start partaking at that point or not.
That would definitely buy them some more time! Frankly, I wouldn't put anything past them, but JW literature currently contradicts that idea. The DC speakers were actually careful to qualify their statement about Franz being anointed at baptism by saying that this was their understanding, "At the time."
Also, we don't have any way of knowing if Fred Franz was the absolute last member of Generation 1.1.; There could have been any number of anointed who lived into the mid or late 90s.
I agree that there might be more extreme examples than Franz, but think they would be pretty darn tough to find. Do you know of any?
"Generation 1.1" are not those born at or around 1914. They are those:
"....anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914."
In other words, they were already anointed when 1914 rolled around. Then as now, this would exclude children. Being baptized at the time was the outward symbol of one's "Full consecration" as the Bible Student understood the term and Russell explained it in the book, The New Creation.
Franz, who got in just under the wire in 1913 and lived another 78 years is pretty unusual.
I now see what those philistines at WT headquarters are hoping to accomplish by their "adjustment" to "this generation" teaching.
Keep 1914. the urgency of preaching, the memory of Fred Franz alive, and discredit the rising tide of newly-anointed ones, i.e., the only genuine anointed ones are those who were around for either Franz's baptism or his death.
They seem to have forgotten the warning at 1 Corinthians 3 - God catches the wise in their own cunning.
Syl
Consider a family gathering, the grandparents, parents, and grandchildren together, and talking with each other.
Would anyone consider the grandparents and grandchildren to be of the "same generation"?
When asked one elder told me this was exactly how he imagined the "generation" - he had a gathering just like you described, he was looking at them and thought they are a generation. And he claims this was before the change. If this is what "generation" means to him, I really would like to hear his oppinion in 30 years or so, when they will change the understanding again.
Probably at a bare minimum, it would be those who were 30 and 40 somethings in 1992, since the Witnesses community doesn't look upon younger partakers as really anointed.
Steve Lett, now on Governing Body, was a partaker at 20/21 yrs old. He was at Bethel at that age and partaker. I was in his book study in 1969 there at Bethel, with book study in Grenwich Village.
So if there was any partaker at 21 yrs of age in 1992, then that person would be 80 in 2051. The Governing Body may have created quite an extension possibility length to their "last days" generation.
Steve Lett, now on Governing Body, was a partaker at 20/21 yrs old.He was at Bethel at that age and partaker.I was in his book study in 1969 there at Bethel, with book study in Grenwich Village.
Wow! Didn't know that
Let me get this straight. Lett started partaking in his early 20s and Splane at 17?
And they're telling new partakers that, not only do they have "no special insight", but that they may be suffering from "mental strain"?
THESE are the guys Holy Spirit called to be on the GB?!
Is there anything that has come out of the WT over the past couple of decades that does not scream "Run like hell?"
I don't see why longtime JWs are not INSULTED by this mockery of a doctrine! For years, the whole generation doctrine was featured front and center in the Watchtower masthead and was their main carrot to recruit and guilt people into joining the cult! The countless articles over the years talking about the generation doctrine and relentlessly pounding it into the hears and minds of the 'sheep', pushing them to cast aside life goals, careers, education, having children, or doing anything normal affected generations of JWs and dub-wanna-bees!
This should be the last straw for anything half-way thinking person inside the cult. For them to try and buy more time for their false prophecies in this manner is breathtakingly insulting. I.CALL.BULLSHIT....................
