@Red Piller:
Maybe the effect of this change is bigger than realized? in 1995, it was discussed (positively) by everybody, during the week we studied the WT.... For this change I have had only one person in the hall talking about it to me. (Ironically, the one person who discussed it with me was upset at the way it was explained by a talk. Actually, the talk stayed to script and explained the current teaching.) I have not heard or overhead any conversations besides that one time. No buzz at all - like the other 2 times.
Well, here's a bit of "buzz" for you that may help you appreciate that not everyone is "speechless," even if some of the folks you know are, in fact, speechless at this time, for not all congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses are alike:
If you were a Catholic before 1970, then you would be expected to adhere to the teaching of the Eucharist, which is that portion of the Mass when the Catholic priest says a blessing over the Host, that is to say, the bread ("the wafers") and the wine, and then invites the church to receive Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, where the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation teaches that the bread and wine are said to be miraculously transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ. If you were one of Jehovah's Witnesses before 1995, then you would be expected to adhere to the teaching that the "generation" to which Jesus referred at Matthew 24:34 had to do with those of Jesus' anointed brothers that saw the events that unfolded in 1914.
Now someone that is a non-Catholic might think the notion of the Roman Catholic Church with regard to its doctrine of transubstantiation to be a lie, that the bread and wine do not miraculously become transformed into Christ's literal body and blood, which would be your view, but this would not be view of Catholics that adhere to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. However, it was in 1970, that Pope Paul VI stepped in and effected a change in the Eucharist, so that the Roman Catholic Church has now done away with the restriction that had been placed upon the priests inviting the church to partake of the wine that the priests alone had before 1970 been the only ones allowed to partake.
So now, in addition to the wafers, this change permits the offering of both the bread and wine to congregants as a regular part of Communion. I might add here that in 1987, some of the Lutheran Churches and the United Churches of Christ elected to offer grape juice as an alternative to wine for those attending the Eucharist ceremony to accommodate those in the church that wished to abstain from drinking alcohol.
It was after 1995 that the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses discerned that "the generation" to which Jesus referred at Matthew 24:34 seemed to not have been with reference to Jesus' anointed brothers, but, rather, should be applied to the unbelieving Jewish contemporaries of Jesus Christ to whom he was speaking, and thereby, by extension, to the world that saw the events that unfolded in 1914. However, 13 years later, in 2008, an adjustment to our understanding of Matthew 24:34 rescinded the 1995 explanation, restoring the pre-1995 explanation until 2010, when the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses discerned that anointed would be contemporaries of the generation whose lives would overlap the lives of those that would see the beginning of the composite sign and those that would see the end, including the great tribulation.
What Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus meant by his reference to "this generation" at Matthew 24:34 is not a lie, but a doctrinal viewpoint held by Jehovah's Witnesses, and the definition of a "generation" as a period of time and not limited to an average of 20-23 years is based on a Bible generation being described as a period of years, such as is the case with Joseph's generation, which covered a period of 110 years, which is the current viewpoint of Jehovah's Witnesses. Likewise, what the Roman Catholic Church believes with respect to the transubstantiation is a doctrinal viewpoint held by Catholics, and even though in this day and age hardly anyone is willing to go on record in saying that they believe such a miraculous transformation of the bread and wine into Jesus' literal flesh and blood occurs every day at Mass, this is the current viewpoint of Catholics.
More to the point, the following is the response that was given in a QfR article back in 1952 to the question: "Your publications point out that the battle of Armageddon will come in this generation, and that this generation began A.D. 1914. Scripturally, how long is a generation?" [w52 9/1 QFR]
[T]he Bible ... gives no number of years for a generation.... [I]n the texts mentioning the generation [Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32]..., we are not to take generation as meaning the average time for one generation to be succeeded by the next, as Webster’s does in its 33-year approximation; but rather... "the average lifetime of man." Three or even four generations may be living at the same time, their lives overlapping....
[W]e could not calculate from such a figure the date of Armageddon, for the texts here under discussion do not say God’s battle comes right at the end of this generation, but before its end. To try to say how many years before its end would be speculative. The texts merely set a limit that is sufficiently definite for all present practical purposes. Some persons living A.D. 1914 when the series of foretold events began will also be living when the series ends with Armageddon. All the events will come within the span of a generation.
Since the separation of sheep from goats doesn't begin until "immediately after" the great tribulation (Matthew 24:29), and Jesus specifically stated at Matthew 24:34 'this generation would not pass away until all these things [that Jesus mentions in Matthew 24 and 25] have occurred,' including the tribulation, then it would seem that just as Joseph's contemporaries were still living when Joseph died, then some of Jesus spiritual brothers would still be alive after the tribulation.
The fact that our current year of 2010 is 96 years removed from the year 1914 does not help one do any more than speculate as to the year when the end will come, for we arrive at the year 2024 when counting 110 years forward from 1914, for Joseph's siblings, Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (who were born in Egypt) as well as Joseph's nephews and nieces lived during Joseph's lifetime, making all of them contemporaries of Joseph.
Firstly, "the term 'generation' as used by Jesus [at Matthew 24:34] refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics." (wt95 11/1, p. 17, ¶6) Secondly, Jesus compared the generation in his day to the one in Noah's day at [Matthew 24:37-39], it seems clear that the people in Noah's generation paralleled the people in "this generation" which began when the sign of Jesus' second coming became manifest in the year 1914. (I would take note the use of the word "this generation" as they are used at Genesis 7:1.] Thirdly, even if though we are able to determine when "this generation" began, we would still be unable to calculate when "this generation" would come to an end since no one knows the "day and hour."
Having said this, should we give consideration to what Exodus 1:6 says regarding the death of Joseph, Jacob's/Israel's son, "and also all his brothers and all that generation," then based on how old Joseph was when he died -- 110 -- then his contemporaries would have been "all [of] his brothers" and Joseph's two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were both living when their father died.
In an article that appeared in the Watchtower, entitled "Holy Spirit's Role in the Outworking of Jehovah's Purpose," indicates that "[t]he word "generation" usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event." (w08 2/15, p. 25 [box]) Now we've got an example of that: Exodus 1, and verse 6. "Eventually Joseph died, and also all his brothers, and all that generation." In this same article, we also read: "As a class, these anointed ones make up the modern-day 'generation' of contemporaries that will not pass away 'until all these things occur.'" ( w08 2/15, p. 24, ¶15)
Just think about what's written there--it refers to Joseph and all his brothers as "that generation." Now ten of Joseph's brothers witnessed events before Joseph's birth and at least two of those brothers lived after his death. So while Joseph's contemporaries were of various ages, they were viewed as being a part of Joseph's "generation."
Now looking at the dates, Jacob at age 84 marries both Leah and Rachel in 1774 BC (after his uncle Laban does a bait and switch) so that his 11th son, Joseph, is finally born to Rachel in 1767 BC. (Rachel dies when Benjamin, Jacob's most beloved son, is born some six years later in 1761 BC.) Joseph dies in 1657 BC at the age of 110. Those of Jesus' spiritual "brothers" that were alive contemporaneous with the "sign" that became manifest (or "born") in 1914 would correspond to those that became contemporaries of Joseph at his birth, which would include not only Joseph's 11 brothers, but to Joseph's two sons and to his nephews and nieces that were alive when Joseph died, all of these being "that generation" (Exodus 1:6). Thus, these contemporaries of Joseph's generation would correspond to Jesus' anointed brothers, who from 1914 until now were all contemporaries of the sign, they all of them bearing witness to the composite sign.
The latest article that appeared in the Watchtower, entitled "Holy Spirit's Role in the Outworking of Jehovah's Purpose," stated, in pertinent part, the following:
[Jesus] evidently meant that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who would see the start of the great tribulation. That generation had a beginning, and it surely will have an end. [w10 4/15, p. 10, ¶14]
There is but one generation of the sign with the anointed that saw the beginning of this sign and the anointed that will not pass away when the great tribulation comes toward the end of the sign. There is no reason for anyone to be attempting to force two [generations] into becoming a single generation since Jesus specifically spoke of "this generation," which is not two generations, but only one.
The only significant change here between the viewpoint of Jehovah's Witnesses back in 1952 Question from Readers [w52 9/1, pp. 542, 543] and the viewpoint of Jehovah's Witnesses today [w10 4/15, p. 10, ¶14] is that we have come to realize in 2010 that the "generation" to which Jesus referred at Matthew 24:34 referred to the period of time that spanned the length of the sign of Christ's presence, which generation began in 1914 and will eventually come to an end, during which generation the lives of Jesus' anointed brothers as a group overlap.
@djeggnog