Snowbird, that guy lied about his age. He was 14 when he joined the war. These guys WERE dropping like flies. There are only a handful of the ones slightly younger left.
The Infamous May 15th 1984 Watchtower "1914: The Generation That Will Not Pass Away"
by PublishingCult 47 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Gorbatchov
Great posting, great image!
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snowbird
I know he lied, but he's still a WWI veteran, and of "the generation that would not pass away" according to WT.
Choules had dropped out of school at 14, was rejected when he applied to join the army as a bugler, and lied about his age to join the navy in 1915
Syl
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DagothUr
Nice picture. I saved it on my desktop.
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WTWizard
If anything, it is proof that they did in fact promise that "a generation" was comprised of those alive in 1914. True, all the stock examples they provided are all gone. And true, there are still a few that were alive in 1914 that are still around. But, the point is that they did promise that those alive in 1914 would not be all gone when the end came. And it made no reference of attaching other generations to the then-current generation.
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Mickey mouse
I tried this at a special assembly day; alas the dubs all appeared to have their bluetooth switched off as I couldn't connect to a single device.
Pity. It would be a great image to email though.
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Scott Terry
I am thoroughly impressed by whomever it was that did the research for this, but what I find really interesting is that this particular cover was, even then, bending the interpretation of generation a bit. So today, the Jdubs have found some "new light" and re-defined the word "generation", but it appears to me that they were doing it on this cover as well. When I was growing up as a JW in the 70's, the official word, as I remember it, is that the "generation of 1914" referred to people who were not only alive in 1914 but were also old enough to understand its significance. Many of the people who are on this cover in 1984 were clearly not old enough to fit that definition. They would have been too young.....the dubs were re-inventing the word "generation" when they printed this cover.
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Gopher
in the 70's, the official word, as I remember it, is that the "generation of 1914" referred to people who were not only alive in 1914 but were also old enough to understand its significance. Many of the people who are on this cover in 1984 were clearly not old enough to fit that definition. They would have been too young
Yes I remember my father (a JW elder) teaching that same thing at a book study - that those of the "1914 generation" would have needed to be old enough to understand what was happening in the world then. This is to imply that those of the generation were born maybe 1906 at the latest.
Later in the 1980's, when the Society was trying desperately to preserve the generation teaching, I frequently heard it was anyone BORN by the year 1914, so that it could technically be said they "saw" the year 1914.
As we know, by 1995 they completely abandoned the idea that some of their faithful who "saw" 1914 would be around to see Armageddon. Now the generation doctrine is choking and gasping. (I know some of their people really buy the overlapping-generation thing, but come on - seriously?)
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Ding
When I was growing up as a JW in the 70's, the official word, as I remember it, is that the "generation of 1914" referred to people who were not only alive in 1914 but were also old enough to understand its significance.
I wish everyone who studies with JWs would get a copy of that article and read it.
The WTS' claim that Jesus' comments had something to do with 1914 is completely unwarranted, as evidenced by the fact that they have had to keep changing their doctrine.
1. According to Russell, 1914 was supposed to be the end... NOT the beginning of the "time of trouble." Russell even announced that "the present war in Europe" (World War I) "is the Armageddon of the scriptures."
2. When 1914 and the first World War turned out not to be the end, the WTS switched to 1914 as the beginning of the end and the "generation of 1914" as the time frame within which Armageddon had to come. In order to stress how close the end was, they said that to be in the 1914 generation a person had to be old enough in 1914 to understand the events that transpired then. When they hyped 1975, they were still stressing how close the end must be.
3. After the 1975 failure, they had to buy more time, so they dropped the "old enough to understand" requirement. That added maybe 10-15 years to their definition of the 1914 generation. They thought surely the end must come before the 21st century arrived.
4. As the 21st century approached (and now the year 2014), it became obvious that when Jesus used the words "will by no means pass away," he wasn't talking about people who were alive in 1914 living to be 100 or more. That's when they came up with the overlapping generations nonsense.
I wouldn't want to be a JW today trying to explain to householders how the overlapping generation of 1914 will by no means pass away until Armageddon and the new system arrive.
JWs will no doubt focus instead on crime, earthquakes, tsunamis, financial crises, blizzards, tornadoes, and meteorites as "proof" of the impending doom and forget talking about "the generation that will by no means pass away."
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suavojr
This mag is one for the ages! My dad used to talk so much about this while he was in his mid 30's, now he is 63 thinking about collecting his social security
Today, I am in my mid 30's but the magic spell has been broken in my case. (Although I am still in)