This Overlapping Generation teaching is really complete nonsense.
I was trying to wrap my head around the latest "update" to it in this week's WT Study article; not to try and understand it--because, hey, it's nonsense--but to make clear to any lurkers how silly and implausible it all is. - Watchtower, January 15, 2014, p. 30-31, paragraphs 14 - 16.
Here's my take on it:
So, apparently, there are now three groups of "anointed" ones:
- Those anointed before 1914
- Those anointed after 1914, but before the death of the last of those in group #1.
- Those anointed after the death of the last person in group #1. (See point #2 above)
Although not mentioned in the article, the key person in this concept is Frederick William Franz. Born in 1893, Franz was baptized in 1913 or 1914, making him part of the first group. He is also presumably the last person of the first group to die. Franz died on December 22, 1992.
According to this week's WT, the first two groups comprise the "this generation" that Jesus mentioned at Matthew 24:34, albeit in an "overlapping" manner. The third group is explicitly NOT part of "this generation."
Thus, not every anointed person today is included in “this generation” of whom Jesus spoke. - w2014, 1/15, p. 32, para. 16
Careful readers of this week's study article will note that it contained so scriptural references or evidence of any kind to support this new twist on the "Overlapping Generation" idea. It is all just unfounded assertion.
But hey, who needs evidence when you're the leaders of a cult.
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