It all used to be so simple.
Remember that drawing: 1914 on the left... a curved arrow pointing to the end and "one generation" in between.
There's no comparable drawing today.
If there were, it would look like the Olympics' overlapping circles.
by Julia Orwell 134 Replies latest jw experiences
It all used to be so simple.
Remember that drawing: 1914 on the left... a curved arrow pointing to the end and "one generation" in between.
There's no comparable drawing today.
If there were, it would look like the Olympics' overlapping circles.
1975 was bad but 1995 was beyond repair.
The dream was over after 1995.
After 1995 the only option left to JW's was the dumbing down of the whole thing and forget what they once tried to be.
At same time the internet was entering in the stage and it was a true paradise of knowledge and new possibilities.
I just can imagine what the old JW's from the pre-1995 era think about what's happening now in the Watchtower. ~~~ John_Mann
I was out by then....but went to the wt study (where I wasn't known) when the subject was covered....I was curious as to how the subject would be handled. I will never forget it. No one seemed to notice anything....just read the paragraph...answer the question.... no one got it.
~~coffee-black
"1975 was bad but 1995 was beyond repair.
The dream was over after 1995"
I lived through 75 and 95.... I just hit me now why 95 was so much worse because 75 was just a year missed
(we were told to serve with a date in view was weak and selfish... because we served with eternity in view ! ) but now(the 95 teaching ) the whole generation was lost. If the bulls eye of the target is missed no big deal , but what if you now miss the whole target ?
"After 1995 the only option left to JW's was the dumbing down of the whole thing and forget what they once tried to be"
A dumbing down , just don't think too deep.... trust the FDS
Now the overlapping generation was made any time limits almost totally meaningless !!
Having read through this thread again, I am amazed at the uniformity of opinioin; those of us who are out look back with utter astonishment at how we were duped and how we could have ever have bought into it in the first place.
I too agree with John Mann, its only now with a distance of some 17+ years past since 1995 we can see just how much damage has been done. They had painted themselves into a corner and came up with the overlapping generation as a get out. Never is their worst nightmare could they have envisaged the internet age we live in where all their printed foolishness would come back to haunt them.
But now? The price they have paid is very dear, an apathetic membership with no retention of young people. Their only move now is to get more hardcore and crack down on those they have left in the hope that fear and guilt will retain memebers rather than in decades previously when zeal and a real desire to be a JW existed.
In my opinion they are completely f*cked! If they go mainstream they lose their hold over the members and they just lead 'normal lives' or they crack down harder and people just get tired, give up and walk or fade.
Good luck with all that Watchtower!! [Not]
Craig
I'm one of the few here that wasn't "stumbled". I felt actually relieved...
...mostly because - despite the fact that I was active at the time - I didn't actually want the Big A to come just yet (for a variety of reasons).
The way I saw it at the time, the "generation" change in '95 bought me some breathing room.
I suppose that was because you wanted normal things from your life such as family and work? It's amazing how the idea of the world's end and destruction of all the people and places you love becomes more of a drag the longer you're a Jw. So for many, maybe 1995 was a relief!
Julia Orwell - "I suppose that was because you wanted normal things from your life such as family and work?"
Somewhat, but in all honestly, it was a bit more selfish than that.
I've always been a hopelessly incurable movie geek, and there were film projects in the works that I still wanted to see (I'd always been taught that "worldy" movies would be a thing of the past in the NS). There were other things about "This Old System of Things" that I knew I'd miss, too, whether I was supposed to or not.
Childish, I know.
Who left or got stumbled over the 1995 generation thing?
That's not the question that nags in the back of my mind.
Rather, it is: WHY THE HELL DID I NOT WAKE UP OVER THE 1995 GENERATION THING???????
I guess I've proved to be a "slow learner".
Doc [shaking head now in disbelief]
DesirousofChange, you are so right! WHY THE HELL DID I NOT WAKE UP OVER THE 1995 GENERATION THING???????is the appropriate question. And, here's where it gets interesting. All the JWs who came in post-1995 have NO IDEA how monumental this change was because many (even most) don't even know about this long-held, long-taught core teaching (said to be "God's Promise") - unless of course they have been visiting apostate web-sites! LOL
The more I look at JWs today, I'm beginning to see just how quirky/weird many of the members are. I'm not sure many are even capable of examining things from a critical standpoint - they just don't seem to have the brain-power. Others are hopelessly misguided. Some are mentally disturbed and may never be able to see TTATT (The Truth About The Truth).
Lastly, I see a number of members who are one way at the Kingdom Hall and very different outside the walls of the Kingdom Hall - it's actually quite disturbing because it's difficult to observe people who are so hypocritical! It just runs against my grain, esp. when they call so much attention to themselves at the KH as being God's so-called people! And, I'm not talking about "human imperfection" here, I'm talking "outright hypocrisy". I'm sure many of you have observed the same thing. So, I'm guessing that these types of hypocritical JWs (who seem to be growing in number), don't feel that the 1995 generation change is a big thing SINCE they are in no position to throw rocks at their leaders as their own lifestyle condemns them and they know it!
I'm still perplexed by the 2010 iteration, because they turned their backs on the interpretational methods of their predecessors.
With no pattern between primary fulfilment and secondary fulfilment, they've yanked the rug out from under the idea that there even is a secondary fulfilment.
Why do Witnesses buy into this? Have they really been dumbed down that much?
Good for us that we have "proof" that Jehohav has PROMISED us that the gen of 1914 will not (entirely) pass away until Armageddon starts.
and that it´s very clear that Jesus meant "people who were living 1914."
These is scriptual WT "proof", all one need to confront any "over-lapping" nonsens.