Who left or got stumbled over the 1995 generation thing?

by Julia Orwell 134 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  Phizzy

  I had said for a while before 1995 that the teaching on the generation was wrong, I even wrote to Brooklyn about one aspect of it, and got a crap reply.

  I also felt that 1914 was wrong, but being born in, and no Internet in those days, I just waited for jehoober to sort out the Brooklyn numbnuts.

  A couple of people tried to draw me out in 1995 as to what I thought, but I did not say what was in my mind, that they were reacting to the passing of time, not to some instruction of Holy Spirit.

  I stayed in for a few more years, in the belief that as Big J had his name on the religion he would sort things out. It didn't bother me too much as I wasn't actually hankering after the Noo System, I quite enjoyed life in this one.

  When the full significance of 1914 being in total error hit me, I left within months, having given the Elders the opportunity to call on me and restore my belief in 1914, they never called.

  Over all the years I was in, Cognitive Dissonance was building, but I would rationalise things, dismissing obvious B.S and getting on with being a christian in my own life, hence I wasted decades, as did many.

  Oh, if only the Internet had been around decades before it was !
• 

  gingerbread

  I remember having a sense of relief - that the "end" may not be imminent. The "proof" that the end was coming before the people who were living during WWI died as a generation was causing real anxiety. By the early 1990's, these folks were dying off...and my adult life was just beginning. Now, just maybe, I would see my babies grow up. I figured my chances of making it through the big A were pretty slim. It bought me some time (in my mind).
• 

  Witness My Fury

  I wish i HAD!

  It bothered me a lot at the time and felt like a kick in the stomach, but sadly the rut of going to meetings, FS etc can have the effect of stopping you staying focused long enough to bother to do proper research into your doubts...
• 

  donny

  I had already left the organization (Sept 1992) when the change occured in 1995. While it was not the reason I left, it definitely added one more nail in the Watchtowers coffin for me. I had actually "prophesied" to the elders during my exit interview in 1992 by stating that in 3 to 4 years the Society would have to receive new light regarding the last generation teaching. All three of them denied it and kept drilling into me that I was being foolish by leaving Gods organization at such a late hour in the stream of time.

  Sure enough in 1995 they had to "adjust" their thinking and I was proven to be a "prophet."
• 

  AndDontCallMeShirley

  The 2010 "overlapping" generation change is what woke me up.

  The entire DC was hammering home how close the end was, how we were in the last days of the last days, then they have the audacity to roll out the "overlapping" nonsense.

  It made a few things clear:

  1. As much as the GB likes to pretend they know when the end is coming, they clearly do not.

  2. "generation" will be re-defined as many times a necessary, no matter how absurd the definition is.

  3. The GB really views the average JW as very stupid- otherwise, they wouldn't even consider such idiotic explanations. It's hard to respect a religion that views its adherents as idiots.

  4. The end (if it's coming at all) probably is not coming in my lifetime. I need to live my life now and quit being held hostage by untenable religious fantasies.
• 

  LongHairGal

  ADCMShirley:

  I am also angry they insulted our intelligence. They must also imagine people have the attention span of an infant and won't remember what they said recently. I despise them.

  You were smart to get on with your life! What were we thinking to have wasted so much time there?

  I am sorry I didn't leave ten years earlier than I did!
• 

  designs

  #2 now that is the truth!
• 

  WTWizard

  After 1995, I thought there goes the time limit. Traits travel down generations, and it will never die out. Whether negative or positive traits, they pass down into the next generation. Just another way to waste more of people's time--as if 2034 wasn't enough. As if having joke-hova holding one person who was born in 1914 alive forever wasn't enough.

  But, it wasn't that. Mistreatment lowers my tolerance for doctrinal problems that could mean the mistreatment could go on longer. And when they issue the order that I am only to meet men, it no longer matters. Once I calculate that I would be better off outside the religion regardless of whether it is true or not, they are pretty much sunk. There is nothing they can do to get me back to where I will ever care about joke-hova or work toward that thing willingly. And that is as true if "a generation" continues meaning "those born in or before 1914" as if they string an endless number of them like Christmas lights.
• 

  wha happened?

  It was definately the begining of the end for me. I remember calling the PO at the time and expressed my surprise that such a major change in doctrine woud occur "so late into this system of things". I remember thinking it strange that this sort of thing wasn't worked out a long time ago, unless they are just making it up as they go.

  I was looked at with suspician after that. What slowed my fade was the break-up of my marriage.
• 

  AndDontCallMeShirley

  "I remember calling the PO at the time and expressed my surprise that such a major change in doctrine woud occur "so late into this system of things"....I was looked at with suspician after that"

  Any Jehovah's Witness who thinks critically or uses logic generally get the same reaction.

  In Watchtower World, rational thought is like the dopey kid at the Prom nobody's dancing with.