Who left or got stumbled over the 1995 generation thing?

by Julia Orwell 134 Replies latest jw experiences

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  OnTheWayOut

  OTWO: 1995 wasn't enough to break me free, but it was the first straw on the camel's back. It was a big straw, maybe more of a log.

  DOC: The Overlapped Generation was the LOG.

  If not for already fading, I am quite confident that the "Overlap Generation" would have caused me to say outloud, "WTF?!" and walked out of the convention never to return. It is sheer ridiculousness.

  And then piling on to it with the GB only being the FDS, and waiting to be "appointed over all his belongings." I have been out too long, but a recent thread reminded me that the authority of the Watchtower magazine (that IS the real authority) came from the anointed being appointed over the belongings (other sheep) already. If I were an active witness the way I looked at things, there is no way I would have missed saying "So they told us to accept everything they say because God appointed them over us to tell us these things, then they tell us that God has yet to do that, but accept everything they say because they are the FDS who WILL BE appointed over the belongings."

  That means everything said until that appointment is free to be wrong and subject to change. It's not really a change from their norm but it's spelled out clearly.
• 

  gingerbread

  When my children were little, they would ask a string of questions about anything. If you've have or been around little ones, you know what I mean. After a while you get tired of trying to answer the steady stream of questions - I would often finish it with the answer "just because" or "that's just the way it is"...

  If you have questions about anything the WT puts forth as doctrinal change, the final answer will always be "that's just the way it is" or "just trust the GB" or "wait on Jehovah". If an elder is an honest guy, he might respond with "it confuses me too". But, ultimately, the final answer is "just because".

  Most publishers are hook, line and sinker believers. And that's how the WT organization wants it to be - to inform and control people as if they were little children.
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  designs

  OTWO- Saying WTF in a Wt. Study would be priceless
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  tornapart

  In 1995 I was too busy running around after kids to be too concerned about it but I remember having this niggly feeling that didn't feel right, it was yet another change...why? The real eye opener for me was when they changed it yet again, in 2010, to something so ridiculous I couldn't believe anyone was actually sucked in by it. By the end of the following year I was fully awake to TTATT.
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  Ucantnome

  i had already left but i can't see a way past this if i tried.
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  Eiben Scrood

  Add me to the list of this being the beginning of the end for me. I didn't go to college because of the old teaching and then all of a sudden the rug is pulled out with not only no apology but a not-so-subtle attempt to blame the readership.

  I did continue but it was never really the same. I was finally done by 2005.

  The fact that anyone can stay in after the overlapping change in 2010 is mind-boggling. The Watchtower must really believe its adherents are stupid to unabashedly peddle such nonsense.

  33-70CE is not 37.5 years BTW, it's 36.5 years.
• 

  Scott77

  informative thread
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  cofty

  Yes it was the '95 generation Watchtower that led directly to my exit.

  I may have been OK if they had been honest but they treated us like idiots and tried to obfuscate. It was the Awake masthead that confirmed that it actually was a change.

  It led me to research Matt 24/Luke 21 etc. I wrote to the branch office about my research on the parousia and they sent back their usual, "mind your own business" patronsing reply. I sent my research to Brooklyn and they never replied.

  That led me to research the history of the doctrine and I read lots of Russell's and Rutherford's books. Nobody can read that stuff and still believe it was ever god's organisation.
• 

  Number 6

  I was already gone in 1991 after how I was treated when I got married [long story] and basically ignored the Watchtower for a decade til I got online in 2000. Mentally I was still 'in' even though I had been out by a decade. I lived in daily fear of my demise at Armageddon!

  When I discovered the generation change retrospectively in 1995, I was gobsmacked. The light went on in my head and I was OUT. That was it. I thought 'The b*stards don't have a clue'.

  Sir82 is correct; the religious historians of the future will draw a line somewhere in the last 10 years or so and say 'here marks the beginning of the end of the Watchtower Society'.

  I have for over 10 years now been out and I can barely recognise the religion of my upbringing. Gone are the days when the WT had the courage of their convictions and we studied 40 paragraph Watchtower Studies on a sunday talking about Gog of Magog and golden images and times and half a time etc.

  Gone are the days of sitting in someones home for the group study poring over the 'Gods Kingdom' or 'Mans Salvation Book' getting lost in the depths of prophecies. That was the WT in the 70's, they put it out their knew what they believed in and stood by it; for better or worse.

  Now they are just a bunch of chancing lightweights who are clinging on by their fingernails waiting for someone or something to come along to rescue them. You know what guys; it ain't gonna happen.

  The Watchtower is a sad pathetic spent force of its former self; a pathetic parody. Your final demise cannot come soon enough.

  Craig
• 

  BluesBrother

  I was "in" until the end of the nineties....but looking back I think the seeds of awareness were sown with the "generation" Watchtower back in '95. It was obvious then that the change was a reaction to the failed previous understanding , not being pro-active with a new "flash of light". The explanation was nonsense and we all (at home anyway) felt that they had had to come up with something, and this was it.........

  I never viewed the Wt in the same light after that...Service, both in the ministry and the congregation became a chore. I fully awoke as we approached the new millenium having read up on calendars and realising that the "chronology" was b/s as well. That coupled with a recurring thought that Armageddon was just morally wrong made me see one day that "It is just not true"

  [Edit .. I have just read the brilliant post above by No.6. I could not put it as well but that hits it right on the head]