I was flipping through an old volume of the wt mag from 1952 and a QFR was asked about "this generation" from Matthew and the author actually mentioned "overlapping" generations. I was surprised but it dawned on me that Pres Knorr toyed with this explaination 60 yrs ago so the new light is really partially "old light" from the 50s. The Sept 1 1952 QFR ask "Your publications point out that the battle of armaggeddon will come in this generation and that this generation began AD 1914, Scriptually, how long is a generation?" "Three or even four generations may be living at the same time, their lives "overlapping".(Ps 78:4; 145:4). So Pres Knorr probably worried back then times was running out and maybe he toyed with the overlapping generation theory to buy more time. But instead shifted the concern on 1975 and the overlapping theory got put on the back burner until 2010.
I was reading an "old" Watchtower mag and the "overlapping" generation was hinted at with President Knorr from a QFR
by booker-t 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Crazyguy
Nice find, its unfortunate that the bible is very specific about what a generation is and the overlapping idea is not from the scriptures. i should of got out in 1995!!!!
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blondie
*** w52 9/1 pp. 542-543 Questions From Readers ***
Questions From Readers
? Your publications point out that the battle of Armageddon will come in this generation, and that this generation began A.D. 1914. Scripturally, how long is a generation?—G. P., Liberia.
Webster’s unabridged dictionary gives, in part, this definition of generation: “The average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child; an age. A generation is usually taken to be about 33 years.” But the Bible is not so specific. It gives no number of years for a generation. And in Matthew 24:34, Mark 13:30 and Luke 21:32, the texts mentioning the generation the question refers to, we are not to take generation as meaning the average time for one generation to be succeeded by the next, as Webster’s does in its 33-year approximation; but rather more like Webster’s first-quoted definition, “the average lifetime of man.” Three or even four generations may be living at the same time, their lives overlapping. (Ps. 78:4; 145:4) Before the Noachian flood the life span was hundreds of years. Down through the centuries since, it has varied, and even now is different in different countries. The Bible does speak of a man’s days as being threescore and ten or fourscore years; but it assigns no specific number of years to a generation.—Ps. 90:10.
Even if it did, we could not calculate from such a figure the date of Armageddon, for the texts here under discussion do not say God’s battle comes right at the end of this generation, but before its end. To try to say how many years before its end would be speculative. The texts merely set a limit that is sufficiently definite for all present practical purposes. Some persons living A.D. 1914 when the series of foretold events began will also be living when the series ends with Armageddon. All the events will come within the span of a generation. There are hundreds of millions of persons living now that were living in 1914, and many millions of these persons could yet live a score or more years. Just when the lives of the majority of them will be cut short by Armageddon we cannot say.
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trujw
Jws are always hedging their bets. They don't shun on the website yeah right. They have flip flopped on so many things what can they ever not come back too. No one should have to choose between ones religion and family that was in an awake in 2009. One day that article will be talked about and boasted as loving insight from the gb. They are liars and false prophets. Go to reddit and read about Mormons, seventh day Adventist and all the like. People want to believe. only free thinking people will ever come to their senses. At that point we all have realized it was bullshit. If my meals, worldwide travel and house cleaning depended on the other option maybe I would try not to think about the fact I lied. If you are not a catholic then billions are wrong along with another billion Muslims. People really are sheep that want to be lead to slaughter or you are a wolf reaping the benefits. My choice is atheism a man who chooses to face the world on his own terms. Most can't take that path it is too painful.
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ÁrbolesdeArabia
Thank you for this find, it shows they are always covering their butts with riddle answers to their readers.
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Bobcat
The idea that "generations" overlap is also here:
(Exodus 20:5, 6) . . .I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, in the case of those who hate me; 6 but exercising loving-kindness toward the thousandth generation in the case of those who love me . . .
But the context doesn't refer to stringing them out to create a longer time period. For those who love Jehovah, he is basically promising "loving-kindness" on into the indefinite future. But for those who "hate [him]," he brings punishment upon the '3rd and 4th generation.'
It's not that the "punishment stretches out over a length of time equivalent to 3 or 4 generation. Rather, like the magazine said, normally, at any given time, 3 or 4 generations are alive (generally speaking). And so when God acts to bring punishment, the punishment cuts across those 3 or 4 generations. The actual punishment itself, as in the case of the Babylonian seige, may only take some few years, or a relatively short time.
We had an interesting discussion on "generations" here. In my post # 129 (towards the bottom of the page) I posted what some reference work had to say about the different uses of generation in the Bible. The Society's current view is a mixture of several of the definitions. And its application to the "anointed" is contextually impossible (see my post # 124 closer to the top of that thread).
Take Care
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1009
Why 2010? According to the index (Generation, 'understanding clarified') it was clarified in 2008 ( w08 2/15 p. 25 ):
The word “generation” usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event. For example, Exodus 1:6 tells us: “Eventually Joseph died, and also all his brothers and all that generation.” Joseph and his brothers varied in age, but they shared a common experience during the same time period. Included in “that generation” were some of Joseph’s brothers who were born before him. Some of these outlived Joseph. ( Gen. 50:24 ) Others of “that generation,” such as Benjamin, were born after Joseph was born and may have lived on after he died.
So when the term “generation” is used with reference to people living at a particular time, the exact length of that time cannot be stated except that it does have an end and would not be excessively long. Therefore, by using the term “this generation,” as recorded atMatthew 24:34, Jesus did not give his disciples a formula to enable them to determine when “the last days” would end. Rather, Jesus went on to emphasize that they would not know “that day and hour.”—2 Tim. 3:1; Matt. 24:36.
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yadda yadda 2
I think the very earliest answer to a question about this was given by C T Russell, who said it could be a length of up to 120 years (pre-diluvian generation). So that's another option they have up their sleeve.
When you're a divine channel between God and man, you have the divine right to change the creedal goalposts as you wish to keep your brainwashed followers in perpetual expectation.
How about more 'new light' soon that it's actually 120 years from 1931, since that's the year the borganisation first became "Jehovah's Witnesses." That will given them until 2051.
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NeonMadman
The Watchtower's doctrine of the overlapping generation is based on a fallacy of equivocation. There are two different uses of the word "generation." One refers to all the children of a particular set of parents. If a couple continues to have children into middle age, you might have a situation where one sibling is 25 years older then the other. Nonetheless, in this use of the term, they are of the same "generation." If the older sibling has a child the same age as the younger one, the younger sibling and the niece/nephew would be part of different "generations" in this sense of the term, even though they are the same age, since the niece/nephew would actually be the grandchild of the original couple. This is the sense in which the word is used in Exodus 1:6, with reference to Joseph, his brothers and "all that generation."
However, there is another, somewhat looser use of the term. We may speak of, for example, the World War II generation, meaning all the people who were alive at the time of the war, irrespective of their position in any particular geneaology. When Jesus spoke of "this generation" in Matthew 24:34, it seems obvious to me that he was using the term in this latter sense. He was speaking to the people who were standing there listening to him, regardless of their age or ancestry. Those people, the ones alive right then, were the ones of whom some, at least, would live to see Jerusalem's destruction in the year 70 A.D. They might have been 10 years old when Jesus spoke, or they might have been 40. There might have been grandparents present with their grandchildren listening to Jesus. Nonetheless, they were part of "this generation" in the second sense of the term.
By conflating the two senses of the word, the Watchtower has very cleverly created a fallacious basis for its doctrine of an "overlapping generation" that is not obvious on first reading.