SnailsPace2, the first change to the Generation doctrine was in 1995 when the literal generation was changed to, well, this…
“Rather than providing a rule for measuring time, the term “generation” as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics. … Does our more precise viewpoint on ‘this generation’ mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all.” (Watchtower, November 1, 1995, pages 17 and 20).
In 2008, the 1995 definition was modified, and the generation no longer referred to contemporary people in general, but to the remnant of the anointed class. And with increasing numbers of new persons partaking of the memorial emblems each year, this would still allow for the ‘generation’ of anointed persons to extend practically indefinitely, and appeared to remove any link to the actual generation of 1914. This problem did not go unnoticed in Brooklyn, so in 2010 the interpretation was modified once more, enter the overlapping generation.
“How, then, are we to understand Jesus’ words about “this generation”? He evidently meant that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who would see the start of the great tribulation” (Watchtower, April 15, 2010).
To claim that this is what Jesus ‘evidently’ meant is absurd, but the link to 1914 was re-established. This latest definition means that as long as the life of the very oldest anointed person who was alive in 1914 (even as a baby) overlaps with the very youngest member of the anointed class today, then the ‘generation’ that Jesus ‘evidently meant’ could still exist. So, for example, if there is a member of the anointed class anywhere in the world today who was born in the summer of 1914 and reaches 100 years of age, and at the 2014 memorial somebody only 30 years old partakes of the emblems, there exists an overlapping generation fitting this new definition. This extends the ‘generation’ to 2084 if that 30 year old lives to be a hundred and continues taking the emblems.
However, so as not to give the impression that the ‘end’ could be seventy odd years away in 2014 they said,
“We understand that in mentioning “this generation,” Jesus was referring to two groups of anointed Christians. The first group was on hand in 1914, and they readily discerned the sign of Christ’s presence in that year. … The second group included in “this generation” are anointed contemporaries of the first group. … Today, those in this second group are themselves advancing in years. Yet, Jesus’ words at Matthew 24:34 give us confidence that at least some of “this generation will by no means pass away” before seeing the start of the great tribulation.” (Watchtower, January 15, 2014, page 31).
The striking similarity in the language used here regarding the ‘second group’, to that used in the Watchtowers from the 1950s until the early 1990s regarding the original ‘generation’ is glaring.
Of course there is no scriptural evidence for all of this, there is only Watchtower evidence, that is, material that is printed in Watchtowers. And the reasons are obvious, the literal 1914 generation are all dead.
As an aside, the other day, my daughter and I were talking about a 95 year old relative, who was still going strong, and she made the facetious comment (with a smile) that this relative was one of the generation that would not pass away. No I said, it was that relative’s long dead parents that were not supposed to pass away. It just put the whole nonsense in perspective.
