Letts shows up noo "generation" teaching (page 2)

prologos

The 2 WT Generations Gaps: 1) between the anointed generation and the Other Sheep generation and:

2) The ever-widening gap between the anointed generation GROUP of 1914 and the latest anointed Group , a Gap that has to be overlapped, bridged.

Generation Me

From Insight on the Scriptures

FROM INSIGHT ON THE SCRIPTURES

Heaven

His statement also speaks to... Armageddon Ain't Coming Soon.

Magnum

hamsterbait, you're right. He did use the word in the normal way in that sentence and it does show they just made up the two-overlapping-groups generation teaching.

According to their new get-themselves-out-of-a-hole definition, the young ones wouldn't be part of the next generation; they'd be part of his generation; that generation would be composed of two different groups whose lives overlap. Since the lives of him and his peers overlap with those of the young people he's talking to, they are all part of the same generation (one generation composed of two groups whole lives overlap).

simon17

This is interesting, but a tenuous conclusion is drawn. Specifically jumping on the word "generation" is not productive because the overlapping generation teaching has to do with the anointed ones who will not die before the end comes. Whereas, whether it's in this system or the next, the kids Lett is speaking to will grow up eventually.

But I think the important point is his use of the word "generation". If the way to understand the use of 'generation' in the gospels is as they say it is, then it would be improper to say "young ones-you are the next generation." The next generation, according to their definition, would be all yet unborn JWs who are born after the last person alive right now dies. Which according to them doesn't even happen, so technically they should really refer to people now as the last generation. Which of course is ridiculous and hence his normal usage in this sentence!

Apognophos

I guess I see your point, Magnum and simon17. Lett can't be talking to the next generation because, according to the "overlapping" definition of the word, they don't exist yet.

A potential resolution to this linguistic quandary could be found if we imagine that, in his mind, generations are defined as fixed blocks anchored to the 1914 teaching. Generation 1 would be the block of anointed ones that saw 1914 and the later anointed ones that saw those earlier anointed ones (). Generation 2 would include anyone born after the death of the first part of the overlapping generation -- that is, the ones who saw 1914. So children born after, say, Fred Franz's death in 1992 cannot possibly be included in Generation 1. Technically even ones born long before 1992, but not anointed by 1992, are in Generation 2, which means that from the standpoint of a Generation 1er like Lett, they are in fact "the next generation".

Don't hurt me, I'm just thinking out loud here.

Letts shows up noo "generation" teaching