I don't know who it was that started this morbid pastime when I was a young JW, but eventually there were people in my "home" congregation that kept track of obituaries in the newspaper. They would look at the person's age at the time of death and figure out whether they would have been part of "the generation" that was not supposed to pass away until the "composite sign" had seen its fulfillment.
It was especially disturbing when I noticed the calendars in the kitchen of one friend with dates marked with names of elderly celebrities and their age at the time of death, particularly if they were well-on in years and could have been present at the beginning of the "generation". The claim was that they'd be able to have a collection of recognizable names and recent deaths to discuss with Bible studies and householders to tie in the nearness of Armageddon.
I'm sure this was just a manifestation of how much these people's lives lacked anything of substance - to be so focused on ("keeping close in mind"?) a hope, a date with a hope attached to it, or just a foolish notion that they'd monitor something as morbid as the obituaries.
Did anyone else do stuff like that?? Or is that just about as weird as monitoring the vulture population??
I do remember similar comments being passed around when Maurice Chevalier shuffled of this mortal coil.
I also remember praying that Portsmouth Football Club (Pompey) would make it to the premier league before armageddon came, so's I could at least see them play in it for just one season.
I always checked the new year count of the "anionted". Never understood how it got larger until I found out that some could have became "apostate" and had to be replaced...but that should have been replaced, not larger. Correct me if i'm wrong but "new light" first said anointed (this generation) would not pass away, than generation was changed from literal to a "time period" of people......now who the hell knows. It's stayed around 9k since I can remember. At least that's how I gaged it - only from anointed not actual people (brainwashing).
They change their doctrine because there will soon be none left "from that generation" and the "end" still isn't here. Than you have to consider that 1914 is wrong too because 607 is wrong.
Yea I always checked how many anointed were left so I could figure out when to quit leading a double life. 1k would have done it for me.
