Questions for Jehovah's Witnesses about the 1914 Generation

by UnDisfellowshipped 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  UnDisfellowshipped

  Questions about the Generation of 1914

  1: What is the new understanding of the "Generation of 1914"?

  2: What exactly has changed about the "Generation of 1914"?

  3: Will some people who were born in 1914 still be alive when the Great Tribulation begins?

  4: The 1995, 1997, and 1999 Watchtower Articles said that , when Jesus said "This generation shall by no means pass away until all these things occur", that Jesus did not use "generation" as referring to any period of time, instead Jesus meant anyone who hears about what happened in 1914, and then refuses to become a Jehovah's Witness. Is this correct?

  5: All of the Watchtower Articles before 1995, said that it was Jehovah God's and Jesus Christ's PROMISE that some of the people who were alive in 1914 would be alive when the Great Tribulation begins. Is this no longer being taught by the Watchtower Society?

  6: What are the Scriptural reasons for changing the "Generation of 1914"?

  7: Why would Jesus have even mentioned "This Generation" if He was not referring to a certain period of time?

  8: How long is a generation?

  9: For decades, on Page 4 of each Issue of Awake! Magazine, it stated that it was the "Creator's Promise" for the end of this system to come before the Generation of 1914 passes away. Then starting in 1995, each Issue of Awake, on Page 4, no longer says anything about the Generation of 1914. Why is this? Why did that change?

  10: Did "This Generation" mentioned by Jesus start in 1914?

  11: In 1980, and before that, it was said that the people alive in 1914 who make up "This Generation" that will not pass away, had to have been old enough to understand what was happening in 1914 (at least 10 to 15 years old), and that some of these would live to see the start of the Great Tribulation. What are the Scriptural reasons for saying that the "Generation" could have been born in 1914 instead of being 10 to 15 years old?

  12: None of that is even being taught now, right?
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  rocketman

  Interestingly, there are a lot of currently active jws who cannot even answer such questions. I just spoke with one today. She had no idea that any change had really taken place, and she was baptized in the 1980s.

  I guess some just are unable to grasp the concept.
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  Mary

  For any Witness to answer these questions, would require them to actually stop and THINK and that might lead to (gasp!) INDEPENDENT THINKING!!!

  This is the Borg's biggest bungaboo: that people will actually start to think for themselves. After all, didn't Jesus say we should all follow leaders without questioning them at all? He DIDN'T?! Geeze, I guess Jesus must have been an independent thinker too!!

  No righteous Witness will ever get in to these questions too deeply with you, because deep down, they know full well that the whole doctrine is pure bullshit, but they don't want to lose their family and friends and positions in the congregation so they just go with the flow and they keep silent.
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  truth1

  Ok, I grew up "in the truth" but I refuse to go back because of the hyprocrisy and the false prophesies and one in particularly, the one you're talking about and because they won't acknowledge that Jesus is our mediator, but they say only for the 144,000. But, anyway, here goes:

  1. The new understanding of 1914 is basically what you mentioned in the latter half of your question #4 that this "generation" now means whatever generation we are currently living in when the great tribulation occurs; no longer the generation of 1914.

  2. What changed is that before and as you stated that was previously found in the forward section of the Awake! magazine, the generation of 1914 would by no means pass away until the system ended. Now the teaching is that the generation of 1914 no longer applies today. That would mean that generation is around 100 years old now. I used to preach this very scripture/teaching from door to door as the TRUTH. (You've got to ask yourself, what is it now if it has changed?) This is a drastic change.

  3. We don't know the answer to that question because not even the son knows when the end will come.

  4. Basically if you doubt any of the JW teachings, ANY AT ALL, you will be destroyed. It's like apostosy.

  5. The whole 1914 teaching about them being alive during the great tribulation is now void. 1914 only refers now to the end of the gentile times and Christ's second coming. Yes, by their teaching, he is already here in an invisible presence. (So why do they still do the memorial as it says keep doing this in remembrance of me until he arrives; well if he already arrived in 1914, why are they still doing it?).

  6. "New Light" to the "faithful & discreen slave class". Nothing really scriptual. They know they found themselves in a tight place when the end of the system of things did not end and the 1914 generation (now over 100 years old) are now mostly dead.

  7. I can't question why Jesus said that about the generation. Maybe we can get some new light from the Society (laugh).

  8. Back in the day, a generation was about 70-80 years. Now with science and the extension of life, they (JW teaching) have extended a generation past the 80 years.

  9. You're right on target. Yes they changed that in the Awake! magazine. So, they had Jehovah promising that this would happen before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passed away. Now they said he promises to end this corrupt system of things. To me, they lied on him when they said he promised it then changed their teaching. This is something my Mother who is a staunch JW will not admit to. I even showed it to her in the previous and current Awakes.

  10. Yes the prior teaching before 1995 was that the generation that saw the events in 1914 had to have been old enough to recognize a change in the world. They would have been about 10 years to 15 years old.

  11. Because they would have had to be old enought to RECOGNIZE the events of 1914.

  12. The only thing being taught is that 1914 was the 2nd coming of Christ (invisible presence only) and the gentile times ended. They also taught the gentile times ended some time in the 1800's then they changed it to 1914.

  I hope this helps. This information is from what I remember I was taught at the meetings, from the watchtowers and is what I taught when I went door to door.

  "If the information changed over the years, how could it have been the truth in previous times"
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  UnDisfellowshipped

  Now we need to add a few questions to my list above:

  1:) How did the ONE generation mentioned by Jesus turn into TWO generations?

  2:) How do we know that the generation is made up only of Anointed Christians and not other people as well?

  3:) If the generation can overlap one time, why can't it overlap several times?

  4:) If the Governing Body was wrong FOUR TIMES before when explaining "This Generation" then why should we trust them now?

  5:) What is the dictionary definition of "generation"?

  6:) What are the Greek Bible dictionary definitions of "generation"?
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  Terry

  The funny thing about liars is that they can't seem to stop themselves from giving too many details.

  Stop and ask yourself what difference it could possibly make to anybody if the Watchtower just simply stopped printing articles and explanations

  about the "Generation" of 1914.

  Or, is it a case of "him who smelt it dealt it"?
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  UnDisfellowshipped

  Terry,

  You're right. It seems like the more they "stir things up" by printing new articles about the Generation, the worse it will be for the Watchtower Leaders.

  Hmm.... kind of makes you wonder what they are thinking...
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  garyneal

  I'm currently engaged in a discussion of this topic with a Jehovah's Witness elder of my mother-in-law's congregation who I will call "Scholar."

  He seems to be buying this BS hook line and sinker but your questions will be most enlightening when I direct some of them to him.

  Good topic.