I don't understand we went thru a phase where we down played the generation so now it's the generation that knew the 1914 generation??? Is that correct? How does that even work. That's 2 generations...ridiculous.
Anyone explain the generation idea!
by Witness 007 10 Replies latest watchtower bible
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no-zombie
You are right to be confused, because it is a ridiculous application of scripture.
But I'll start the ball rolling by talking about the beginning.
In the late 1800s Russell began talking about the advent of Christ's rule and its imminent arrival, which crystalized into the year of 1914. Back in those days he based his assumptions not on Matthew 28 by Pyramidology and holy inches. However when 1914 passed it became necessary to now talk about the Kingdom's invisible presence. But after Russell die, Rutherford began to adopt the account of Matthew 28 and in particular verse 34, as the doctrine's internal support. Thus from around the 1940s the 'this generation will not pass' quote, became the catch phrase that gave people hope that the new world was just around the corner.
i'll let someone else, pick up the story from here. :)
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no-zombie
I have a bit more time ... so I'll carry on.
Ok ... one could say that from the 1940's became understood (more though assembly talks and the like) that "this generation" had made up from people born before 1914, so they knew and understood the troubled times brought started by Satan from 1914, from which became known as the 'last days'.
This was a convenient clarification from a number of reasons, but mainly because it cultivated a sense of urgency with each year that generation got older. Leading up to this famous Watchtower magazine cover.Unfortunately they did begin to 'pass away.
(to be continued)
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slimboyfat
How does it work? It doesn’t. It’s wild and it will melt your brain if you think about it too hard.
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Beth Sarim
I dont know if this has been touched on yet.
But they're talking about "generations" on the exJWreddit forum.
Theres a thread about if the 607BCE chronology being changed to 587BCE.
I just cant see it possible. This is the cornerstone theology of JW.
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r51785
It's easy to fix this generation teaching by playing with the numbers. First change the starting date of 607 BCE to 587 BCE. Then change the method of calculating the number of days in the seven times. The WT currently says 360 x 7 = 2520 days. But if you use a solar year calculation you get 365.25 x 7 = 2556.75 days. Change the days to years and you get the seven gentile times as 2556.75 years starting in 587 BCE. Voila, the new year for the beginning of the last days is 1971. Well earth shattering event happened in 1971 to signal the beginning of the last days. 1971 was the year the Governing Body was founded.
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Beth Sarim
1971 GB Viola.
Its always about the the governing body,, praise and adoration about them.
Now isn't it?
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Black Sheep
It isn't a question for here. It's a question for the Super Dub family member who still claims to believe everything that is printed and preached by the GB.
Ask the question, then don't let them change the subject to weasel their way out of giving you an honest answer.
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aqwsed12345
The “generation” doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses stands as one of the most convoluted, ad hoc, and transparently manipulative interpretations ever advanced by a religious authority desperate to prop up a failed apocalyptic prophecy. It is the exegetical equivalent of repeatedly moving the goalposts, then painting bulls-eyes wherever the latest Watchtower dart happens to land. As the online discussion thread you shared so vividly demonstrates, even current and former Witnesses recognize the sheer absurdity of the doctrine’s ever-shifting definitions—a “generation” that stretches across two, three, or even more lifetimes, retrofitted again and again to accommodate the embarrassing passage of time since 1914.
Let us briefly revisit the embarrassing trajectory of this teaching. For decades, Jehovah’s Witnesses were told in no uncertain terms that Armageddon would strike before the last person born prior to 1914 died. This was the “clear light” of Jehovah’s channel, the sacred timetable that justified urgent life-altering choices—foregoing education, career, marriage, and even children—all for the sake of a “short time remaining.” Yet as the years ticked by and the 1914 generation slipped inexorably into the grave, Watchtower’s teaching did not receive a heavenly update, but a series of cynical bureaucratic revisions. In 1995, when the “generation” of 1914 was visibly dwindling to nothing, the doctrine was hastily redefined: now it meant an unspecified mass of “wicked contemporaries,” and—how convenient!—no longer marked any definable window at all. The sense of urgency evaporated, and with it, the growth rate of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
By 2010, sensing the collapse of this key motivational engine, the Governing Body unveiled a doctrine so bizarre and logically bankrupt it can only be described as theological duct tape. Now, a “generation” was reimagined as two groups of “anointed” whose lives overlapped: the first being those “on hand” in 1914, the second being those who would live to see Armageddon. How long is such a “generation”? Why, as long as necessary! In practice, it could span centuries. If that starts to sound like the chain-letter of doomsday prophecies, where each new recipient adds a few more names to the “generation,” that’s because it is. The doctrine now functions like an immortal baton, handed off through an unbroken relay of overlapping lives, always promising the finish line is “near,” but never actually arriving. Only in the world of Watchtower eisegesis could a “generation” mean the combined lifespans of two or more non-contemporaneous cohorts—something no linguist, historian, or biblical scholar would ever endorse.
JW apologists argue that this is somehow supported by Exodus 1:6, the account of “all that generation” of Joseph dying. Yet even a cursory reading exposes the sleight of hand: Joseph and his brothers were literally siblings, close in age, their lives naturally overlapping. This is just the normal pattern of generations—overlapping, but still discrete, as every genealogist and demographer knows. The Watchtower’s tortured analogy is like arguing that because grandparents and grandchildren are alive at the same time, they belong to the same generation. By this logic, “generation” loses all meaning—why not include great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and so on, until the doctrine can be stretched as far as needed to avoid another humiliating “adjustment”? Even Watchtower literature prior to 2010 admitted this overlap doesn’t create a single generation but multiple ones. Suddenly, the Governing Body “discovers” otherwise, precisely when their timetable demands a new escape hatch. Is this “new light,” or a classic case of theological panic?
JW apologists claim that “contemporary witnesses of the signs” is the real meaning of genea in Matthew 24:34, but this is nothing more than special pleading. In every normal usage, both in ancient Greek and in common English, a “generation” refers to the collective body of people born within the same approximate time period—usually about 30 years, give or take. The Watchtower itself admitted this for decades, as have standard lexicons and dictionaries. To spin “generation” as a floating window, gluing together anyone whose lives overlap with any surviving member of the 1914 cohort, is pure revisionism—an invention with no precedent in either secular or biblical usage.
Nor can Watchtower escape the charge of motivated reasoning by appeals to Exodus or Genesis. The idea that Joseph’s generation in Egypt consisted of everyone “who entered Egypt” is a simple demographic reality, not some mystical two-phase group whose lives overlap in perpetuity. To use this to justify the modern “overlap” theory is like arguing that because the British royal family exists over centuries, they are a single generation. No one would take this seriously in any field except Watchtower apologetics, which must constantly manufacture “new light” to keep the flock anxious, loyal, and above all, busy.
Further, the notion that the “generation” in Matthew 24:34 has anything to do with “anointed ones” is an arbitrary invention with no basis in the text. When Jesus used “this generation” (genea), he was referring to his contemporaries—those alive to see both the signs and their fulfillment. The parallel with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD is obvious and confirmed by the immediate literary context. There is not the slightest evidence that Jesus had in mind some double-fulfillment, let alone an elastic time span based on overlapping lives of future generations. The Witnesses’ own literature admits that the “anointed class” did not even exist until after Pentecost, years after Jesus spoke the words in question.
Even the linguistic argument is risible. JW apologists argue that the Bible defines a “generation” at Exodus 1:5, 6—as if this single verse can override the plain, ubiquitous meaning of genea and dor throughout Scripture and in every relevant lexicon. Strong’s, Bauer, and secular dictionaries alike consistently define “generation” as “all the people born about the same time,” “a group of contemporaries,” or “the average time between a parent’s birth and the birth of their offspring.” To spin this as compatible with Watchtower’s overlapping-anointed theory is intellectual dishonesty of the highest order. Even the Watchtower itself, in previous decades, acknowledged that multiple generations can overlap, each remaining distinct—until such time as their timetable required a sudden reversal.
Behind all this exegetical contortionism lies a much simpler truth: the Watchtower’s apocalyptic foundation was built on sand. The leadership has been moving the “generation” goalposts for more than a century, always with the aim of maintaining urgency, devotion, and above all, the organization’s own authority. Every new explanation has been rolled out only after the failure of the last. Witnesses who shaped their entire lives around a “short time remaining” have watched as their hopes were dashed and the doctrine quietly “adjusted.” Yet we are told this is evidence of God’s guidance, of “light getting brighter.” In reality, it is the mark of a human institution running from its own failed prophecies.
In the end, the only “generation” that the Watchtower’s teaching truly describes is a generation of believers whose loyalty is exploited by leaders more interested in preserving organizational credibility than in honest biblical exegesis. The doctrine is not “new light,” but an ever-lengthening shadow cast by the failures of a century’s worth of shifting prophecy. The sooner Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize that the Governing Body is just another group of religious prognosticators improvising as their deadlines expire, the sooner they can reclaim their lives from the tyranny of artificial urgency and endless “overlapping” generations.
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Ron.W.
Don't know why there is any confusion when Dave 'Diddy' Splane explained it so masterfully??
Seriously, thanks to the above posters for the detailed explanations - most helpful, as was this overview.
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/generation.php
A word of caution, just don't ask a current PIMI JW to explain t to you. I've tried. They haven't got a fu$$en clue, and quickly gravitate to accusing you of lacking faith or being an 'apostate'!