I was discussing the 1914 "this generation" doctrine with my JW mother the other day and she said something that made me laugh my head off. I told her that the WTS were wrong on this belief so why does she put so much faith in them. She told me that JW's were not wrong on this believe but just back off being so dogmatic about it but that they still feel that the generation of 1914 will see the end come. She mentioned to me that 1914 is only 91 years ago and many people are over 100 years now. Some of them are JW's and will see the end come. She said that some of the Governing body members are well in their 90's. She feels that they would constitute "this generation" of 1914. I don't think there are many JW's in their 90's alive today so that theory crumbles. My mom is a sweet person and I love her dearly but she just defends the WTS no matter what bullcrap they dish out.
Could JW's return to the "generation of 1914" teaching and still be true?
by booker-t 17 Replies latest jw experiences
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blondie
The WTS has flipflopped on doctrines in the past.
1879-1929 Superior authorities are secular governments
1929-1962 Superior authorities are God and Jesus
1962-now Superior authorities are secular governments
But I doubt it in this case.
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garybuss
I wrote an article about this in 1997. It's,
"Generation" Concept Returns!
at:
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TheEdge
Just read your article Gary - super read - and got me thinking. I believe the ''END'' was prophesied for 1914 - and from what I've read there have been other dates. My PERSONAL experience was 1975 - which became 1976 as that year came to a close, (which recently a JW DENIED that 1975 was ever prophesied as a date for A ) . What I'd like to know is - have the JW gone from one date to another? ie, when 1914 passed, was another date announced? I also have a vague recollection of 1980 - something. And what was the last date prophesied (and with WHAT logic?) and is there a next one ? - sorry for droning on
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blondie
Well, Gary, they probably have to wait for the "generation of 1995" to die off a bit. A technique the WTS uses is to stop mentioning a doctrine for some time and then slowly slips in the adjusted teaching.
One example is the teaching that a creative day is 7,000 years long on which the date 1975 was founded. The last mention was in a 1987 WT. Now when referring to a creative day they refer to an ambiguous "thousands of years."
In the 1988 Insight volumes we see this change:
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it-1 p. 545 Creation ***And, since the seventh day has been continuing for thousands of years, it may reasonably be concluded that each of the six creative periods, or days, was at least thousands of years in length.
And from then on, creative days are described this way. Never an article, never a Question from Readers.
Several old-time JWs did not catch that change and when the book below was studied, answered at the book study that a creative day was 7,000 years long and the conductor (who never was around for 1975), corrected them wondering where they ever got such a bizarre idea....
Creator book (1998) chap. 6 p. 93 An Ancient Creation Record?Can You Trust It? ***
The fact is, the Bible reveals that the creative "days," or ages, encompass thousands of years.
So I can see the WTS avoiding the "generation of 1914" issue for awhile, waiting for there to be enough turnover either through death and leaving the WTS, to slowly reintroduce a form of the teaching.
It will be interesting to see what they slip in on the topic between 1995 and that time.
Blondie
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garybuss
Yes Edge, When 1914 failed, the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation produced literature shows that 1915, 1918, and 1925 were selected end time dates. World War 2 was also predicted to be the start of Armageddon.
At least the Witness people have been consistent. -
TheEdge
they probably have to wait for the "generation of 1995" to die off a bit.
1995? have I missed something else? lol - and I NEVER knew where the 1975 thing came from - I just had to accept it as a FACT. Now I see it's just bad maths with no foundation.
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blondie
It was a joke, TheEdge.
Generation of 1914
in 11/1/1995 article ending that teaching
people living then-----Generation of 1995
Just a joke.
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TD
The introductory wording is
Amen (Truly) lego (I say) humin (to you) hoti (that) ou me (not not)......
Many older JW's will try to weaken the force of this negation to mean something to the effect of "Not entirely" or "Not completely." I've noticed this with my wife's parents.
In this way, they feel that if even the smallest handful of those who saw 1914 are still alive today, than the old (pre 1995) interpretation is still viable.
However that's not really what was said. The intensive negative not - not doesn't mean "Not entirely" it means, "Not at all" and consequently doesn't describe a situation where 99% of the generation in question has passed away.
I think the older JW's know, even if they can't put it in words, that something is seriously wrong with their end-times interpretations.
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garybuss
A very light read of the history of the Watch Tower movement shows that the generation tied to 1914 teaching was a figurative grasping of a doctrinal straw. The 1914 generation was the fifth fix of the first failure in the direct line to William Miller's original prediction for 1843. The first failure was 1843, then 1844, then 1874, then 1914, then the generation tied to the 1914 failure. That leaves out 1915, 1918, 1925, and of course 1975. The Watch Tower's end time predictions are so full of holes that if they were a boat they would have sunk long ago. Now the religious straw is gone too.
Now they are turning to traditional apocalyptic Christianity's 2000 year old prediction of the soon return of Christ as their end time message. The problem with that strategy is that traditional apocalyptic religion does not provide the motivation necessary to get people to follow the rather boring un fun behaviors of the Witness group and traditional apocalyptism is not compelling enough to get enough new people to reject their lives and families and join the Witness groups. In my opinion, if a new date is not set soon the groups are in danger of substantial reduction of active followers and it's the "active" followers who consume the products and raise the money.
This is a group who has historically had a date or an explicit promise such as the generation of 1914 teaching to work for. The promised reward was always within easy reach of the current bunch of followers. Now it is not.