by stillajwexelder 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
What then of the 35 years prior to 1914 when C.T. Russell was warning that the end was coming 40 years after 1874 (Christ's first invisible presence)? Was that a false start?
For all of you Moms, Nurses or Doctors out there, we could call these the Braxton-Hicks years!
Annie
Braxton-Hicks years...
LOL Loved that comment.
nbsp means what? can't figure it out. john
Hi John,
& n b s p is HTML code for a non-breaking space character. It is supposed to be invisible, like King Jesus, and the fact that it is now visible means we are living in the last days. Skeptics will say that it is a minor software glitch, but recall the promise, "every eye shall see  "
sATURDAY mORNING - The Days Text Incites Heartfelt Obedience Gen 6 vs 3
O.K. you guys. So what do we do with "this generation shall by no means pass away". What generation? How long is a "generation". There is no way in hell that 120 years makes sense as a generation, no matter what year you start from.
Rod P.
Rod, in about 1998 it was announced that "generation" didn't mean that. It was some vague explanation I didn't understand well. It was something like the contemporary group of people living around an event, but wasn't limited to 1914. Such as contemporary people living around anything I guess. It didn't make sense then and still doesn't.
patio 34,
Well, even if we said it in the context of "a contemporary group of people living around a certain point in time", I would think that makes a generation even narrower. If we say a generation starts when babies start being born in a particular year, then that allows for more years than it would if you said a generation of people already living around a certain time.
For example, I remember the old interpretation of "the generation of the people who were living in 1914" (the time of the second coming (parousia = presence, invisibly in the heavens). This was the generation that would by no means pass away. But now everybody knows that too much time has elapsed since then.
It is my understanding that a generation is basically a period of 25 years (give or take, but only very little, say a couple of years either way). If you look at it, that makes sense. How long does it take for a new generation to start on average. A boy and girl grow up, become adults, get married and have a kid. Let's say the average age for this is 25 years, give or take. That is a much more valid definition of a "generation" than the kind of mumbo jumbo I gather is coming out of the WBTS.
The only thing is, people get married and have kids every year in the context of society as a whole. So that's why we should not take a "generation" too literally as 25 or so years, because of the year after year situation. So, we need to allow a period of time in a number of years to say this is the generation of the 1910's or the 1920's or the 1930's. Now I am willing to concede even an extra 25 years as a time spread during which 25 years of babies can be born. But the ones that are born the most recently (i.e. in the 25th year) would be the measuring point from which to count forward for 25 years to mark the end of that "generation". In short, this would allow something like a total of 50 years for a generation to come into being and then be replaced by the next succeeding generation. That is the context in which I would interpret "this generation shall by no means pass away...".
But 120 years?? No way.
Now, I am not picking on you. I am simply responding to what you heard someone else was saying. I just don't think the JW's or someone from the GB can preach this new interpretation and make it stick or convincing in any kind of context, and certainly not in terms of Noah. And if they do begin to teach that, then all I can say is they must be grasping at straws in their desperation to keep their eye on the end of this system of things they are so anxious to see. They must be bone-weary of this wicked old world, and want to get on with living in the new world. Up till now it's been "hurry up and wait".
Maybe this member of the GB is trying to drum up another excuse to get the Witnesses all excited once more. After all, dates have always been a ready formula for their success. Now, if they had a new date, they could light a new fire under the R&F to get out there preaching about the new world just around the next corner, so they can bring in a bunch more new sheep. I suspect what this GB guy sees on the horizon is scary to contemplate (i.e. dwindling numbers due to lack of interest and mass exodus due to disillusion and lack of faith). Gotta get sumpin' goin' here!
What if he is trying out this "new idea" on the attendees at a few conventions to test the reaction. Kind of like "test marketing research". If the response is good, then maybe the next step is to adopt it as "new light", and away they go again!
Rod P.
No wonder the JWs were so jazzed up when they came into the art gallery with their badges gleaming. It was an invasion I tell ya.
A generation became an open-ended group; that is, people living in 1914 and people born in 2005 are part of the same generation, and people born in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, etc.
120 years for Noah was a finite period of time. I think the WTS is trying to back track from the disaster of the change in the 1914 generation and attaching a beginning and ending date to make a finite period of time now.
Amazingly, on another thread I found that the WTS was talking about 6,000 years ending in 1975 in 1955, 11 years before the start of the 1975 push in 1966.
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w55 2/1 p. 95 Questions from Readers ***According to Genesis 1:24-31 Adam was created during the last part of the sixth creative-day period of 7,000 years. Almost all independent chronologists assume incorrectly that, as soon as Adam was created, then began Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period of the creative week. Such then figure that from Adam’s creation, now thought to be the fall of 4025 B.C., why, six thousand years of God’s rest day would be ending in the fall of 1976. However, from our present chronology (which is admitted imperfect) at best the fall of the year 1976 would be the end of 6,000 years of human history for mankind, 6,000 years of man’s existence on the earth, not 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh seven-thousand-year period. Why not? Because Adam lived some time after his creation in the latter part of Jehovah’s sixth creative period, before the seventh period, Jehovah’s sabbath, began.
Why, it must have taken Adam quite some time to name all the animals, as he was commissioned to do. Further, it appears from the New World Bible Translation that, even while Adam was naming the animals, other family kinds of living creatures were being created for Adam to designate by name. (Gen. 2:19 footnote d, NW) It was not until after Adam completed this assignment of work that his helpmate Eve was created. Since God created nothing new whatever on the seventh day, Eve must have been created on the sixth day; and this the divine record confirms in its account of the sixth day: "God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them."—Gen. 1:27, NW.
The very fact that, as part of Jehovah’s secret, no one today is able to find out how much time Adam and later Eve lived during the closing days of the sixth creative period, so no one can now determine when six thousand years of Jehovah’s present rest day come to an end. Obviously, whatever amount of Adam’s 930 years was lived before the beginning of that seventh-day rest of Jehovah, that unknown amount would have to be added to the 1976 date.
