generation shift - 1995 or 1984?

by sonofapreacherman 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  sonofapreacherman

  Thanks for all your comments.

  I do not wish to sully the good name of my anonymous aunt. She did paste the top half of the article - everything under the headings 1914—The Generation That Will Not Pass Away and What Happens Next? which I should have read through more carefully before posting. However, while she sent the top half of the article she kept my focus on the first three paragraphs, which tell their own story when read in isolation. She said that showed that while the society had speculated on various definitions of this generation over time, that it was now clearer that the Robert Wohl idea of a generation was applicable.

  I still have to admit that I should have read through the rest more thoroughly. A lingering aversion to reading WT writings.
  I will follow this up with my aunt in a couple of weeks. Her elder son is getting married in the meantime and it is not the time to open up old wounds.

  Gopher said: "Anyone who was around the organization then who says it didn't create a big stir is simply lying."

  Although I wasn't there at the time, I can imagine the impact. Especially as this is the one development that my relentlessly-trying-to-get-me-back-in family never mentioned to me. I think that speaks volumes of how upsetting it was to them.
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  Alwayshere

  But what did he mean when he spoke of a generation that would not pass away?

  Since he was talking to his Disciples when he said "this generation", he meant their generation. The WS says it has a greater fullfillment but Jesus no where, says it does. They have to say it does so they can throw that 1914 in. All of Matthew chapter 24 was fullfilled in the 1st century.They were living in the last days of their generation. No where in the Bible does it say 1914 was the beginning of the last days. But WS can't drop the 1914 so when the end didn't come in 1914, they changed 1914 to "the beginning of the last days". They will always have "new light" because this seems to work with those still trapped in that cult.
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  Netty

  Anyone who was around the organization then who says it didn't create a big stir is simply lying.

  Sad, but very, very true. I know this, it jus happened to me with a conversation I had with my father about the generation change. He said, since I had been away for so long, I was just getting confused, the society never said, (what I thought they said). Good Luck getting through to your aunt.
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  garybuss

  run dont walk wrote:
  All reference to 1914 is now deleted, presenting evidence of this crucial change, as well as, in effect, indicating that “the Creator” has somehow changed his mind on his “promise” tied to the 1914 generation.
  Good point! Not only has the "Creator" changed his mind about the importance of the message contained in Awake! magazine, he also changed his mind about the importance of Awake! magazine itself. Some people who might find me included in their number, think the Watch Tower Printing Corporation is the "creator" of all the contents of all the literature and manuscripts they have ever produced.
  
  If not, we might be seeing the cut and paste of an incredible as well as malevolent deity. The Society's like a magic show . . . except they promise the magic act but never bring it out . . . and the audience keeps returning day after day, week after week, year after year, in hopes of seeing the promised magic show . . . then they get to be 85 years old and they go on a assembly program and tell the audience of waiters that they don't have any regrets. The 85 years of waiting for nothing has been great.
  
  It all chapped my ass over 30 years ago and the same bozos are still warming the same chairs in their upgraded Kingdom Halls. Virtually all of the Witness people who wrote the publications about never dying and the Witnesses who read them to me are dead. In 1957 I was baptized at 12 years old because according to the family merit doctrine, family merit expires at puberty. In 1957 the Witness people told me I'd never graduate from high school, that Armageddon would be here before 1962. Those Witnesses are mostly all dead.
  
  Do ya think I did good in school with that crap pounded in my head 5 meetings a week?
  
  
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  Pistoff

  Do ya think I did good in school with that crap pounded in my head 5 meetings a week

  Excellent point, Gary; in my generation one who worked hard at school was somehow just missing the point: this is worldy wisdom, it will only help you get a career in this old system, and this old system will not be around in (insert here:) 5, 10, 15 years, or maybe TOMORROW!!.

  Even now, when supposedly the WT has stopped discouraging college, they still discourage college by indirectly poking fun at it or decreasing it's perceived value in the eyes of the young, making disparaging references to "worldly wisdom", "empty philosophies of men", etc. (OR the old chestnut of: is this really the best use of your time? Or should you be pioneering? Most young people are unable to resist that guilt trip, and so think of pioneering instead. Then they pioneer, realize (maybe unconsciously) what a waste of time it is, or they feel the need to marry and raise children and so enter the work force undereducated. With the influx of cheap labor into the US, even the trades won't save them as it did my generation.)

  They hate education; they know that extended education liberates most people who are paying attention.

  A comparative religion class works wonders to many.
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  sonofapreacherman

  Netty and garybuss,

  This is the thing that rankles me -- the lack of contrition. When the magic show audience doesn't get the magic show they were promised, they still calamour to the defence of the magician and treat the sane observer with contempt.
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  Jourles

  This change set off quite a stir in the organization back in 1995.

  Anyone who was around the organization then who says it didn't create a big stir is simply lying.

  Well I was there. Lived it. Breathed it. But I never noticed a jolt in the congregation(s). Personally, I was sort of shocked. But I went on with my duties as usual. It wasn't until a few years later that I couldn't believe how smart the WTS was in implementing that tactic.

  If it really created a stir, I never noticed it outwardly. People must have kept it to themselves for the most part. But those who left post-1995 will most likely tell you that the generation change was probably one of the main reasons for eventually leaving.