| According to an article on the Freeminds site - http://www.freeminds.org/history/new1914.htm - there was a "pre-new-light" talk at the '93 convention. I think this is what I'm remembering so clearly. Excerpt from the Freeminds article: 1993 Convention Talks Two special talks, "What Will Be The Sign of Your Presence?" and "Tell Us, When Will These Things Be?" were given on Saturday afternoon of their 1993 Divine Teaching District Conventions. These were meant to prepare the way for "new light" on their teaching that we are living in the generation that will see the end of the world, with a view to changing such understanding. The changes or "clarifications" being made by the Governing Body in 1993 with regards to their understanding of Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13 were as follows: 1) When Matt. 24:14 says "then the end will come" this initially refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and WAS IN REFERENCE TO THE JEWISH SYSTEM OF WORSHIP. (Previously, they had a hard time applying this "end" to the first century events.) Verse 14 was understood as applying primarily in our day, and not to the end of the Jewish system. But as will be seen, they now leaned towards making more of the passage apply to the first century than was previously acknowledged. 2) The application of Matt. 24:29 which says, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven will be shaken" has been changed to a more "realistic" interpretation. (Previously, "immediately after" actually meant almost 2000 years later, meaning that the celestial events did not occur until our day! The celestial events were interpreted to mean the proliferation of rockets, satellites, etc. that made the heavens appear ominous-see WT 3/1/83, p. 27.) But now, the Governing Body is saying that the celestial events had their initial fulfillment during the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., but will also have a greater fulfillment after the start of the great tribulation. Since the WT recognizes Acts 2:14-21 to be an account similar to Matt. 24:29, they now interpret both in somewhat the same way. Since the events that occurred in Acts surrounding Pentecost did not seem to include "the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood," this apparently referred more to the events that occurred a few years later in 70 A.D. (Josephus the Jewish historian records the occurrences of "rain, lightning, and darkness" as accompanying the destruction of Jerusalem.) These signs would occur even more so in the secondary, or contemporary fulfillment of events (in the form of an attack on all other religions during the "great tribulation." Similarly, Matt. 24:30, 31 is interpreted as occurring after the beginning of the great tribulation. After its beginning (verse 29), the "sign of the Son of man that appears in heaven, the tribes of the earth beating themselves, and the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and glory" will be manifest. (Supposedly "obvious" due to the cataclysmic nature of events that will occur.) No new change here, but a clarification is made with regards to verse 31: The angels are sent forth to gather the chosen (remaining "anointed") ones DURING this time period, and not before! So, technically, the "gathering" of the anointed has not happened yet. The choosing has already occurred (as previously understood), but not the gathering of the "remnant." The point is, verses 29-31 technically apply only during the great tribulation! | |
Posts by lucky
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43Latest WT study article - preparation for upcoming new light?
by truth_about_the_truth in.
the latest wt study article seemed like an article to prep the masses for 'new light' to be revealed in the very near future.. i have never seen an article like this one where they summarized their 'flashes of light' in their history in this manner and bombarded the minds with the need to accept all and any change within the org.. it could be for the purpose of getting the rank and file to accept a pretty big change or a series of big changes very soon.. what do you think?
what do you think it'll be?.
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lucky
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35
JW child molester, Rick McClean, to be profiled on America's Most Wanted
by SixofNine inapril 15, i believe.. and for anyone who knew rick mcclean, the fbi could really use your help.
(i can get you the proper number, if you pm me).
link to a thread with details on mcclean: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/8/106553/1.ashx
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lucky
Ooops! Sorry I posted this in the wrong thread. Please ignore.
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43
Latest WT study article - preparation for upcoming new light?
by truth_about_the_truth in.
the latest wt study article seemed like an article to prep the masses for 'new light' to be revealed in the very near future.. i have never seen an article like this one where they summarized their 'flashes of light' in their history in this manner and bombarded the minds with the need to accept all and any change within the org.. it could be for the purpose of getting the rank and file to accept a pretty big change or a series of big changes very soon.. what do you think?
what do you think it'll be?.
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lucky
Maybe my convention got "lucky" and had a bethelite speaker jumping the gun, but I can clearly remember the talk at the convention announcing the generation change. It was a life changing moment for me (see my previous post in this thread). I can remember exactly where I was sitting in the stadium and that my heart started beating a mile a minute. And I remember that my mom called me after the convention (I lived in a different state) to talk about it with me, because I had mentioned years previously that it was a big issue for me, so there must have been something along those lines at her convention, too.
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Latest WT study article - preparation for upcoming new light?
by truth_about_the_truth in.
the latest wt study article seemed like an article to prep the masses for 'new light' to be revealed in the very near future.. i have never seen an article like this one where they summarized their 'flashes of light' in their history in this manner and bombarded the minds with the need to accept all and any change within the org.. it could be for the purpose of getting the rank and file to accept a pretty big change or a series of big changes very soon.. what do you think?
what do you think it'll be?.
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lucky
I definitely remember the 1914 generation "new light" being at a convention, before it was in the watchtower. I can remember sitting stunned in my seat at the convention and thinking "ok, this is it, I'm out" (when I was 11 or 12, I had decided that if the society ever changed its tune on that teaching, it was my sign that it was not the truth) while everyone around me didn't even seem to think it was that big a deal.
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Rural Service
by buffalosrfree inrural service was always the most fun for me and my family.
we loved it.
i almost always drove out there and i mean out there from 14 to 25 miles from the hall we drove and then spent at least 1/2 of the day or all day out there in the "door to door" service.
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lucky
I pioneered for awhile in a super rural cong. where the farthest away territory was something like 100 miles. Most of the roads were dirt and not very well maintained, so you needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to lots of the territory. Sometimes we'd put in 10 hour days and only make it to a handful of houses. It was great. I sure wouldn't want to be doing it now, though, with the price of gas and the poor gas mileage of those vehicles.
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42
Getting Busted w/ Love Letters
by OpenFireGlass in.
love letters were the demise for many of the kids in congregations that i attended growing up..... i know i ended up in the library/back room several times for this (hopless romantic/ sagitarius) even put on public reproof for it.
(though i believe it was my dad's idea to have the elders put me on public reproof so that he could have more control over me).
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lucky
I was really lucky. When I was in high school, I worked for an elder in our congregation after school. His son and I had a little thing going (unbeknownst to my mom), but the elder was actually cool with it. He actually DELIVERED letters back and forth between his son and me at work, so we wouldn't have to do it and risk getting caught at the KH (we went to different schools). I remember one time when I gave him a letter to deliver he asked me if I really liked his son, because his son really liked me, and I said, "I don't know". He told me that maybe I shouldn't have written his son's name all over the envelope in tiny little letters like 500 times because maybe I was getting his hopes up too much!
In retrospect, I guess it's not too amazing that he (the elder) got df'd for having an affair a couple years later. He definitely was the coolest elder in our congregation. My mom would have killed me if she'd ever found the letters (I had a good hiding place in my closet - even though my room regularly got searched, she never found the letters). I burned them eventually. I wish I would have kept them - they'd probably be a riot to read now.
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!!!BREAKING NEWS!!!
by SickofLies inthe onion .
search news archives .
i say, let the good lord do the suffering for you," she said.
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lucky
for those of you "non-onion" savvy readers, The Onion is not a real newspaper - it's satirical.
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46
Best, worst and weirdest assembly halls...
by Jamelle ina recent thread about the experience of attending the 1969 convention as a young child really started me thinking.
i have several fuzzy memories of assemblies i attended as very young child.
this got me onto the track of the rather odd, uncomfortable or even really cool buildings i have visited over the years as a result of those conventions.. so my questions to everyone are:.
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lucky
I think the worst convention was as a child at Candlestick Park in SF. It was freezing in the morning and boiling in the afternoon.
The best convention was at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island when we went to visit my grandparents. They lived 5 minutes away from the coliseum and my grandfather would drop us off at the front door in the morning and come pick us up and we'd go home at lunch and go swimming every day. We never wanted to go back for the afternoon session, though.
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Parents' reaction to the baby
by Nosferatu ini know i'm telling you guys this a bit late, but i really needed to let it sink in.
we told my parents about the baby sooner than we had planned.
we told them last friday.
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lucky
Nos,
I'm so sorry. I recently found out that my husband and I are expecting our first child and I was terrified of telling my JW mom, expecting a reaction similar to that of your parents. I initially decided I wasn't going to tell her for awhile, but I was getting very stressed just anticipating the reaction and decided to get it over with. My heart was beating a million miles a minute and I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I told her. She was thrilled. I was SO relieved. We only talked briefly because she was headed off to the bookstudy, but a weight was lifted off my shoulders. The next day, though, she called and told me she thought I should get a new blood card (I've been "inactive" for 9 years now) and went on and on about how I needed to be careful because something could go wrong and I wouldn't want to have blood and blah blah blah. Since then, though, she's been pretty good, but I can totally relate to your concerns about your parents future influence. I'm worried, too, about the future with birthdays and holidays and preaching and all of that. My husband has already put his foot down against unsupervised visits to grandma, for fear of attempts at conversion.
I really hope your parents come around and become excited. Babies are pretty hard to be mad at!
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Watchtower "study" - a puzzle for drones
by Gregor inok, here's how you prepare for the watchtower study.
come on, it's fun!
an unmarked copy of the watchtower for thewt study that week.
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lucky
I still occasionally have nightmares that I'm at the meeting and my Watchtower isn't underlined. They're worse than those school dreams where you show up for the calculus final but haven't been to class all semester.