i would like to ask the ex-jws on this site to put their ‘apologists hat’ back on for a moment, so that i can go through the overlapping generation teaching in an attempt to make sense of it.
i apologise if these points have already been addressed on this site.a quick background for the reason for my request… having never confronted a jw apologist on the topic, i recently engaged with a jw regarding the official understanding of a ‘generation’ and unfortunately he didn’t have an answer to the points i was making.
i was left a little confused as to what the official jw response would/should be.so i was hoping that my thoughts below might be considered from an apologist’s perspective.the point in question relates to this section of the watchtower article below from 2008, as well as the jw.org video explanation of the overlapping generation:---:w08 2/15[box on page 25] can we calculate the length of “this generation”?the word “generation” usually refers to people of various ages whose lives overlap during a particular time period or event.
Personally I think you could just about argue that 120 years is a generation, at an absolute stretch, because it is the outer limit of a human lifespan. This would correspond with the 120 years as “days of Noah” and bring us up to 2034.
I suspect that the Org would scramble to find a way to extend the generation. Perhaps they would ask for a very old Jdub volunteer to be permanent connected to life support machines for 50 years in order to say that actually the generation is still alive.
kingdom halls will be the thing of the past.. conventions (mini assembly halls will still be going on) but will charge for attending and parking and always a donation.
elders will play a much smaller role since csa.
cart preaching will replace door to door.
They just struggle on and readjust to the shrinking numbers as best they can until there is no one left.
One has to wonder the level of spin from Org to excuse fading numbers, especially when it becomes too obvious. They are already massaging the number in innovating ways. They might have to resort to stop counting altogether. Or maybe they'll start counting visits to the website as members of the religion. They will need to cover the bleeding somehow.
I know I've heard my mother say several times that even if there is only one person left, it will still be the true religion. Hard to beat that level of delusion.
thank you very much atlantis for all your hard work and for emailing a letter written by the watchtower (coming from the german branch possibly) to be read out to congregations by elders.. there is so much wrong in this letter.
maybe some of it is due to being lost in translation but since the watchtower is predominantly english, it doesn't seem likely.
the letter is as follows -.
It's just too bad that Jellohoba was too busy doing nothing and also couldn't send one of gzillion angels who were also busy doing nothing, and therefore couldn't protect those jdubs.
The Org never loses regardless of the outcome. If nobody attacks the Jdubs it's because Jellohoba protects them, and if someone attacks them it's because the prophecies are getting fulfilled and end is coming.
not a hint of a new date for the great tribulation.
the attitude of jw is that they expect it immediately although the inter-lapping anointed allows for any additional extended time.
given the time of the end, the end comes after the good news is preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations with the internet and 108 years and tons of publications even in finnish.
Most JWs don't step back and look at the big picture. They just live day by day. Another meeting, another book, another field circus outing, another convention, on and on they go on the rat race.
I see it in my own family. Waiting for the big A for decades, through failed prophecies and timelines, they just believe the latest "understanding".
There is never a moment when they take a step back and realize that they have been in holding pattern for decades supported by multiple iterations of failed predictions.
this has been announced on the jw's official website, in the "jw news" section.
this is not a joke.
anthony moron da turd is out as a gluttonous body member!
without a doubt this is a fallout from the Liquor Store affair.
The org needs to be careful. Nothing worse than a GB member who is scorned. He might leave and become another Ray Franz.
another example of jehovah protects his people except when he doesn't.
https://www.wifr.com/2023/02/12/rockford-police-54-year-old-man-shot-killed-vehicle/.
Nothing to see here. Just another democratic city sinking in crime infested waters.
Not to worry though, the brilliant citizens of Rockford Illinois will continue to vote for the party that is anti-police, supporter of criminals, negates personal responsibility, excuses personal failures with systemic issues, and spends the lion's share of their time racializing everything under the sun, and forcing equity by reducing standards.
i remember having read somewhere, but i cannot find it anymore, that it is possible to debunk the 1914 calculus using only jw publications, like "insight on the scriptures" (chronologies) for example.. do you have any sources about that to suggest to me?.
thanks..
Isn't it great that all of you are pulling out calculators and connecting world events to try to get to the truth of this?
Isn't it much better to just realize that only a useless (and devious) God would resort to expecting such mental gymnastics to arrive to a fairly straightforward fact?
Give me a god that would simply write down something like..... "oh and by the way, in the year 1914 my son Geeshuz will become king, so just be aware of it".
Now that's a real god.
jw magazines have claimed the flood story has so much detail that it couldn’t be just a made up story.. is it detailed?
name one person outside of noah’s family.
name one nephilim.
Humanly impossible, without modern engineering and equipment.
Well sure, but once you introduce the magic wand of Jellohoba then it becomes possible. After all he made polar bears and koalas fly over oceans to get to the ark. Why even make Noah build anything at all? Why wouldn't Jellohoba simply make an ark appear already built?
Somehow, god always takes the most cumbersome and difficult path to accomplish anything. He leaves zillions of angels sitting around doing nothing, while making pesky little humans struggle to do anything.
'last night's flccc weekly update featured stories of families who fought in court to compel hospitals to give their loved ones ivermectin.
that it has come to this is tragic.
63 studies have now shown ivermectin’s efficacy in all stages of c19 disease.'.
It's the circle of life.
Big Pharma buys everybody in sight ( campaign donations, education grants, media show sponsorships, job promises for govmnt regulators etc)
In turn, Big Pharma receives protection, legislation, media narratives that helps them push whatever product they want to sell at the expense of the public
Big Pharma makes billions from the sale of product, which helps them buy everybody in sight.
___
Want to end covid histeria? Simple. Force Big Pharma to sell vaccines at cost. No profiting from public emergencies. Within a week, vaccines will no longer be needed and in fact we'll magically be informed they are not that great and there is no point is producing them.
have you guys noticed, this year 2023 no more public edition magazines...i wonder how they are gonna spin that fact.
The Org is getting more and more insulated. They realize they actually don't need any worldly people. Money comes from jdubs anyway. No magazines mean money saving. Give jdubs a track that points everybody to the website.
Eventually they will do away with preaching altogether. Perhaps limit it to standing in a street corner where nobody approaches. All new members are kids of existing cult members. They are moving towards a self contained club. Members pay a fee (donations), and they don't need anybody outside of the club.
