Generation

[gfnslave]

So, I am reading in Matthew about how many generations there we're from the deportation from Babylon until the Christ, 14 generations. The way I do math 607 divided by 14 equals 43.3 years. This is how Scripture measures a generation.The way I see it since 1914 we have had 2 complete generations and are now working on a 3rd. According to Jesus shouldn't the end have come by now?

 

[Sarah gibson]

That's an interesting question   It can be answered many. Ways.  Only God can determine that. We will have to wait for the light to get brighter in time it will be come clear maybe humans look at things to much from different angles ?

[Ann O'Maly]

Also:

*** ka chap. 16 p. 296 par. 7 Completion of the Foretold “Sign” Nears ***

"Counted from the year of Jesus’ prophecy on the subject, the Jewish system of things had thirty-seven years yet to go, less than a generation with a life-span of forty years." 
 

*** it-1 p. 540 Wilderness Wanderings of Israel ***

"This brought Jehovah’s swift judgment: Forty years would pass before the nation would enter the Promised Land. By then, the faithless members of that generation would have died off."

So the questions are, 

• Could there be a flaw in the Org's eschatology?
• If so, what is it?
• Could there be more than one flaw?

This would be a fruitful research project for you, Sarah. 

 

[Giannis Diamantis]

It is my humble opinion that the generation scenario that started from Millerites, is completely wrong because takes as given that the prophecy of Jesus about the distraction of Jerusalem will have a second fulfillment. No! we do not know if there will be a generation from 1914 (or whatever date) until the end. This is not scriptural, no one knows except the Father. If someone gives dates is a false prophet. if someone says the light will be brighter ... in order to prophecy is a dangerous person. We Christians of the last days ... we are no Prophets! We must have love ... this is our characteristic.

[JW Insider]

Ann,

That's a very powerful combination of points. I remember when Brother Schroeder at Bethel was getting himself involved in the "generation" debate. He needed to look at all uses of "generation" in contexts that implied a time-frame. He was willing to go to Josephus, Philo, the Pseudepigrapha. He was not really satisfied with any of the solutions that went beyond 40 years. He was willing to go with either the solution that it meant the "wicked" generation or the "anointed" generation but, either way,he still wanted it to be within 40 years. 

So it shouldn't have been surprising that he came up with the idea that, because of Sputnik, October 4, 1957 was the new, updated start of the generation that saw the full sign, because it had to include the "signs in the 'heavens'" including the idea that men would become 'faint out of fear.' It's also interesting that even though we have never claimed that Jerusalem fell in October, or that Zedekiah was removed from his throne in October, we still love the idea of October as the start of the Gentile Times. Not just October, but October 4th. 

*** w79 9/15 p. 24 par. 11 The “Cup” That All Nations Must Drink at God’s Hand *** [1979]
But the reason simply is that about October 4/5, 1914, or 2,520 years from the desolating of Judah and Jerusalem after the Babylonian conquest, the Gentile Times of uninterrupted world domination ended.

Note the wording of the very first line on http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/

"History changed on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I.".

1957 + 40 = 1997, and he was also sure that the end would come before the end of the 20th century. The proposal was in 1980, and therefore he was sure that we had less than 17 years left in this old system.

*** w80 7/1 p. 3 Keep Watching! *** [1980]
Truly, the possibility that the “unthinkable” could happen provides good reason for thinking about the world situation. And many people are thinking. A special report in the February 11, 1980, issue of U.S. News & World Report analyzed the military might of the leading nations on earth, with these opening words: “To a fearfully watching world, the Soviet Union today looks like a military juggernaut, driving relentlessly toward global domination.” This is indeed a fearfully watching world, for the kind of holocaust that would accompany a nuclear war simply beggars the imagination. And there is no question that global domination has in fact become a major issue of our times.
Is there any solution to this doomsday situation? Many persons watch in despair. They see the nations ‘beefing it up’ in terms of rockets, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, long-range bombers, nuclear warheads and the like. As they watch, they become painfully aware that fearful dangers now threaten from the heavens and the sea, even as the Master, Jesus, foretold for the final days of the wicked system of things on this earth. Jesus said:

“There will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs. Also, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish of nations, not knowing the way out because of the roaring of the sea and its agitation, while men become faint out of fear and expectation of the things coming upon the inhabited earth; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”—Luke 21:11, 25, 26.

In this context, it's easier to understand why Brother Schroeder was able to propose the following, with the approval of two other members of the Governing Body and propose it to the entire Governing Body.on March 5 of the same year, 1980:

 

 

 

[gfnslave]

22 hours ago, Ann O'Maly said:

Also:

*** ka chap. 16 p. 296 par. 7 Completion of the Foretold “Sign” Nears ***

"Counted from the year of Jesus’ prophecy on the subject, the Jewish system of things had thirty-seven years yet to go, less than a generation with a life-span of forty years." 
 

*** it-1 p. 540 Wilderness Wanderings of Israel ***

"This brought Jehovah’s swift judgment: Forty years would pass before the nation would enter the Promised Land. By then, the faithless members of that generation would have died off."

So the questions are, 

• Could there be a flaw in the Org's eschatology?
• If so, what is it?
• Could there be more than one flaw?

This would be a fruitful research project for you, Sarah. 

 

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your use of Scripture to interpret Scripture. It seems a generation is not as long as some think.

[Ann O'Maly]

18 minutes ago, gfnslave said:

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your use of Scripture to interpret Scripture. It seems a generation is not as long as some think.

What do you make of the current idea about 2 groups of anointed overlapping with one another which comprises one generation?

Oh and when I said,

This would be a fruitful research project for you, Sarah. 

I meant to put your name as you were the OP. Should worn my reading glasses. 

[Evacuated]

 

On 3/13/2016 at 13:32, gfnslave said:

So, I am reading in Matthew about how many generations there we're from the deportation from Babylon until the Christ, 14 generations. The way I do math 607 divided by 14 equals 43.3 years. This is how Scripture measures a generation.The way I see it since 1914 we have had 2 complete generations and are now working on a 3rd. According to Jesus shouldn't the end have come by now?

 

What would be the length of a generation as mentioned in Gen 15:16?

[gfnslave]

On 3/14/2016 at 8:36 AM, gfnslave said:

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your use of Scripture to interpret Scripture. It seems a generation is not as long as some think.

 

[gfnslave]

In light of all the points made on the length of a generation my conclusion is there are different opinions on what a generation is. Therefore I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

[John Houston]

Yes, al this discussion is great. Much information, yet done conclusive to make a valid point but one, we still have to wait! No one knows but the Father. That is the only true fact we have. Only the one alive will see any of this occur.,another true fact. The ones alive, 'that generation' saw the promised land, right? Not the ones who had died. So it is true right now. Whoever is alive will see all that will happen as the Bible proposes it to happen. Jesus told us to be awake to see it, stay alert; so whenever it does happen we will not be caught off guard. Not trying to know the day or the hour, that information is for cowards, who want to skate and slide in at the last hour. No, salvation is not for you. I said that, I approve of what I just said, for it is the truth. That is why not even Jesus knows, but only Jehovah knows. He has the final say when all this takes place. No leaks will help any of us. We will either be ready or asleep at the wheel. It will come even if it seems as if it is delayed, but it will not be late.

So we should not be impatient like Sarah and begin trying other things to speed it up or even circumventing it. It will come in its due time as Jehovah sees fit, my friends. So a generation, will be alive when all things take place however long or short that is. That math, our math is irrelevant. Only Jehovah's is. His counts. Agape.

[gfnslave]

On 3/15/2016 at 10:37 AM, John Houston said:

Yes, al this discussion is great. Much information, yet done conclusive to make a valid point but one, we still have to wait! No one knows but the Father. That is the only true fact we have. Only the one alive will see any of this occur.,another true fact. The ones alive, 'that generation' saw the promised land, right? Not the ones who had died. So it is true right now. Whoever is alive will see all that will happen as the Bible proposes it to happen. Jesus told us to be awake to see it, stay alert; so whenever it does happen we will not be caught off guard. Not trying to know the day or the hour, that information is for cowards, who want to skate and slide in at the last hour. No, salvation is not for you. I said that, I approve of what I just said, for it is the truth. That is why not even Jesus knows, but only Jehovah knows. He has the final say when all this takes place. No leaks will help any of us. We will either be ready or asleep at the wheel. It will come even if it seems as if it is delayed, but it will not be late.

So we should not be impatient like Sarah and begin trying other things to speed it up or even circumventing it. It will come in its due time as Jehovah sees fit, my friends. So a generation, will be alive when all things take place however long or short that is. That math, our math is irrelevant. Only Jehovah's is. His counts. Agape.

Do you really think that at this late date Jesus still doesn't know the day or the hour? Of course I know I really shouldn't speculate but somehow I can't help but think he has earned the right to know.