NOT SO NEW LIGHT?

It had to come. Some thought it had appeared over a decade ago but perhaps it was only a testing of the waters. Now, as the Watchtower Society has done so often before, its seed of change germinated.

The generation of 1914 is at the very heart of the Watchtower’s gospel. The Watchtower magazine states: “That of Jehovah’s Witnesses is really ‘gospel,’ or ‘good news,’ as of God’s heavenly kingdom that was established by the enthronement of his Son Jesus Christ at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914” (May 1, 1984, pg. 17).

The Watchtower has long taught that within one generation of 1914, Armageddon would occur and the end of this present wicked system would end, ushering in a new Heaven and an earthly Paradise.

Nevertheless, the generation got older and older and older. It went from being adolescents in 1914 to infants in 1914. It saw prophetic failures for Armageddon in 1918, 1925, the 1940s and 1975. Today it has only a few still alive.

Therefore, a major adjustment to the Watchtower’s prophetic scheme had to occur. Several articles in recent Watchtower magazines paved the way for a new understanding of “the generation of 1914.” The Society has not adjusted the 1914 date; it still proclaims this date to be “the year of Jesus’ enthronement in heaven as mankind’s rightful King.” The adjustment comes in the interpretation of the word “generation” and in its understanding of the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.

The new interpretation moves Watchtower theology toward the idea that the separation of the sheep and goats is a future event, rather than a current one, as previously taught.

The popular Watchtower study book, You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, has become obsolete for its statements such as: “Yes, since Christ returned and sat down on his heavenly throne, all humankind has been on judgment. This present ‘day of judgment’ comes before the 1,000-year Judgment Day begins. During the present judgment people are being separated as ‘goats’ to Christ’s left hand or as ‘sheep’ to his right. The ‘goats’ will be destroyed because they fail to help Christ’s anointed ‘brothers’ in their service to God. In time, these ‘goats’ show themselves to be unrepentant sinners, wicked, hardened in their practice of unrighteousness. The ‘sheep’ on the other hand, will be blessed with life under the Kingdom rule because they support Christ’s ‘brothers’ in every way” (pg. 183).

More recent commentary on this passage says, “Understanding the parable of the sheep and the goats in this way indicates that the rendering of judgment on the sheep and goats is future. It will take place after ‘the tribulation’ mentioned in Matthew 24:29-30 breaks out and the Son of man ‘arrives in glory’” (The Watchtower, Oct. 15, 1995, pg. 23).

This change also has the Society revising the idea that Christ’s sitting upon the throne in 1914 does not refer to his becoming king, but his sitting as a judge during the future tribulation.

More important, the Watchtower, in an article titled, “A Time to Keep Awake,” gives Jehovah’s Witnesses their new understanding of the “generation of 1914”:

“We ‘bring a heart of wisdom in,’ not by speculation about how many years or days make up a generation, but by thinking about how we ‘count our days’ in bringing joyful praise to Jehovah. ... Rather than provide a rule for measuring time, the term ‘generation’ as used by Jesus refers principally to contemporary people of a certain historical period, with their identifying characteristics” (Nov. 1, 1995, pg. 17).

Then, to lend authority to this idea, the magazine cites professor of history Robert Wohl in his publication, The Generation of 1914: “A historical generation is not defined by its chronological limits. ... It is not a zone of dates” (pg. 18).

The Watchtower also issues a scolding to those who tried to nail down the definition of the “generation of 1914”: “Is anything to be gained, then, by looking for dates or by speculating about the literal lifetime of ‘generation’?” (pg. 19).

Evidently the prophetic conjecture of thinking that “generation” could have meant a specific number of years is not the fault of the leadership but of the rank-and-file. The magazine says, “Eager to see the end of this evil system, Jehovah’s people have at times speculated about the time when the ‘great tribulation’ would break out, even tying this to calculations of what is the lifetime of a generation since 1914” (pg. 17).

Thus, the magazine hints, it was presumptuous Jehovah’s Witnesses who were responsible for placing too much emphasis upon what the word “generation” might signify. A novel approach to an embarrassing problem? Not at all. Watchtower leaders have done the same thing repeatedly over the years.

For example, after repeated declarations suggesting 1925 as the year the earthly phase of the kingdom would be recognized, the Society sidestepped blame and implicated the readers themselves for the blunder: “It is expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated the thought that 1925 should see an end of the work, and that therefore it would be needless for them to do more” (The Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1925, pg. 262). The Watchtower used the same technique to explain away the speculation surrounding the 1975 prophetic failure.

However, it is the Watchtower leadership, not the membership faithful of its ranks, that is the source of such confusion. Consider these examples of Watchtower conjecture:

“Which generation did Jesus mean [Matthew 24:34]? He meant the generation of people who are living in 1914. Those persons yet remaining of that generation are now very old. However, some of them will still be alive to see the end of this wicked system. So of this we can be certain: Shortly now there will be a sudden end to all wickedness and wicked people at Armageddon” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, pg. 154).

“Yes, you may live to see this promised New Order, along with survivors of the generation of 1914 — the generation that will not pass away” (The Watchtower, May 15, 1984, pg. 7).

Yet, even after dodging the blame and then reprimanding Jehovah’s Witnesses for such presumptuousness, the Society’s leadership continues to dangle the “Armageddon carrot” before its fold. “Does our more precise viewpoint on ‘this generation’ mean that Armageddon is further away than we had thought? Not at all!”, the Nov. 1, 1995, Watchtower says on page 20. Moreover, to even a casual observer, the organization is rigid in its refusal to let members deviate from the party line.

Former head legal counselor for the Watchtower, H.C. Covington, accentuated the Society’s tyrannical standard during testimony in a 1954 court trial. He stated under oath: “If the whole organization believes one thing, even though it be erroneous, and somebody else starts on his own trying to put his ideas across, then there is disunity and trouble, there cannot be marching together. When a change comes, it should come from the proper source, the head of the organization, the governing body, not from the bottom upwards, because everybody would have ideas, and the organization would disintegrate and go into a thousand different directions. Our purpose is to have unity.”

This was a unity Covington admitted would mean a dissenter would be “worthy of death.” There are no Bereans allowed in this sect (Acts 17:11).

It is the leaders and writers of the Watchtower organization who are solely responsible for the many alterations in theology forced upon Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are also accountable for the many revisions of history that find their way into the pages of the Society’s publications. Two keen illustrations punctuate the organization’s ability to metamorphose its history and teachings.

The previously cited Watchtower article says, “As the year 1914 drew near, God-fearing people were expecting Messiah’s arrival. And arrive he did!” (Nov. 1, 1995, pg. 16).

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Those who held to the prophetical aspirations of the Watchtower during the early 1900s did not look for the Second Coming of Christ to occur in 1914. Instead they embraced the belief that Christ had already returned in 1874. The hope that they held for 1914, therefore, was that the battle of Armageddon would be fought and the new age begun by that year.

Further, the Watchtower Society has revised its longstanding statement of purpose for the Awake! magazine found in the masthead of the bimonthly. Before the new understanding of “generation,” the Oct. 22, 1995, (and all previous issues) of the Awake! announced: “Most importantly, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away.”

The magazine, starting with the Nov. 8, 1995, issue, says, “this magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure new world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things.”

Additionally, the Watchtower redefinition of the word “generation” conflicts with other, currently used publications. The Society’s encyclopedic work, Insights from the Scriptures, says under the heading “Generation,” although “the exact length of that time cannot be stated,” its “time would fall into reasonable limits. These limits would be determined by the life span of the people of that time or of that population” (Vol. 1, pp. 917-918).

Then there’s the fact that the “new light” now being imparted to Jehovah’s Witnesses is really not so new after all. Well over a decade ago, a series of articles appeared in The Watchtower that addressed the “fast disappearing generation of 1914.” The debut of the new meaning to the word “generation,” which appeared in the May 15, 1984, Watchtower, even cited Wohl’s book, The Generation of 1914. As it has done of late, blended Wohl’s concept into its own new teaching, originally stating: “But what did he [Jesus] mean when he spoke of ‘a generation that would not pass away’? Some have interpreted ‘generation’ to mean a period of 30, 40, 70 or even 120 years. However, a generation is really related to people and events, rather than to a fixed number of years” (pg. 5).

The faithful leadership of the Watchtower on all levels, too, already has begun to minimize the importance of the change and the effect it will have upon its rank-and-file. Robert Johnson, a representative for the Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, “denied that Witness leadership was under the pressure of an aging generation to adjust its teachings.” Johnson told the Los Angeles Times that “there is no falling away [of members] that I know of, and we don’t expect to see that.” He added that the 1914 timetable, which has been a fundamental message preached door-to-door for the last half-century, “has not been a cardinal doctrine of [Jehovah’s Witness] faith.” Likewise, Harvey Breneman, a circuit overseer in Southern California, told the newspaper: “Nobody has raised any questions to me.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to allow themselves to be blown about by every wind of doctrine. They will continue to let their thinking be done by the leadership because they believe God directs the changes. However, because of the literal interpretation that has for so long been placed on the term “generation,” there will be some who realize they have been deceived and will leave.

Former Jehovah’s Witness David Reed states that more than 1 million Jehovah’s Witnesses left the Watchtower Society after the failure of the 1975 prophecy. We can only hope that the fallout for the “generation” fiasco will have the same result. For those who have the courage to leave, we are thankful. We say to them: There is life outside the Watchtower. We pray that they will not just renounce the Watchtower and its false teachings, but will embrace the true person and work of Jesus Christ.

No matter how it redefines “generation” or how long it is able to extend its boundaries, the Watchtower Society will be a false prophet.

—MKG

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