For many years the teaching of the Watchtower Society regarding the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:34 was that His words referred to the generation who were living in 1914. They taught that when Jesus said 'This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur' He meant the generation who were alive when, according to them, Jesus took up His heavenly throne in the year 1914. (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth [1982] page 154 and The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life page 95) The witnesses who were alive at that time were the privileged ones who would see Armageddon and live through it. Those outside of the Organisation would of course be destroyed. Time was fast running out for 'this wicked world' and the Watchtower members were kept busy going from door to door, warning people of the impending disaster that would soon come upon this earth. Witnesses would never know, until the actual day of Armageddon, whether or not they had done enough to please Jehovah and thereby live through the terrible judgement which was to come on all those not within the confines of the Watchtower Organisation. - Jehovah’s ‘Ark of Salvation.’ Because of this, the members would slave away for the Organisation and go out as often as they possibly could, selling as many Watchtower publications as they were able. All this to gain favour in the sight of Jehovah God.
The witnesses were also taught that their door-to-door preaching work was performed under angelic guidance and that they, the Witnesses, were helping to separate the people. The 'goats' - the unbelieving ones - were being placed on Jesus's left hand, whereas the 'sheep' - those who believed the Watchtower’s message - were placed on His right. Those on Jesus' left were to be destroyed as unrepentant sinners whilst those on His right were to be blessed with life under the Kingdom rule.
It is important to note that The Watchtower (May 15, 1984 pp. 6-7) stated that this prophecy was Jehovah's prophetic word through Christ Jesus and that the 'time of the end' will be fulfilled within the life-span of the generation of 1914. The Watchtower Society claimed that this prophecy is of Jehovah, the highest authority that the society can turn to In Awake! (Oct. 8, 1968) the Organisation claimed that "this generation" applied to all those aged 15 years and over. These people, it was stated, were the ones who could understand the events of the day. However, as the years passed, the age was dropped by 5 years and, in The Watchtower (Oct. 15, 1980 p.31), the age of understanding was suddenly changed to 10 years old. The years again passed and the 1914 generation was steadily passing away and so finally, in 1984 the starting age of the generation was changed once more to newborn babies - thus giving the Organisation another 10 years. Remember, this prophecy was given from Jehovah through Jesus Christ to His only earthly organisation. I am moved to ask,, Did Jehovah get his dates wrong? or did the Watchtower leaders, in their zeal to motivate their members to more urgent field work, mis-apply scripture and find that, as the facts had not come from God, they had to move to change those 'facts' so as to avoid the embarrassment of another failed prophecy. In The Watchtower magazine of May 15, 1995, an article appeared entitled 'Flashes of Light - Great and Small.' For those who have been members of the Watchtower Society for some time, this article would certainly have started some excitement for, in the past history of the Society, whenever they start to talk of 'New Light' then major doctrinal changes are imminent.
Five months later, in the May 15 issue of The Watchtower (p. 22), the 'new light' was made clear with the revelation that 'the rendering of judgement on the sheep and the goats' was now to be understood as a yet future event. Suddenly, after all these decades, their belief that they were helping with the separation work through their preaching activities, was now in error.
Also, the previous statement, in You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth (1982, p.183): 'Yes, since Christ returned and sat down on his heavenly throne, all mankind has been on judgement,' is also now wrong according to the 'new light' for, The Watchtower (Oct. 15, 1995) states 'This means, then, that Jesus' sitting down on his glorious throne for judgement mentioned in Matthew 25:31, applies to the future when this powerful King will sit down to pronounce and execute judgement on the nations.'
This new teaching about the sheep and the goats was followed by the big change, wherein the Organisation claimed that the term 'generation' no longer applied to the 1914 generation but was, in fact, a 'contemporary people of a certain historical period.' This now left the time frame of the 'generation' in Matthew very loose ended and it could now be interpreted to cover any period of time without committing the Organisation to a specific 'end time.'
With this 'new light' in 1995, many Witnesses had the pressure on their preaching work eased and when the 1996 figures were published it can be seen that the service hours for 1996 had dropped by 10 million hours and the annual Memorial attendance had also dropped by almost 1/4 of a million (225,000)! Everyone watching the Watchtower Society wondered what they would do to counteract this very significant drop in their sales figures and prospective converts. One cost cutting measure that we have heard of is that future books, produced by the Watchtower Society will be produced as paperbacks, rather than hardcover books.
Nothing motivates people more than fear and guilt and it appeared that, with the 1914 changes, the Society had loosened it's grip on both tactics. However, the latest news is that in The Watchtower (March 1, 1997), the Organisation has again re-instated the 'this generation' model under a different guise. In recent articles they speak of age, day or time and apply to these the former meanings of the original 'generation' teaching. On page 19 of the above issue of The Watchtower, (par.18), we read :
Present day ridiculers may think: Nothing has changed since creation. Life goes on, with people eating, drinking, getting married, and raising families. Even if Jesus is present, he will not execute judgement in my day. How wrong they are! If they do not die from other causes in the meantime, the fear inspiring day of Jehovah will definitely overtake them, just as the cataclysmic flood brought an end to a wicked generation in Noah's day.
- emphasis mine.
Here we see the start of Armageddon tied to the 'present day ridiculers.' Just as in the 1914 generation, the ones who were able to discern what was happening were initially aged 15, likewise, the 'present day ridiculers' are of an age to understand. Although no age is given in this article, let us assume that a 10 year old is mature enough to ridicule and that 85 is a good average life expectancy these days. Then the Watchtower leaders have, with one stroke of the pen, extended their "expiry date" by 75 years from March 1997.
Undoubtedly, all Christians would agree that this time, in which we are living, is certainly a very troublesome time and may well be the lead up to the time when Jesus returns. However, it would appear that the Watchtower Society never seem to learn frorm their past mistakes. They have repeatedly set dates and times for many of their failed prophesies and, although they have stated, in the past, that they 'learned to quit fixing dates for the future' (see Vindication Book I, 1931 pp.338,339), here we see them doing it once again. By inference they now say that Armageddon will come within the lifespan of the current generation - 'The present-day ridiculers.' Of course future articles will warn members that Armageddon is just around the corner and, in fact, this type of article has already started to be published. The Watchtower of April 1, 1997 features the following articles 'Are These Really the Last Days'; 'Take Courage As Deliverance Draws Near'; and 'Deliverance into a Righteous New World' in which it states:
And when we consider the prophecy recorded at 2 Timothy 3: 1-5, it is like listening to nightly news reports. It identifies our era as 'the last days.’
Again in Awake! March 22, 1997 (p.13) we read:
Note however that this prophecy tells us that the Creator not only will get to the root of the problem by eliminating greedy people but will do so in our time.
In answer to a question from a reader the May 1 1997 Watchtower says:
We do not need to know the exact timing of events. Rather our focus must be kept on being watchful, cultivating strong faith, and keeping busy in Jehovah's service.
The thrust of these articles is for the members to keep awake and make sure they are working for Jehovah and preaching the 'good news' just in case Armageddon should come tomorrow.
It would appear that the Watchtower leaders have, since 1995, been slowly and gradually working toward this major implementation of a new thought on the 'generation' mentioned by Jesus. In light of the March 1 issue of The Watchtower, I believe that their planned change of shifting the time frame of the generation spoken of by Jesus in Matthew is now firmly in place and that the members will now be bombarded with articles showing that Armageddon could come tomorrow and naturally they will be encouraged to work hard for Jehovah, by preaching from door-to-door. This teaching, that the 'end' is, once again, just round the corner, will suit those who have spent a lifetime in the Society and who were, no doubt, disappointed to see the 'end' date move away when the Generation teaching was changed in 1995. Once again, to their relief, the 'end' could still be 'tomorrow.' This completed change will probably result in an increase in field service hours when the 1997 figures are published. But, more importantly - How many will be disturbed by these changes? How many will be looking for answers? Will the ministries around the world be ready to help and bring these folk over to the Lord? I pray that they are.