The way of the wicked is as darkness:
they know not at what they stumble.’ Proverbs 4:19
The following article, entitled ‘Not So New Light’ is from Personal Freedom Outreach (www.pfo.com) ~ with thanks
The generation of 1914 is at the very heart of the Watchtower’s gospel. The Watchtower magazine states: "(The gospel) 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. 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.
During the early and mid 1990s, several articles appeared in The Watchtower magazine under the guise of ‘New Light,’ paving the way for a new understanding of "the generation of 1914." Rather than adjust the 1914 date (it still proclaims this date to be "the year of Jesus’ enthronement in heaven as mankind’s rightful King") the Society adjusted its understanding of the word "generation" and re-interpreted events previously presented as occurring between 1914 and Armageddon. Not the least of these being the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew Ch. 25.
According to The Watchtower, ‘flashes of light’ resulted in their new interpretation which pushes 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 widely used Watchtower study book, You Can Live 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. The 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 (p. 183).
Now, however, according to the Society’s ‘New Light’:
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, p. 23)
The amazing thing about this ‘New Light’ is the fact that such an understanding of the ‘time frame’ of this parable is not new to the many Commentaries used by theologians and taught by the ‘Churches of Christendom’! How is it that those who, according to the Watchtower Society are ‘false Christians’ and are walking outside the spiritual light enjoyed by Jehovah’s Witnesses, have understood and interpreted this parable in this way for centuries? It appears that the Society’s ‘New Light’ on the parable of the sheep and the goats is really not so new after-all.
More important, however, than this ‘New Light’ on the parable of the sheep and the goats, is an article that appeared in The Watchtower, entitled, "A Time to Keep Awake" for this article provided the Jehovah’s Witnesses with a new understanding of the "generation of 1914".
In this article, the Witnesses were admonished:
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. (The Watchtower Nov. 1, 1995, p. 17)
This may have been ‘New Light’ for the Watchtower Society, but it’s ‘old hat’ for ‘Christendom’s’ theologians! It is strange how the Watchtower leaders so often selectively cite the works of Christendom’s ‘apostate theologians’ to support, or give credibility to their own doctrines! Yet, what is even stranger is the fact that these same ‘apostates of Christendom’ often had correct understanding long before the Watchtower Society received its so-called ‘New Light’! For example, when the Governing Body changed the interpretation of ‘this generation’ in 1995, they cited four scholars for support—Bauer, Vine, Thayer and Kittle.*
Then, as is typical of the Society’s side-stepping of responsibility and blame, when this ‘New Light’ on the generation of 1914 was presented it was accompanied by an admonition to any who might see things differently or attempt to hold to the former understanding. With one sentence, the Watchtower Society’s history of setting dates and speculation was brushed aside:
Is there anything to be gained, then, by looking for dates or by speculating about a literal lifetime of ‘generation’? (The Watchtower Nov. 1, 1995, p.19)
and, in the same magazine, the writers state:
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. (p. 17)
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. In this way, Watchtower leaders place the blame for their previous error(s) upon the shoulders of presumptuous Jehovah’s Witnesses. These, not the leaders, 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 recognised—with the resurrection back to earth of ‘Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old’, the Society side-stepped 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 p.262)
And, in the following year they said again,
Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not state so. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason. (The Watchtower, 1926, p.232).
These are truly amazing statements when one understands that it is the Watchtower leadership, not the ‘consecrated’ ‘friends’ (ie: the faithful rank and file membership), that is the source of such confusion. If anyone has ‘inflated their imaginations beyond reason’ it has been the leaders—who then demand unquestioning obedience from their followers. It is the leaders and writers of Watchtower publications who are solely responsible for the many alterations in theology forced upon the individual Jehovah’s Witnesses. They are also the ones who re-write the history of the Watchtower organisation, rearranging facts to suit their own ends and then, presenting these as ‘New Light’ that must be accepted as current ‘truth.’
A blatant example of re-writing historical facts, to make them appear to be in line with current understanding, is found in The Watchtower of Nov. 1, 1995, p.16. In this issue of their chief theological journal, Watchtower leaders blatantly lied to the faithful in the claim that:
"As the year 1914 drew near, God-fearing people were expecting Messiah’s arrival. And arrive he did!"
Nothing could be further from the truth! Those who held to the prophetic speculations of the Watchtower during the early 1900s were not ‘expecting Messiah’s arrival’ in 1914. Rather, for the forty years prior to 1914 (in fact, right up until the mid 1920s), they had been holding to the belief that Messiah had already returned in 1874. The hope they held for 1914 was that the battle of Armageddon would begin and the new age begun by that year. Of course, to admit this would mean admitting to a prophetic failure—something the Watchtower Society has always attempted to side-step. So, instead, they simply rewrite their history and, since the present-day Witnesses are discouraged from reading the Society’s early publications (and forbidden under threat of excommunication to read any literature exposing the Society’s dishonesty), their followers accept their words as an accurate and consistent portrayal of the Society’s past.
With what results? The road the Witnesses travel ‘gets darker and darker [until] they can’t see a thing
[and] they fall flat on their faces.’ (Proverbs 4:19 The Message)