The Generation That Will Not Pass Away

The history of teachings from the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses contain many false prophecies.  What we have below is a sterling example:

 

The Watchtower snapshot cover above has been modified to include the name as well as birth year and death of those whose hope was probably to never die in this so-called "system of things".

The notion of stating the generation will not pass away is reminiscent of Genesis 3:4:

"At this the serpent said to the woman: “YOU positively will not die"".


The verse is similar to the prophecy regarding the genereration alive in 1914 that the Watchtower Society claimed God promised.  That promise was declared inside the Awake! magazine cover all the way through the October 22, 1995 edition.  It was finally changed in the November 8, 1995 issue of the journel:

Quote: "Most important, 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 Watchtower Society continues to hold carrots out to Jehovah's Witnesses down to this day.  It's a way to control, manipulate, and keep their members in check.

The ONLY Religion Teaching The Truth

The statement that ONLY Jehovah's Witnesses are teaching the truth is an extraordinary claim. Such a claim would require extraordinary evidence.  I firmly believed that ONLY Jehovah's Witnesses are teaching the truth, and thus in general, only Jehovah's Witnesses would be saved at Armageddon. In my self-confidence, I had failed to consider sobering truths:


• There are over 10,000 religions in the world.

• When given a pen and paper, I could not identify the correct names of even 50 religions.

• I couldn't explain the complete belief system of any other religion in the world, other than Jehovah's Witnesses.

• For the thousands of religions of which I knew nothing about, not even it's name - how could I possibly classify that religion as false?

• The idea of a "one and only true religion" was suggested to me by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, not the Bible.

• Other groups that teach their religion is the only church which teaches "the truth" include the following: Mormons, Worldwide Church of God, Unification Church, and many others. Members of these other groups are taught to detest all other religions. Members are taught that all other religions are false, and under the control of Satan. These members are taught that God will only save their church.

• I was proclaiming other religions as promoters of lies and false prophecies, when in fact my own religion had likely promoted more false prophecies than any other church in the world. Every time a prophecy was created by Watchtower Society leaders, it was printed in millions of books, and Witnesses spent over a billion hours each year distributing these books and teaching these false prophecies.

• I believed that other religions were blood guilty for teaching lies and false doctrines. I had failed to consider how God views my religion, which had aggressively spread more false information than any other religion, insisting that people must accept it or else be destroyed by God.

• I was forbidden by the organization to read literature produced by any other religion. How could I ever accurately know what other religions taught? Many of the senior members who write the Watchtower magazine have been Jehovah's Witnesses their entire lives, thus they have never read other religious literature either. Therefore, there is no possible way that they can know the truth of whether other religions teach truth or lies.

• If other churches speak things that aren't true, I classified them as "Babylon the Great", false prophets, disgusting and blood guilty organizations, and deserving of God's wrath. When my religion spoke false prophecies and spread false information, I was supposed to consider it to be acceptable. It was simply "over eagerness" on the part of some brothers, or it was considered "old light".

Eventually, I had to admit that I was completely ignorant on the subject of religion. The only thing I knew about religion was information that I obtained from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. And their stance was, and still is: "All other religions are false, and ours is the only true one". One thing that really helped me was when I discovered Deuteronomy 18: 21-22:

"And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?”  When the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.’"


I was delighted to find out that all those false prophecies I had spread to others had NOTHING to do with God. I was simply promoting the literature of a large religious organization based in Brooklyn. If God was behind this religion, all the prophecies and predictions would have been fulfilled, exactly as predicted. If God was not behind it, then all the prophecies would fail.

What does the evidence show? All the prophecies have failed.

False Prophets - Part II: Creator's Promise

The history of the Watchtower Society from its early days of just being some 'bible students' to more modern times, by means of their literature through the organization they control, have produced numerous prophecies and predictions with a 100 percent fail rate. An outstanding one of these prophecies includes the organization having the audacity to claim it was God's promise to occur.

This is easily noted in the Awake! magazine masthead or mission statement as printed before November 1995. There it clearly and plainly states:

"Why AWAKE! Is Published ...Most important, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away."


The Watchtower Society had Jehovah's Witnesses preach and proclaim for years it was God's promise that a peaceful and secure world would happen before the generation of 1914 passes away. After realizing time had caught up to their false prediction, starting with the November 1995, Awake! onward, the masthead was changed to read as:

"Why AWAKE! Is Published ... Most important, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator's promise of a peaceful and secure world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things."


Using the Bible as the standard and bar for distinguishing and understanding a false prophet, Deuteronomy 18:20-22 states:

"'However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?” when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.'" [NWT]


The Watchtower Society spoke not just in the name of God, but said it was His promise. The word they spoke did not occur or come true.

Furthermore, though some many have lingering doubts or question whether the Watchtower Society ever claimed they were prophets, their literature clears any doubt and answers the question.

The Watchtower from March 15, 1972 makes this statement on page 189 from the bound volume:

"More accurately, was there any group on whom Jehovah would be willing to bestow the commission to speak as a 'prophet' in His name, as was done toward Ezekiel back there in 613 B.C.E.?"


The same Watchtower on page 190 goes on further:

"It is of importance to every individual on earth to identify the group that Jehovah has commissioned as his 'servant' or messenger.... For this reason forthcoming issues of The Watchtower will further discuss the identity and work of Jehovah's commissioned messenger as revealed in His vision to Ezekiel"


It is followed with the ultimate claim of being a prophet in the "forthcoming issue" of the Watchtower, from April 1, 1972, on page 197 it states:

"So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come? These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet? ...This 'prophet' was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian witnesses... Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a 'prophet' of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?"


Indisputably, the Watchtower Society has claimed that its organization contains prophets. Indeed, per their claims, Jehovah Witnesses are God's prophet in modern times.

The Bible states that Jesus provided this warning against false prophets in Matthew 7:15, 16:

“Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to YOU in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits YOU will recognize them." [NWT]


The Watchtower Society's aforementioned spiritual fruitage regarding 1914 that it provided to its followers with the undeniable claim of it being a promise from God, makes them ravenous wolves in sheep's covering according to the Bible; false prophets in which no one should follow or obey their directions.

End Question

Does "new light" excuse false prophecy?





"From a purely human viewpoint, it could appear that these developments could hardly take place before the generation of 1914 disappears from the scene. But fulfillment of all the foretold events affecting the generation of 1914 does not depend on comparatively slow human action. Jehovah's prophetic word through Jesus Christ is: 'This generation [of 1914] will by no means pass away until all things occur.' (Luke 21:32) And Jehovah, who is the source of inspired and unfailing prophecy, will bring about the fulfillment of his Son's words in a relatively short time.--Isaiah 46:9,10; 55:10,11."
--The Watchtower, May 15, 1984, pages 6-7

Note: The expression "[of 1914]" is in the original Watchtower text.

“‘However, the prophet who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. And in case you should say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that Jehovah has not spoken?” when the prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah and the word does not occur or come true, that is the word that Jehovah did not speak. With presumptuousness the prophet spoke it. You must not get frightened at him.’"
--New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - Deuteronomy 18:20-22.