This Generation Will Not Pass Away:

[Overcomer]

Jesus talks about the destruction of the temple and signs of the end times in Matt. 24:1-35:

1 Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. 2 “Do you see all these things?� he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.�

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,� they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?�

4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.

22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.

26 “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

29 “Immediately after the distress of those days


“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth[c] will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.[d] 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it[e] is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Verse 34 has been the subject of many a debate. My questions are as follows:

What did Jesus mean when he said "this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened?" Who is "this generation"?

[JehovahsWitness]

JW posted:

hope so or I'm in the wrong religion! As was well put ...

Quote: Of course there will be changes. You have to shore up the foundations whenever weaknesses become evident.

RESPONSE: Are you willing to honestly and objectively examine the errors of the current belief system and adopt a different and more consistent belief system?

I don't know what belief system you are refering to; if its the belief system of those that claim there is no God, I've done that and rejected it. If you are refering to your own belief system, I dont know what you believe, I don't care what you believe and this is not an appropriate platform for you to to attempt to convert me. If I come across any In my own current belief system, I will examine them on a case by case basis ( I have yet to come across a non-witness that is knowlegable enough about the bible or the Jehovah's Witnesses to be of any help to me in this regard).


Still, I think OP isn't about me (nor is it a request for personal testimony from you), and since it violates forum rules to detailed a thread I will not answer anymore questions on this point. Feel free to consult our website if you are desirous of personal testimonies from individual witnesses,

JW

[polonius]

JW posted:

I hope so or I'm in the wrong religion! As was well put ...

Quote: Of course there will be changes. You have to shore up the foundations whenever weaknesses become evident.

RESPONSE: Are you willing to honestly and objectively examine the weaknesses
in the foundations of your current beliefs and adopt a different and more accurate and consistent belief system?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 368 by polonius]

See above post 367

Have a nice day.



JW

[polonius]

[Replying to post 368 by polonius]

See above post 367

Have a nice day.



JW

RESPONSE:

JW posted:

I will examine them on a case by case basis ( I have yet to come across a non-witness that is knowlegable enough about the bible or the Jehovah's Witnesses to be of any help to me in this regard).

Is it possible that they are writing clearly but not what you want to hear?

In many such cases the reader cannot be helped irrespective of overwhelming evidence presented by the author.

[shnarkle]

It it the Jehovah Witnesses who claim that Jesus did return in 1914 but is invisible.

That is incorrect ( I take it "it it" is a typo for "it is")

We (Jehovah's Witnesses) believe the "parousia" or Christ's presence in kingdom power began in 1914. Christ's "return" as in his returning for the final judgement and destruction of the wicked is a future event.

Is this future event also known as The Day of the Lord? or the Day of Judgment? Is that what you're referring to?

No, the "final judgement" I was referring to is that mentioned in Matthew 25 by Jesus, namely when he "returns" to judge all earths inhabitants (dividing them like shesp and goats). Ultimately he will kill of the wicked at Armageddon and reward the faithful with everlasting life.

Regarding the Lord's day, if you look in a concordance the expression "the Lord's day" or "The fear inspiring day of the Lord" you'll quickly see that they are in fact referring to various pivotal events, past or future. The "Lord's day" mentioned in the first chapter of Revelation is, we JWs believe the same as the parousia (or Christ's presence) which we believe began in 1914.

The Judgement day mentioned in Revelation, runs from the end of Armageddon to the releasing of Satan. It corresponds to the millennial rule of Christ.



JW

Could you tell me what Zechariah chapter 14 is referring to when it says, "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." Is this Armageddon or the parousia of 1914?

[JehovahsWitness]

Could you tell me what Zechariah chapter 14 is referring to when it says, "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." Is this Armageddon or the parousia of 1914?

We JW believe Zechariah 14 is prophetic for our time and the "day" being spoken of symbolises the war of Armageddon (which is a future event we believe to be very close). So while certain features of the vision are being fulfilled today, the final destruction being fortold is we believe, yet ahead.



JW



Read more
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2013124

RELATED POSTS


What is Armageddon?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 89#p865289

Why does God fight the war of Armageddon?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 46#p931946

Is it possible to pinpoint the exact date or year when Armageddon will happen?
http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 23#p891423

[polonius]

Could you tell me what Zechariah chapter 14 is referring to when it says, "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." Is this Armageddon or the parousia of 1914?

We JW believe Zechariah 14 is prophetic for our time and the "day" being spoken of symbolises the war of Armageddon (which is a future event we believe to be very close). So while certain features of the vision are being fulfilled today, the final destruction being fortold is we believe, yet ahead.

JW

RESPONSE:

From From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The religion's current teaching on Armageddon originated in 1925 with former Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford, who based his interpretations on the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Psalms as well as additional material from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. The doctrine marked a further break from the teachings of Watch Tower Society founder Charles Taze Russell, who for decades had taught that the final war would be an anarchistic struggle for domination on earth.[41]

Tony Wills, author of a historical study of Jehovah's Witnesses, wrote that Rutherford seemed to relish his descriptions of how completely the wicked would be destroyed at Armageddon, dwelling at great length on prophecies of destruction. He stated that towards the close of his ministry Rutherford allocated about half the space available in The Watchtower magazines to discussion of Armageddon.[42]




QUESTION: Is this the final change in JW teaching on Armageddonor or will there be even newer ones??

[polonius]

Could you tell me what Zechariah chapter 14 is referring to when it says, "Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." Is this Armageddon or the parousia of 1914?

We JW believe Zechariah 14 is prophetic for our time and the "day" being spoken of symbolises the war of Armageddon (which is a future event we believe to be very close). So while certain features of the vision are being fulfilled today, the final destruction being fortold is we believe, yet ahead.

JW

RESPONSE:

From From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“The religion's current teaching on Armageddon originated in 1925 with former Watch Tower Society president J. F. Rutherford, who based his interpretations on the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Psalms as well as additional material from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. The doctrine marked a further break from the teachings of Watch Tower Society founder Charles Taze Russell, who for decades had taught that the final war would be an anarchistic struggle for domination on earth.[41]

Tony Wills, author of a historical study of Jehovah's Witnesses, wrote that Rutherford seemed to relish his descriptions of how completely the wicked would be destroyed at Armageddon, dwelling at great length on prophecies of destruction. He stated that towards the close of his ministry Rutherford allocated about half the space available in The Watchtower magazines to discussion of Armageddon.[42]



And now (unless there has been yet another change)

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society publications have made a series of predictions about Christ's Second Coming and the advent of God's Kingdom, each of which has gone unfulfilled. Almost all the predictions for 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918 and 1925 were later reinterpreted as a confirmation of the eschatological framework of the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, with many of the predicted events viewed as having taken place invisibly. Further expectations were held for the arrival of Armageddon in 1975, but resulted in a later apology to members from the society's leadership.

So 1878,1881, 1914, 1918, 1925, and now 1975 were wrong. Anybody want to venture another “opinion�?

[Checkpoint]

[Replying to post 370 by polonius]

Is it possible that they are writing clearly but not what you want to hear?

In many such cases the reader cannot be helped irrespective of overwhelming evidence presented by the author.

Anything is possible.

We all assume that we are the exception in such cases.

[JehovahsWitness]

It is not merely a 'tribulation so great'. It is a tribulation that has never occurred before and will never occur again.

I have to agree with Tam, Jesus seemed to have indicated the great tribulation would be some thing unprecedented. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE was terrible but not the most terrible in human history.

JW