ExJW Quiet Activism: This Generation Will Not Pass Away

Photo dated 1948

Any person who was raised in the Jehovah's Witness (JW) organization has heard that phrase a million times. This generation will not pass away...until all these things have occurred, or happen, or take place, or have been fulfilled, depending on the Bible version. What things was Jesus talking about? Well, the generation in Jesus' day witnessed the fall of Jerusalem and the world since has witnessed the fall of various world powers or governments along with witnessing a lot of natural disasters happening in one place after another, crime, violence, and well, stuff that has plagued humans since the beginning of time.

According to various online resources [except the JW official website], the term "this generation" means the generation that will witness the end times destruction of all wicked persons along with the celestial signs as spoken of in the Bible book of Matthew [e.g., the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give off light, the stars will fall from heaven, etc.]. So, okay, if you are a follower of the Christ you see no reason to fear any so-called end times destruction along with the increasing violence leading up to a Great Tribulation and a total destruction of wicked persons at a place called Armageddon. You look forward to the second coming of the Christ, whether you believe it to be literal or figurative.

However, the JW organization has gone beyond what is written in the scriptures. They have actually told their followers of when to expect this Great Tribulation followed almost immediately by Armageddon, which is not a specific region but they think it will take place globally. In fact, scriptures state that if those last days were not cut short by God, no flesh would be saved.

The problem was, the JW leadership were wrong in telling its followers of when to expect Armageddon. Basically, the JW membership were told to expect Armageddon each decade during its about 100 years of existence. All baptized JWs have relied on the information provided in the JW literature, in public talks, at assemblies and conventions, in video dramas, etc., telling us when to expect this total destruction and to be on guard, storing up treasures in heaven [what?] and not on earth. Oh wait, but JWs teach that there are two classes of humans that have different hopes, one earthly and one heavenly. So why not store up treasures here on earth if the majority of JWs aren't going anywhere? We were told that "millions now living will never die" so I would think you would need a nice house, secure job, and a healthy bank account in order to survive through the end times into that paradise earth the JWs tell us will happen. Nope, we were all required to not have a hefty bank account, to not buy that home, to not go to college, not not have those children, to not save for retirement, all that was unnecessary because that earthly paradise was right around the corner.

Further reading: http://thewatchtowerfiles.com/1914-2014-what-will-the-watchtower-do-now/

Yes, we believed it. We were told the 1914 generation of people would not pass away and that the end of this system of things would happen, and we would all right now be living in a paradise on earth. You might say, well you were ignorant or dumb but guess what, it was how our parents raised us, it was drilled into us daily during our studies with the JW literature and in the public talks at the Kingdom Halls. Even if you were older when you or your family joined, it was a requirement for membership and baptism to believe their doctrines with your whole heart, mind and soul. Those of us raised in the JW organization, knew of nothing else but of a coming destruction of all wicked people and to not worry about a future that is here right now and we are left with practically nothing to depend on but ourselves. It's tough since most of us don't have that savings account, no retirement funds, no plans for old age. We have to work much longer than the average person who planned for a future in this world, people who were not blinded by a group of men leading us to a path off a cliff to our own destruction.

What have the Governing Body (GB) of JWs done since this failed 1914 generation prophesy? They came up with a new one. They say well, 1914 was really only the start of the "end times" and the generation that lived then overlaps with subsequent generations. So really, they weren't wrong it's just that generation after generation overlaps each other and well, 2014 means we have been living in the last days for 100 years, and well, so what, stick around, the end is coming while you stop storing up treasures here on earth and instead send them to the Watchtower Headquarters in New York where they are storing up treasures here on earth in the form of massive real estate holdings, stock market portfolios, and are beneficiaries in the wills and estates of their dead membership, oh yes, those that would never die from the 1914 generation who are now all dead. Yes, this is what they teach their membership. I feel sorry for the kids having no choice being raised with this nonsense, since their lives will be ruined. They will not have stored up those much needed treasures here on earth, to provide for themselves, the families they might have, and to plan for their retirement and old age since guess what, when those kids reach middle age, they will wonder what happened to that new system of things, what happened to the overlapping generation teaching, and will question how they believed it for so long and will be searching online for help to leave the JW cult.

Further reading: http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/generation.php

You might say that it's too bad you believed the JW leadership. Well, it's like this. Imagine you were born and raised in a country where only English was spoken but your parents insisted you learn only Italian. No other language was permitted in the house or you would be severely punished. So, since birth you learned Italian. Suddenly, you have to go to school and you can't understand what is being taught. You stay home with mom and she teaches you, but again, no English is spoken. Okay, you get a bit older and need to get a job, but you can't speak English. How will you earn a living? Oh, just hand out JW literature in the door to door ministry and ummm, well, hope your parents can support you. Oh, they can't or won't and eventually kick you out of their house. Now what?

You've got to learn the English language to live, survive, get a job, put food on the table, but find that you are lost in the real world. You never learned to cooperate with or befriend people with different belief systems than the one in which you were raised; you never learned their language. That's basically how an indoctrinated and brainwashed JW feels when they finally wake up to reality, that the JW religion is false. You wake up and have no coping skills, no way to communicate with people outside of your religious group and begin your journey of learning a new language of mankind and join the human race, the real world where life and death happen every day. No one pretends some Higher Power will suddenly make everything okay, no, you've got to start participating in life and taking responsibility, not being a bystander anymore.

After you gradually begin to wake up to reality, you see that the JWs organization is merely a book publishing company masquerading as a religion and wants your life, your blood, your money, then when you get too old to walk for hours in the recruiting business, meaning, their door-to-door ministry work where they just pass out their own literature that has little to do with the Bible, they toss you aside. Oh well, it's your fault that you believed the GB of the JW's, the end never came, sorry, bye. With the GB now coming up with more jumbled circular reasoning about when the end of this world will happen, generation after generation are dead and dying, yet the GB are still selling an Armageddon and hoping you will be too afraid to walk out those Kingdom Hall doors and simply never return. The GB have built a new headquarters in upstate New York with huge walls around it since they are fearful of their membership waking up, demanding their money back so they can move forward and lead their own lives free from the mind numbing nonsense preached by the JWs for over a 100 years.

My paternal grandfather was born and raised in Calabria, Italy, and began to write short essays and such, that were published through a company in Italy. Some of his writings were used in college courses here in America. But he and his wife [my paternal grandmother] migrated to New York and started a barber shop business. His son [my dad] became a devout JW after marrying my mother. Our family moved out of New York to the West Coast and my father sometimes communicated with his father through letter writing and telling him he had become a JW and of course was raising me in that religion and not as a Catholic.

Through all those years of their letter writing and sporadic phone calls, not once did my JW dad tell his father he loved him, but the opposite was true. My grandfather sent his books to my dad and signed them yet my father gave him no response. My dad tried to convert my grandfather to the JW faith but he was a Catholic from birth and there was no changing him. Because of this, my devout JW father completely abandoned and shunned his "worldly" family in New York and never once traveled across country to see them or help in any way when they became aged and infirmed. My aunt [my dad's sister] never became a JW and all the burdens of caring for their parents rested on her shoulders alone since her brother [my dad] shunned her. Shunning is a requirement among the JW organization for people who refuse to believe their teachings and join them, after having been preached to and refused to be converted to the organization. My aunt complained to a local JW congregation in New York to say her brother [who was an Elder in the JW congregation] was not helping her with family matters but it fell on deaf ears. It wasn't the congregation's problem, work it out yourself with your brother; file your complaint with his congregation in California.

I feel sad I was taken away from my beloved paternal grandparents at a very early age and shuttled across the U.S. to become a fully indoctrinated JW against my own choosing since children have no choice in how they are raised. I learned no love or affection for anyone because every non-JW was going to die shortly at Armageddon. Well, it never happened, but love is forever, my love for my paternal grandparents. Will I see them again one day? My hope is yes, somehow I will, while the destructive and hateful JW organization will witness its own destruction one day, of that I am sure.

The generation of JWs have had their day. It is coming to a close. Don't be caught locked inside those prison camps called Kingdom Halls. Leave now, it's never too late to be happy.