In 2014, David Splane of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses released a video attempting to explain why Jehovah’s Witnesses still claim we are living in “the last days.”
Their entire teaching is tied to the year 1914 and to Jesus’ words about “this generation” in Matthew 24. The organization has invested more than a century into this doctrine, and abandoning it would mean admitting that Witnesses have been lied to for generations.
So instead of letting the teaching go, they introduced the idea of overlapping generations — a concept so confusing that Witnesses cannot explain it themselves. I experienced this personally when I asked two elders if they could explain it, they said they could not. I also have had the opportunity to ask a sister who's been in the truth for many decades if she could explain it and she could not.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are now expected to believe a doctrine they cannot define or defend. Yet for many members, repeated doctrinal changes have become normal. New explanations are accepted simply because they are presented as “the truth.”
The problem is that the entire teaching rests on the assumption that Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 were pointing to the 20th century. Exegetical examination of the 24th chapter of Matthew easily allows these words to be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
In normal language, a generation is roughly 30 to 40 years. But Jehovah’s Witnesses now stretch the meaning to cover well over a century through the idea of overlapping lifespans.
Rather than seeing this as evidence of human error, many continue placing unquestioning trust in religious leaders who repeatedly revise their interpretations while claiming divine guidance.