Great crowd in the first century ?

by ninja 21 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  jwfacts

  Here is even better Russell reasoning for 1881.

  Thy Kingdom Come p.362
  “Remember, too, that the Scriptures proved to us in various ways—by the Jubilee Cycles, the 1335 days of Daniel, the Parallel Dispensations, etc.—that the “harvest” or end of this age was due to begin in October, 1874, and that the Great Reaper was then due to be present; that seven years later—in October, 1881—the “high calling” ceased, though some will be admitted to the same favors afterward, without a general call being made, to fill the places of some of the called ones who, on being tested, will be found unworthy.”
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  TheOldHippie

  Many of those persons might have been caught in the wave of persecution, but may never have actually

  preached the truth or followed in Jesus’ footsteps, being only professed Christians.

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  I can see how many were family members, happened to be at the wront place at the wrong time and suddenly found themselves arrested etc. - but if it isn't following in Christ's footsteps to be willing to serve as a torch or as lion food, then what is? Imagine The Man Comes Around, stands watching, but says, "Sorry for you, but you haven't preached the last month, you haven't delivered your note saying how many hours you have spent in the service, so your offer is of no value!" (I seek not to be disrespectful in my comments.) THAT argument is purely a technicality.

  I have no HUGE problem in seeing that people martyred around say year 200, were professing a "changed" Christianity, that in such a way their sufferings were of "no more value" than the sufferings of Buddhists or Shintoists or various others, all believeing their faith was the correct one, but having been mislead etc. etc. - please do not hijack this thread because of my comment here - but a great concern of mine in this respect is, how could Christianity be so apostate already in the year 95 as stated, why is it that Christ's teachings were so "weak" that already half a century after his death they had been watered down to nothing? Because THAT is what the quotes from the WT say, that Apostacy had taken almost all of them away already at the time of John. John's letters and Revelation could have zero effect, because Apostacy took them all, and so John's writings are for the end-time Christians alone, because nobody took notice back then, they continued in their apostacy.

  Many, many questions here, many, many disturbing thoughts ......................