Did the heavenly calling cease in 1935? Not anymore!

by AnnOMaly 288 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  wozadummy

  If it is now being emphasized more fully that the annointed are not special ,then don't we then have the right climate to promote some of the great crowd in the writing department to be annointed and then put them on the governing body?

  Thus having a situation of replacements becoming special in preference to any old time annointed baptised before 1935 ,that is if there are any still living? I would have thought that a man annointed and faithful for over 70 years would have more credibility with God than an other sheep who suddenly thinks he is annointed and gets promoted to the governing body from the writing department and is only in his 40's,50's or 60's!
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  garybuss

  The more I think about this article and re-read it, the more I wonder how the Society disconnects the closed door teaching relating to 1935 and not disconnect the start of the identification period for the great crowd as well.
  
  The big deal in 1935 was the identification of the Jonadabs, or great crowd, not the end of the heavenly calling. Am I seeing a straw man?
  
  
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  AK - Jeff

  Amazing - I had been off the boards more than on lately and just saw this.

  They were able to erase 40 years of hard doctrine with just 6 paragraphs - and they never even acknowledge that they changed anything of importance. What ethical dishonesty.

  And yet the 'friends' will just go on without note.

  Jeff
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  slimboyfat

  I find it interesting that they don't explicitly reaffirm the teaching that there are only literally 144 000 anointed in this article. It is alluded to in the comment about the "gathering of the final ones of the anointed" since 1919. However it might have been expected that accompanying such a significant change, they would also make reassuring noises about still being firm on the specific teaching about the 144 000 being literal.

  When the generation teaching changed, they went out of their way to emphasize that this did not mean they were dropping 1914.

  Slim
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  VM44

  The Watchtower is just making up this stuff as they go along.

  --VM44
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  AK - Jeff

  When the generation teaching changed, they went out of their way to emphasize that this did not mean they were dropping 1914.

  True. But the dropping of '35 is significant in the eventual goal of dropping 1914, which they must to survive. They need to cut all the loose ends off the doctrine first, then just let it fade off into oblivion. They will need to start 'phasing in' some replacement thinking about 1914 over the next couple years now, then it can be dropped with the same lackluster approach;

  'During subsequent years it became obvious that the year 1914 was significant to God's people, but not in the way they had imagined it to be...' Then just let it tale off into the wind and get lost sight of, never to be heard of again.

  In 2074 when it is asked why Jw's taught 1914 as doctrine, it will be answered in the way we put off nay-sayers about 1874, or 1925 in days past ' Well, Jehovah always makes adjustments, new light, yet this should not detract from his obvious selection of a name people.....'

  Memory is short for most people - and none is shorter than that of cult members.

  Jeff
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  garybuss

  Slim wrote: "I find it interesting that they don't explicitly reaffirm the teaching that there are only literally 144 000 anointed in this article."
  
  They could actually teach that 144,000 go to heaven and are the heavenly priestly class and then split the great crowd between heaven and earth. They have scriptures to support a great crowd both in heaven and on earth.
  
  That would allow as many to go to heaven as wanted to and nothing changes here on earth because all are inferior to the Governing Body. The Governing Body can now claim the title "faithful slave" exclusively and ditch the idea that an abstract bunch of scattered people, mostly old women, make up the "faithful and discreet slave class" and are only represented by the Governing Body. The Governing Body goes to absolute power, not a part of a class, but they become the class.
  
  We'll see.
  
  
  
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  nvrgnbk

  In 2074 when it is asked why Jw's taught 1914 as doctrine, it will be answered in the way we put off nay-sayers about 1874, or 1925 in days past ' Well, Jehovah always makes adjustments, new light, yet this should not detract from his obvious selection of a name people.....'

  Memory is short for most people - and none is shorter than that of cult members.

  This is why I finally left. I hope they continue to lose credibility. Many more, not enough, but many more shall be waking up soon if they continue shooting from the hip like this.

  Nvr(ever)gnbk
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  slimboyfat

  The Adventists still have 1844. I see no reason why the Witnesses can't keep 1914 going for a good while yet. I follow Narkissos's reasoning on this - see his post about it from a few days ago.

  But if many more start taking the bread and the wine, how can they maintain the 144 000 is literal?

  I reckon if you added up all the JWs in the 20th century alone who have died while professing to be anointed, it would be pretty near to 144 000. On top of that you are supposed to add a few faithful ones through the centuries like Tyndale and so on, as well as the thousands mentioned in Acts and the rest in the first century of course.

  If the number of partakers goes up even by a few thousand, I think the literal 144 000 teaching might have to be reconsidered.

  And if the 144 000 is not literal, then who is to say that everyone is not anointed?

  And if everyone is anointed, then there are no separate classes of believers.

  And if there are no separate classes of believer, then maybe there is no special "faithful and discreet slave" class either.

  Slim
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  Farkel

  The math doesn't work: 144000 / 2000 years = 72 new anointed per year! Out of the ENTIRE population of the earth every year for nearly 2000 years!. Bear in mind that there were NO "other sheep" until 1935 and that most of the anointed were "chosen" between circa 1879 and 1935. That means there were FAR fewer chosen yearly for the nearly 2,000 years up until 1879 than just 72 per year. I guess God was REALLY picky for all those Centuries until Chuck Russell came along.

  What's worse, God "chose" an Organization who is now re-writing the very rules that they made decades ago.

  Why would God "choose" over two millennia only 144,000 king/priests to rule mankind forever and be immortal and at the average rate of only 72 souls per year, when most of the ones that were "chosen" that I knew were total wackos? Including my own mother. And that also includes the pre-1935 "real" anointed that I also knew. A good portion of them were wackos, too, and another good portion of them thought the whole doctrine was rubbish.

  Garbage.

  Farkel