Did the heavenly calling cease in 1935? Not anymore!

by AnnOMaly 288 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Zico

  A cheaper way to get around the 144,000 problem as pointed out by slimboyfat is to stop counting the Memorial partakers.

  That's a possibility, though the best way for the Governing Body to get the Rank & File excited about the end without setting another date, would be to find a way to drastically limit the partakers, but they may have already tried (and failed) to do this. Perhaps having 3 classes of Christians (Top heaven, lower heaven, earth) would be the best way to do that, but I have no idea how they'd count them, and differentiate between the higher heaven and lower heaven classes.
• 

  Alligator Wisdom

  What makes one group of a dozen partakers any different from another group?

  My thoughts exactly. The GB have realized that they may eventually lose their grip on the worldwide brotherhood to other "prominent" annointed in the near future. They need to make it clear now that they (GB in NY specifically) are the chosen annointed that Jesus Christ left in charge.

  With the wide range of demographics within the WTS, the days are coming where there will be many JW splinter groups and so-call JW reform.

  And yes, they will have to eliminate publishing the number of partakers at the Memorial. Could very well be after next year's Memorial at the rate these changes are coming.

  Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously)
• 

  nvrgnbk

  The comment that the Anointed are no more special than the Great Crowd puts a lot of power into the hands of the GB. The power of a cult lies in the distinction between the leaders and the followers, the mystical manipulation. If the GB alone are the F&D slave it exalts them even higher above followers (both anointed and Great Crowd), making their opinion even more important and awe inspiring.

  Agreed jwfacts. This is one of the main red flags to identify a cult.

  Nvr
• 

  sir82

  Aha!

  I called this back in October 2006, see the following post:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/121909/1.ashx

  "And they will have to know there was a prophet in their midst..."

  On a more serious note, what a bunch of tripe. Don't these bumblers even read their own articles? "The anointed do not view themselves as special..." Unless, of course, you happen to one of the elite 10 or 12 or whatever on the GB, in which case you are infallible.

  I think this will be about as big as the 1914 generation change - expect to see another pronounced decline in baptisms about 1-2 years from now, as this slowly sinks in.

  Notice that they put it into a QFR, rather than a study article? It seems that the powers-that-be noticed the precipitous drop in baptisms (about a 33% decline worldwide between 1996 & 2006) the last time they put out one of their stumbling stones, the 1914 generation change, into a study article. It seems they are trying to kind of sneak this one in there, and give the JWs less of a chance to read & think about it.
• 

  r51785

  As a result of this article, I see the following taking place: The Governing Body will be identified as the Faithful and Discreet Slave Class. There will be no further confusion about how the FDS is all the annointed ones. Any others outside of headquarters who partake can then be subject to question since they are not members of the faithful slave. When a new Governing Body member is needed, the Watchtower leadership can approach some longtime Bethelite and suggest that maybe he reevaluate his standing vis a vis annointing. Then, voila, Brother Long-Time-Bethelite suddenly receives the annointing and can now take Brother Drools-All-Over-Himself's position on the Governing Body. With this move they can explain away the fact that all the Governing Body members were born after 1935 and dismiss what they regard as any crack pot annointed ones. They also ensure themselves a ready supply of company men to fill their Governing Body/Faithful and Discreet Slave Class. The R&F cult members will never even notice the change!
• 

  sir82

  Oh, another thought occurs to me...

  Look for an astounding jump in the number of partakers, perhaps as early as this year. By Memorial 2008, I would not be surprised to see the number of "partakers" jump to 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, who knows?

  The "nutters" were always going to partake anyway, regardless of what the Watchtower said. For years, elders have been instructed not to count anyone who they feel is obviously not "qualified".

  But just imagine the effect this will have on the (probably) thousands and thousands of loyal JWs who have felt something "special" but pushed it into the background, thinking (as was described in Watchtower after Watchtower after Watchtower) "if Jehovah really wanted a replacement, he wouldn't pick me, he'd pick an 80-year-old CO or someone who's been at Bethel for 60 years".

  Now the dam is broke - "Hey, maybe Jehovah really did anoint me with holy spirit after all!"

  And these will be folks who have been loyally attending meetings for 20, 20 40 years or more, and don't appear to be in the "nutter" class- the elders will have no choice but to count them.

  I strongly suspect that this is the last year you will see a count of "Memorial partakers". It will be just too awkward to explain a jump of 8500 to [50,000]? or more.

  I am a bit surprised at the timing of this article. The magazine will be read by JWs prior to this year's Memorial, giving persons as I have described above time to read & think about it prior to this year's Memorial - the count might jump wildly upward even as soon as this year.

  If they had delayed the publication of this one for just another month, this year's Memorial would still be "safe" from a bunch of potential "new anointeds".
• 

  undercover

  My take on this is rather simple compared to some of the other theories I've seen...

  This article clears up the problem of why there are still over 8,000 partakers at the memorial and why that number does not decline at the same rate as the rest of the population alive prior to 1935.

  Those critical of the WTS knew that the remnant numbers was a crock but it was only a matter of time before even the average braindead dub realized that the remnant just weren't dying off.

  Now, by saying that the number wasn't necessarily sealed in 1935, it allows for the numbers to not decrease rapidly and can even be used to explain an increase. If the number isn't sealed, who knows how many are left to be sealed and when it will happen? The number can go up and down and there would be no reason to doubt it anymore.

  This fixes the problem of having to explain the increases and the lack of rapid decline.
• 

  Narkissos

  When a new Governing Body member is needed, the Watchtower leadership can approach some longtime Bethelite and suggest that maybe he reevaluate his standing vis a vis annointing. Then, voila, Brother Long-Time-Bethelite suddenly receives the annointing and can now take Brother Drools-All-Over-Himself's position on the Governing Body.

  This seems to have already happened, according to Barbara Anderson's story about Gerrit Lösch (sp?): http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/101208/1.ashx
• 

  core

  "The R&F cult members will never even notice the change!"
  How true - I remember acting as WT conductor when the Generation change was studied - looked at a sea of blank faces who had no idea the rug had just been pulled from under them - bland answers from those who had no clue what had just happened - no wonder David Blane can do so well - most people are 100% gullible -
  CO visited shortly after and asked if any were disturbed over change - branch office had asked him to ask around about this - I told him not to worry, they would not notice it if we reversed 1914 to 4191 as the date of Christs Kingdom power
• 

  drew sagan

  Wow! I can't believe what I miss when I'm not as frequent on the board.
  
  IMO this article seems to have the sole purpose of undermining anybody who partakes of the emblems.
  
  Think about the real 'facts' here. The one spot on earth where there is the largest concentration of anointed ones is in Brooklnyn NY. These anointed ones at HQ more than likely think that the vast majority of partakers out there in the world are fakers since most of the older ones have died out. I think this articles (and others like it to come) have the purpose of downgrading the importance of the 'fakers' while at the same time elevating the 'real' anonited ones (those in NY).
  
  Don't know if you guys caught it at all but in the new 'Organized to do Jehovah's Will' book they make the point to say that the GB represents the Faithful and Discreet Slave in some pretty forward language. I think they want to make sure that the 'authority' of the FDS stays with the governing body, so they are going to continue to write articles where we see the individual anointed meaning less and the congregated anointed (GB & Brooklyn) meaning more.