by observador 175 Replies latest watchtower bible
What gets me is in 2000wt one of the 6 things that gb said the end was near because the (fds-144k) was getting old and some would be on earth when the end came.They also mentioned we are around the corner,the last hour, etc,etc.So now they pull some hayseed out of their asses to extent the sweet smelling shit.This shit is old and really stints.If I was to tell them so they would get awfull mad.
Bob
if there are going to be 'anointed' on earth when the GT breaks out, there is no point in using the partaker numbers as an indicator of how far away or close the end is.
I agree that there is no longer any need to use the annual partaker number as a way of gauging how close Armageddon is, but that's a consequence of the revision of the 1935 date that came out earlier this year, not this newest generation tweak. I remember a study article 8 or 10 years ago that specifically said that there would be anointed on the Earth when the great tribulation arrived, and that they days would be cut short because of them. The 1935 date was the key. All of the anointed were supposed to be gathered by then and any new anointed that popped up were supposed to be replacements for the pre-1935 anointed that fell away. It became quite comical that the governing body was now being run by a bunch of supposed replacements (what did that say about the quality of the pre-1935 anointed?), so they scrapped the date. Now nobody knows if and when the calling will ever cease. Apparently, the door to heaven has been open all along and Jehovah has been selecting "new" anointed post-1935 after all. The post-1935 anointed aren't necessarily replacements. The article doesn't clarify where the notion of "replacements" now falls in JW theology. Is it possible that some of the current anointed are replacements while others are "new"? I'm not sure the Watchtower spoke to this issue. Maybe it doesn't matter anymore.
To get back to the earlier point, I agree with your overall point that the number of partakers no longer matters. For this reason, I expect them to stop publishing the number in future. The number of partakers now tells us nothing about how close we supposedly are to the great tribulation. Not publishing the number of partakers will also have the added bonus of making this embarrassing issue disappear once and for all. If the door to heaven didn't slam shut in 1935 there is no reason to speculate about whether someone really is or isn't a genuine anointed. It doesn't matter anymore. The Watchtower clarified that the anointed aren't any more special or have any more insight than a regular publisher. Jehovah only uses the governing body to lead his people. It also doesn't matter whether the number of anointed go up or down in a given year. There will be anointed on the earth when the great tribulation comes. And we will know that there are anointed around because the members of the governing body will profess to be of the anointed class. Case closed. There goes another embarrassing prophecy failure swept under the rug.
Good god this is gettin old....please tell me if I am off here but since 1995 the generation is indeed ANYONE around when the end comes.....144K---GC----evil world.....even this wt uses the word COMPRISE for the anointed!
I tried to paste websters but it would not let me and my self-e-mail-trick has not come back yet but trust me....the anointed are not ONLY the generation just by saying they comprise it....they are part of it..........oompa
Thanks AnnO'Maly, I had forgotten, in part.
My question was mostly triggered by the association of "lightning" with "sign"... but we lack the context of the new Watchtower (which seems to be more about Revelation than the synoptic apocalypse, except for "this generation").
Replacements for 144,000 if one sins.I thought once God appoints someone he can't be replaced.Example King David he was a very bad dude yet God didn't replace him because God's (H.S.) could read his heart.So what happened to God's H.S. today did it get corrupt by the gs of the wbts.The apostles were imperfect did God need replacements or he just let them write some scrolls that are meaningless.
Bob
Oompa,
You are right. The 1995 generation change did away with the association of the word "generation" in Matthew 24 with the 70 to 80 year generation mentioned in Psalm 90:10. However, the Watchtower made clear that the word "generation" as used in Matthew still meant a group or accumulation of people. In other words, the generation was changed to mean a short period of time, just not necessarily a time frame of a maximum length of 80 years.
This new understanding of the "generation" now takes the concept of the generation away from a given group of people living at a particular time. They now apply the generation to the anointed who have been around since Jesus' day. The generation is no longer a limiting word used to denote a short period of time. To say it differently, the generation spoken of in Matthew no longer means that a short period of time would necessarily pass between the beginning of the end times to the start of the great tribulation. The "generation" no longer speaks to how much time would pass between these two events. The 1995 version of the generation still presented the word "generation" as one that denoted a specific time frame, they just clarified that it was a limited time frame that could extend past 80 years.
I hope that helps.
I agree that there is no longer any need to use the annual partaker number as a way of gauging how close Armageddon is, but that's a consequence of the revision of the 1935 date that came out earlier this year, not this newest generation tweak.
Yes, the 1935 change is the major factor, neverending. Yet that and the 'some anointed alive at the GT' teaching work in tandem. It will be very interesting to see if they do scrap the partaker statistics, but it won't be necessary now that the figures don't matter anymore. The End is as close as is expedient for the leadership.
Forgot to add: Dagney - yes, this seems to be the 'new light' - 'generation' = no longer the baaad contemporaneous ppl who refuse to recognize the parousia but now = the gooood contemporaneous 'John class.' Hopefully that'll make some brighter dubbies go 'Hmm.'
I'll add that the heavy lifting in this change was the doing away of the 1935 date. Without that, the new generation change wouldn't be significant. It was only because the society changed the 1935 date and said that Jehovah is still gathering the 144,000 anointed that this change in the generation became significant. There is no longer any limitation on when new anointed can be chosen. New anointed can continue to appear indefinitely. Since the generation has been tied into the anointed, the time frame covered by the generation has also been extended indefinitely. As long as there are anointed on this Earth, the generation of Matthew 24 has not passed away, and there is no longer any limitation on when new anointed can appear because the 1935 date has been done away with.
The End is as close as is expedient for the leadership.
I couldn't have said it any better.
Everything that appears in the Watchtower is for the Watchtower's own benefit.
