Straight from the C.O. (page 3)

skeeter1

Yes, there are 9 men behind the green curtain.

Welcome.

Skeeter

isaacaustin

9 old geezers pulling the strings on that wicked old witch.

winstonchurchill

Welcome SWA. I hear you. With increasing frequency I experience those moments you describe at KH... I look around and find nothing but people nodding. WTF!

Sir82: Are you sure you don't work for the writing committee? God, you have mastered their language and twisted phrasing. Jokes aside, I think you nailed in how they're gonna do it. Come on, they have decades of experience in the field of saying without saying.

And as for the CO stating what he said: that's the beauty of it. He can always explain what he "really meant"; WTS can always say "He said that, we didn't". Just like '75: "You misunderstood. Some said certain things..."

isaacaustin

if they make the number symbolic would everyone claim to be annointed? If so, who would be left of the 'other sheep'?

sir82

if they make the number symbolic would everyone claim to be annointed? If so, who would be left of the 'other sheep'?

What they'll do is remove the prestige of being "anointed".

Up until now, if you were "anointed", you were one of the "spiritually elite", you were one of the "faithful and discreet slave", you were "entrusted with Jesus' belongings", you were "feeding Christ's sheep".

In the future,"being spirit anointed" and "having the heavenly hope" will be rather meaningless. In this "system of things" such people will be just average rank & file - the only difference is what happens after this system ends. "Other sheep" = peons withthe earthly hope, "spirit anointed" = peons with the heavenly hope.

So, yeah, once the number becomes symbolic, there will several thousand, maybe tens or even hundreds of thousands who will begin to partake of the Memorial emblems. But from the WTS standpoint, so what? By then all the cachet of being "spirit anointed" will be gone, since the exclusive "faithful and discreet slave", where the real power is, will be redefined as being the Governing Body.

isaacaustin

But Sir82, what if the masses claim to be heavenly peons? What does that do to paradise earth?

BabaYaga

Hearty welcome, SWA!!!

Lukewarm said:

Unfortunately, 99% of witnesses dont even know who these 9 are, yet show willingness to undergo all sorts of suffering and even die to uphold their doctrine!

Man oh man how true this is. I certainly didn't know them... but I was absolutely prepared to die for their dogma (and their majority vote around a comfy table in NY.)

Quandry

Welcome, swa.

I suspect they are paving the way for (1) 144,000 is a symbolic number, and (2) "faithful and discreet slave" = Governing Body

Why not? Is this any more shocking than the change in generation? After YEARS of "building our confidence (inside cover of mags) that the generation that was alive and at an age of understanding in 1914 would not pass off the scene" and then with a couple of sentences in the WT they have changed it TWICE?

I remember in 1995 when the first change came, sitting in the KH, looking at the totally unconcerned people, and thinking "Doesnt' anyone get why this would be unsettling but me?". Why wasn't anyone even slightly upset at this change? Not even discussing it for more than the minute or so it took to read the paragraph and parrot the answer to the question......

sir82

what if the masses claim to be heavenly peons? What does that do to paradise earth?

1) As noted above, once the switch to "symbolic" is made, the WTS doesn't care who decides where they are going to end up

2) "Earthly hope" is so ingrained in the current crop of 7 million JWs, no more than 10-20% would make the switch anyway - probably way less

3) Even if somehow all of them did, they'd still hold the earthly paradise as being real for all those resurrected ones who died without "knowing Jehovah"

Look I'm just winging it here - I'm not a GB policy maker! I don't have all the answers!

insearchoftruth

what if the masses claim to be heavenly peons? What does that do to paradise earth?

Still only a neophyte with respect to this stuff, but what I have seen is the WTS tries so hard to paint paradise earth as 'the place to be', and if they remove some of the prestige from the anointed, no longer part of the FDS, will there be any allure to being of the anointed, you no longer are the dispensary of 'spritual food', it really only gives you a possible pass to be on the GB.....as long as you are male as well.

Straight from the C.O.

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