I'm very much enjoying "The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses", by Heather and Gary Botting. Now, this excerpt comes very much to the point of this thread, I believe:
Page 145: "Still, in 1975 the society clearly feared a continuation of the upward trend in Memorial partakers, and in an article entitled "Annointing to a Heavenly Hope - How Is It Manifest?" (WT February 1975, 105-11) the Governing Body warned readers against mistakenly presuming a heavenly calling. The writers clearly blamed the increase on the ignorance of the membership as to the nature of the calling. 'What might cause some to assume mistakenly that they are of the anointed ones who should partake of the Memorial emblems? Lack of knowledge could be responsible for someone assuming wrongly that he or she was thus anointed. One may fail to realize that, as with other favors of God, receiving such anointing depends, not upon the one wishing nor upon he one running, but upon God'. The article warned against self-aggrandisement and pride. When blacks in Africa began to parñtake of the emblems in the 1970s the Governing Body attributed the influx of partakers in part at least to the tribal roots of 'unruly' ones who allegedly exhibited unbecoming fetishist behaviour after partaking of the 'blood of Christ. Others who made the mistake of partaking of the emblems had reportedly experienced 'spiritual enlightenment' through drug abuse or simple fantasizing. All of these partakers were duly reprimanded, and some were disfellowshipped".
I would love to hear the comments from the people who might have been there.
The increasing number of the anointed. Comments, anyone?
by dgp 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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dgp
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Farkel
Declaring oneself to be a member of the anointed is the ONLY way a dub can get a title without sweating a single drop for the Watchtower Corporation.
Unfortunately, claiming that title in modern times only seems to appeal to wackos and nutjobs.
Farkel
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flipper
DGP- I was born in and raised a witness. I had an elder brother in law who in his mid twenties in 1972 thought he was temporarily one of the anointed . That was before he was diagnosed as Bi-polar and went on meds for depression due to delusions. Then once on medication he miraculously returned as one of the " other sheep " or " great crowd " with an earthly hope.
Bottom line DGP is the WT society and it's thoughts on WHO qualifies as an anointed has changed drastically from 1975 to the view today in 2010. The WT society has become a lot more lenient on people partaking of the emblems at Memorial since they changed their view a few years ago that the sealing or filling of the anointed DIDN'T end in 1935 ( like they used to teach in 1975 ) . In a recent article in May or June of 2009 in their ( witness only ) Watchtower they actually made a complete opposite statement from the view you posted from 1975. Now they say no one can judge whether a person is anointed or not and shouldn't criticize ! Incredible.
This has led to an increase in people partaking each year now the number going upwards about 700 or 800 a year. I believe the number was 9,986 for 2008. Up from 6,000 or 7,000 just a few years before ! But the reason the WT society had to open it up again- is because they extended their teaching on HOW LONG the " generation " is going to last from 1914 ! So to accomodate the prolonging of their lies they HAD to discontinue the " sealing of 1935 anointed " teaching. " It's just incredible the length they will go to - to continue perpetuating deception and lies ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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thetrueone
They will spin something up I'm sure when there is alot of inquisitiveness occurring on the subject.
right now there isn't alot of it around. Before they used to use the declining numbers as a sign that the total
had almost been reached and therefore the doors of the ark were shortly to be closed shut, signifying
the imminent end of the system of things.
It was good devised bullshit for the flock to be weary of, now its a problem they don't know how to control it.
Serves the dam cult right for playing with numbers and dates.
Concealing the number might be they're only alternative now .
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AllTimeJeff
Quite the paradox. They claim that only holy spirit can tell a person if they are annointed, thus, it is impossible to police, or even peer review. (more on the peer review) Yet, the GB, afraid of their own loophole, try to make a disctinction with their little "genuine annointed" comments. I love watching them squirm.
I would be willing to bet dollars to dounts that they have discussed the "laying of hands" on brothers esp who claim to be annointed, in light of the laying of hands by the elders in Timothy's congregation. I am not predicting that this is how annointed JW's will be distinguished in the future, but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to that, all so that control can be maintained.
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thetrueone
Quite frankly I don't see how they have to be concerned about what the numbers show right now, being that
there is only 10,000 or so that are being listed, a small number in comparison to 144,000.
Now if they had a huge number like 100,000 to deal with, you best assured they would do something very drastic.
This is when most likely they would institute a do not publish the numbers out to the flock, policy.
Right now they're in luke warm water.
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sspo
Even if the numbers of the anointed continue to increase the GB will find a loophole to justify it
and the rank and file will just have to suck it up and not question it.
Most of them will view it as new light and how Jehovah continues to bless them!
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VoidEater
I wasn't in Africa, though I was "in" through the 70's.
It was a strange push-pull sort of thing - how the Anointed were built up in the minds of the R/F, yet when someone dared to say they were of the Anointed and partook - well, the powers that be would mutter and shake their heads and be full of discontent and pessimism.
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Farkel
There were 52,400 memorial partakers in 1935. Add to that ALL Bible Students who had died by 1935. Add to that ALL Christians officially recognized by "Jehovah" from 33 AD to 1879 and you'll get a pretty hefty number.
But if there are approximately 10,000 dubs who are also anointed, the number of "anointed" Christians for nearly 2,000 years over SIXTY SIX GENERATIONS must have been a pathetically small number. If ALL the anointed were chosen from the time of Christ to the start of Russell's cult, that would average out to 2140 people per each 30-year GENERATION.
If we only take the 52,400 partakers in 1935 and add 20,000 more partakers from the time of Russell, that's 72,400 people, which means there were only 71,600 anointed Christians from the time of Christ until Russell showed up. That only 1,069 people per 30 year generation over 67 generations.
NONE of these numbers take into consideration the 10,000 dubs today who have partaken, or any of the wackjobs from 1935 to current who partook and subsequently died.
The numbers don't make any sense whatsoever.
What the WT Corporation needs to do when no one is looking is add another zero to the 144,000 and everything will be fine. Hey! if 606 BC can magically become 607 BC why can't 144,000 magically become 1,440,000?
Farkel, Solving WT Problems CLASS
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dgp
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. Let's hope that someone who reads this post finds a reason to think on seeing the changes they have made to such an important element of their beliefs. I read somewhere that they can get away with this only because many people leave the religion and never ever find out about the "old light".