by LostGeneration 46 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
James Woods, you're my hero. I may just partake next Memorial... who knows. Been contemplating it for about 4 years now.
DOC - well, keep in mind, the WT itself acknowledged that Dubs are generally not "readers of large books". Hence the dumb-dumb-dumbering down of the literature.
Also, James, the more JWs that partake, the more the R&F will start waking up to just why the GB's apostanoia is so out of control as their intricate weavework of deception continues to unravel. They're afraid... very afraid... of the "new anointed" - and they oughtta be! Christ came to upset religious applecarts, especially ones full of rotten apples. Can an uprising be far off?
Maybe the numbers are not important to them any longer... but I bet they make a count of partakers at the next memorial!
Hey!
stop giving them ideas...
OZ
but I bet they make a count of partakers at the next memorial!
Oh, you can bet they will still take a count (even if it is done in secret) regardless of whether they keep on reporting the numbers.
This was taken up on another thread too, BTW.
David Splane pretty much said he reckons Jehovah doesn't care about numbers.
Of course Jehovah cares about numbers.
How else would his Holy Spirit know who to appoint as elders and MS's?
George
Of course Jehovah cares about numbers.
Ah, contraire St. George. I think that David Splane was saying that the WTBTS cares about numbers even if Jehovah does not.
After all, Jehovah does not mark the appointment ballot boxes "YES" or "NO" in invisible ink. He leaves that up to the committees - who go by the numbers.
Nor do we need to know.
They have been forced to concede this because the partaker numbers are tied directly to the so-called 144,000, and their 144,000 anointed theories are indefensible, mathematically and scripturally. Great lengths have been taken by non-JWs debunking this bizarre un-Christian theory. They simply can't defend a literal 144,000 anymore and now have egg on their faces that won't come off. The numbers and logic just don't add up. It also proves they have been wrong for so many years and those numbers were therefore utter fabrication, not a mere misunderstanding. An in-depth treatise on the 144,000 and much more can be found here: http://144000.110mb.com/144000/index.html
Many other websites on the topic: http://144000.110mb.com/directory/jehovahs_witnesses_144000_144_000_heaven.html
The notion that only 144,000 are new covenant christians and are the only ones to go to heaven is probably the most difficult doctrine that JWs have in regard to biblical proof.
The bible itself says absolutely nothing like this - and the only two references to this number in revelation are vague in the extreme as to real meaning.
Back on musings from my old departed friend Ed Dunlap: Ed also told me that this was to him the most important issue for reform in the JW religion - more important than 1975, more important than blood transfusion, or anything else. He thought that if this issue (and especially that ALL CHRISTIANS were in the new covenant) could be resolved, then all the other wrong teachings would naturally fall into place. Certainly the end of the "two classes" would have been a great blow to the elitist Governing Body rulers.
Ed later came to realize that no human "organization" could actually do such a thing - he eventually believed that only individuals (no matter what church or organization) could make themselves true christians, and they had to do it on their own.
He thought that if this issue (and especially that ALL CHRISTIANS were in the new covenant) could be resolved, then all the other wrong teachings would naturally fall into place.
I'm glad you mentioned this, though off-topic a bit, but it really goes to the heart of the matter. If you are a true Christian, you are in the New Covenant, period. But to understand the New Covenant requires a bit of work understanding the other covenants. The society knows this and knows it has huge logical and scriptural holes that need filling. For their New Covenant theory to work they need to modify, create and erradicate other covenants. It is rather bizarre the degree of their backflips to accomodate their false teaching in this regard.
What most people, including active JWs, don't realize is that Jesus has a very limited role in their theory which will end soon, according to them.
VIII. Jesus Christ, as helper with respect to propitiation and legal intermediary, is not discarded at the end of the thousand year reign; as the propitiation, the sacrificed Lamb and mediator of the New Covenant he is present forever to intercede on man’s behalf, without which man cannot have access to God, be reconciled to the Almighty or have his name written permanently in the Book of Life.[Home]
Not only do the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ is a mere angel (Reasoning, 218) but they discard him and his services as an intermediary and helper with respect to his role as propitiation, his sacrificial death.
Since sin and death are to be completely removed from earth’s inhabitants, this also brings to an end the need for Jesus’ serving as “a helper with the Father” in the sense of providing propitiation for the sins of imperfect humans. (1Jo 2:1, 2) That brings mankind back to the original status enjoyed when the perfect man Adam was in Eden. Adam, while perfect, needed no one to stand between him and God to make propitiation. So, too, at the termination of Jesus’ Thousand Year Reign rule, earth’s inhabitants will be both in position and under responsibility to answer for their course of action before Jehovah God as the Supreme Judge, without recourse to anyone as legal intermediary, or helper. (Insight, 170)
This is false teaching, and assumes man is meant to revert back to a state of innocents and nakedness, a condition before Adam, before he partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, when he was susceptible to death. Mankind has grown beyond that, and the gift envisioned is a new creation, where death is no more, where man cannot die and thus will be in a condition unlike what Adam and Eve enjoyed.
More importantly, the sacrificial Lamb, Jesus, is the expiation for our sins (1 John 2:1), and without his continuous eternal presence as the propitiation there can be no continued reconciliation with God. Unlike the high priest under the Mosaic Law who yearly and repeatedly offered animal blood sacrifice for temporary remission of sins on behalf of the people, Jesus, as high priest forever on the order of Melchizedek intercedes as high priest with the propitiation of his body forever. That this sacrificial Lamb will not be discarded is visually evident by his eternal presence on the throne. After the holy city Jerusalem comes down out of heaven in the concluding chapters of Revelation, John sees the propitiatory sacrificed Lamb on God’s throne, twice.
1 And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of its broad way. And on this side of the river and on that side [there were] trees of life producing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruits each month. And the leaves of the trees [were] for the curing of the nations. 3 And no more will there be any curse. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in [the city], and his slaves will render him sacred service; … (Rev. 22:1-3)
The Lamb serves eternally as the propitiatory once-sacrificed Lamb and as intercessor, legal intermediary, between God and resurrected, glorified man. If Christ were thrown out, all men would lose access to YHWH God.
21 (for there are indeed men that have become priests without a sworn oath, but there is one with an oath sworn by the One who said respecting him: “Jehovah has sworn (and he will feel no regret), ‘You are a priest forever,’”) 22 to that extent also Jesus has become the one given in pledge of a better covenant. 23 Furthermore, many had to become priests [in succession] because of being prevented by death from continuing as such, 24 but he because of continuing alive forever has his priesthood without any successors. 25 Consequently he is able also to save completely those who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead (make intercession NAB, ESV) for them. (Heb. 7:21-25 NWT) (emphasis added)
Jesus as high priest represents redeemed man before God under the New Covenant which embraces all Christian believers, not just the 144,000. He is intercessor, he mediates, he is the legal mediator of the everlasting eternal New Covenant, without which there can be no forgiveness of sins, no reconciliation.
6 But now [Jesus] has obtained a more excellent public service, so that he is also the mediator of a correspondingly better covenant, which has been legally established upon better promises. (Heb. 8:6 NWT)
15 So that is why he is a mediator of a new covenant, in order that, because a death has occurred for [their] release by ransom from the transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who have been called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance. (Heb. 9:15 NWT)
Jesus served, and serves, in several capacities. He is the expiation or propitiation for our sins. He was more than an “offering for” propitiation; he offered himself. He was the propitiation (Rom. 3:25; 1John 2:2, 4:10). Jesus also is the New Covenant (Isaiah 42:6) of which he is mediator, or legal intermediary, and intercessor on man’s behalf forever. Jesus is high priest forever on the order of Melchizedek under the New Covenant and Davidic covenant over the Christian house of God (Heb. 10:19-21). As forever-lasting high priest he is the propitiation as high priest, and accordingly, the propitiation, the Lamb’s capacity, lasts forever.
Jesus took his seat forever as high priest under the New Covenant and will rule forever over the house of God (Heb. 10:19-21). Jesus, as high priest forever on the order of Melchizedek mediates the New Covenant which must last forever (Heb. 7:21-8:12). Jesus is mediator of the New Covenant in heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city (Heb. 12:22-24; Rev. 21:9-22:5). Accordingly, Jesus Christ the high priest over God’s people of the New Covenant and legal intermediary of the New Covenant, as the propitiation itself and being the only blood-ratified and valid covenant and the surety of that covenant, performs all of these functions as high priest forever. To deny Christ’s continuous role in this regard is to deny Christ.
IX. Conclusion: All Christian believers must be parties to the New Covenant which is everlasting, not temporary; otherwise, there is no hope for salvation in this life or the next.[Home]
One of the most profound mistakes the Jehovah’s Witnesses make is limiting the New Covenant in time and scope; it lasts approximately two thousand years (Insight, 524) and applies only to the 144,000. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are the rare exception when they refer to the New Covenant as being an "indefinitely lasting" covenant. “Indefinite” is a term they tend to overuse and misapply because a two thousand year covenant which ends very soon with the resurrection of the last of the 144,000 to immortality is far from being “indefinite” but is most definitely definite and not what Old and New Testament writers had in mind when referring to the New Covenant.
The Hebrew word used repeatedly with reference to the New Covenant is olam, meaning i.e., the vanishing point; time out of mind (past or future) i.e. (practically) eternity; always, ever, everlasting, perpetual, evermore (Vine's, 205). “Olam means “eternity; remotest time; perpetuity,” (Ibid.). With the prepositions ad or le it can sometimes mean into the indefinite future, a grammatical construct lacking with respect to the New Covenant. So it is for good reason that the overwhelming, pervasive weight of scriptural authority recognizes the eternal, everlasting and endless nature of the New Covenant which God said will never be broken.
The book of Jeremiah specifically identifies an eternal, everlasting covenant: “And I will cut an everlasting covenant with them, to do good to them” (Jer. 32:40, Green‘s Literal; “eternal,” NAB, KJV). “… I will raise up to you an everlasting covenant.” (Ezek. 16:60, Green‘s Literal). “And my servant, David, shall be a ruler to them forever. And I will cut a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them (Ezek. 37:25,26, Green’s Literal). “I will renew with you the everlasting covenant, the benefits assured to David” (Isa. 55:3, NAB). Even Paul referred to “… the blood of the eternal covenant, …” (Heb. 13:20, NAB, ESV). And as explained in detail above, an everlasting or eternal New Covenant, or one that even lasts through the thousand year reign, is fatal to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ salvation program.
It also strains reason to believe that God Almighty sacrificed his son for only 144,000 people, and that only their sins are forgiven under the New Covenant, and only their hearts are changed by the power of the Holy Spirit and only these 144,000 are born again, or from above. That is the thrust of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ arguments, but this too is simply not true. Again, the New Covenant:
31 “Look! There are days coming,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I will conclude with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant; 32 not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, ‘which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.” 33 “For this is the covenant that I shall conclude with the house of Israel after those days,” is the utterance of Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I shall write it. And I will become their God, and they themselves will become my people.” 34 “And they will no more teach each one his companion and each one his brother, saying, ‘KNOW Jehovah!’ for they will all of them know me, from the least one of them even to the greatest one of them,” is the utterance of Jehovah. “For I shall forgive their error, and their sin I shall remember no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34).
Common sense alone will tell you that God’s people are not limited to the tiniest fraction of all those whom he gathers to himself; that the priestly "rulers" of a people (144,000) are not the “people.” The Levitical priesthood was never regarded as the “people” or the “nation” of Israel, but were members of the “people,” members of the “nation,” although the inverse does allow for the entire nation of Israel to be referred to as “priests” (Ex. 19:6), just as all Christian believers are a “priesthood” (1 Pet 2:9). It bears repeating: if you are not a party to the New Covenant, salvation and reconciliation with God is beyond reach under the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ invalid salvation and reconciliation plan.
It is a common refrain, but all too often the Jehovah’s Witnesses point to passages in the New Testament and say “that doesn’t apply to me, it only applies to the 144,000 anointed,” but this view is utterly illogical. Don’t think for one minute that the New Testament was written primarily for the benefit of a mere 144,000. Just look at the expansive, all-embracing language and you will see that the message of the gospels was directed to millions, not a few thousand; and it was repeated many, many times. For example:
"For God so loved the world that he gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone believing into Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16); “But I say to you, that everyone who may confess me before men, the Son of man will also confess him before the angels of God ….” (Luke 12:8); “For whoever shall do the will of my Father in Heaven, that one is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt. 12:50); “And everyone living and believing into Me, though he die, he shall live” (John 11:26); “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God (1 John 5:1); “To this One all the prophets witness, so that through His name everyone believing into Him will receive forgiveness of sins;” (Acts 10:43); “For Christ is the end of law for righteousness to everyone that believes” (Rom. 10:4) (all Green’s Literal Translation).
Remember, the heirs to the Abrahamic promise, all believing Christians, are to be countless; this is the spiritual “house of Israel” which the Jehovah’s Witnesses wrongly teach number only 144,000 and who alone go to heaven. God, speaking through Ezekiel, identified the future sheep separated from the goats of Matthew 25:31-46 as being the “house of Israel, his people.
As for you, my sheep, says the Lord God, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats. … I will make a covenant of peace with them ... Thus they shall know that I, the Lord, am their God, and they are my people, the house of Israel, says the Lord God. [You, my sheep, you are the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God.] (Ezek. 34:17, 25, 30, NAB)
These same sheep, the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach, are the Great Crowd who supposedly inherit the kingdom of God as earthly subjects. But if that is true, it actually places the Great Crowd in the house of Israel along with the so-called 144,000 up in heaven, once again. And according to these verses the Great Crowd of sheep are also parties to the "covenant of peace," which is the New Covenant, and which accordingly positions them up in heaven.
Hopefully, in the final analysis, two facts have been made clear in the course of this paper. The Great Crowd of Revelation 7:9, whether identical as the 144,000 or as a separate group of people, is not standing on earth in an “approved condition” before God, but in heaven, before God’s throne, their robes washed white in the blood of the New Covenant Jesus Christ, forever. And the 144,000 is a number that was never meant to be taken literally.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above . … no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit. … And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:3, 7, 14, 15)
Jesus is Lord!
Ezekiel 13:18-21
