Who are Anointed according to the Bible?

by The Searcher 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  The Searcher

  Acording to the Bible, who are "anointed" in God's eyes?

  The term 'anointed' occurs in the Greek Scriptures. In all but one of the verses, they refer to Jesus. In the remaining verse, it applies to Christ's disciples. (2 Corinthians 1:21)

  The term 'anointing' occurs 3 times in the Greek Scriptures. (1 John2:20,27) All three verses refer to the disciples of Christ.

  ".................we belong to Christ and he who has anointed us is God."

  (2 Corinthians 1:20)

  "And YOU have an anointing from the holy one; all of YOU have knowledge"; "And as for YOU, the anointing that YOU received from him remains in YOU, and YOU do not need anyone to be teaching YOU; but, as the anointing from him is teaching YOU about all things, and is true and is no lie, and just as it has taught YOU, remain in union with him."

  (1 John 2:20,27)

  John the Baptist said, "I baptized YOU with water, but he will baptize YOU with holy spirit."

  (Mark 1:8)

  The Apostle Peter added further evidence, "At this I called to mind the saying of the Lord, how he used to say, ‘John, for his part, baptized with water, but YOU will be baptized in holy spirit', God gave the same free gift to them as he also did to us who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 11:16,17)

  "For truly by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit."

  (1 Corinthians 12:13)

  What were Jesus' very last words to his disciples before he returned to heaven? "Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit." (Matthew 28:19)

  There are some who maintain that every Christian up to 1935 C.E. were part of the 144,000 heavenly hope. Nowhere in the Christian Greek Scriptures is there even a hint that everyone who believed in Jesus was automatically chosen to be in heaven with him.

  In 1935, 52,465 Witnesses partook of the Memorial emblems, indicating that they had the heavenly hope. Therefore, only 91,535 genuine Christians existed during the previous 1902 years??

  "Test the inspired expressions to see if they originate with God".
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  designs

  Russell believed in that Irish Rock Band- The Replacements.
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  Nambo

  Or one could abandon the JW doctrine of only 144000 Christians in favour of a doctrine that allows 12000 from each of the literal tribes of Israel, after all, God did make them a promise, then the great crowd could be annoined Christians from all tribes and nations and peoples and tongues and whats more, their number is unspecified and they dont have to be virgins.
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  Cold Steel

  Anointing was a common practice in both the Old Testament and the New. Kings were anointed with olive oil that had been consecrated by the priests. When Mary anointed Jesus' feet with the expensive ointment, Jesus accepted it as a holy recognition of his role as the Redeemer of mankind. The 144,000 high priests will be anointed from among the tribes of Israel.

  Most scholars don't hold to the idea that the number is a literal number. Twelve was a number signifying completeness. Twelve thousand from each tribe need not be taken literally. But what will these 144,000 do? We don't know as it was not recorded in the scriptures. Since the Governing Body doesn't actually claim revelation from God, the only thing it can do is surmise.

  One thing they are NOT is a heavenly class of spirits. What absurdity drove Russell to this extreme conclusion is not clear, but all men will be resurrected physically. In other words, they will take up their bodies again just as Christ did. As a resurrected being, you will not have blood (the corrupting agent in man), but will have spirit. Thus, even though Jesus was physically resurrected, He could go through walls and traverse distances in fractions of a second. But He was a spirit before He came to the earth, and when He took up His body, it was a perfected physical body capable of eating and touching. The notion that spirits can generate physical bodies is, to me, ridiculous. People look at Genesis 6 and think the angels became flesh. Actually, this is more myth. The sons of God were God's people, and the daughters of men were the heathen. For years Satan had used this method to pollute God's people, and he was still using it when Balaam came along in the days of Moses. The only rebellion of angels happened before the earth was ready for habitation, and a third of the heavenly host were led away by the Adversary.
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  kepler

  Regarding who are "annointed" according to the Bible...

  In Isaiah Chapter 45, the text reads,

  "Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him.."

  Whether Isaiah himself wrote that, I highly doubt. Isaiah as a document is more easily explained as being written by at least three authors before and during late captivity (Plus some editors). If you disagree, then perhaps you would like to picture what kind of best-seller the full text of Isaiah would have been in a Neo-Babylonian court.

  But as far as I can tell, Daniel was unaware of it. And everyone else in the OT unaware of Daniel.

  Another individual, according to JW logic, that would seem to have a seat among the anointed would be the thief on the cross who asked Christ to remember him in his kingdom. Whether he arrived that day or later with the supposed nearly 144,000 guests, I'll let pass.

  But considering how many details entered above are submitted as "obvious facts", then why not move on to such issues as who will provide the catering service and the arranging of anointed name tags in the banquet halls.