by Beans 13 Replies latest watchtower bible
Now as we know there are annointed ones,but what about those who didn`t have the chance to become annointed as the Bible Students were not around until a certain time? So you can only be of the annointed after the JW`s were conceived?
As we know JW`s are the only ones who will be saved in the Magic Kingdom but what about those who didn`t have the chance to be JW`s because they died before the inception of the religion?
Beans
I guess that lets out the twelve deciples then Oh and that dude who died with Jesus, Pontius Pilot.[8>]
"I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memorystyx
Some happy,some sad"
Beans,
There is a JW belief that they don't talk about much any more, to wit, as Rutherford used to say, and that is this, the annointed 144,000 began with Christ's desciples and continued to the present day. One peculiar part of this belief is the concept that there have always been a few annointed existing throughout the 2,000 years from Christ's time until ours. When you divide 144,000 by 2,000 years, the numbers don't add up too well, but that is the belief.
September 15, 1974 Watchtower (page 561)
Do Not Hold Back from "Practicing the Truth"
The Christian Greek Scriptures relate the history of the beginnings of Christianity and carry us into the final days of the first century, telling about Christ Jesus and his followers, who walked in the light. And while we have little actual recorded history to identify the adherents of light in the centuries following the death of the apostles and early disciples of Christ down to our modern times, nevertheless, we are assured by the illustration of Jesus Christ concerning the wheat and the weeds that throughout that time there would be those walking in the light of God, following his Word, the Book of light. (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43)
larc, that is not quite true - there have been no changes as to the belief that down thru the centuries there have always been a few of Christ's brothers walking the Earth.
It would be rather presumptuous to believe that one needed to wait for a 19th century organization to be accepted as a co-heir with Christ.
Hmm lets do the math by centurys 144,000 divided by 20 centurys
that comes to 7,200 per 100 years, seems strange that almost 50,000 or more waited until the 20th, and i bet there have been a lot more then that in the 20th century, perhaps all 144,000
it would be interesting to find numbers, but I know early on they didn't keep track.
Seedy
The official teaching has always been that the first 144,000 Christians, the "firstfruits" of the earth were the annointed. Thus, the 12 apostles, the 120 in the upper room, the 3000 baptized in one day by Peter would have been the first 3132 of the 144,000.
About 50,000 witnesses partook of the emblems at the peak of annointedness in the 1930's. It went down steadily until it reached about 8000 where it has been stuck for the last 20 years or so.
My father and Yadirf give similar answers to questions regarding how when 3000 were baptized in one day it took 2000 years to get the 1st 144,000. They offer the explanation that it is actually the 144,000 most faithful witnesses who become the annointed.
Either way it seems like 1900 years is an awfully long time to gather 94000 of the best while 50000 become eligible within about 50 years of each other.
Joel
That is an interesting question, how the figure suddenly "exploded", but the "144,000 most faithful" does not find suport anywhere. On the contrary, it is stated that it is more or less a "technical" question; before or after mid-30s. Since those entering from the mid-30s onwards had an earthly hope, the heavenly call was closed, but there was no difference as to the "faithful-ness" of the people concerned. Itwas just thatbefore the 30s, you had a heavenly call, after it an earthly. That those entering in the 30s now are some 90 years and more, and supposed to be the ones entering the earthly Kingdom alive, is another question ............
It would be rather presumptuous to believe that one needed to wait for a 19th century organization to be accepted as a co-heir with Christ.
When has concern over being presumptuous ever affected the Watchtower or its teachings?
Tom
This teaching about the 144,000 was one of the first that collapsed for me as I was leaving the Witnesses. Somewhere in my files I have copies of early historical records of 1st and 2nd Century Christian martyrs being slaughtered by the tens, and even hundreds of thousands. The number killed is many times over 144,000.
The idea that there has always been some of the anointed 144,000 on earth throughout the past 1969 years just cannot be. First, as Joel says, you've got to subtract the 50,000 from this century, leaving 90,000 to cover some 1900 years, and we know that there had to be tens of thousands in the first century alone. The WTS's take on this is that most of those early "Christians" weren't really Christians, even those willing to be burned to death or crucified for it. That's stupid.
The end result for me is that it simply collapses the idea of the 144,000 being a literal number. It was one more lesson in the problems created when viewing the Bible as an inspired book.
S4
