"Last days" of John 6:53-57

by pixel 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • pixel
    pixel

    Ok,

    Reading this section from Jwfacts http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/144000.php (Thanks for that excellent website!) I came across this scripture:

    John 6:53-57 "Accordingly Jesus said to them: "Most truly I say to YOU, Unless YOU eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, YOU have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day; for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in union with me, and I in union with him. Just as the living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father, he also that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me."

    My question is what is this "last day" that Jesus was refering to? Was it the "Last Days", meaning, according to the WT, after 1914, is it the "last last day" after the big A and all that? or, was it after 1919 or something like that when the anointed supposedly began to go the heaven according to the Borg?

    I mean, how many "last days" and you get and never get to the end?

    Thanks fot your imput.

  • pixel
    pixel

    In case nobody saw it?

  • Caminante
    Caminante

    Evidently, the "last day" Jesus spoke of in the Gospel account refers to his Millenial reign, during which the general resurrection would take place. It is to be noted that eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood, used here, has nothing in common with the Lord's Supper that took place about year later. Thus partaking of Jesus' flesh and blood in the context of this scripture should be understood in a figurative, symbolic sense as refering to exercising faith in him.

  • pixel
    pixel

    Thanks Caminante. I thought, I may be right or wrong, that the WT applies this verse only to the anointed. I may be right or wrong.

  • PSacramento
    PSacramento

    Thanks Caminante. I thought, I may be right or wrong, that the WT applies this verse only to the anointed. I may be right or wrong.

    Well, they are right AND wrong.

    They are right that the resurrection is only for those that "eat and drink of Christ", which to them is ONLY the annointed.

    They are wrong that only the annointed SHOULD do that since Jesus was clearly making an offering to ALL.

  • Caminante
    Caminante

    It doesn't refer to the anointed, because Jesus made the Kingdom covenant later, when he instituted the Memorial of his death.

  • pixel
    pixel

    Is there a probabilty Caminante, that he was refering to something he will institute later?

  • PSacramento
    PSacramento

    There is no last supper in John because John decides to "have it" in this discourse here in chapter 6.

    All those that "eat of Christ" are annointed because to do that one must profess Christ as Lord and, as Paul said, only by the sealing of the HS can one do that.

    All those that "eat and drink of Christ" are annointed and they are annointed because they "eat and drink" of Christ and prolaim Him Lord.

  • pixel
    pixel

    Very very interesting take on it PSacramento. Now that we are talking about this and the end, if this "last days" refer to the Millenial reign, and the promise that Jesus gave to the disciples is the same thing he gave to these people in chapter 6, that takes us to the resureccion. If people that participate of the blood of Chris will expect the resureccion on the "last day", the WT is wrong again saying that we have anointed people already flying to the sky since 1919.

  • Bobcat
    Bobcat

    In connection with John chapter six and any relation to the Lord's Evening Meal, the BECNT commentary on John mentions that the discussion in chapter six uses verbs ("eats") that indicate a one-time sort of action, in contrast to a repeated action in the Lord's Evening Meal as it is memorialized over time. He (Andreas J. Kostenberger) also mentions the fact that the Memorial had not been instituted yet, so that the Jews and Jesus disciples, at the time of the discussion in chapter 6, would not have had the Memorial in mind.

    At the same time, John is writing to disciples some decades later, so that the readers of his gospel account may have been intended to understand the relationship between what Jesus was saying and the symbolic meaning of the Lord's Evening Meal. He says; " On a secondary level, however, John may expect his readers to read Jesus' words in the light of the church's observance of the Lord's Supper, though not necessarily in a sacramental sense." (p.217)

    One of the interesting things about John's gospel account is that it includes this discussion in chapter six, but does not have the actual account of the institution of the Lord's Evening Meal. It could be a certain amount of religious ceremony and ritual had crept in to the observance and John was working towards getting his readers to appreciate what the real meaning of the symbols were.

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