LOL! Thank you very much for your commentary, you honestly could have kept going.
[Puts on Roger Moore smirk] "I intend to, Kamal Khan."
I just had other matters to deal with, and had to finish watching 'Star Trek' (2009) since I'm in my sequels preparation mode, and it's also like, nearly midnight now, but I do want to look into this one further. Let's see here:
Page 9: "During harvest season, the weeds are destroyed and the wheat is gathered. Jesus himself explained the illustration."
Hmm. Then why aren't we just reading the Bible verses? Why is there an entire Watchtower article explaining it further, if Jesus himself already explained it?
Page 10: "By the fourth century, weedlike Christians had greatly outnumbered anointed Christians."
So how does one go about proving that? Because the Catholic Church was born then, maybe? Or because the doctrine by then is different from JW doctrine? Boy, this'll make for some awkward conversations when you guys get to heaven and meet some Christians who were around in the fourth century....
Page 10, par. 4: "This command reveals that from the first century until today, there have always been some anointed wheatlike Christians on earth."
Sort of like an unbroken chain of a faithful slave class, just without the faithful slave part, I guess. Also, if we take 144,000 and divide by roughly 2,000, what's that? 72 new anointed Christians per year on average. But wait, we'd have to subtract at least 5,000 or way, WAY more than 5,000 from the first century part and then there's the previous generation of anointed which was like, wow, that math really becomes, uh, troublesome. Continuing on, still on page 4:
"However, some decades before the start of the harvest season, the wheat class became discernible."
Kind of circular reasoning: since our religion started around that time, it was obvious that we were totally the wheat class showing up. Wait, it doesn't say that yet...page 11:
"What is the larger fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy?"
Whoa, wait, guys. How do you know there was a larger fulfillment to Malachi's prophecy? How do you prove that? Are you just taking Malachi's prophecy and claiming it has a larger fulfillment? Naw, that'd be wrong.
"During the decades leading up to 1914, C.T. Russell and his close associates did a work like that of John the Baptizer. That vital work involved restoring Bible truths. The Bible Students taught the true meaning of Christ's ransom sacrifice, exposed the hellfire lie, and proclaimed the coming end of the Gentile Times."
So wait, didn't he learn all that from Adventists, who were teaching all that stuff back when he was still selling hats for a living? How can it be argued that C.T. Russell and his associates restored Bible truths that other religious groups had already been teaching for decades before he showed up? Also, the 1914 belief is not a "restored Bible truth", since nobody in the first century was teaching it, that's for sure. This also greatly obscures the history of that era, PYRAMIIIIIIDSSS.... This is also the same "John the Baptizer" work that led to the mistaken notion of the great tribulation starting in 1914. So, the guy whose mess you've spent decades cleaning up after was preparing the way how, exactly?
Ah, that's enough for one post.
--sd-7
