by Kathy 21 Replies latest jw friends
I understand that "annointed ones" are no longer appointed to the Governing Body, because most are no longer alive. So now, what criteria are used to appoint members to the Governing Body?
What is the "chain of command" in the society from the Governing Body to the average JW living next door? I know that elders are in there somewhere, and a "circuit overseer" and a "district overseer." But what's the order?
The GB recently appointed 4 new members. The criteria is that all Governing Body members have to be anointed and have been in some aspect of the fulltime ministry for some years. The order of the Society's structure for overseeing the ministry is Zone, Branch, District, Circuit, Congregation, and Bookstudy. / You Know
Right. And there's no hierarchy either. Just all those little cookie-cutter Jay-Dubs all alike.
My $0.02
"Anointed ones" are still the only people appointed to the GB. The official Assistants are not generally "anointed".
These days, the Society is bottom fishing when it appoints new GB members. About the only people who remotely qualify, by the present GB's standards, are "anointed" men who are Circuit or District Overseers. There are very few of those. The five most recent GB appointees, I believe, are all from this category. Several are not perceived by the Bethel family as being worth much, but as having got where they are simply because of being "anointed" and having had the right CO/DO credentials.
Of the 8000 some odd "anointed ones" in the world, many are borderline crazy or worse. The Society generally perceives that there are only a few hundred "true" "anointed ones" left in the world, and that most of these live in the New York area, except for the few who travel as COs/DOs. That's why people like You Know are not taken seriously by Brooklyn.
Within the next 10-20 years I expect that the Society will again change its structure, so that non-anointed will be on the GB. They really have no choice, since it's demonstrable that most present-day anointed are quite incapable of running the Society. In almost all matters, it is non-anointed people who run things anyway. The Watchtower corporations are all run by such people, the publications are almost entirely written by such, and the GB members have only the most general input on policy matters and virtually none in writing literature.
AlanF
All official positions are filled by what are called Elders. Elder is a type of certification that a person is both a spiritual "man" and a good teacher.
Ministerial servants are local "boys" who are either elders in waiting or older "boys" who can't teach.
There are various spheres of "oversight". Presiding overseer is kind of the coordinating elder in the local congregation. Circuit Overseer visits congregations (around 20) officially to help with local problems and report to the Branch Service Department what's going on in the congregations under him. A District Overseer is over about 20 circuits and serves a similar reporting function on the activities of the cirucit overseers and their circuits.
At the national level there is a Branch Commitee that oversees the activities in their country.
A zone servant is in charge of a whole section of the world.
Governing body at the top.
So far we have not heard from Jesus Christ for 2000 years so we must assume everything is going as he intended.
This is my view as just an ordinary publisher. I never made it past ministerial servant. I am sure there are those in this group who can give you more insight into the process. This is strictly a "bottom-up" view. Kinda looking under mommys skirt.
I expect that the Society will again change its structure
How many times has this happened? Does anyone have a running count?
ßrian
Dearest Kathy... may you have peace!
I am not an 'expert' on the WTBTS structure, but I will tell you what I know to be TRUE:
At the behest of a statement made to me by GB Member Carey Barber in 1997, that the GB had had 'nothing to do with the Watchtower since 1972', I was prompted to do some 'research' (yuck!). I started with the first video tape produced by the organization and found that what he had said was true: The magazines are 'written' by men in the 'Writing Department' who basically recycle old articles. That is, unless someone writes in with some 'new light' (which apparently I and some others have done/do, because the jist of two of my letters were used to make 'adjustment in understanding' and one magazine even included an except FROM my letter). Moving on.
One the most 'curious' things I discovered, was that in 1972, six committees were formed in anticipation of... 1975. The GB actually DID think that 1975 was 'it', and such committees were formed to take OVER the 'work'... since the GB was leaving... again. They had gone through this in 1914 - putting on white robes and literally climbing some mountain... and again in 1938... when they formed the 'Society' and passed a resolution that the 'Society' would be their 'leader' on earth ('cause again, the 'anointed' were 'leaving') - Proclaimer's Book, page 219.
Anyway, it is those six committees that have been 'running' things since 1972. And most of the men that form the new corporations... hail from those committees. You see, Kathy, honey, things were turned over to the 'Nethinim' a LONG time ago. The 'Society' mentioned it again, when in anticipation of the end of the millenium, they did the Moses/Joshua depiction study article, where the older one handed everything over to the younger one. I can't recall the year ('MOM, Fark, can you help a sista' out?), but they also used the Elijah/Elisha 'mantle' event, too. (Funny, they didn't recall that Moses didn't ENTER into the promised land with the Israelites, nor in fact, did ANY 'older' ones... that it was ONLY the younger ones who made it...)
Anyway, 'Nethinim' is derived from the words 'given ones', which represent those captured in war who were given to the priests to carry water and wood for the tabernacle/temple altar. Such ones could only work FOR the priests... not instead of them. They were not even Israelites, let alone Levitical priests, and so could not enter into the 'temple' itself... because they were 'unclean'.
But those who claim to be such 'priests' today, who claim to HAVE been 'anointed' and therefore CLEANSED by holy spirit... have not only put such men in charge of God's sheep, but have actually placed them... IN THE TEMPLE... to 'rule over' God's sheep. UNCLEAN men... performing 'sacred service'... in the temple of God!
1 Corinthians 3:16
And why not? Why should they care? It's not THEIR sheep... and they're 'leaving' anyway... right? So, why not simply ABANDON the sheep... to the 'wolf'? Why not, with 'one thought', just go on and GIVE their authority... to the 'wild beast' (a wolf, is after all, a wild beast, yes?)?
John 10:12-14
Revelation 17:15-18
And so, in October 1998, that's exactly what happened. Due to the threat of serious legal action from all over the world based on various different issues, the GB... ABANDONED the sheep... and turned over their authority... to the conglomerate! In its ENTIRETY. And so, as Daniel stated, starting back in 1914 and since... "an army was GRADUALLY given over!"
And so, NOW, the entire society of Jehovah's Witnesses... INCLUDING THOSE WHO PROFESS TO BE ANOINTED... are under the authority NOT of the GB (heck, did they ever REALLY have it anyway?), but those who sit on various posts of the CONGLOMERATE that is the "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of the Religious Order of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and Kingdom Service... Incorporated."
And why? So that what was PROPHESIED about that 'harlot', Babylon the Great... those who PROFESS to 'belong' the Christ as their 'owner' but who prove FALSE to that ownership by giving their loyalty to, and thus FORNICATING with... the 'kings of the EARTH'... the WTBTS GB... can be 'devastated'! So that that 'wild beast'... can 'eat up her fleshy parts'... and 'consume her with fire'. And it will. The very PURPOSE of that 'beast' it to put out of existenence that 'harlot'. And it is only a recompense to her, for SHE is guilty of selling out her own 'brothers'... for in HER is found 'the blood of the prophets'.
You're concerned about the rank and order of DO's, CO's, etc.? Honey, it ain't them you have to worry about. None of these have any power. Elders do what CO's tell them; CO's do what DO's tell them; DO's do what Branch Officers tell them. And the Branch Officers... are at the MERCY... of the WRITING Department... which is overseen by the PUBLIC RELATIONS Department... which is RUN... by the LEGAL Department.
And you know what they say about lawyers... Tell me, do you know what a 'scribe' is? How about a 'Pharisee'? A 'scribe' is one who WRITES law. A 'Pharisee' is one who is supposedly VERSED in law, but is not a PRIEST... and who tells the scribes... what to write. They are the ones that 'overstep the commandments of God... with TRADITIONS... and DOCTRINES... of MEN.
The WTBTS is run, Kathy... by 'scribes'... and 'Pharisees'... the 'offspring of vipers' and the children of the Satan the Devil. It is run by the mortal... and immortal... enemies of the 'seed of the woman', the children of God. For Satan KEEPS transforming himself into an angel of light and sends forth FALSE prophets, to mislead, IF possible, even the 'chosen ones'.
And the WTBTS is his best 'false light', yet.
May the one that has an ear... HEAR... what the Spirit says to the Congregation:
"Get OUT of her, my people! If you do not wish to share in her sins and receive her plagues! SEPARATE YOURSELF... and QUIT touching... the UNCLEAN thing! And I will take you in and you will become SONS... and DAUGHTERS to me... and I will be YOUR Father!"
I, myself, SJ, have spoken to you the TRUTH, just as I heard it FROM the Truth, my Lord, JAHESHUA MISCHAJAH, the Son of the Most Holy One of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, my God and my Lord's, JAH OF ARMIES.
I bid you peace, Kathy, and wish you 'ears'... to hear.
Your servant, servant to the Household of God, Israel, and a slave of Christ,
SJ
Am I right that the anointed ones are the 144,000? Who were the original appointees? Do we know their names? How were they appointed? Of the 8000 or so that are apparently still around, have any of them left "the truth?" If so, and they are now apostates, who is responsible for choosing their replacement?
Hello, AGuest. You certainly have a lot of information. I think I'll have to read it over a couple of times to get the full gist. I've not heard God referred to the way you did. "What 'religion' are you?"
AlanF,
: Within the next 10-20 years I expect that the Society will again change its structure, so that non-anointed will be on the GB.
Yes, they will be forced to do this, but it shouldn't be difficult for them: a little fiddling around with the Elijah/Elisha relationship, a little "new light" that Elisah really didn't represent an annointed class at all and dubs will proclaim "That was so obvious! Why didn't we see it before? Jehovah is truly blessing us as we see this wicked system wind down to its final.....blah, blah, blah."
Farkel
