: The "penny" article is a classic example of switch-and-bait.
OK, but I'm not sure I get it. Did that 1931 Watchtower mentioned by Schnell call Jonadabs "Jehovah's witnesses" using the parable of the penny or didn't it?
Were Jonadabs called JWs in 1931?
by Cygnus 14 Replies latest jw friends
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blondie
Vindication III page 77-97 (1932) Excerpts
Jehonadab represented or foreshadowed that class of people now on the earth during the time that the Jehu work is in progress who are of good will, are out of harmony with Satan's organization, who take their stand on the side of righteousness, and are the ones whom the Lord will preserve during the time of Armageddon, take them through that trouble, and give them everlasting life on the earth. These constitute the "sheep" class that favor God's anointed people, because they know that the anointed of the Lord are doing the Lord's work. In support of this conclusion, the following is submitted.
Jehonadab was not a Jew, nor was he anointed to do work in the name of Jehovah, and therefore he could not picture the anointed class. He was a descendant of Abraham through his wife Keturah.
Even so today the peoples of good will on earth, who believe in Jehovah God and his Word, believe that Jehovah's witnesses are doing a righteous work in the name of Jehovah, and they are in full heart sympathy with such work and the tell others so. Jehu then gave Jehonodab his band and took him up into his chariot. That was an invitation to come along with and associate himself with the Jehu class doing the Lord's work. This corresponds to many good people today who are hearing the truth, many of whom attend the conventions of God's people and who support Jehovah's witnesses with full heart sympathy and associate themselves with the anointed who are doing the work of the Lord, and who take some part in giving testimony also.
Even so today the peoples of good will who take their stand on the side of Jehovah, by associating with Jehovah's witnesses in supporting them, let it be known by their course of action that they are against the organization of Satan. The class pictured by Jehonadab seems to correspond exactly with the "sheep" class mentioned by the Lord, which class gives aid, comfort and support to God's anointed witnesses because they are doing the Lord's service
While the marking work is going on the "faithful servant" class, Jehovah's witnesses, forming a part of the Jehu company, are also gathering coals of fire from aff the altar and scattering them over the city.
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blondie
Perhaps you are referring to this:
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w67 1/15 pp. 52-55 The Modern Fulfillment of the "Penny" ***NOT
THE "PENNY"6
Because of their late, unorthodox appearance on the world stage of religious affairs, these dedicated Christian Bible students appeared to be the "last ones" whom the great Householder, Jehovah God, hired for work in his spiritual "vineyard" of the real, true organized Christianity. Especially was this so in view of the fact that the Gentile Times ended in the year 1914, in which year World War I broke out. (Luke 21:24) In harmony with their understanding of prophecy regarding the end of this system of things, and in view of the worsening conditions of mankind during World War I, it seemed to these Christian international Bible students that the last hour, "the eleventh hour," for work in the spiritual "vineyard" of Jehovah God was ending. They had long been interested in Jesus? parable of the vineyard and the penny, reference having been made to this parable and the "eleventh hour" away back in the issue of Zion?s Watch Tower as of April of 1881, on page 7, under the heading "Wanted 1,000 Preachers," which called for workers.
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So in July of the midwar year of 1917 the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society published (only in English) the book entitled "The Finished Mystery," this book being the seventh and last one of a series of seven volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. Because the heavenly glorification of the faithful remnant of the Christian church was believed near, this Bible-study aid The Finished Mystery along with accompanying service privileges was thought to be the symbolic "penny," coming as a reward to the faithful "vineyard" laborers before they departed from this earth. In fact, on page 2, the Publishers? page, of this book there was printed an enlargement of a coin like a penny. The inscription on it read: "To the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords This Work Is Dedicated in the Interest of His Consecrated Saints Waiting for the Adoption and of ?all that in every place call upon the Lord,? ?the household of faith? and of the groaning creation; travailing and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." Also, in that same year, the October 1, 1917, issue of The Watch Tower, on page 293, carried a heading that said "The Penny" and it spoke of the book The Finished Mystery and the associated "honor" as the symbolic "penny."
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However, when that meaning of the "penny" was given to The Finished Mystery, the Seventh Volume, no one expected or foresaw that World War I would end in the following year (1918) and that there would be an extended peace period thereafter with the anointed remnant down here on earth, instead of up in heavenly glory. An organization of 7,000 Bible students was built up for distributing The Finished Mystery from house to house. But by the spring of 1918 this book was banned both in the United States and in Canada. Yes, this book was used by the United States government, then at war with Germany, to put the leading ones of the International Bible Students in Federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Thus the work of these Christian Bible students was badly crippled by government action, clergy opposition, religious persecution and wartime disruptions. In the spring of 1919 the imprisoned representatives of the Watch Tower Society were permanently released from Federal prison, connections with the Watch Tower Society?s branch offices were reestablished, and in 1920 the ban was removed from the Seventh Volume and thus The Finished Mystery was allowed to be circulated again in the United States of America. But in 1927 The Finished Mystery and the other six volumes of the Studies in the Scriptures ceased to be published, and they were replaced by new, postwar Bible-study aids. So in ten years? time it became manifest that the Seventh Volume and the honorable service that went with it was not really the penny.
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In the meanwhile, in the year 1925 it began to be appreciated by these Christian Bible students that the vindication of God?s name Jehovah by means of his newborn Messianic kingdom was God?s leading purpose. In fact, from 1922 onward reference was repeatedly made to Isaiah 43:10-12 to prove that they must be witnesses of the Lord God during the remainder of their days on earth. The work of bearing witness to his name became more dominant among them. This reached a grand climax in the year 1931, when, at the international convention in Columbus, Ohio, these much-maligned Bible students adopted a resolution by which they embraced the name suggested by Isaiah 43:10-12 (AS), namely, "Jehovah?s witnesses."
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The work of gathering the anointed remnant of the heirs of God?s heavenly kingdom appeared to be nearing completion. Hence, this bestowal of a Biblically supported name upon them in 1931 seemed to come as a reward for having engaged in twelve years of hard Christian work since 1919. The book The Finished Mystery and the honor of distributing it had proved not to be the "penny." So now, then, could not the conferment of the new name upon the International Bible Students be the "penny"?
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In the year 1933, in the November 15 and December 1 issues of The Watchtower and Herald of Christ?s Presence there appeared the leading article (in two parts) entitled "Laborer?s Wages." This dealt with Jesus? parable of the vineyard. The second paragraph of Part One of this article said: "The laborers are those at the temple for judgment, and who engage in the service of the kingdom; the hire or penny is the honor of being given the new name which Jehovah gives to his people." (Page 339) Paragraph 21, on page 344, said: "No greater wage could be paid to creatures on earth than that of receiving a name at the mouth of Jehovah God, and which name shows the close and confidential relationship between Jehovah and his faithful people. Never before has he given such a wage to creatures."
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However, in the year 1937 it became more fully appreciated that the faithful prophets and men of integrity from John the Baptist back to the first martyr Abel were also witnesses of Jehovah, "so great a cloud of witnesses." (Heb. 11:1 to 12:1, AV) Later the book entitled "The New World," published in 1942, indicated that the "great crowd" of the "other sheep" foretold in Revelation 7:9, 10 were also witnesses of Jehovah. (Pages 368, 369, 375) Today the "great crowd" of these "other sheep" that have been gathered into association with the anointed remnant are regularly included among Jehovah?s witnesses. If, since the year 1935, they have not proved themselves to be Jehovah?s witnesses, then by all the facts of history what have they proved themselves to be? Who are they, if not Jehovah?s witnesses of modern times?
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Thus the title "Jehovah?s witnesses" is now seen as not applying exclusively to the anointed remnant, and so this new name for Christians could not be the symbolic "penny" of Jesus? parable. The "new name" was not the "penny" back in the year 33 C.E. on that day of Pentecost, inasmuch as those Jewish disciples of Jesus Christ were already Jehovah?s witnesses by being from birth members of Jehovah?s chosen people of Isaiah 43:1-12.
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garybuss
XQ, You wrote:If you add the context that the wt said recently anyone studing are believers where does that leave these unsaved people?
Believing is not a prerequisite to being saved. The spared will be spared based on how they treat Jesuss' bothers who are mostly sisters. The unsaved are the worker class. Their role is to toil in "service" to the saved. That becomes clear when listening to speeches by the saved class at assemblies. Witnesses are droids. They deliver the unpopular news to the unappreciative. They build the castles and the shrines such as the Watch Tower waterfall. When they fail, they are cast away to be replaced. They are many and they are not valuable.
What the Watch Tower Corporation meant to say was, anybody studying is eligible to contribute time, talent, and money and when they are old enough to be useful, your children. -
onacruse
Cygnus:
: The "penny" article is a classic example of switch-and-bait.
The "penny" was the name "Jehovah's witnesses," which had been designated by Himself on God's anointed in 1919...though unknown to "them anointed ones" until 1931.OK, but I'm not sure I get it. Did that 1931 Watchtower mentioned by Schnell call Jonadabs "Jehovah's witnesses" using the parable of the penny or didn't it?
The Jonadab's were a subsidiary class...dare we call them "lurkers"? LOL