What Questions From Readers Doesn't Tell You

by metatron 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  metatron

  The Sept. 1 Watchtower has a question from readers concerning the 144,000. It asks how we know if the number 144,000

  is a literal number. It then quotes from a scholar, Robert Thomas, who wrote an exegetical commentary on Revelation.

  He says that , in Revelation 7, the contrast of a definite number ( 144,000) with an indefinite number ( the "great crowd")

  proves that the 144,000 is a literal number.

  However, WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU is that this scholar plainly applies the SAME REASONING TO THE IDENTITY

  OF THE 144,000 !!!! The 144, 000 are clearly a literal group of Israelites BECAUSE OF THE CONTRAST WITH AN

  INTERNATIONAL GROUP that follows - namely the Great Crowd. He says:

  "This identification of the group best accounts for the distinction between them and the innumerable multitude in the next

  vision who come from all ethnic backgrounds"

  Concerning the idea that the 144, 000 are somehow a "spiritual" nation of "Israel", he says:

  "Such an attempt becomes even more ridiculous because it necessitates typological interpretation that divides the

  church into twelve tribes to coincide with the listing of Rev. 7:5-8, even with all the irregularities in that list....

  The approach is so misconceived that it does serious violence to the context. It cannot be exegetically sustained."

  All of the above is from the same commentary that the Society is quoting.

  NOW, do you see why they generally avoid telling you exactly what secular sources they are quoting from in the

  magazines?` They don't want people looking this stuff up and refuting their propaganda.

  metatron
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  minimus

  Met, sad to say----Most JWs wouldn't understand the contradiction that you just quoted from.
• 

  patio34

  I see your point, Met. But when I try to think about it, my eyes start to cross. Really!

  I like the way one poster put it once: it's like parsing a fairy tale.

  Pat
• 

  peacefulpete

  classic, thanks met
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  XQsThaiPoes

  What I never have understood about that arguement is since 99% of JWs are not 144k then why whould it matter. SInce the GB does not sit on the board and everything is ran by the non anointed. I mean anycatch what i am saying?
• 

  mineralogist

  How about this quote:

  Years ago I met a man in a campground in Alabama who said he was one of this number. He belonged to the movement called Jehovah?s Witnesses. Being one of the 144,000 placed him in a special category of the elite among the Jehovah?s Witnesses, he thought. Such an identification of this numbered group, of course, has nothing to do with the context of Revelation 7 and is therefore erroneous.

  http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/biblical-prophecy/BP1100W3.htm
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  XQsThaiPoes

  Considereding that the anointed JWs are christians and the rest of JWs are not the anointed JW is correct.It is not the fact you are part of a numbers groupd that makes them special it is the fact that they are christians and the rest of the JWs are not.
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  Pole

  I'm tellin' ya guys they're gonna change their stand on the 144k and the FDS as soon they realise it's a shot in the foot. The remnant is growing old and dying old.

  As it is the leadership of the WTS - a billion dollar printing corporation is up for grabs...

  This is my wishful thinking at least...

  Pole
• 

  lawrence

  Metatron-

  That must be the Robert Thomas who has the Dance Centers (Dancenter) in Iowa - emminent Bible scholar, who the hell is he? I once spoke to Bruce Metzger in Princeton (that's a scholar) and he loved the way the WTS would pick and choose who to quote, as well as what they quoted. When Franz was going at Metzger and A.T. Robertson, their names would not appear in a supportive role, whereas the other day I noticed one of their newer publications citing Metzger's "scholarship." I wait for the day they quote Huckleberry Hound in relation to the "abomination of desolation."
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  XQsThaiPoes

  Pole the watchtower has not been ran by the fds since 2000. FDS is a brand name.