Now here is an interesting story.
There was one Brother, Brother Normal, in our congregation, he had a large family and at the time was around early 40's. The family had been in the congregation for some time and were part of the mainstay, he was also an elder. He was a nice Brother, so was the whole family.
Then sometime around the late 70's he starts to partake at the memorial.
Now my view as a 13 year old was that he had obviously been given some divine sign and that this was a personal thing. I had always been told that the 'Anointed' 'knew' and that it was a feeling that no one who had not experienced it could understand. I was surprised as I thought that the 144K had all been chosen, however my Mother explained that some fell away and had to be replaced. So as a child I felt a cirtain amount of awe for this Brother, who was actually quite down to earth and normal.
However,
The strange thing is that this brother becoming one of the anointed caused quite a polarized opinion in the congregation. Shortly afterwards, Brother Normal stood down as an elder and carried on as a R&F publisher, then pioneered for a while.
Brother Autocrat, who had previously been in sole control of the congregation before the body of elder arrangement and still ruled with an iron fist, did not take the annointment of Bro Normal too well. I remember working on the Ministry with Brother Autocrats son, a recently apointed elder (both sons were being groomed) I mentioned the annointment and his comment shocked me. He said, "we dont think that he is really annointed at all", I felt quite indignant about this, even at 13 what I felt was along the lines of, "What right does Brother Autocrat and his sons have to judge whether Bro Normal is anointed or not! Especially when its a feeling that no on else would know."
I suspect there was a jealosy thing going on, why had Brother Autocrat been anointed.
So the situation arose where, Brother Autocrat and his clique of groomed elders looked upon Brother Normal with some suspicion.
At the same time there were many in the congregation who held Brother Normal with a great deal of respect, especially as Brother Normal, was just that, Normal, quite humble, a nice bloke, nice family and would give quite well thought out and interesting comments (nothing remotely apostate you understand) and took a moderate and reasonable position on most things. His family had a few minor problems yet grew up into nice well adjusted people.
So there was a clear power battle between the hard line elders run by Brother Autocrat and the more moderate popularist views of Brother Normal.
I lost a lot of respect for the elders due to this as this is not how I would have thought someone of the anointed should have behaved at all.
Another Story.
I was quite young when this happenned. There was an elderly Polish Brother who took the emblems. He had been in concentration camps during WWII. When he became Ill, the doctors prescribed a course of treatment for him that could have led to his recovery. He refused any treatement and the doctors came to the view that he wanted to die. He told the elders that he wanted to die so he would recieve his heavenly reward. This understandably upset his wife who he left behind. He did die a few weeks later.
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