Blondie,
Thank you VERY MUCH for that research. I put the quotes you found and the one I had from 2011 in a date-ordered table form so it would be easier to understand the Evolution of Watchtower Salvation.
It is clear to me that the Watchtower is just utterly making stuff up as they go along. There are no scriptural supports for all the different kinds of righteousness and cleaness that they try to differentiate . They are simply distinctions WITHOUT a difference. But, somehow these distinctions supposedly gives the rank and file permission to reject the blood covenant for full forgiveness of sins.
It is clear to me that they are trying as hard as they can to keep people from being part of the blood covenant that washes a person clean from their sins. It makes no difference whatsoever the destination of the annointed (church age saints) or the earthly bound tribulation survivors. Revelation 7 makes it clear that the Great Crowd washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. There is ONLY one way to access the blood of the lamb, and that is through the New Covenant (See Mt. 26: 27,28) which JESUS SAYS IS SPECIFICALLY for the "forgiveness of sins", and NOT rulership positions per se.
Declared Righteous? |
Publication |
Quote |
Position |
Sept. 1954 NO |
w54 9/1 p. 522 Declared Righteous by Jehovah |
In view of what we have seen about justification or being declared righteous by faith as being only a means to an end, so that certain ones might be eligible to membership in Christ’s body and share heavenly glory with him, it follows that all whose destiny is the earth, the foregoing ones mentioned, would have no need of having righteousness imputed to them. |
The Great Crowd is not declared righteous … period |
|
Mostly No |
it-1 p. 606 Declare Righteous |
The “great crowd,” who survive the “great tribulation,” are not yet declared righteousfor life—that is, as worthy of the right to everlasting life on earth. They need to continue partaking of the “fountains of waters of life,” as guided by the Lamb, Christ Jesus. They will need to do this during the Millennial Reign of Christ. (Re 7:17; 22:1, 2) If they prove loyal to Jehovah through a final test at the end of the thousand years, they will have their names permanently retained in God’s book of life, Jehovah thus declaring, or acknowledging, that they finally are righteous in the complete sense. |
The Great Crowd is not declared righteous “for life”. This implies that there may be another kind of interim righteousness that the Great Crowd can partially have. They are declared righteous in a “complete sense” after the millennium reign. |
July 1996 No, as Sons Yes, as friends |
w96 7/1 p. 20 par. 5 The Triumph of True Worship Draws Near |
The great crowd do not serve God in the condition pictured by the inner priestly courtyard. They are not declared righteous for the purpose of being God’s adopted, spiritual sons. (Romans 8:1, 15) Nevertheless, by exercising faith in Jesus’ ransom, they have a clean standing before Jehovah. They are declared righteous with the purpose of being his friends. |
The Great Crowd is declared righteous as “God’s Friends” |
Feb 1998 No, as Sons Yes, as Friends But not by the blood covenant |
w98 2/1 p. 20 par. 7 The Other Sheep and the New Covenant |
For the other sheep, being declared righteous as God’s friends allows them to embrace the hope of everlasting life in a paradise earth—either by surviving Armageddon as part of the great crowd or through the ‘resurrection of the righteous.’ (Acts 24:15) |
The Great Crowd is declared righteous as “God’s Friends”, but not by the blood covenant of Jesus. It is now by either surviving the Great Tribulation or the “resurrection of righteousness” |
May 2002 Yes, by the blood No, as Sons Yes as friends & survivors |
w02 5/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers |
They are spiritually clean, having “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Hence, they are declared righteous with a view to becoming friends of God and of surviving the great tribulation. (James 2:23, 25) In many ways, they are like proselytes in Israel who submitted to the Law covenant and worshiped along with the Israelites |
Here the Great Crowd is allowed to be spiritually clean by the blood of the lamb. But they are only declared righteous as friends and/or by surviving the Great Tribulation. They still are not given a righteous standing by the blood of Jesus. |
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June 2008 Yes, by the ransom No, by the blood covenant And, only as friends and survivors |
w08 6/15 p. 29 Highlights From the Letter to the Romans ***DECLARED RIGHTEOUS—HOW? |
… they are being declared righteous by [God’s] undeserved kindness through the release by the ransom…Through faith in “one act of justification,” both anointed Christians and members of the “great crowd” of “other sheep” can be “declared righteous”—the former for life in heaven as joint heirs with Christ and the latter as God’s friends, with a view to surviving “the great tribulation.” |
The great crowd is allowed to be declared righteous by the ransom, but apparently not by the blood covenant and then, only as friends and / or survivors of the great tribulation |
June 2011 No & Yes |
W11 6/15 p. 15 |
These have not received “the free gift of righteousness” with heavenly life in view “through the release by the ransom paid by Christ Jesus.”… The gift such ones receive —friendship with God—differs from “the free gift” the anointed receive. Yet, it certainly is a gift that they accept with deep gratitude. |
The great crowd doesn’t get the free gift of righteousness; they get friendship only. However the image caption on the same page reads that the great crowd is declared righteous |