I was looking into the
Great Crowd and Alien Residents
by Woodsman 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Woodsman
I was looking into the WTS’s doctrine on Christ’s mediatorship. I found a 1979 WT that made a comparison between the Great Crowd today and the Alien Resident in ancient Israel:
w79
11/15 p. 27 Benefiting from "One Mediator Between God and Men" ***24 Yet they do benefit from the operation of the new covenant. They benefit from this just as, in ancient Israel, the "alien resident" benefited from residing in among the Israelites who were in the Law covenant.—Ex. 20:10; Lev. 19:10, 33, 34; Rev. 7:9-15.
When I looked up the scriptures in the Old Testament mentioning Alien Resident I found that they did not just benefit from the Israelites being in the Law Covenant but that they themselves were in it. The theme of all the scriptures is:
One law is to exist for the native and for the alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst." Ex 12:49
I won’t post all the scriptures but here are a few.
(Leviticus 18:26) 26 And YOU yourselves must keep my statutes and my judicial decisions, and YOU must not do any of all these detestable things, whether a native or an alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst.
(Leviticus 24:22) 22 "‘One judicial decision should hold good for YOU. The alien resident should prove to be the same as the native, because I am Jehovah YOUR God.’"
(Numbers 9:14) 14 "‘And in case an alien resident should be residing with YOU as an alien, he also must prepare the passover sacrifice to Jehovah. According to the statute of the passover and according to its regular procedure is the way he should do. There should exist one statute for YOU people, both for the alien resident and for the native of the land.’"
(Numbers 15:14-16) 14 "‘And in case there should be residing as an alien with YOU an alien resident or one who is in YOUR midst for generations of YOU, and he must render up an offering made by fire, of a restful odor to Jehovah, just as YOU should do, so he should do. 15 YOU who are of the congregation and the alien resident who is residing as an alien will have one statute. It will be a statute to time indefinite for YOUR generations. The alien resident should prove to be the same as YOU before Jehovah. 16 There should prove to be one law and one judicial decision for YOU and for the alien resident who is residing as an alien with YOU.’"
(Numbers 15:27-29) 27 "‘And if any soul should sin by mistake, then he must present a female goat in its first year for a sin offering. 28 And the priest must make atonement for the soul who made a mistake by a sin unintentionally before Jehovah, so as to make atonement for it, and it must be forgiven him. 29 As to the native among the sons of Israel and the alien resident who is residing as an alien in their midst, there should prove to be one law for YOU as respects doing something unintentionally.
(Numbers 19:10-11) . . ."‘And it must serve the sons of Israel and the alien resident who is residing as an alien in their midst as a statute to time indefinite. 11 Anyone touching the corpse of any human soul must also be unclean seven days.
(Deuteronomy 29:10-13) 10 "YOU are all of YOU stationed today before Jehovah YOUR God, the heads of YOUR tribes, YOUR older men and YOUR officers, every man of Israel, 11 YOUR little ones, YOUR wives, and your alien resident who is in the midst of your camp, from the gatherer of your wood to the drawer of your water, 12 in order for you to enter into the covenant of Jehovah your God and his oath, which Jehovah your God is concluding with you today; 13 for the purpose of establishing you today as his people and that he may prove himself your God, just as he has promised you and just as he has sworn to your forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(Deuteronomy 31:12-13) 12 Congregate the people, the men and the women and the little ones and your alien resident who is within your gates, in order that they may listen and in order that they may learn, as they must fear Jehovah YOUR God and take care to carry out all the words of this law. 13 And their sons who have not known should listen, and they must learn to fear Jehovah YOUR God all the days that YOU are living upon the soil to which YOU are crossing the Jordan to take possession of it."
So I don’t think the WTS was being honest when they only cited the scriptures they chose. Since those scriptures don’t give the full story, that the alien resident was in a covenant relationship with God. This would confuse the point that the GC is not.
Incidentally another parallel the WTS offers for the GC is Jonadab. Yes, he too was in a covenant relationship with God.
As hard as the WTS tries to find Biblical foundation for a large group of God’s worshippers, his people, not being in a covenant relationship with him they continue to fail.
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greendawn
There is indeed no evidence that not all christians are spiritual Israelites and part of the Covenent, that is a strange JW concept about the great crowd being outside the Covenent and it is typically cultish and outlandish.
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AnnOMaly
Woodsman, you are right on the nail. It was checking out the scriptures on the foreigners and alien residents that convinced me there was something greatly amiss in the way the WTS applied the OT patterns to support their 2 classes doctrine. Circumcised foreigners were to celebrate the passover and partake of communion sacrifices the same as the natural Israelite. Also, after the exile, the alien residents were to be allotted the same inheritance and land rights as the natural Israelite (Ez. 47:21-23). Therefore surely, if we're talking about prophetic patterns here, the 'spiritual foreigner' would have the same inheritance and 'land rights' as the 'spiritual Israelite' (cp. Matt. 5:3-12).
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Honesty
Conquer and Divide tactics work well with Satan.
He has divided the JW's into several camps:
144,000 'annointed ones' who are going to get a ride on the Rapture Express straight to Jesus when they pass on
6 million unhappy, dejected and confused individuals who may or may not be resurrected depending on how much they do for the WT cult
A Governing Body who is adored and literally worshipped more fervently than any catholic pope
District and Circuit Overseers who are fawned over wherever they go
Elders who keep the congregation 'clean'
Pioneers who are so much more 'spiritual' than publishers
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ferret
Total rubbish; Where do they come up with these ideas. I think Iknow.
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Narkissos
Once again the WT argument conceals the obvious: that the NT itself never refers typologically to this OT difference between native Israelites and alien residents to suggest two classes of Christians. Actually it leaves no room for such a differentiation, since all positive OT references to Gentiles are applied to Gentile ("anointed") Christians (e.g. Matthew 4:15; 12:18,21; Luke 2:30; Acts 13:47; 15:17; Romans 4:17f; 10:19; 15:9ff; Galatians 3:8).
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Mary
I was checking out the scriptures on the foreigners and alien residents that convinced me there was something greatly amiss in the way the WTS applied the OT patterns to support their 2 classes doctrine. Circumcised foreigners were to celebrate the passover and partake of communion sacrifices the same as the natural Israelite.
I had raised this subject a couple of weeks ago on a post I did regarding the GB's interpretation of who can participate at the Memorial. They say that only those in the "New Covenant" (those baptised before 1935) can because Jesus and his immediate disciples were all in this covenant. They say it does not apply to those of the Great Crowd. But then when you read Matthew 28:19, 20 where Jesus commissioned these very same disciples to go preach, then suddenly it applies to both the annointed and the Great Crowd. So in other words, those of the Great Crowd get royally screwed: You're expected to do 99% of all the preaching, lest Jehovah murder you at Armageddon, but you don't get the benefits that the Annointed do: going to heaven when you die.
The scripture they love to use "...I have other sheep which are not of this fold, these I must also bring.." has absolutely nothing to do with gathering those who would be the "earthly" class; he was talking about gathering the Gentiles obviously, as his first priority was to preach to the Israelites.
I've never heard of any other religion that has the two tierd system like the Borg does. They're the perfect example of how you can twist the bible to say anything you want without having any evidence to back up your claim.
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Woodsman
Mary,
I agree with your view of John 10:16. Jesus was speaking to the Jews. That is who he was sent to preach to. But he knew and told them that he had other sheep, ( Samaritan and Gentile Christians are sheep aren't they?). Paul later shows that these two groups of sheep became one flock
These scriptures show that the Gentiles were considered another group:
(Acts 11:1) 11
Now the apostles and the brothers that were in Ju·de´a heard that people of the nations had also received the word of God. . .(Acts 11:18) 18 Now when they heard these things, they acquiesced, and they glorified God, saying: "Well, then, God has granted repentance for the purpose of life to people of the nations also."
Here is where Paul shows quite clearly that they were two seperate groups but became one:
(Ephesians 2:11-18) 11 Therefore keep bearing in mind that formerly YOU were people of the nations as to flesh; "uncircumcision" YOU were called by that which is called "circumcision" made in the flesh with hands— 12 that YOU were at that particular time without Christ, alienated from the state of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, and YOU had no hope and were without God in the world. 13 But now in union with Christ Jesus YOU who were once far off have come to be near by the blood of the Christ. 14 For he is our peace, he who made the two parties one and destroyed the wall in between that fenced them off. 15 By means of his flesh he abolished the enmity, the Law of commandments consisting in decrees, that he might create the two peoples in union with himself into one new man and make peace; 16 and that he might fully reconcile both peoples in one body to God through the torture stake, because he had killed off the enmity by means of himself. 17 And he came and declared the good news of peace to YOU, the ones far off, and peace to those near, 18 because through him we, both peoples, have the approach to the Father by one spirit.
And in Acts its one Flock for the two groups, happened in the first century not 1935.
(Acts 20:28) 28 Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock,. . .
(Acts 20:29) 29 I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among YOU and will not treat the flock with tenderness. . .
Good Scriptures Narkissos, Thanks