by baltar447 45 Replies latest jw friends
Since the Memorial partaking numbers have been going up year after year the GB figured they send out this message of understanding to stall the continued flood of professed chosen ones. They hoped the number would be reducing but that's not happening.
Here's some Memorial partaking figures:
2008 - 9,986
2009 - 10857
2010 - 11,202
2011 - 11,824
The 144,000 slots should have been filled up by now.
I posted this on the "annual meeting thread"...
This is only step 1 of course.
Now that they have returned to the Russellite idea of a 2-tier heavenly class, the next step will be to say that the count of "144,000" only applies to the top-ranking dudes, and the rest of the "anointed", while a minority of JWs, are an unnumbered "little flock".
At some point X years in the future, they'll come up with more "new light" to that effect.
This will (1) eliminate the embarrassment of the skyrocketing count of memorial partakers each year (those new partakers are part of the unnumbered "little flock" but not part of the "FDS"), and (2) finally and completely marginalize the "non-approved" anointed.
They've probably already decided this is the route to take, but want to give folks a little "breathing room" to assimilate this little factoid before springing step 2 on them.
What now? Heres hoping some disgruntled annointed goes to the nex GB meeting with something automatic and an extra banana clip in case they're a bad shot. I wouldnt lose any sleep.
Not cool, man. Not cool at all.
What now? A few of things. And oddly enough they involve Mark Sanderson (rumored new member of the Governing Body. I say "rumored" because his name has yet to be added to the official, factual list on Wikipedia, more on that later...)
1) Sanderson has it made. He waits on all the old ones to die off then appoints himself as THE F&DS. No active JW's are fazed. Any who still think on any level are outraged. Bald becomes the new boxy looking brief case with flaps and a place for your ipad.
2) Ok...this new teaching on the F&DS is being analyzed upside down and inside out by Mature Bethelites. There are emails flying around with "Well, if The Governing Body is the F&DS Then What about...The Domestics?... The Evil Slave?...What about the majority of the Revelation book....better fire up the Pesses!? THere are brothers who are tring to make heads or tails over this and worrying their butts off about the 'apostacy of thier hearts'. They are telling themselves "when one book is removed from the stack the whole thing falls...and it just takes time for the books to get stacked up correctly...The Governing Body will soon tell us how to restack the books. I just have to be sure not to doubt think about it until then. It will all make sense then..." Thats what the failful and the olders ones and the faithful older ones are doing...
3) The curious, inter-wed savvy Young People who Ask, who have been getting information about everything from the internet from the time they could run the remote control better than their parents...they are going to the same place they have always gone to answer a question: Google and Wikipedia. When they read the Wiki entry about the Governing Body they read about how Headquarters was Purged back in the early '80's. They read it because its there. It's not apostate, Its Wiki. If they happened to Google "Mark Sanderson" they may stumble across this gem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvB3BzGkg3E Many Bethelites are aware of and laugh their collective asses off at the ASL masturbation video. Why? Because its funny. That youtube video link posted above is funny. Many Bethelites have very quirky, senses of haha. So, this younger generation that is seeing all this stuff also sees the GB on a regular basis. They Remember seeing Hurd in a wig and roller skates and afro...they chuckle. When I was there a sister at Morning Workship used to do caricatures of the brother conducting. Really, really good caricatures...Imagine: Shoulders coming from Cary Barbers ears because that's how he appeared to us on the screen... They are going to lose all respect for the New Controlling GB and members to come.
4) And thats what the Young BETHELITES are doing. Their Non Bethelite counterparts are seeing all this stuff too...but they're sharing it. With each other and anyone who will watch, much like they were taught to do door to do as youngsters with Book bags from Stoops, a tie tack and Return Visits on Saturday morning instead of video games and fun sports like soccer... ("Get up Johnny...you have to make that return visit on the Elderly single man (with the pink towels and potpouri dishes) this morning. Hurry now") Yeah, little Johnny remembers his RV on Mr. Smithers and HATES going to see Mr. Smithers and loves video games and fun games like soccer which he's really good at....
5 Many more witness than anyone cares to admit are losing respect for these men. They are able to see the BS that is the Overlapping Generation (you don't have to be a genius to wonder "Is that really what Jesus had in mind...How many generations was it that overlapped in 70 C.E...??? Eventually they Google it. Up pops an article about The Fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E. But, wait...the Society/Organization/Overlords have always taught that it happened in 607...) They are going to wonder what in the world this change in the F&DS means and, the BEST part is...They are just getting started. They are not going to give money of the pennies they make because of pioneering out of high school to the Society or Organization or Overlords whatever it is they want us to call them this week...And they Know about Candace Conti and Barbara Anderson...Because:
"...A D.O. mentioned it at a pioneer meeting, not from the platform but to just a few of us talking, and he said 'its a first and it might be the start of the persecution, us losing courtcases. And there is a woman in California or Kentucky or somewhere like that puts all the court records on the inter net because it legal to do that where she is from. Oh, and that when you hear somebody say they heard there will be no more Circiut Overseers its because they got it off an apostate website because The Brothers plant stuff like that on apostate websites and its a good way for circuit overseers to know who might be an apostate or something like that..."
Its going to take some time for this to happen, but it is happening. WTB&TS The Next Generation is not going to pretty.
What now? I see this as a transition to say that the domestics in the parable are everybody, annointed or not. If the domestics, even in the first centry, were non annointed it solves the problem of how the number of annointed can go up. It also solves the problem of how you can have less than 144,000 faithful christians from the first centry untill 1914.
I tend to agree with the above comment by EE. There will be a further belittling of anointed outside of the GB trying to make any statements whatsoever. Anointed or not, members will be told to just shut up and obey the Governing Body.
But to the average JW, the change means nothing at all. Nothing at all. They've already long been told to obey the Governing Body. They already equate FDS with GB. They already believe that all the spiritual food comes from the GB.
I agree with EE, too, but I think the average JW will have questions in their own minds but, as usual, be afraid to speak about it. I already told a family member of mine who is an uber-JW that this is complete bunk, mainly because of timing. If it's been nearly 90 years since the FDS was appointed, why are they just now figuring it out? If they can't figure out this doctrine that they've held so very dear for years, then what else haven't they been able to figure out. Everything is in question now. This isn't an end-times issue. It's at the heart of who JWs are as an organization.
Fed-up says:
So, this younger generation that is seeing all this stuff also sees the GB on a regular basis. They Remember seeing Hurd in a wig and roller skates and afro...they chuckle. When I was there a sister at Morning Workship used to do caricatures of the brother conducting. Really, really good caricatures...Imagine: Shoulders coming from Cary Barbers ears because that's how he appeared to us on the screen... They are going to lose all respect for the New Controlling GB and members to come.
They shouldn't be laughing so hard, as the young fools haven't yet realized the joke is on THEM: they're the volunteer slave laborers who are giving up their youthful energy and the most-productive years of their lives to empower and support a fakey religion with the GB calling the shots, and consolidating it's power through doctrinal re-interpretations like this...
Baltar447:
Wasn't it not too long ago that they admitted in a courtroom that the F&DS is just a theological construct? So, I am not surprised if the religion has to "clarify" this term they love to use. This is just a face-saving measure, in my opinion.
As a "fader" though this means NOTHING to me but I see it means a lot to other posters on this forum.
You can even find numerous examples of how "They" have put themselves in the position of FDS for decades already.
"Really, since our Lord has used 'the faithful and discreet slave' to convey to us 'sayings of everlasting life,' why should we ever want to look anywhere else?" WT Nov. 1, 1987 page 20
Wasn't it not too long ago that they admitted in a courtroom that the F&DS is just a theological construct?
Yes, this was a defense in court in Aussieland. That the FDS was not an individual(s), but a theocratic arrangement. By now calling the theocratic arrangement a person they have either:
Perjured themselves. Or more likely just "modified" the arrangement
