motivations for creating the "Jonadabs"

by drew sagan 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  drew sagan

  I know that shortly after Rutherford dismissed the idea that the new covenant was only for the Jews (as taught by Russell) he eventually began to formulate his new doctrines of how he felt it did apply to people. But I'm a little lost as to why exactly he chose to create this doctrine.

  What were some of the deeper motiviations Rutherford had in creating this doctrine? I flipped through Pentons book but he really doesn't get into it. Aside from going back and actually reading through Rutherfords books (which I may do) I figured I would put this question on the board just in case somebody has already done the work
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  drew sagan

  Wow, no comments yet. I thought you guys were better than that
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  villabolo

  I believe the short answer is as follows. Russell had a complicated concept of salvation which was elitist and aristocratic in nature. There were two heavenly classes (the 144,000 and the great crowd) and there were two earthly classes. What Rutherford did was to simplify them into one heavenly class-the 144,000-and demote the great crowd into the position of a singular earthly class.

  If you want to see something even more ridiculous than the current JW scheme get some scans of the Finished Mystery where you will find the following:

  The Great Company (crowd) is numbered at 411,840,000 (page 103). Never mind the scripture that says "no man can number".

  Those on earth under the rulership of the 144,000 number 20,736,000,000(page 138). They simply multiplied 144,000 by itself.

  Once you see the tangled mess their teachings were you could understand why they would want to simplify it. Of course, they could have thrown it out altogether but Rutherford himself was too elitist to do that.

  Simplification, I believe, was the bottom line.
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  civicsi00

  The "Jonadab" doctrine came about to try to explain who the great crowd really was. Russell had already taught and believed that there were two classes of Christians, but it was Rutherford who nailed it down to non-anointed, earth-bound Witnesses.

  I sincerely believe Rutherford (and likely Fred Franz at the time) was just making stuff up when he wrote these things. Just read some of his books (Vindication, Preservation, Enemies, Riches, etc.) and you'll see they're filled with types and anti-types and that Zechariah represented the future "slave" class, or that Ruth represented something else. It was, and still is, all garbage.

  If you have the Revelation book (Grand Climax at Hand), read paragraph 4 on page 120 of the 2006 edition. It explains a little bit about Jonadab and that he foreshadowed the great crowd.

  The WT loves to point out that everything in the Bible has led up to the "slave" class now present. How much more presumptuous can you get?? They have gone way beyond the things that are written and they try to take the place of Jesus Christ himself.
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  Leolaia

  In the second half of the 1920s, Rutherford taught that the great majority of anointed Christians would fall away, leaving only a small loyal "remnant" at Armageddon. That was his rationalization of the huge drop in membership after the debacle of 1925 and the turmoil over "elective elders" in the years that followed. But with the Great Depression, new converts began to flock to the movement in rapidly increasing numbers. If they came to partake of the Memorial and regard themselves as anointed, this would go contrary to expectations. So in 1931 Rutherford basically set them apart as a new class, the "Jonadabs", who join in with anointed into the "chariot" of the organization for salvation from Armageddon. This new view entailed changes about what was expected to happen at Armageddon. Survival was now dependent on association with the organization (whereas previously the majority of humanity would survive), and so Armageddon became viewed more and more as an exterminating holocaust of billions of people. By siphoning new converts into a new class, the "remnant" could continue to decrease in numbers (and until recently, it was still expected to decrease, though by old age as opposed to apostacy). And with Rutherford eliminating elective elders, service replaced character development as a key endeavor for Christians and therefore the distinction between the 144,000 and the "great multitude" (a secondary class of those with a heavenly destiny) became more and more meaningless, as the distinction had formerly been determined on the basis of spiritual maturity. So in 1934, Rutherford discouraged people from professing themselves as members of the "great multitude" by claiming that the "great multitude" is destined to die at Armageddon while the "Jonadabs" have God's special protection. This led to many people to join the Jonadabs who formerly had a heavenly hope. Then in 1935, Rutherford got rid of the secondary spiritual class that no longer fit into his ecclesiastical system.
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  LouBelle

  Jonadab class

  adamic class

  evanic class

  bathsheba class

  david class

  hezikiah class

  judas class

  I have a friend that says he's only playing by their rules by adding some extra classes in for them to consider.

  I fall under the bathsheba class - I like to take long baths out in the open.
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  Narkissos

  Maybe I am entirely wrong (I have not searched anything on the topic), but I understood that Russell's secondary class(es) applied mainly to people who were not currently "true Christians" (by his definition), iow were outside of his sphere of influence. From this perspective his doctrine, although sectarian in principle, might have sounded more "liberal" than that of mainstream Protestant orthodoxy (as it did not limit salvation to Christians by any definition: current non-Russellites and non-Christians might have a "chance" later).

  If the above is true, the main effect of Rutherford's innovation would have been to move the (simplified) Russellite discrimination line within his organisation, as a separation between two classes of Watchtower "true Christians". This would have been (and has been) an effective tool for organisational control, since the mass of newcomers would belong to a secondary and subordinate class without any independent claim to salvation and, more importantly, interpretation... Exit the "liberal" aspect of Russell's teaching, while the "sectarian" side is reinforced.
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  Leolaia

  Narkissos....My understanding is that there were potential members of the "great company" (as one does not actually attain a standing in the company until after perfecting oneself in the great tribulation) both inside Russell's sphere of influence and outside of it (although the majority obviously are outside of it). The provision of the secondary spiritual class is for Christians who are consecrated and spirit-begotten but not yet sanctified and sealed at the time of the great tribulation; those who are sealed have already reached the stage of maturity in character development. New converts may only have reached the stage of consecration or may have already been consecrated before joining Russell's group, but sanctification is a gradual process that takes time (Zion's Watch Tower, February 1882, p. 4; Watch Tower, 1 October 1913, pp. 294-295; 1 April 1916, pp. 98-99) although it may be reached relatively soon (see Watch Tower, 1 October 1913, pp. 293-294). Rutherford said that the great multitude "are to be found everywhere" and he beseeched his readers to make the extra effort now to become sealed rather than stay spiritually weak and enter into the secondary spiritual class:

  *** w20 2/15 p. 61 The Great Multitude Purified ***

  Seeing these things set forth so clearly in the Word of God, shall we not be the more earnest hereafter, the more loyal, the more faithful, that we may obtain the highest reward, even that to which the Lord has invited us, that of becoming members of the body of Christ, members of the royal priesthood? Shall we rejoice to lay down our lives for the Lord’s brethren, or shall we through fear of this sacrificial death be all our lifetime subject to bondage?....The "great multitude" class will say "Alleluia" as soon as they perceive that the church is completed. But like Rebecca’s damsels of old, they must go the same long journey as the bride class, only to be received as servants in the end. (Genesis 24:61; Psalm 45:14) Shall we enter fully into our inheritance now, while the door is still open to do and dare in the Master’s cause? Or shall we be like the class mentioned in Ezekiel 44 that finds the door shut because the start is made too late, and that must know that the heavenly priesthood, the prize of the high calling, is forever closed, and that the most that can then be attained is the place as keepers or servants in the temple? Let us rejoice if we are heirs of salvation at all; but let us resolve that by God’s grace we shall, in the words of the Apostle John, "look to ourselves, that we lose not those things that we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward" − all that the Father is pleased to give to those who love him supremely. −2 John 8.
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  snowbird

  So, everything that Russell had labored on, Rutherford saw fit to discard.

  That man seems to have been bat-dung crazy!

  No wonder the WT counsels so forcefully against reading their old material.

  Sylvia
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  villabolo

  Thank you Leolaia for your in depth post.