What will be the next big 'new light'?

by yaddayadda 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TheListener

  I believe they will keep taking on an "us vs. them attitude". In the face of low percentages both in growth and service time they will hunker down and become a more and more closed group.

  Expect talks to get even stronger about witnesses having worldly association. After school activities - academic or sports and college included. They will begin to stress more witness association. While clamping down on actual parties and celebrations they'll encourge small get togethers by bookstudy groups. This way they seem to be encouraging upbuilding association while they're actually controlling the flock and watching them with the bookstudy overseer and his assistant.

  Yes, they do all these things now but they will ramp up. The Society's only response to systemic problems has been to control things tighter. Expect this trend to continue.

  IMHO
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  I'm going to repeat my comment on another thread based on page 20(?) approximately paragraph 21 (the end of the study article in the 2-15-06 WT) where they mentioned new light on tobacco and firearms. They havent yet made possessing a gun a disfellowshipping offense yet although it is highly discouraged. I think it might become a DFing offense just like they finally made tobacco a disfellowshipping offense after years of tolerating it.

  That same article tells us that it will be difficult for some people, so I agree that there will be no lightening up on anything.

  Don't have the magazine in front of me right now.
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  metatron

  Put two and two together, folks.

  True believers have been replaced by bureaucrats and cynics at the top in Watchtowerland. There isn't going to be any new light

  since that was a feature of Fred Franz's authority. They will do or say whatever is needed to survive , as shown by the recent mass

  layoffs at Bethel. Like the Soviet Union, the commisars have lost faith in the whole thing while the peasants still believe - and like

  the Soviet Union, they are running out of cash flow.

  metatron
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  Woodsman

  I'm with Blondie on the annointed being on earth at armageddon. Time is the WTS's enemy on this. They will have to make some type of change to have to make some kind of change allowing for no annointed left alive on earth. They will probably use the old "by extension" formula to allow the annointed to run the org thru the Great Crowd.

  There are problems though such as they have said that Christ's mediatorship will end when the last Annointed dies. Wt 1979

  They have said the tribulation will end on account of the "chosen ones"-currently meaning the annointed.

  So many things will need to be rewritten. Maybe too many. Witnesses may be required not to study too deeply in order to remain a witness.
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  Woodsman

  Here is how subtly changes can be made. The 1960 article clearly defines the glorious ones as being annointed. The newer articles no defintition, not clear. Not all elders are annointed yet the article says glorious ones are elders. Is this a shift in applying a scripture that was once applied to the annointed only now to non annointed?

  w60

  9/1 pp. 539-540 Awake Worshipers in the Time of the End ***

  The "glorious ones" here referred to are not any who are bright and shining in their own eyes or who are glorious in the eyes of others due to their personal achievements. When praying to his Father, Jesus said of those who had become his footstep followers: "I have given them the glory which you have given me." (John 17:22) The glory is, therefore, God-given. They have had conferred on them privileges, which, coming from God, indeed are glorious. Those who are the brothers of the King Jesus Christ have been selected as heirs of the heavenly kingdom—a glorious privilege indeed! This favor shown by God cannot be ignored by others of mankind who would gain life. For that reason, in his parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus showed that others would be judged as to their worthiness of life in the new world on the basis of their attitude toward the King’s brothers and the message they bear concerning the Kingdom. To speak abusively of these Kingdom ambassadors would be to show disregard for the Kingdom, for the King, and for the lordship of the One who empowered the King, Jehovah God himself. As a collective group, the remnant of these Kingdom heirs yet on earth constitute the "faithful and discreet slave," to which God has committed the Kingdom interests on earth. Under the direction of holy spirit, this "slave" has designated individuals as servants in the congregations to shepherd the flock of God. It is important that we recognize and fully co-operate with the ones to whom God has thus given special responsibility, or authority, and not look down on the arrangement or speak abusively of those to whom these privileges have been entrusted.

  w98 6/1 p. 17 "Put Up a Hard Fight for the Faith"! ***

  10 How vividly these examples teach us to listen to counsel and to respect those whom Jehovah uses in positions of responsibility! (Hebrews 13:17) It is all too easy to find fault with the appointed elders, for they are imperfect, as all of us are imperfect. But if we dwell on their faults and undermine respect for them, might we be "speaking abusively of glorious ones"?

  w98 8/15 p. 14 Jehovah Should Be Our Confidence ***

  18 These examples show that we must be careful about judging by outward appearances. If we put our confidence in Jehovah, we will not doubt his choices. Although his earthly congregation is made up of imperfect humans, who have no claim to infallibility, he is using them in a mighty way. Jude, Jesus’ half brother, warned first-century Christians of individuals "disregarding lordship and speaking abusively of glorious ones." (Jude 8-10) Never should we be like them.

  w97 9/1 p. 16 Beware of False Teachers! ***

  14 They do so in that they despise divinely constituted authority. Christian elders represent the glorious Jehovah God and his Son and, as a result, have certain glory conferred upon them. True, they make mistakes, as did Peter himself, but the Scriptures urge members of the congregation to be submissive to such glorious ones. (Hebrews 13:17)
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  yaddayadda

  Blondie, Havn't they already published 'new light' in order to allow non-anointed ones to assume greater responsibility at world headquarters, acting as assistants to the GB and so-forth? Barbara Anderson did a great expose on the fallaciousness of their reasoning on that? What exactly are you suggesting they may do instead.

  I firmly anticipate that any 'new light' and/or other changes will occur in direct proportion to evermore dimishing numerical growth. As soon as that magic % in the annual report finally hits the big nada and then starts plunging into negative, then we will undoubtedly see some changes. Unfortunately I cannot see much happening until after what I expect will be a big disillusionment + falling away if the end doesn't come by the 100th anniversary in 2014 of the invisible reign that never was. I strongly suspect that, human nature being what it is, many long-suffering JW's have privately ear-marked this date in their minds.
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  blondie

  The point is the WTS makes is that there would have to be those of the anointed, the 144,000, still alive on earth when the great tribulation breaks out which culminates in Armageddon.

  So far, the WTS has given added responsibilities to non-anointed men of the great crowd, using the analogy of the Nethinim or "given ones." But they are still anchored on earth, with the hope of living forever on earth. I'm fully aware of what the WTS currently teaches on that having sat through it the first time and listened to the speculations of many JWs then that it meant the end was Near that soon all the anointed would be dead (that was 13 years ago). These Nethinim/Given Ones says the WTS were given duties previously done by the Levites (who were not of the priestly group that the 144,000 represent). Interestingly, the WTS has not said much about this concept since the 4/15/92 Watchtower.

  When the day that all of the 144,000 anointed are dead, assuming that they don't keep extending these anointed through 'replacements, would it be possible that the WTS would consider the non-anointed great crowd like the 10-tribe kingdom of Israel, from which no priests (Levi) or kings (Judah) would come. So the WTS could by extension make these ones spiritual Israelites, anointed, but earth bound.

  ***

  w00 1/15 p. 13 "Keep on the Watch" ***

  Sixth,

  the number of genuine anointed disciples of Christ is dwindling, though some will evidently still be on earth when the great tribulation begins. Most of the remnant are quite elderly, and over the years the number of those who are truly anointed has been getting smaller. Yet, referring to the great tribulation, Jesus stated: "Unless those days were cut short, no flesh would be saved; but on account of the chosen ones those days will be cut short." (Matthew 24:21, 22) Evidently, then, some of Christ’s "chosen ones" will still be on earth when the great tribulation begins.
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  The Leological One

  Proplog2
  

  I loved reading what you wrote. It makes more sense than what the JW say.

  I totally agree, JH~!
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  Elsewhere

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/105983/7.ashx

  It is just a matter of time before the WTS is forced to abandon the separation between the "Great Crowd" and the "Little Flock". The reason for this is because right now the "little flock" is dieing off yet they MUST be present when the end comes so they can be "taken up" as the bible says they will (1 Thessalonians 4, and 1 Corinthians 15). If there is no one left from the "little flock" then how could this possibly happen?

  It is just a matter of time before the WTS announces that ALL JWs will have the opportunity to go to heaven and the 144,000 will be made into something symbolic.

  Perhaps they will say that all JWs are "spiritual israel" and therefore are part of the "little flock" and everyone else in the world are part of the "great crowd". Simply put, all JWs will go to heaven and everyone else, who Jehover likes, will live on a paradise earth.
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  blondie

  Isn't that old light, the great crowd and the 144,000 all anointed and going to heaven?