by sir82 15 Replies latest jw friends
Since Jehovah can't look into the future
He can look into the future, but I think the comment meant that he won't use his ability to predestine who will succeed or fail to be faithful to the end. That is a JW teaching, but they can easily spin that to say, "He did not predetermine WHICH anointed would fail, but he knew SOME would."
Sir82, thank you for addressing this. I too agree this will be next major "shoe to drop".
The "replacements" concept was a weak stop-gap and can no longer be sustained by common sense. Also it undermines the faithfulness of dead JWs who claimed to be anointed in their lifetime.
Also the anointed count (still hovering at about 8,500) can be used as a barometer of Armageddon. If the number keeps dwindling down to zero without Armageddon this will conflict with JW doctrine (no faithful and discreet slave!).
If the number continues to sustain, or even increase as it has done recently, then the validity of the partakers is in question. But this would mean that there are thousands of apostates (false partakers) in the midst of the congregation!
Then there is the real problem:
How does Bethel keep hiring youngsters into the Governing Body when there are literally thousands of aged anointed in the ranks??
"4) Positive changes in Jehovah's org. (Isa. 2:4, preaching work Matt. 24:14, etc.)" - Can't quite see how those scriptures connect with the idea of 'positive changes in Jehovah's org.' The preaching work done by JW's that Isa 2:4 and Matt 24:14 is meant to foretell is not a 'change in' the organisation, it is something they have always done; in fact it is the stated objective of the organisation. Are you sure you have got point number 4 correct? If point 4 is indeed referring to the new idea of changes within the organisation being an evidence, as opposed merely to the global preaching done by JW's (surely a different evidence altogether), then that would seem to be quite a startling new 'proof' that the end is near! If that was true then could the Society be setting everyone up for some glorious 'new light' soon, portraying it in advance to be evidence in itself of the nearness of the systems end? Imagine that - every time the Society brings out 'new light' or makes a few changes in the organisation, JW's become convinced that the end of the world is nigh. They are crafty those old guys at Patterson.
Of the 8,500 plus counted at the last WTS Memorial, how many are "genuine" or "real" according to the WTS.
The WTS has said too that some of the anointed would still be on earth when the GT breaks out (but could shortly thereafter go to heaven to take part in the marriage of the Lamb which the WTS says takes place shortly after the destruction of false religion--Babylon the Great).
But since no one on earth knows how many "genuine" anointed there are there will be no way to determine that any remain, or that all leave at some near future point.
So the WTS has all its bases covered.
Blondie
Maybe the GB can make some big to-do about travelling all over the world interviewing and meeting the FDS, secretly determining the ones they want to count, then control the numbers to suit their purposes. Can you imagine the green handshakes and the talk about how "the end must be around the corner" and the GB can honestly say, "We never claimed it was."
I would say qualifications of being in the little flock are , poverty , sexually abstainant, (eunich), no false hood or lies , faithful to the death. I don't doubt the end is near myself it's just the fact that this religion uses that to control and manipulate .
