Remnant Check by WTS

by Band on the Run 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Band on the Run

  There is a debate about the nature of the Eucharist once consecrated, a church mouse appears and runs off with the host. Is it still Christ's body?

  When I was a Witness, only a literal handful could be annointed. It was viewed as generational. No one believed our Overseer when he announced at a relatively young age that he was anointed. We were shocked Brooklyn accepted it.

  What is to stop a casual member from deciding they are anointed? It is a matter of individual conscience? The whole thing leads me to believe that egotistical, power-grabbing individuals will tend to view themselves as better than their peers while the truly meek and Christian in spirit will believe they are not good enough.

  I know this is a huge issue among Puritans. The concept of the Elect.

  Another issue is how members of the anointed class lose their allegiance to Jehovah. There they are sitting with the Lamb upon the Throne and they still screw up in massive amounts. I waste my time here. The Witnesses so cramped my life I want justice. If I ever raised questions, I would have been tortured slowly until I was dead.
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  Ding

  What does being one of the "anointed" get anyone except the right to partake at the Memorial?

  And anyone can do that merely by choosing to partake.
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  cameo-d

  Do you think the "annointed" and "the remnant" are the same thing?Why? Your title says 'remnant' yet your post speaks of 'annointed'.

  Remnant definition:

  a: a usually small part, member, or trace remaining b: a small surviving group —often used in plural The "remnant" are the few surviving bloodline of our Nephilim progenitors.
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  Band on the Run

  They were the same in my day. Of course, perhaps the anointed are no longer a remnant. The policy changes all the time.
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  Listener

  Because they are spirit anointed it is only between them and God. In past times they were not to be judged by others in the congregation although in practice they are put under questioning by the elders. They are given no special role to play. They have no special attributes or greater amount of holy spirit, only a share of a different kind and that is the gift itself.
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  Chalam

  There is not a single verse which states the 144, 000 are "the anointed" but on this false premise hangs the ability of the WT to cheat its members out of the promises of the whole of the New Testament.

  ALL who believe in Christ are anointed by the Holy Spirit.

  2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (English Standard Version)

  21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

  Ephesians 1:13-14 (English Standard Version)

  13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

  Footnotes:

  1. Ephesians 1:14 Or down payment
  2. Ephesians 1:14 Or until God redeems his possession

  No Holy Spirit, no guarantee. Blessings in the Holy Spirit of Christ, Stephen
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  designs

  Stephen-

  'Paul' by necessity, after being exposed as a fraud within Jewish circles, had to develop an entirerly new religion and huckstered it upon unknowledgeable and unsuspecting Gentiles.

  We however see him for what he is.
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  Band on the Run

  Being one of the 144,000 before the throne had tremendous status in my day. Times may have evolved. I have several different Bible translations, synoptic gospel paralells, and commentaries. I truly don't need to have Bible verse pointed out to me, esp. in a fashion that the Society engages in to prove dubious points. Context is important to me. It does get on my nerves.

  If it is not special, why do more and more believe they are special? The privacy between the claimant and God sounds so atypical of the Witnesses. If you are out more than one year, it seems that you are truly out b/c everything changes.

  Civility is something I wish to achieve. The Witnesses hurt me to my core. I don't need snide comments here. It may your right but I don't understand the better than you are comments. I have studiously avoided Witnesses like the plague for decades. It seems the personality may stay the same even after some leave.
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  DanaBug

  Maybe these newly partaking witnesses are reading the NT and understanding that the heavenly hope is open to them. Maybe they choose to partake in silence rather than point out how the teaching is wrong, has been wrong all along. I don't know really. I do know that reading those chapters in Rev, one time w/o any previous ideas about them, proved to me JW's were wrong about it.

  I don't think it's egotistical either. Remember, the anointed are below the elders in the JW pecking order and barely above a baptized publisher. And JW's tend to think of anointed as a little crazy, especially if they don't fit their idea of what an anointed should be. A person would have to be crazy to want to be in heaven instead of on a Paradise earth, that's the attitude I remember.
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  VoidEater

  Not sure where cameo-d is coming from. Never heard of the remnant being related to Nephilim.

  The annointed would be the 144,000 spirit chosen humans to serve as kings and priests with Jesus in Heaven. The remnant are those living members of the annointed. Now that we're on the same page:

  It used to be though that the remnant now living were all the possible remnant there could be, since The End was coming Any Day Now. Of course, since then (pick the decase, it's always the same), the remnant has been growing as more people realize they are spirit annointed or more are born or whatever it is that makes them multiply like rabbits in turn of the [19th] century Australia.

  Indeed the WTS has often pointed to the shrinking number of the remnant to prove The End Is Near. Hard to do that these days.

  What is to stop a casual member from deciding they are anointed?

  Not a thing. I often considered doing just that. Why not? Anyone can be annointed. It's just something you "know". I could very well be annointed. I might not even be consciously aware of it.

  Of course there's a huge amount of condemnation of those claiming to be annointed. First, what makes *you* so special that you get to be a Board of Director with Jesus? Second, since the number must clearly be dwindling (it was at one time thought The End would come after the remnant was gone), any new annointed that would pop up will be suspect.

  But if you are firm in your declaration, no one can gainsay you.

  I still consider popping up at a memorial just to partake and never be seen again.

  It is a matter of individual conscience?

  Yes, 100%.

  The whole thing leads me to believe that egotistical, power-grabbing individuals will tend to view themselves as better than their peers while the truly meek and Christian in spirit will believe they are not good enough.

  In general I agree with that ideal. However, I have also know a couple "annointed" people that were humble, lovely, terrific human beings. They were also rather aged and had undoubtedly mellowed throughout the years (as I have).