by Leolaia 75 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Wow. I had no idea that Jesus' appointment of a "faithful slave" that is so important to feeding his sheep and such an important piece to his "kingdom" WAS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON THE PURCHASE OF SOME PROPERTY IN BROOKLYN, NYC.
Nowadays, I can hardly tell the difference between Russell, Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy. A bunch of nutjob/con artists from the Northeastern US whose wacky teachings from the 1800's have brought nothing but misery and confusion down to our day.
marking
Evidently, the current GB is the evil slave. Franz must be mighty pissed from his heavely perch.
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You know what is common place these days is a rash of enlightenments to the nu light when it comes out. I bet they refine this several times before they settle on the actual new dogma for the next 6 decades.
If you disregard all the obvious logical lapses in this - and simply ask yourself WHY? WHY this teaching NOW?
You can really only come to one conclusion: This was designed to take away the small amount of JW authority from the memorial partakers (the former "remnant" - the former F&DS) and seal it up with the Governing Body.
This, remember, follows not so long after they published an article that said they do not know "who the annointed remnant really is", and an opinion that "sometimes people begin partaking out of mental issues".
This comes at a time that the number of partakers stubbornly refuse to grow smaller - but are steadily increasing.
I suspect that the GB itself has scarecely considered all the illogical aspects of this, as Leoliaia and others have pointed out here.
They are focused on concentrating their power with this - and really nothing else - no matter what the cost in logic.
I suspect you are partly right james_woods. But really, do any of the dodgy partakers at the memorial ever challenge the GB's authority while they are still loyal sheeple? No, not really. And can the GB undermine the status of anyone out there with a website exposing all the Watchtower's nonsense by discrediting any claims of the website author to be of the anointed or not? No, not at all, since usually persons who thoroughly investigate 'apostate' websites have already mentally distanced themselves from the organisation anyway and don't give a shit who claims to be the FDS and who doesn't.
I think, as a poster called Willpower alluded to earlier in this thread (in his barely noticed post), this new version GB is laying the platform for some kind of clean-out. They are beefing up their status in preparation for it. This new light does two things: it strongly reinforces the GB's spiritual status as the only boys to be doing the doctrinal heavy lifting, while also uncoupling yet more time prophecies from 1914 and slidng them into the future, which the Society started doing in 1995.
I think, as a poster called Willpower alluded to earlier in this thread (in his barely noticed post), this new version GB is laying the platform for some kind of clean-out. They are beefing up their status in preparation for it. This new light does two things: it strongly reinforces the GB's spiritual status as the only boys to be doing the doctrinal heavy lifting, while also uncoupling yet more time prophecies from 1914 and slidng them into the future, which the Society started doing in 1995.
There is a definate point about pushing this past 1914 - perhaps also either deliberately or accidentally discarding Russell and his place in history. But is 1919 much of an improvement?
I agree that the general "annointed partakiers" out there could really do nothing to challenge the Governing Body - but, then - the Governing Body is not thinking in what I would call rational terms here. Maybe they are just paranoid about the increasing numbers of the partakers - which they have obviously tried to cut down, and obviously have been unsuccessful at.
To me - the weakest point of my argument is that (as far as I have seen) this new light has not come out and plainly stated that the GB (and only the BG) are the F&DS. It seems to have practically done so, but in typical WT-speak, may not be quite spelled out clearly. One would think that if my power-grab theory is correct, they would go ahead and grab the power.
I still suspect that something else is coming - probably along the lines of my guess about de-literalization of the 144,000 - or else the Yadda-Yadda idea of opening the New Covenant to all JWs. I remember when the late 70s article came out saying that most JWs were not in the New Covenant, and it was met with quite an undercurrent of resistance from many elders.
This is, in my opinion, a very significant change in JW doctrine. And, like Leoliaia says - a very badly blundered one...as badly or more blundered than the "overlapping generations" stupidity.
I honestly think that all the changes over the past 5-6 years are part of a plan that ultimately ends up in the 144,000 being made figurative. The Society realized they had a problem: The partaker numbers weren't going down anymore. They had maintained a very steady level for a long time. So I think they came up with a multi-part plan to arrive at that final destination, but a little at a time so as to try and avoid a schizm.
First step was the change in 2006 (2007?) to declare that the sealing wasn't completed in 1935. This was intended to lessen the pressure caused by the 1935 teaching. Because if new partakers were only replacing old ones who died unfaithful, it would mean Jehovah is the worst character judge of all time. This change, of course, caused the partaker number to rise, but I think they were anticipating that to some degree.
Second step was the de-mystifying and delegitimization of the anointed out in the various congregations. This is necessary, because if the 144,000 becomes figurative, it would open a massive floodgate of people who are convinced they are going to heaven. You'd quite possibly end up in a "more cheifs than Indians" situation. Better to start preemptively undercutting any illusion of authority and cut the partakers' importance down a few notches in the minds of the R&F. So, a statement was made in a study article 2-3 years back that the anointed not in Bethel don't have any special insight or communication with God, and are basically nothing special at all. More recently, I think the statements indicating a good number of partakers are likely mentally unbalanced was meant to calm people's confusion about the quickly rising partaker numbers.
Third, and latest, step was cutting the general anointed out of the F&DS altogether. Now, all the pieces are set. The anointed no longer have any position of importance or authority (not that they ever had much, but mentally they were still held in high regard). All "theocratic" authority has been consolidated directly to the GB. So, when they finally make the 144k figurative and the tide of new "anointed" starts coming through, there's no potential authority challenge.
That is pretty much exactly what I read into this, Fencing.
Ironic that the "literal" 144,000 was designed in the first place to create a ruling elite, and now it has backfired and has to be reworked.
