by Terry 15 Replies latest jw friends
Thanks Terry for this in depth following of these teachings...what's behind door #3?
It's sad to think if there is a loving God that he would allow this confusion (lack of understanding) to go on...and that he would create humans so in need of understanding they "grope about" searching for someone to explain it!
SW
Organizations like the WTS. pander to people gullibility and ignorance to lure them into the organization.
Support the product or get out, intellectual honesty is not a driving concern, if it were this organization
would have fallen apart decades ago.
Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil.
— The Great Controversy, chapter 24 1870
1n 1907 Russell began to teach that the "church" (144,000 anointed Christians) had no mediator, but itself joined Christ as a joint messiah and mediator during the millennium.
"The Word Mediator Used Differently" Watch Tower, January 1909.
"......the too careless manner in which we, and nearly all Christians, have been accustomed to use this word mediator... For instance, repeatedly in DAWN-STUDIES, Vol. V., we refer to our Lord as the "Mediator of the Atonement." This is entirely correct, if judged by the ordinary standards of our language as generally used by us all. Of late, however, this Journal has endeavored to draw the attention of the Lord's people to the fact that the Bible uses the word mediator in a restricted sense and has urged that all Bible Students endeavor to take the Bible viewpoint only and to use the word mediator from that standpoint alone."
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Crises of Conscience (1999 edition, pages 270-271)
(November 16, 1979),"... the Society's president, Fred Franz, was presiding at the morning Bible text discussion. He stated that some were questioning the Society's position (set forth in a recent Watchtower) that Jesus Christ is the mediator only for the "anointed" ones and not for the other millions of Jehovahs Witnesses. He said of such ones: "They would merge everyone together and make Jesus Christ the mediator for every Tom, Dick, and Harry."
WT 4/1/79
The new covenant will terminate with the glorification of the remnant who are today in that covenant mediated by Christ. The "great crowd" of "other sheep" that is forming today is not in that new covenant.
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Watchtower 1991 February 15 pp.15-20 "You Were Bought with a Price"
11 Nevertheless, in a preliminary way, the great crowd have already "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Revelation 7:14) Christ does not act as Mediator of the new covenant toward them, yet they benefit from this covenant through the work of God's Kingdom.
Watchtower 8/15, 1989
Christendom teaches that all good people go to heaven, which unscriptural position has colored the general view, so that Jesus is considered a go-between for all such people. What, though, does the Bible indicate?
Clearly, then, the new covenant is not a loose arrangement open to all mankind. It is a carefully arranged legal provision involving God and anointed Christians.
I want to thank you, Terry, once again for your tireless investigations into WTS history. I had known about the connection between Russell’s theology and Adventism because even WTS literature mentions it. Of course, the organization does not show how closely tied together they were. As we also know, Russell mined other religious systems for components of his doctrines as well, merging all of them together into a religion that evolved into Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Naturally, the WTS has kept all of this hidden from its followers. And yet, I have the feeling that even if this was made known to the rank-and-file, it would make no substantial difference to the majority of them. Cult mind control runs very deep, and only those with a sincere desire to learn the facts would actually leave the WTS because of its history. As Don Cameron points out in his book Captives of a Concept, this kind of information must be shared with people before they get deeply involved with the Witnesses. Once inside the cult, it usually takes some kind of traumatic event to get them to question what they have accepted as “the truth.”
Quendi
Quendi would be right about this. Although the GB (and the writers) would know about this history they deliberately choose to withhold it from their publications and have takne measures to distance themselves from Russel.
w57 5/15 p. 313 Appreciating Basic Christian Publications
"Their zeal for knowledge may even prompt them to dig back into things that were published long before they came into the truth, expanding and deepening their understanding, and ever growing in Christian maturity. Do you dig into our older publications to expand and deepen your knowledge on subjects about which questions arise? Have you really studied these earlier publications? How is your background of knowledge? Never think: "Oh, I know most of that." For you will find, indeed, that you do not and that you will be strengthened by your additional study...once you have completed your study of them you can then look to even older publications. Only by studying earlier publications and digging back through previous issues of The Watchtower kept in the library at your local Kingdom Hall. There is much in the way of spiritual riches and aid toward mature knowledge in these earlier publications, and their study is most certainly worth your time."
I bet they are sorry they ever printed that!
