Taken from w02 2/1 pp. 19-23 par. 8:
How do the anointed know that they have received the heavenly calling? They receive unmistakably the witness of the holy spirit. The apostle Paul wrote to such ones: “All who are led by God’s spirit, these are God’s sons. . . . The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. If, then, we are children, we are also heirs: heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ, provided we suffer together that we may also be glorified together.” (Romans 8:14-17) This witness of the spirit is so powerful that those who have the slightest doubt about having received the heavenly calling can reasonably conclude that they have not, and they will therefore refrain from partaking of the emblems at the Memorial.
This is something I've been thinking about lately as the Society often explains in their literature that if you have any doubt about your position as a member of the anointed, then you are not one of the anointed. Of course, this is the Society's way of making less people partake, but it's got to set up a conundrum for the GB member.
Who can really say that they never doubted their beliefs as a Witness? Or even now, regardless of what you believe? I don't mean constantly, there were certainly times as a JW when I would have said 'I know I have the Truth' but there were still occasions when I thought 'what if it isn't true?' Which is the point, everybody questions themselves sometimes.
Yet to be on the Governing Body, you have to profess you're anointed, and to be anointed in the JWs is to profess that you have no doubt about this whatsoever. Yet I cannot believe that no member of the Governing Body is honestly able to say 'I never doubt' so basically, in order to get to the Governing Body you have to be a liar (even if that lying is just self-deceit).
I've seen it noted on here that GB members (and other Bethel heavies) tend to lie a lot during their talks at assemblies, more so than the average JW, and it's also amazing to me how dishonest the Watchtower writers can be in misquoting sources, misrepresenting their History etc... I've wrote here before about the dishonesty it takes to be a 'good' JW, and I think the system means this is required more the further up you go. Maybe this explains why the Society is so dishonest, not that being high up makes you dishonest, but that you have to be dishonest in order to get high up.
What do you guys think?
...OUTLAW