Jehovah has always had representatives on the earth. Ask the person you study with .. she will provide evidence.
I asked this, too, and received no answer. Any tough question that was not addressed in the "Reasoning from the Scriptures" book was put off, to answer "later". I assume that such "representatives" would necessarily be Anointed? For this theory to hold water, the JW's claim a lineage from the past two thousand years. The anabaptists and others. Tiny pockets of heretics who snubbed Rome and interpreted the bible themselves. There are several problems with this theory. First of all, these groups would be condemned by modern "Anointed". They were not good JW's. Second, these splinter groups did not pass on a great heritage of "pure" thought from generation to generation, they did not share or agree with each other. Third, if all these groups are part of the 144,000, the complete number was well-used up before 1914. The complete number of 144,000 was well-used up in the first two hundred years.
To get around THAT problem, the JW's claim that the first-century Christians were not such "pure" martyrs after all. Perhaps they ate some sacrificed meat, or forgot their training and mumbled a pagan prayer over their meals. Such excuses spit on the graves of these early martyrs.
No JW has followed up on any of my questions, not one. Except to besmirch the memory of Constantine, in a direct quote from the "Reasoning from the Scriptures" book. I was not impressed with that so-called "balanced" scholarship. My best research on the character and motives of Constantine was that he was a good soldier. He would have no reason to meddle in church affairs, other than to order them to stop fighting amongst themselves.