Barfendogs is doing his best to get everyone stirred up. But it's not just Barfendogs. Many of Jehovah's Witnesses thought this system would have ended long ago. What are they to think of the 1935 adjustment? Is it a big deal or not? Should we expect a flurry of new anointed ones?
No, it's not a big deal. It's been said before that there would be post-1935 partakers. For example, the book United in Worship of the True God said "Does this mean that none are now being called by God for heavenly life? Until the final sealing is done, it is possible that some few [anointed] …. may prove unfaithful, and others will have to be chosen to take their place. But it seems reasonable that this would be a rare occurrence." But to hear Barfendogs put it, anyone who's partaken of the emblems in the last 30 years has now been validated. Moreover, they were cheated of their true status all these years! Rubbish.
Anyone partaking in the last few decades, if their anointing was genuine, would have had no difficulty cooperating with the Christian organization. After all, were it not for the organization, they wouldn't even know what anointing is or what it entails. If they truly are anointed to be kings, they would have no problem should anyone doubt their status….it's not as if a brother of Christ can only be so if others validate him. And if truly anointed, they would be Christlike, that is they would know how to conduct themselves as a lesser one, how to be modest, how to wait for Jehovah's time, as did Christ and (before him) David, Moses, and Joseph. They might be discouraged, or even offended. But they'd be able to endure.
A politician today would never be able to do that. They must be respected and have others recognize their authority. But anointed ones are not politicians. They are Christlike.
A few (less than 10K among 6 million) have partaken of the emblems in recent years, and many of those not partaking scratched their heads over it. But so long as these ones kept working shoulder to shoulder, you just chalked it up as one of those things. If they tried to undercut the authority of the existing arrangement, to recruit, to establish themselves as a special light in the organization, or as Paul states: wanting to be teachers of law, but not perceiving either the things they are saying or the things about which they are making strong assertions, well….that could make waves. (Tim :1:7) But a true brother of Christ would not behave this way.
But…but….it's asked: "would God have ever allowed that there not be sufficient light on this subject? And would the Slave not recognize one of his brothers?"
How would I know? That's looking into heavenly things. But why should anyone think that, while on earth, the anointed must somehow all be linked together Landru-like?
One partaking of the emblems is giving evidence of a future assignment. If asked to be one of the Governing Body, it becomes a present assignment. But barring that, a newly anointed one has no special status in this system of things, only in the next. In this system, he or she cooperates with the existing arrangement and doesn't assert himself as a special authority in the congregation.
During the 1990's, there were three new partakers in Wheatandweeds' congregation. This was very unusual. I'm not sure if there were any more in the entire circuit. None of the three really met the criteria of what we'd been led to expect. None of them were servants with decades of faithful service; their pasts were all a little rocky. Yet, none of them were crazies. Wheatandweeds liked all of them. So did I. All three had dominant personalities; two of them were ever ready to give advice. One of them qualified as an elder a year or two before he began partaking, yet the CO commented to the rest of the body "he's not the most humble person I've ever met." In the years after he partook, he began counseling people more and more, very dogmatically, and some reported being "creeped out." He got worse over time. He moved to another congregation and in time I heard he'd been disfellowshipped.
The second, a sister, likewise made much of her anointed status. She sided with the brother and became bitter with the organization. She made statements more and more challenging. She likened the "new" anointed ones to David, and the "old-line" anointed to Saul, who were striving to suppress the upstarts! She eventually left her husband to move closer to (with?) the disfellowshipped brother.
The third partaker was also a sister. She too had a dominant personality but she kept it in check. If you visited her, you knew you were in for a discussion of the scriptures, which you would enjoy, but without her "pulling rank." She told me once that she no longer associated with the other sister, as that one had become so negative. Of the three, her actions seemed to Wheatandweeds and me most consistent with an anointed one.
This third sister became ill and died. Her son asked Wheatandweeds to give the memorial talk. In planning his remarks, the son (newly baptized) mentioned he thought his mom's heavenly hope should be made prominent. But Wheatandweeds told him he didn't feel he could do that. Rather, he could talk about the sister's qualities & the general condition & hope for the dead. And he could put his heart into it, since he thought highly of this sister.
Wheatandweeds explained to the son all the organization had said regarding anointing and 1935 and the possible need for an occasional substitute. Could they be wrong? Sure. It had happened before. New light. The organization adjusts. The sister had supposed that would indeed happen some day, and she was willing to wait.
But it was not for him, Wheatandweeds, to suggest that the organization was wrong, even were he to think it. By endorsing the sister's hope, the clear implication would be that Jehovah's organization needed to be put up to date [and that he was the one to do it!]. It doesn't matter that he would not mention the then-current understanding…progressive people would know what it was. How would the friends respond? Wouldn't many of them read a defiant tone into the sister's memorial talk? That is the last thing she would have wanted! She always wanted the Christian message, not herself, to be prominent!
Toward the end of the talk Wheatandweeds mentioned that the sister had entertained the heavenly hope. And that some in the audience might wonder how that could be? And that the obvious answer was….be there, in the new system, and you will find out. We don't have to know everything.
There's nothing significantly new in the 1935 Questions from Readers article. The United in Worship book quoted above acknowledged there would be a few here and there. Nobody is suggesting the floodgates have been opened.
Besides, there's something fishy about thousands of new partakers when the number is expected to dwindle. There is too much air of self-promotion with most that I have come across. It's too much in keeping with the spirit of our times, in which the rights of the individual are paramount, and cooperation is almost seen as a weakness. People are quick to read conspiracy into every new development, but I think the more likely analogy for today's strife in some quarters is the Israelites griping when it looked like they were boxed in at the Red Sea [Exodus 14:11,12], or the sour slave beating up on his fellows because he thinks the master is delaying. [Matt 24:48]
It doesn't really affect our role as Christians nor the greater framework of the truth. Moreover, there is danger of being distracted from the bigger picture…. a world in which depravity and barbarity become commonplace & what that signifies. You don't quibble over who's anointed and who's not, since it makes no difference anyway in this system. You focus on the more important things.
For you know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep [in death], all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.” 2 Pet 3:3
Jehovah's Witnesses do not think that today "all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.
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