The "Saving Humanity" articles and the recent ones about the resurrection hope have covered a part of a continuing discussion: will Christians who have endured be going to heaven, or be connected with the earth as we know it now. I did this research when I realised...
All Topics > The Anointed
Anointed – Why me?
[this post was contributed by Alex Rover] One of the first questions when I first realized my election as a chosen child of God, adopted as his son and called to be Christian, was: "why me"? Meditating upon the story of Joseph's election can help us avoid the trap of...
Satan's Great Coup!
"He will crush your head..." (Ge 3:15) I can't know what went through Satan's mind when he heard those words, but I can imagine the gut wrenching feeling I'd experience if God pronounced such a sentence on me. One thing we can know from history is that Satan didn't...
WT Study: Why We Observe the Lord’s Evening Meal
[From ws 15/01 p. 13 for March 9-15] “Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” – 1 Cor. 11:24 A more appropriate title for this week’s Watchtower study would be “How We Observe the Lord’s Evening Meal.” The “why” is answered in the article’s opening paragraph. After...
The Emptiness of life
[this article was contributed by Alex Rover] We did not exist for an infinite amount of time. Then for a brief moment, we come into existence. Then we die, and we are reduced to nothing once more. Each such moment starts with childhood. We learn to walk, we learn to...
WT Study: Facing the End of This Old World Together
[A Review of the December 15, 2014 Watchtower article on page 22] “We are members belonging to one another.”— Eph. 4:25 This article is yet another call for unity. This has become the dominant theme of the Organization of late. The January broadcast on tv.jw.org was...
WT Study: “Now You Are God’s People”
[A Review of the November 15, 2014 Watchtower article on page 23] “You were once not a people, but now you are God’s people.”— 1 Pet. 1:10 From our past year’s analysis of Watchtower study articles, it has become apparent that there is often an agenda behind the most...
Our Precious Inheritance
[this article was contributed by Alex Rover] Jacob and Esau were twins born to Isaac, the son of Abraham. Isaac was the child of promise (Ga 4:28) through which God’s covenant would be passed down. Now Esau and Jacob struggled in the womb, but Jehovah told Rebecca the...
The Rose of Sharon
[this article was contributed by Alex Rover] “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys” – Sg 2:1 With these words, the Shulamite girl described herself. The Hebrew word used for rose here is habaselet and is commonly understood to be a Hibiscus Syriacus....
Memorial Partakers 2014
[this article was contributed by Alex Rover] The number of memorial partakers from the Jehovah's Witnesses yearbook for 2014 is now known: 14,1211. 2012 partakers: 12604 [i] 2013 partakers: 13204 2014 partakers: 14121 Which gives an increase of 600 between 2012/13 and...
The Sacraments of Initiation
[this article is contributed by Alex Rover] How does one come to be of the anointed? What is it like to be anointed? How can one be sure he or she is of the anointed? Perhaps you have read blogs online where Jehovah’s Witnesses are encouraged to partake of the...
Do you pass the test?
[this article is contributed by Alex Rover] It is Friday evening and the last day of lectures at campus for this semester. Jane closes her binder and puts it away in her backpack, along with the other course materials. For a brief moment, she reflects on the past half...
WT Study: Are You Convinced That You Have the Truth? Why?
[A Review of the September 15, 2014 Watchtower article on page 7] “Prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”—Rom. 12:2 Paragraph 1: “IS IT the will of God that true Christians go to war and kill people of a different nationality?” By this...
A Thinly Veiled Agenda
This year’s memorial talk struck me as the least appropriate commemoration discourse I’ve ever heard. It may just be my newfound enlightenment about the role of Christ in the outworking of God’s purpose, but I noticed how very little reference was made to Jesus and...
A New Partaker
The 2014 memorial is almost upon us. A number of Jehovah’s Witnesses have come to the realization that it is a requirement for all Christians to partake of the memorial emblems in obedience to Jesus’ command which Paul restates at 1 Corinthians 11:25, 26. Many will do...
WT Study: ‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’
The final Watchtower Study Edition of 2013 includes articles leading up to the commemoration of the Lord's Evening Meal. Included is this sidebar on setting the date: w13 12/15 p. 23 ‘Do This in Remembrance of Me’ MEMORIAL 2014 The moon circles our earth each month....
WT Study: ‘This Is to Be a Memorial for You’
[This week’s review of the Watchtower study (w13 12/15 p.17) has been provided by one of the forum members following a good deal of research.] It would appear that some feel the calculation the Organization has been using for decades to establish the date each year in...
Declared Righteous as God's Friends
This week in the Bible Study we were told who the anointed are, and who the Great Crowd is, and that the other sheep are God's friends. I say "told", because to say "taught" would imply that we were given some proof, a scriptural foundation upon which to build our...
Day Text – August 8, 2013
I hate playing the grinch, but sometimes I just can't help myself. Today's Daily Text is a prime example of the ridiculous places a false doctrine can take us. It says, "If we want to 'prove ourselves sons of our Father who is in the heavens,' we must be different." ...
Ambassadors or Envoys
This week’s The Watchtower study opens with thought that it is a great honor to be sent by God as an ambassador or envoy to help people establish peaceful relations with Him. (w14 5/15 p. 8 par. 1,2) It’s been over ten years since we’ve had an article explaining how...
Kiss the Son
Serve Jehovah with fear And be joyful with trembling. Kiss the son, that He may not become incensed And YOU may not perish [from] the way, For his anger flares up easily. Happy are all those taking refuge in him. (Psalm 2:11, 12) One disobeys God at one’s peril. ...
This Week's Bible Reading – Acts 1 to 4
It is interesting how commonplace Scriptures you've read dozens of times take on new meaning once you abandon some long-held prejudices. For example, take this from this week's Bible reading assignment: (Acts 2:38, 39) .?.?.Peter [said] to them: “Repent, and let each...
Who Should Partake?
“Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19) Let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far. We cannot prove with certainty that Rev. 7:4 is referring to a literal number of individuals. (See post: 144,000—Literal or Symbolic) The Bible doesn’t teach that the...
The Spirit Bears Witness
[Note: To facilitate this discussion, the term “the anointed” will refer to those who have the heavenly hope according to the official teaching of Jehovah’s people. Likewise, “other sheep” refers to those with an earthly hope. Their use here does not imply that the...
Are You in the New Covenant?
(Jeremiah 31:33, 34) . . .“For this is the covenant that I shall conclude with the house of Israel after those days,” is the utterance of Jehovah. “I will put my law within them, and in their heart I shall write it. And I will become their God, and they themselves...
A Great Crowd of Other Sheep
The exact phrase, “great crowd of other sheep” occurs more than 300 times in our publications. The association between the two terms, “great crowd” and “other sheep”, is established in over 1,000 places in our publications. With such a plethora of references...
144,000 – Literal or Symbolic?
Back in January, we showed that there is no Scriptural basis for our claim that the “little flock” in Luke 12:32 refers only to a group of Christians destined to rule in heaven while the “other sheep” at John 10:16 refers to another group with an earthly hope. (See...
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