Vol. 6, No. 9, 1989

Articles on Jehovah's Witnesses

David Henke

The latest Watchtower, September 1, 1989, has three articles of interest and potential significance to Watchtower watchers. They are titled "Organizing Now for the Thousand Years to Come", "Remaining Organized for Survival into the Millennium", and "Making Full-Time Service a Career".

The growth of the Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide and the increasing age of the leadership of the Watchtower means that more responsibilities must be given to younger Witnesses. But this presents some problems for them.

In Watchtower theology there are two classes of Witnesses, the "Anointed", and the "Great Crowd". The Anointed are those who are supposedly the 144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14 and have a heavenly hope, whereas the Great Crowd, also of Revelation 7, have an earthly hope. The Anointed are those who are born again, while the Great Crowd are not, (Reasoning from the Scriptures, pp 76-80). The Anointed are supposedly commissioned by Jehovah to dispense "spiritual meat in due season to the household of faith" according to their interpretation of Matthew 24:45. Therefore, authority flows from the Anointed, and specifically from the Governing Body, down to the Great Crowd.

The Watchtower teaches that the entire number of believers in the "Church" from the time of the Twelve Apostles until 1935 was to be only 144,000. In 1935 there was supposedly a cutoff of further people being added to those who were Anointed (Man's Salvation Out of World Distress, p. 302). Thus, since 1935 a second class of believers has been created known as the Great Crowd, or the Other Sheep spoken of by Jesus in John 10:16. These are not spiritual sons of God and brothers of Christ as are the Anointed. They are the sons of Christ, which would make them Jehovah's Grandkids (Watchtower, Sept. 1, 1989, page 20).

The vast majority of Witnesses today are Jehovah's Grand¬kids, numbering almost three and a half million. The Anointed are not being added to from the younger generation so their number is declining and today is hovering around the 9,000 level. The Governing Body, now numbering twelve, must be drawn from this pool of 9,000 to be faithful to their interpretation of Matthew 24:45 concerning the "Faithful and Discreet Slave".

As these men grow older they are less able to carry the workload. At some point in the near future the Governing Body will have to change Watchtower doctrine in some way to allow for members of the Great Crowd to sit on the Governing Body, or they will have to extend the duration of the Church age beyond 1935.

Time has exposed them repeatedly in the past and apparently will again. One way they will again be exposed is in their prediction that the generation that saw the events of 1914 will not all pass away before Armageddon. This is repeated in nearly every issue of the Awake! magazine. It gives them the sense that all will be over in the extremely near future (e.g. see Awake! Sept. 8, 1989, p. 5).

What these latest articles seem to be saying is that there is preparation work going on now for the transition from this age where the Anointed are on the earth and running things to the millennial age when only members of the Great Crowd will be around. This transition then will necessarily involve members of the Great Crowd doing things which were hitherto reserved for members of the Anointed because it was their "scriptural" (?) commission to "dispense meat in due season."

In the second article, page 21, they say, "Remaining ones of the anointed are getting along in years and are less able to carry the load. These brothers of the King welcome the loving organizational assistance that spiritually qualified elders and ministerial servants of the other sheep are able to give. Very shortly, Babylon the Great will be removed from the earthly scene. Then, as Revelation 19:1-8 indicates, the Lamb's marriage with his bride of the entire 144,000 will be consummated in the heavens, and the other sheep, serving as a new earth under the new heavens, will represent the King in carrying on the grand work of restoration until all earth becomes a populated paradise to Jehovah's praise...."

The third article is by Max Larson who, according to confidential sources, was "limited in his responsibility" because he was not of the anointed when the Governing Body was formed into committees in the mid-seventies. Now the Governing Body being much older and fewer in number must make use of younger people who are not of the Anointed. So, this third article seems to imply that Larson, and others like him, will be given such responsibilities that were previously given only to the Anointed.

The Watchtower seems to be laying the theological ground for a transition of power to some extent. In the final analysis the transition to Great Crowd rule will have to be complete and absolute because the Anointed cannot extend their lives even one day longer than God allows.