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MEMORIAL PARTAKERS
JWs WHO GO TO HEAVEN(Investigator 102, 2005 May) PARTAKERS AND
NON-PARTAKERS
The Memorial is
the
Jehovah's Witness (JW) commemoration of the death of Christ. It is the
JW equivalent of the Lord's Supper in other religions.
Until 1879 the sect celebrated the "Lord's supper" every few weeks but since then annually near Easter. The book Organized to Accomplish Your Ministry (1983) says: The date is determined by counting 14 days from the new moon nearest the spring equinox, March 21-22, as it would be visible at Jerusalem in the land of Palestine. (p. 80) Only some JWs
partake of
the "emblems" – the wine and the unleavened bread. The majority do not
partake.
Memorial
"partakers" are
members of the 144,000 who, according to JW belief, go to heaven after
they die. Non-partakers are of the "great crowd". These expect
salvation, eternal life, on a future "paradise Earth". Non-partakers
attend the Memorial as observers.
JWs believe that all 1st-century Christians belonged to the 144,000. More were chosen in the next 18 centuries and the rest in the 20th century. Those of the 144,000 currently alive are called the "remnant". The entire 144,000 are referred to as the "little flock". Russell estimated
that 20,000 to
30,000 were alive in the early 20th century. (Studies in the Scriptures
Volume 6 p. 95)
Rutherford estimated in the 1920s that at most 50,000 of the 144,000 were on Earth. (Deliverance 1926 p. 282) 144,000 COMPLETED IN
1935
Most of the remnant
joined
JWs from 1919 to 1931, "This gathering of the anointed remnant from and
after 1919 continues on down more particularly to 1931." (The
Watchtower 1942 March 1 p. 69)
In 1935 JWs started a new "harvest". They started gathering the "great crowd" who would not go to heaven but live forever on Earth: Their being identified in 1935 as the great crowd of other sheep was an indication that the choosing of the 144,000 was then about complete. In 1935 the gathering of
the 144,000 was finished – except to replace a few who deserted the JW
sect.
How did the current doctrine about the remnant and "great crowd" come about? ASCENT TO HEAVEN
REPEATEDLY
POSTPONED
In the 1870s Charles T Russell (1852-1916) started the Watchtower cult that developed into JWs. Russell taught that the living members of the 144,000 or "little flock" would rise physically to heaven in 1878: Based on Paul's statement at 1 Corinthians 15,51, 52 it had been expected ‘that at some time the living saints would be suddenly and miraculously caught away bodily, thenceforth to be forever with the Lord.' Believing this would take place in 1878, some were disappointed. (Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose 1959 p. 19)After the prediction for 1878 failed Russell tried 1881: OUR CHANGE SEEMS DUE. We do not know the day or the hour, but expect it during 1881, possibly near the autumn. (Watch Tower reprints 1881 February p. 191) Wrong again. Therefore
Russell made 1881 the end of God's "general call" to join the "little
flock". (Studies in the Scriptures Volume II p. 235; Volume III p. 217)
This meant that the 144,000 were complete in 1881 except for a few
replacements when unfaithful ones dropped out. But the replacements had
to be converted and dedicated by 1881. (Watch Tower Reprints 1901
November 1 p. 2901; 1900 August 1 p. 2676)
Meanwhile the date 1878 was not discarded. It became the date the Kingdom of God started, Christendom was "spewed out" by God, and the dead members of the 144,000 were resurrected to heaven: In the spring of 1878 all the holy apostles and other "overcomers" of the Gospel age who slept in Jesus were raised spirit beings, like unto their Lord and Master. Russell now predicted
that
the ones still living on Earth would rise to heaven soon after 1914:
That the deliverance of the living saints must take place very soon after 1914 is manifest. Once again, wrong!
Russell then died.
The Watch Tower Reprints sum up Russell's ascent-to-heaven doctrine: Brother Russell expected
the church to go beyond the veil in 1878, 1881, 1910 and 1914.
(Watchtower Reprints 1918 April 15 p. 6237) ASCENT TO HEAVEN 1918
&
1925
The cult's new president was Judge Rutherford (1869-1942). He predicted 1918 for the ascent: The seven
days
before the
Deluge may represent seven years, from 1914 to 1921, in the midst of
which "week of years" the last members of the Messiah class pass beyond
the veil:
Our proposition
is
that the
glorification of the Little Flock in the Spring of 1918 A.D. will be
half way (three and one-half years each way) between the close of the
Gentile Times and the close of the Heavenly Way, A.D. 1921. (The
Finished Mystery 1917 p. 64)
That
the
harvest began in
1878, there is ample and convincing proof. The end of the harvest is
due in the spring of 1918. ...
During the entire forty years of the harvest the sealing of the saints progressed. ... If the harvest has ended, then the sealing is complete. The evidence strongly suggests that all the saints are sealed. (Watch Tower Reprints 1918 May 1 p. 6243) However, all the
"saints"
were not "sealed" after all and they did not ascend. Why? Because again
a few replacements were needed:
Many
of the
dear friends
think that "the door is shut," and that opportunities for service are
at an end, or nearly so.
The Society does not share this opinion. It is quite probable that the harvest, in the sense that no more will be spirit-begotten, ended in the spring of 1918, except as some will fall out or be rejected, and others take their places. (Watch Tower Reprints 1918 December 1 p. 6358)
At this stage the
cult's
famous message "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" commenced. The
"Millions" message stated that ancient Bible heroes like Abraham,
Samson and Daniel would rise physically from the dead and take over the
world in 1925. The cult members believed they would then not be needed,
their work would be finished, and they could finally go to heaven.
Yes, wrong
again.
It all
proved false. The Bible heroes did not appear in 1925 and the Watch
Tower cult – the so-called "wheat class" and "saints" – did not go to
heaven.
In 1928 came the
new
interpretation that the dead members of the 144,000 rose to heaven in
1918 as "spirit creatures". Those still in the flesh on Earth would go
to heaven individually at death.
Judge
Rutherford,
the
president of the JWs from 1917 to 1942, now divided the remnant of the
144,000 into two subcategories:
1. Those who joined the cult by 1918 he called the Naomi class and Mordecai class; Some of the remnant then
alive, when Preparation was published in 1932, would live to
survive
Armageddon. (pp 158-166) Preparation implies that the
Armageddon
survivors would even include some of the "Mordecai class" – the
converts who joined up prior to 1919.
Frederick
William
Franz
(1893-1992), the fourth president of JWs, was baptized in 1913 and was
therefore of the "Mordecai class". Franz wrote:
A
number of
these should
survive still longer to see and go through the war of Armageddon… (The
Watchtower 1970 January 15 p. 52)
This, like
everything
previously in this doctrine, proved false. When Franz died in 1992 the
pre-1919 converts were virtually extinct.
By 1935 JWs had
recovered
from the drastic membership losses that followed their failed
prophecies of the 1920s. Converts increased and their increased number
threatened to refute that:
That's why Judge Rutherford invented two new interpretations:1. The 144,000 is a literal number; 1. The call to heaven stopped in 1935 except to replace a few who became unfaithful; In the
1930s the
majority
who attended the Memorial partook of the wine and bread. Table 1 shows
figures for England:
<>The yearly
worldwide
figures are published in the JW Yearbooks and The Watchtower of
January
1. See Table 2.
<>
American
JWs
provide almost
as many 20th-century candidates for heaven as the rest of the world
combined. See Table 3.
Looking again at
Table 2 –
the worldwide figures – we notice something strange. If the door to
heaven shut in 1935 except to replace a few "unfaithful ones" the
decrease is much too slow.
Comparing the decrease with population statistics used by governments and insurance companies leads to the conclusion that the number of partakers in 2000 AD should be nearer 500 than 8,600! For a rough calculation assume the average age of JWs in 1935 was 30. This means the average age of partakers 68 years later – in 2003 AD – should be about 98 (or slightly less if a few drop-outs were replaced with younger replacements). However, the proportion of people who reach their mid-nineties is less than 1% of the population. And 1% of the 1935 partakers is about 500. Clearly, most of the remnant who partake of the "emblems" and identify themselves as going to heaven are frauds.
JW Leaders have
amended,
reversed or trashed not just their doctrine of the ascent to heaven but
most of their other doctrines too. Changed interpretations, flip-flops,
by thousands!!
Yet they claim their organization is: "the only Organization on earth that understands the deep things of God." (The Watchtower 1973 July 1 p. 402) They claim to be the only religion with God's approval and: "the religion that is approved by God must agree in all its details with the Bible." (The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life 1968 p. 14) They quote stooges who say: "Jehovah's visible organization is a tremendously dependable source. Never once has it misled me in any way." (The Watchtower 1984 June 1 p. 12)
The JW doctrine
of
the remnant developed out of repeated prophecy failures. Statistics
show
that most of the remnant are frauds.
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