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Elders
now are "Glorious
Ones"
B J Kotwall (Investigator No. 60 1998 May)
In the past the Watchtower Society (WTS) claimed that the "glorious ones" in 2 Peter 2:10-12 and Jude 8 are of the "anointed" or "144,000" or "remnant" of such. Recently this
changed and
the "glorious
ones"
are now the Jehovah’s Witness (JW) elders. (Note some Bibles translate
the Greek doxa, as "celestial beings" or "dignities" instead of
"glorious ones".)
In the New
World
Translation of the
Holy
Scriptures (1984) the two verses say:
…especially,
however,
those who go on
after
flesh with the desire to defile [it] and who look down on lordship.
Daring,
self-willed, they do not tremble at glorious ones but speak abusively,
whereas angels, although they are greater in strength and power, do not
bring against them an accusation in abusive terms, [not doing so] out
of
respect for Jehovah. (2 Peter 2:10-11)
In like manner,
notwithstanding, these
men,
too, indulging in dreams, are defiling the flesh and disregarding
lordship
and speaking abusively of glorious ones. Jude 8
Some quotations showing the previous teaching: The apostle
Peter speaks
of some who
show
great disrespect for God and his anointed servants, describing
them
as "daring [from Greek tol·me·tes', "presumptuous," KJ],
self-willed, they do not
tremble at glorious ones but speak abusively." Such men, Peter says, "suffer destruction in their own course of destruction." – 2Pe 2:10,12. Insight on the Scriptures (1988) Vol. 2 p. 681
(Ungodly) men
were
"disregarding lordship
and speaking abusively of
glorious ones," evidently maligning such
individuals as anointed Christian overseers who had
certain
glory conferred upon them. (Jude 3, 4, 8)
Watchtower
92
November 15 p. 22
Unlike the
archangel
Michael, who would
not
even bring a judgment against the Devil in abusive terms, the ungodly
men
spoke abusively of "glorious ones," evidently those with certain
glory conferred upon them by God and Christ as anointed elders.
Let us not show disrespect for God-given authority!
Watchtower 91 April 15 p. 31
Surely, we do
not want to
be like the
"ungodly
men" of Jude's day who disregarded lordship and spoke abusively of glorious
ones, anointed
Christian elders with God-given glory, or honor,
conferred upon them. –
Jude 3, 4, 8.
Watchtower
89
September 15 p.22
The new Light in The Watchtower of September l, 1997 pp. 15, 16 says: down on lordship." We can almost feel Peter's indignation as he says: "Daring self-willed, they do not tremble at glorious ones but speak abusively." Jude writes that "these men...indulging in dreams... are speaking abusively of glorious ones." (2 Peter 2:10; Jude 8)... In what sense, though, do they "look down on lordship" and speak "abusively of glorious ones"? They do so in that they despise divinely constituted authority. Christian elders represent the glorious Jehovah God and his Son and, as a result, have certain glory conferred upon them ... the Scriptures urge members of the congregation to be submissive to such glorious ones. (Hebrews 13:17) So now all
JW elders
in the WTS are
"divinely
constituted authority". They represent "Jehovah and Jesus" on earth;
they
are the "glorious ones" and other JWs are required to "tremble" at them!
No explanation for the change is provided in The Watchtower of September 1. Some ex JWs I
spoke to
think that due to
the dwindling ranks (by last WTS’s count 8757 persons) of the
"anointed"
the WTS is now grooming the elders of the "other sheep" class to take
up
the mantle of the "anointed". More glorious information available here:
https://ed5015.tripod.com/ https://investigatormagazine.net Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at: https://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/ |