Commentary on the Daily text of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Sunday, July 30
The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children.
God’s original purpose was for mankind to live forever here on earth. (Gen. 1:28; Ps. 37:29) The selection of some to go to heaven to rule as kings and priests is not the norm. It is an exceptional arrangement. This calling causes a profound change in the thinking, outlook, and hope of a person when he is anointed. (Eph. 1:18) But how does a person know that he has the heavenly calling, that he has, in fact, received this special token? The answer is clearly seen in Paul’s words to the anointed brothers in Rome, who were “called to be holy ones.” He told them: “You did not receive a spirit of slavery causing fear again, but you received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which spirit we cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’” (Rom. 1:7; 8:15) Simply put, by means of his holy spirit, God makes it clear to that person that he is invited to become a future heir in the Kingdom arrangement.
A token is variously described as something serving to represent or indicate some fact, event, feeling, or a characteristic indication or mark of something; evidence or proof. Hence, the anointing spirit represents a measure of the spirit to come —proof that the spirit to come is real. That is why Paul wrote the following: “He has also put his seal on us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit, in our hearts.” —2 Cor 1:22
“Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, who gave us the spirit as a token of what is to come.” —2 Cor 5:5
“After you believed, you were sealed by means of him with the promised holy spirit, which is a token in advance of our inheritance, for the purpose of releasing God’s own possession by a ransom, to his glorious praise.” —Ephesians 1:13b-14
As we know, God’s purpose is to establish a kingdom composed of Christ and 144,000 Christians, chosen from among mankind, from both Jews and non-Jews, both men and women. The original calling began after Jesus was resurrected and retuned to heaven. The first selectees were the 120 disciples who were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem on the day of the festival of Pentecost. A few years later Samaritans and gentiles began to receive the same invitation. But by the time the apostles began dying off the calling was curtailed.
Of course, the untaught imagine that Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that only 144,000 persons will be saved. You hear people repeat this lie over and over again. They simply do not know the truth. We know, though, that Jehovah God intends to resurrect the vast majority of mankind who have ever lived and died —just not to heaven. The dead will live again on earth. That is mankind’s eternal home. No one should suppose that being brought back to life in paradise is any sort of a curse or that God has slighted them because they were not exalted to heaven. Like the Daily Text says, the selection of some for heavenly life “is not the norm.” “It is an exceptional arrangement.”
So, when the anointing phenomena tailed off in the second century no one was wronged by God. The millions of Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, along with Coptics and what-have-you, who have lived in centuries past will receive the resurrection of judgment; which is to say, an earthly resurrection.
But God’s purpose cannot be complete until the full number of 144,000 are selected. And the Scriptures reveal that prior to Christ’s return the selection process will begin again. There is ample evidence to conclude that the sudden appearance of the International Bible Students in the latter part of the 19th century was a result of the outpouring of the anointing spirit.
It is no wonder that America was fertile ground for the Bible Students. After all, the nation was founded by Bible-believing pilgrims who fled the tyranny of the Church of England, as well as mainland Europeans who longed for freedom from the oppression of kings and lords and clergymen. Various Bible societies had promoted the mass distribution of Bibles in the 1800’s, which prior to the invention of the printing press were rare and illegal to possess. Not only that, but the age of inventions, which really began with the electric light, phonograph and radio, have accelerated the dissemination of the truth; and with it the gathering of not only the final called ones, but millions who are destined to be members of the great crowd who are destined to survive the end of the world.
But while God has caused the light to shine, at least as far as the basic truth, which has long been obscured and twisted by the churches, he has also concealed certain matters regarding the future. For example, speaking from the past to a point in the not-too-distant future, God says: “From now on I am announcing new things to you, guarded secrets that you have not known. Only now are they being created, and not long ago, things that you never heard before today, so that you cannot say, ‘Look! I already know them.’ No, you have not heard, you have not known, and in the past your ears were not opened. For I know that you are very treacherous, and you have been called a transgressor from birth.” —Isaiah 48:6-8
Foremost, of the guarded secrets God has hidden the fact that Christ is due to make a sudden visitation of those who have been gathered. That surprise inspection will will accomplish the harvest. The weed-like, false anointed will be uprooted. Christ will then appear to the approved. The transfiguration was, itself, a token of the ultimate unveiling —the visible presence of Christ alongside the chosen. That is when they receive the full measure of the spirit assured in advance by the token given them upon their anointing.
It has been my privilege to comprehend these things in advance.
Already the judgement is closing in. The banning of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia is a token of sorts. Not only has the preaching been banned, but it is unlawful for Jehovah’s Witnesses to even convene in any number. Also, all the property belonging to the Watchtower has been seized and is due to be liquidated. To be sure, it is a token of what is to come for Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide.
The catastrophe will be acutely painful for the Watchtower in the United States. That is because the worldwide headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses is located in New York, along with dozens of assembly halls and thousands of kingdom halls throughout America. Already the tentacles of tyranny are gripping the once heralded “land of the free and home of the brave.” The now-impending downfall of America will initiate the beginning of the judgment.
The world will ultimately be brought into judgment with God for their treatment of the remaining sons of God after they receive their inheritance. Hence, the sheep and the goats will be separated on the basis of their treatment of the brothers of Christ then.
