I must admit that I’ve been heavily pondering this very question. I can’t help but agree with your reasoning. To me the scriptures reign supreme, no matter what any religious dogma says. It is our touchstone. Weighing any religious idea against scripture is the only way we can determine if it is actually true or not. This is what Paul taught the early Christians to do with any and all “inspired” utterances. As I’ve been going through the letters, I just cannot get past how there was no provision for any other way for Christians. Paul’s letters were written quite some time after Jesus’ death …but yet all Christians were taught by Paul to partake of the Lord’s Supper (1Cor 11:23) Like you say, there was no division.
Paul was not there for the original Lord’s Supper, yet he received the custom from the resurrected Jesus, which Paul, then, handed it down to the Gentiles who had never even known Jesus in the flesh. He told them that whenever they observed this meal that they would “keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he comes.“ All baptized disciples became known as “Christians”, Therefore if you were a Christian in the first century, whether Jew or Gentile, you partook of this meal. All Christians partook, no exceptions.
If you wanted to be a follower of Christ back then, then you had to be a Christian. That meant baptism in Jesus’ name and that meant partaking of the emblems. They were Christians because they remained in Jesus like branches to a vine or olive tree. The branches had no life in themselves apart from the vine or tree. (John 15:1-10; Rom 11:17-23) I have to ask myself, am I really a Christian if I do not do as Jesus and the Bible writers clearly indicated that Christians should do? Is it really true that Jesus is only the mediator for the ones who go to heaven? The GB teaches that the great crowd‘s salvation is dependent on sticking to them, since Jesus is not the mediator for those with an earthly hope. Yet, that can’t be the case considering what Paul wrote to Timothy at 1Tim 2:1-7. John 10:1-18 also indicates that Jesus is the fine shepherd for both the “little flock” and the “other sheep”. For, really, no one else can give us salvation, not even the Anointed (Acts 4:12) John tells us that
anyone who does not remain in Jesus, is like a dried up branch that is gathered to be thrown into the fire (John 15:6) So if the salvation of the Great Crowd is still dependent on Jesus’ sacrifice, then what should they do, as regards the Lord’s Supper?
It kinda comes down to… can we really call ourselves followers of Christ aka Christians, if we are actually following any men whether they be the GB or any person that has the heavenly hope? That is what it has come down to for me. Paul put it well when he said to the Corinthians, “Is the Christ divided? Paul was not executed on the stake for you, was he?“ (1Cor 1:11-13) If faithful Apostles like Paul could not serve in the stead of Christ, who can? Since nobody can attain salvation through anyone other than Christ, should we not do as the first century Bible writers told Christians to do? Like you, there Is no scripture that I can find that tells a group of people not to partake. That seems really odd to me since the Great Crowd is a group of much larger magnitude than the Little Flock. Since so many people‘s salvation is at stake, you would think that Jehovah would give
clear direction in His Word for such a huge group …especially if they were supposed to do the opposite of such an important command handed down from Jesus himself.
As regards the potential “higher” position of those gaining the heavenly reward, Jesus told his followers that all of them were to be brothers. They were also to be careful about calling anybody leader, for only Christ is the Leader. (Matt 23:8-12) Paul explained the joining of Gentiles with the Jews. So in the context of the first century, the Anointed ones were not to consider themselves as more special than others. As Paul explained, any of them, whether Gentile or Jew, could easily be “lopped off” of God’s figurative olive tree. (Rom 11) Yes, Paul viewed the heavenly hope as an exceptional privilege but a personal one nonetheless.
In view of all this, I really appreciated you bringing out that information about Irenaeus and other early Christians. I had no idea that they were teaching about different hopes so close to the time of the first-century Bible writers! That was SO interesting! The GB would have us believe that Rutherford was only able to figure that out in recent history. It was “new light”. But if the Christians of old knew exactly that, then that gives a whole new perspective on what it means to have a Christian hope, at least to me.
I’m still trying to figure it all out and I might have gone astray somewhere in my reasoning …but from my Bible reading, I’ve come to similar conclusions as you. I have not partaken as of yet, but as I said, the matter has been weighing heavily on me and I’ve been trying to figure out what I should do in order to be pleasing to Christ and be worthy of carrying the designation of Christian. Also, like you and some others on this thread, I really don’t mind where Jehovah places me. I really do love this earth and would love to make my permanent residence here. But as I have been doing my Bible reading, I was coming to this realization that after Christ died, there was only one way to follow to show that you want to be a Christian follower of Christ. It almost seemed that if you looked forward to an earthly hope, you couldn’t be Christian because that set you on the path to heavenly life. But Jesus didn’t seem to offer anything else.
The earthly hope was only for those that lived prior to Christ’s death. So like one comment on here, it almost felt like, if I wanted to be a Christian, I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the heavenly realm
But then, like a few others, it kind of came to me that even if I was baptized (which I am) and I took part in the Lord’s meal, it is still Jehovah who chooses where He wishes to place me since He’s the one who chooses whether to spirit-anoint me or not.
And I thought about how the meal was based off the Passover which all the Jews ate unless they were unclean for some reason. The Passover meal while it had great significance was not meant to be a ceremonial ritual where only a few were allowed to partake. It was an actual meal that brought each of the Jewish families together in remembrance of what Jehovah had done for them. Those are the circumstances in which Jesus instituted his Last Meal. It seems from what I have read that the early Christians also had meals together in connection with partaking of the emblems. It also seems to have served a similar purpose in bringing the Christians together to remember what their purpose in being Christians was …to proclaim the death of the Lord, until he comes. Isn’t this the purpose of every Christian, no matter their hope since it is only Jesus‘ death that provides the basis for releasing all groaning creation? And when I look at the context of Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians to not eat or drink unworthily, he seems to be talking about their lack of respect for the occasion as shown in their behaviour rather than him saying they should be checking themselves to be sure they are spirit-anointed. (1Cor 11:27-29)
But since I’m still in the wondering stage, I do welcome any thoughts as to what I may have missed in all this. And again, I really appreciate your comments on this potentially controversial topic, Ireneo
So, ok, I agree with everything you said here …but where I’m stuck atm is par 3. I’m sure if you read my post on pg 15 of this thread, you’ll get a good idea of where I‘m coming from …so what do the poor saps do (scripturally) who are baptized and follow Christ but are not chosen …as regards the Lord’s Evening Meal? Is there any scriptural evidence that those who hadn’t yet had the spirit fall on them after baptism avoid partaking of the emblems? Since the call until Christ’s coming is for true Christians, then wouldn’t Christ want his disciples even nowadays to become actual Christians? Would that not mean replicating what we find in the NT? This has been seriously weighing on me, and I know you have a wonderful grasp of the scriptures …so if you have any insights, I’d love to hear them. My post that I mentioned, shows what I’ve reasoned out myself so far, but I’m not 100% sure that I’m not missing something. I’d really like your input since you understand that non-anointed ones are actually not Christians. Are we supposed to be ok with that even though we actually desire to be Christian? Again, I‘m looking for an answer from the scriptures, not WT understandings
Thank you, in advance, Posstot!
Only, my husband, while he’s supportive, has not quite been on the same journey as I have. I had been feeling this urge to get into the Bible itself for years, but I’d always end up feeling bad that I wasn’t getting my “studying” done. So I tried so many times to do both, but it just wouldn’t happen. There’s a deadline on studying, so it would get the priority, sadly. Then, like you said, with the pandemic ..it was “Nope! The Bible HAS to be my priority! That’s it!” 
