Tuesday, April 4 2023 Whoever Drinks this Cup…/Until He Comes

[PJ54]

MEMORIAL DATE
After Sundown
Tuesday, April 4 2023​

Keep doing this in remembrance of me.—Luke 22:19.​

Jesus spoke to his 11 faithful apostles about two covenants, or agreements—the new covenant and the Kingdom covenant. (Luke 22:20, 28-30) These covenants opened up the way for those apostles and a limited number of others to become kings and priests in heaven. (Rev. 5:10; 14:1) Only the anointed remnant, who are in these two covenants, may partake of the bread and the wine at the Memorial. Jehovah has given them a remarkable hope—to enjoy immortal and incorruptible life in heaven, to serve alongside the glorified Jesus Christ and the rest of the 144,000 and, above all, to be in the very presence of Jehovah God! (1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 John 3:2) The anointed recognize that they must remain faithful until their death.—2 Tim. 4:7, 8. w22.01 21 ¶4-5

Memorial Bible reading: (Daytime events: Nisan 13) Matthew 26:17-19; Luke 22:7-13 (Events after sunset: Nisan 14) Matthew 26:20-56

Examining the Scriptures Daily—2023

Whoever Drinks this Cup...

Monday, March 21 This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood.—1 Cor. 11:25. Those who rightly partake of the Memorial emblems are absolutely sure that they are parties to the new covenant. God has made the new covenant with the spiritual Israelites. This

e-watchman.com

Monday, March 21 2016​

This cup means the new covenant by virtue of my blood.—1 Cor. 11:25.

Those who rightly partake of the Memorial emblems are absolutely sure that they are parties to the new covenant. God has made the new covenant with the spiritual Israelites. This covenant has been validated by Christ’s sacrifice and has been made operative by his shed blood. Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, and loyal anointed ones taken into it receive a heavenly inheritance. Individuals entitled to partake of the Memorial emblems know that they have also been taken into the Kingdom covenant. Because they are in the Kingdom covenant, faithful anointed ones will reign with Christ as heavenly kings forever.

COMMENTARY​

Satan has always sought to diminish the wondrous generosity of Jehovah’s adopting many sons and ultimately endowing them with the gift of immortality. According to the nearly all-pervasive teachings of Christendom, going to heaven is commonplace —it is more or less everyone’s birthright. And supposedly everyone has an immortal soul anyway. No big deal.

But even among Jehovah’s Witnesses there is a submerged sect who promote the idea that the Watchtower is practicing a dark satanic ritual by passing the cup and bread among persons who have been told they are not entitled to partake of the blood of Jesus. It is their erroneous contention that the new covenant is between God and all Christians.

But such is not the case. Those persons are mere pretenders who are acting under the influence of the phony angel of light. Obviously, Satan’s intention is to induce persons to partake who may not be entitled. Paul specifically warned that anyone doing so will be guilty of violating what is sacred.

Those who may be swayed by the deceivers should consider this: Christ’s ransom sacrifice has the purchasing power to buy all of Adam’s offspring —including the dead. That means billions of persons will be redeemed from death to live again on this earth. And the vast majority who have lived and died were unrighteous in God’s eyes. Some even outright enemies and haters of God. They do not have to acknowledge God in anyway in order to receive the resurrection of judgment, much less drink from the cup of holy union.

The point is, if the billions who will be resurrected as humans were not parties of the new covenant, why would it be necessary for those who will survive the coming great tribulation in the flesh to be part of the new covenant? It is not. Their symbolically washing their robes in the blood of the Lamb does not mean they are part of the Kingdom. It merely represents that they have put faith in the Son of God and acted accordingly.

In further proof that the millions of Christians who will survive the end of this world are not in the new covenant, in the context of Paul’s comment that is the day’s theme scripture, the anointed apostle went on to write: “For whenever you eat this loaf and drink this cup, you keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he comes.”

Jesus’ coming concludes the new covenant. However, it does not immediately result in salvation for the great crowd. First, upon arriving Christ will initiate the judgment of the house of God. The house of God is the spiritual temple of persons who have been called. Christ will accomplish the expulsion of a wicked and sluggish slave faction and reward the faithful remaining ones with entry into the Kingdom.

The coming of Christ will bring an end to the drinking of the cup of the covenant because all of the sons of the Kingdom will ultimately be approved then; some, like the original apostles, by virtue of their experiencing the first resurrection and the remaining ones on earth by their being sealed —after which they will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, which will be a reflection of the glorious light Christ will shine upon them during his manifestation.

The great crowd will experience the revealing of the sons of God as a token of their being accepted into the Kingdom as faithful, earthly subjects and immediate beneficiaries of the new covenant’s accomplishment.

 

[PJ54]

Until He Comes

Thursday, September 8 Keep doing this in remembrance of me.—1 Cor. 11:24. Night has fallen, but a full moon bathes Jerusalem in soft light. It is the evening of Nisan 14, 33 C.E. Jesus and his apostles have celebrated the Passover, commemorating Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage

e-watchman.com

Thursday, September 8 2016​

Keep doing this in remembrance of me.—1 Cor. 11:24.

Night has fallen, but a full moon bathes Jerusalem in soft light. It is the evening of Nisan 14, 33 C.E. Jesus and his apostles have celebrated the Passover, commemorating Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage 15 centuries earlier. With 11 loyal apostles, Jesus now institutes a special meal—one that will memorialize the death he will experience before this day ends. Jesus says a blessing and passes unleavened bread to the apostles, saying: “Take, eat.” He takes a cup of wine, again offers thanks, and says: “Drink out of it, all of you.” Jesus will not pass other food items to them, but he will have much more to tell his faithful followers on this momentous night. So it was that Jesus instituted the Memorial of his death, also called “the Lord’s Evening Meal.”

COMMENTARY​

When a loved one is gone we remember them fondly. But when they are with us there is no need to hold them on our memory. Jesus told his followers to “keep doing this in remembrance of me.” Paul went on to say to the Corinthians that the remembrance will only be observed “until he comes.”

This creates a bit of a dilemma for the Watchtower, since it teaches that Christ came in 1914. Obviously if that were true then the Lord’s Evening Meal would have ceased to be observed then.

To deal with this obvious discrepancy the Watchtower has resorted to teaching that Christ comes on more than one occasion. Supposedly his next scheduled coming is when he comes on the clouds of heaven, when every eye will see him. But does that fix the contradiction? No. It does not.

In Luke’s account of when Jesus instituted the memorial of his death Christ said: “I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” And accepting a cup, he gave thanks and said: “Take this and pass it from one to the other among yourselves, for I tell you, from now on, I will not drink again from the product of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.”

Notice, please, the remembrance of Christ’s sacrificial death is obviously concluded —fulfilled, when the Kingdom of God comes, which harmonizes with the truth expressed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

Of course, the central teaching of the Watchtower is that the Kingdom of God was fully established in 1914. Jehovah’s Witnesses are even required to believe that the first resurrection has begun. Essentially, all things have been fulfilled. But to paper over the obvious fact that nothing has significantly changed since the time the kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, the Watchtower teaches that although all things have been fulfilled and the Kingdom has come, it is coming again, evidently during the tribulation.

Another inconvenient truth is what is recorded in the 12th chapter of Luke. Addressing his little flock who have been promised the Kingdom, Jesus exhorted them to stay on the watch for his coming: “Be dressed and ready and have your lamps burning, and you should be like men waiting for their master to return from the marriage, so when he comes and knocks, they may at once open to him. Happy are those slaves whom the master on coming finds watching! Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table and will come alongside and minister to them. And if he comes in the second watch, even if in the third, and finds them ready, happy are they! But know this, if the householder had known at what hour the thief would come, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also, keep ready, because at an hour that you do not think likely, the Son of man is coming.”

In the span of verse above Jesus used the words “come,” “comes” and “coming” four times. Is this coming the same as his coming on the clouds of heaven to execute the ungodly, —the coming that Jehovah’s Witnesses are on the watch for? The Watchtower says yes.

It is noteworthy that Jesus evoked the setting of the Lord’s Evening Meal, when his apostles reclined with the Lord at the table and immediately afterwards Jesus rose from the table and girded himself with a towel and assumed the duties of a slave when he began washing the feet of the disciples. Furthermore, as Jehovah’s Witnesses well know, the Greek word “parousia” literally means being alongside. So, Jesus coming alongside his disciples and ministering to them is what will occur during the presence of Christ.

It is then, Christ’s presence with his disciples that brings about the fulfillment of all things and the conclusion of the remembrance of him. No wonder Jesus stressed the importance of staying awake and being ready to receive him when he knocks.

 

[Medi-tator]

The great crowd will experience the revealing of the sons of God as a token of their being accepted into the Kingdom as faithful, earthly subjects and immediate beneficiaries of the new covenant’s accomplishment.

The coming of Christ will bring an end to the drinking of the cup of the covenant because all of the sons of the Kingdom will ultimately be approved then; some, like the original apostles, by virtue of their experiencing the first resurrection and the remaining ones on earth by their being sealed —after which they will shine as brightly as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, which will be a reflection of the glorious light Christ will shine upon them during his manifestation.

Jesus’ coming concludes the new covenant. However, it does not immediately result in salvation for the great crowd.

The point is, if the billions who will be resurrected as humans were not parties of the new covenant, why would it be necessary for those who will survive the coming great tribulation in the flesh to be part of the new covenant? It is not. Their symbolically washing their robes in the blood of the Lamb does not mean they are part of the Kingdom. It merely represents that they have put faith in the Son of God and acted accordingly.

And it will take 1000 years of NOT observing the Lord's Evening Meal and NOT partaking of any emblems until the survivors of Armageddon and all those resurrected are able to receive the gift of everlasting life if having remained faithful during the final test.

 

[Watchman]

Thanks for posting these two articles Paul. Every year around the time of the Memorial like clockwork the Ray Franz cultists show up to proclaim that Jesus is their mediator, blah, blah, blah. The way things are shaping up though, it may be the last time, as it is looking more and more likely that Western civilization going to get smashed by a very large wrecking ball. This may very well be the last Memorial before "he comes." We shall see.

 

[Watchman]

Here is one of the first videos I uploaded using mostly images from the Greatest Man book. Unfortunately, I used low resolution.

 

[Watchman]

I would only offer one point of correction on the Watchtower's daily text. The text states:

Only the anointed remnant, who are in these two covenants, may partake of the bread and the wine at the Memorial.

The expression "anointed remnant" is based upon what is stated at Revelation 12:17 concerning the remaining ones whom the dragon persecutes after its ouster from heaven. The old King James uses the term "remnant of her seed," hence, the anointed remnant. They are the remaining ones of the 144,000 who are on earth after the first resurrection begins. Paul referred to that group as "we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord." Paul went on to reveal that those who died prior to the parousia are joined with Christ in heaven while the living holy ones are still on earth. However, since the parousia has not begun it is not appropriate to refer to the anointed remnant.

 

[Ms_ladyblue]

Here is one of the first videos I uploaded using mostly images from the Greatest Man book. Unfortunately, I used low resolution.

Beautifully done video, including the music brother King.

 

[SusanB]

This is a great article and explains the recent forum controversy as well as clearly explains the Memorial and the anointed and the role of those whose hope is to be a part of the Great Crowd. When I couple this with the Memorial reading it makes me think that perhaps when Jesus told his apostles clearly that one of them was a betrayer but didn’t identify him by name, that could have been upsetting with each one thinking, why would Jesus leave a question in the mind of others that the betrayer could be any one of us. They did have an ego problem and perhaps their ego may have been bruised to think they were under a cloud of suspicion. I can now see why Judas was likely then so incensed that he left knowing that it was him. He probably hated Jesus at that moment for “humiliating” him, as those with oversized egos often lash out at others who are really trying to bring them to their senses. To fully understand all of these issues (regarding the anointed and partaking) takes humility but pride can be an obstacle for those whose hope is to be a part of the Great Crowd, when they consider that they are not in the New Covenant.

In the coming millennial reign, I have no doubt it will be ALL about the Great Crowd. Jehovah and Jesus have not forgotten us and we have every reason to wait patiently for our turn, while rejoicing that there are anointed ones, that they know human frailty because they are like us. This is an incredible time to be alive and I think its about to get even more exciting even though challenging.

 

[SusanB]

I just thought more about the topic of the Memorial and who partakes and in a way it reminds me of the controversy regarding the trinity. It is true that some scriptures may seem hard to understand. It is also true that there is inspired truth and inspired error. So, this likely explains the strong feelings.

1 John 4:6: “We originate with God. Whoever comes to know God listens to us; whoever does not originate with God does not listen to us. By this we distinguish the inspired statement of truth from the inspired statement of error.”

So, I think it is important to stay as close to God’s word as we can. We know for sure the Memorial is celebrated at least yearly but there is no scripture that details it more often. It is really as simple as that. Otherwise we could veer off into error. With regard to who partakes, the scriptural warning about partaking unworthily should be deeply considered by all in a spirit of humility. I won’t quote that scripture because its been recently posted many times.

Lastly, the salvation of the human race is an important subject, especially to us but what is more important is the sanctification of Jehovah’s name and the vindication of his sovereignty. The way He is fulfilling his purposes through the anointed ones addresses those issues first but its obvious he has never forgotten nor neglected the rest of mankind who are not anointed. We have our place and it is described in the model prayer.

 

[PJ54]

This is a great article and explains the recent forum controversy as well as clearly explains the Memorial and the anointed and the role of those whose hope is to be a part of the Great Crowd. When I couple this with the Memorial reading it makes me think that perhaps when Jesus told his apostles clearly that one of them was a betrayer but didn’t identify him by name, that could have been upsetting with each one thinking, why would Jesus leave a question in the mind of others that the betrayer could be any one of us. They did have an ego problem and perhaps their ego may have been bruised to think they were under a cloud of suspicion. I can now see why Judas was likely then so incensed that he left knowing that it was him. He probably hated Jesus at that moment for “humiliating” him, as those with oversized egos often lash out at others who are really trying to bring them to their senses. To fully understand all of these issues (regarding the anointed and partaking) takes humility but pride can be an obstacle for those whose hope is to be a part of the Great Crowd, when they consider that they are not in the New Covenant.

In the coming millennial reign, I have no doubt it will be ALL about the Great Crowd. Jehovah and Jesus have not forgotten us and we have every reason to wait patiently for our turn, while rejoicing that there are anointed ones, that they know human frailty because they are like us. This is an incredible time to be alive and I think its about to get even more exciting even though challenging.

Something to mention along with the ego being an issue, is that really we don't deserve a resurrection of any kind & should be pitched into the lake of fire & sulfur. If one who was not called into the covenant partakes, they subject themselves to the 2nd death. One thing I fear is due to Christendom's heaven/hell doctrine that has permeated for over 15 centuries, many throughout that time period may not accept where they are at & may be stumbled. This will include other people of religious backgrounds wondering why they aren't with their god or people who are secular minded who just wanted to stay in the grave. So IMHO there will much conflict (at least internal) over the millennial reign. I suppose the immortals will have much work to do as a result.