Patiently waiting for Truth

I would prefer it to be a clarification in the Watchtower ... perhaps "Questions From Readers."
... but then again, about half of those questions appear to come from the mind of Eddie Haskell, Wally Cleaver's best friend, from the TV show "Leave it to Beaver".
The "Secret Elders Handbook " can be found on the Internet ten minutes after the Branch Offices get a copy, and although the Society has given printed copies to the Australian Government, and the Finnish Government, among others, most JWs do not know it even exists.
The United States Armed Forces have a book that covers the foundation of military law that covers life and regulations, and punishments in the military, the UCMJ ... the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
... which EVERYBODY in the military knows about, and has access to.

" More reason for updates and further directives if this is a problem for overseers, and validating why Bro Rook wants to see something more detailed written."
BUT the 'updates and directives' would be in THAT secret little book for the Elders, so no good for the congregants. 
What the CCJW needs is an open book for the whole CCJW congregation. A rule book that everyone can read. On every subject. A rule book that congregants can quote to the Elders. 
Is that what Bro Rook wants ? 

The situation is not good earth wide. 

This is what is written.
As JWI indicated from his father, who just went to Elder's School, any person whose conscience is clear as to his obligations both to Ceasar, and to God, and decides to vote in a national election ... specifically that such a man would need counsel and discipline can be taken on the face of it to be an application of the unwritten, and therefore secret "rules"
Elders have a very different range of talents, perceptions, training, experiences, educations and backgrounds.
The way it is now, a Brother or Sister in one State or Nation may be ignored by the local CCJW, as they recognize the points you made, Melinda, to be quite valid, and it is none of their business.  It is a matter of personal conscience.
In another Congregation that same Brother or Sister would be "disciplined",  harassed, "counseled", and possibly even disfellowshipped, censured, "marked:", or otherwise ostracized.for making the exact same decision.
This is not fair, equitable, or just.
I can tell you from personal experience, I do not LIKE being chastised and discriminated against because of an Elder's personal viewpoints. I have related how about 35 years ago, in a Congregation in Pennsylvania, I had a beard .. and got a letter of recommendation to go to Peru to work on the Bethel Home in Lima ... but the Brothers in the Airport in Miami, and later in Lima, did their very best to try and get me off the project, and excluded me from after work social events, yet the Branch Overseer asked me to stay at Bethel permanently.
Things like that should have not happened to me, or ANY Brother, anywhere.
The ONLY way to stop it .. is clear and unambiguous policy, articulated to everyone equally.
That is why the OFFICIAL answer to my question is so very important.
OTHERWISE ... we chase more conscience driven, honest hearted people away from the Truth, than we can recruit.

@Witness Good scriptures to remember.
When I was studying before baptism I took very seriously what Jesus said about helping Jesus' brothers. And I was very curious about the anointed. And it all made sense because at that time all the anointed were considered to be part of the faithful slave. And they were considered to have a much closer relation to God according to Romans 8. And the Bible says that they are first fruits. And that holy spirit is on them in a particular way and that when they read in the Bible about things consering the 144000 they feel it applies on them.
 

The situation is not good earth wide. 

The scriptures actually do give indications that ALL first century Christians were anointed, and therefore that all of them were "of the 144,000." But, as pointed out earlier, we also have the indications from verses like Matt 5:5 and Rev 21:1 and 2 Pet 3:13 that there was (or would be) an earthly hope included as part of Jehovah's kingdom through Christ.
What you say appears logical. And it might even be scriptural. My only point was that you might not realize you are rejecting a long-standing Watchtower doctrine: that all of the early Christian were "anointed" and that, according to the Watchtower, this meant that they only had the heavenly hope in front of them.
I'll provide some examples:
*** w17 September p. 24 par. 2 “The Word of God . . . Exerts Power” ***
The Bible mentions one anointed Christian in the first century who had to be disfellowshipped; later, he was reinstated. (1 Cor. 5:1-5; 2 Cor. 2:5-8)
*** w16 November p. 14 par. 1 Do You Highly Esteem Jehovah’s Own Book? ***
Consider the first-century Christians Euodia and Syntyche. Serious problems arose between these anointed women.
Why do you think the Watchtower, above, concludes that this incestuous man was anointed? Why were these two women necessarily anointed?
*** w16 January p. 26 par. 15 “We Want to Go With You” ***
15 Jehovah chooses when in history he will select anointed ones. (Rom. 8:28-30) Jehovah began choosing anointed ones after Jesus’ death and resurrection, and it seems that all in the first-century Christian congregation were anointed.
Here, above, was one of the very first times that the Watchtower added the word "seems" to this idea. As if they were not sure any more.
In fact, there were literally hundreds of thousands of persons who thought they were Christians who actually gave up their lives for their faith and to protect other so-called Christians within the first couple centuries after Christ. The Watchtower has had to identify most of these so-called Christian martyrs as "weeds." For example, in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, there were 144,000 martyrs around Egypt alone. Another 40,000 suffered martyrdom under Nero, another 700,000 here, another 17,000 there.
Think about that! Hundreds of thousands, or even millions of persons were baptized as Christians, and would not compromise their faith or their neutrality and were therefore killed (matryed) for being Christian. But we have to identify the great majority of them as "weeds" to judge them to eternal death, rather than allow them to be included in a chance for a resurrection to life on earth.
*** w16 January p. 26 par. 15 “We Want to Go With You” ***
From the first century until the beginning of the last days, the vast majority of those who claimed to follow Christ were false Christians; Jesus likened them to “weeds.”
Judging them as weeds would not be necessary if the Watchtower had the option of just considering them as weak, uninformed, unrighteous persons. Instead of judging them as "weeds" worthy of going off into everlasting destruction, they would have had an opportunity to be included in the resurrection to potentially accept life on earth.
The Watchtower once ran this information about such persecutions:
*** w51 9/1 p. 518 Hated for His Name ***
Brief respite followed the death of Nero, but by the latter years of the first century the second great persecution, under Emperor Domitian, flared up. It is said that in the year 95 alone some 40,000 suffered martyrdom. . . . Diocletian assumed the crown A.D. 284. At first he seemed friendly to the Christians, but in the year 303 he gave in to persuasion and opened the tenth persecution, probably the most ferocious of all. Suffocation by smoke, forcible drinking of melted lead, mass drownings and burnings, breaking on the rack of men and women alike ran the empire with blood. In a single month 17,000 were slain. In the province of Egypt alone, 144,000 such professed Christians died by violence in the course of this persecution, in addition to another 700,000 who died as a result of fatigues encountered in banishment or under enforced public works.
But that information triggered a question from readers just a few months later:
*** w52 1/15 p. 62 Questions From Readers ***
According to the article “Hated for His Name” in the September 1, 1951, Watchtower, hundreds of thousands of Christians died in the “ten persecutions” starting in Nero’s time, 144,000 dying in Egypt alone during one of the persecutions. How can this be harmonized with the Scriptural limitation of 144,000 placed on the number being in Christ’s body, and which position was the only one open to Christians during those centuries?—J.A., Dominican Republic.
The article did not class with any finality the individuals that died during these persecutions, but spoke of the results in a general way. Note that a key qualification was made in the case referred to in the question: “In the province of Egypt alone, 144,000 such professed Christians died by violence in the course of this persecution, in addition to another 700,000 who died as a result of fatigues encountered in banishment or under enforced public works.” The victims are identified as “professed Christians”, not Christians in fact. Many of those persons might have been caught in the wave of persecution, but may never have actually preached the truth or followed in Jesus’ footsteps, being only professed Christians. They knew the world they lived in was rotten and they were listening to the message of the Christians and willing to die for it even though not in line for the high calling in Christ Jesus. Many professed Christians today might be willing to die for their faith, but still not be Jesus’ footstep followers and meeting the Scriptural requirements for such.
We would probably hope to be able to read into this answer the idea that they could have been Christians who did not meet the requirements for the heavenly hope but might still be in line for an earthly resurrection. That idea is avoided, because the only choice given is between being "anointed Christians" or "professed Christians." So, typically, they were mostly judged as "weeds." My table head at Bethel said that these questions had seriously bothered some at Bethel at the time they first came out because Fred Franz had commented that almost all the millions of "Christian" martyrs were "weeds" destined for Gehenna. He [Bethel elder, table head] even claimed to know which Gilead missionary with the initials J.A. had just gone to the Dominican Republic, and had been the person behind the question above.
I'm pretty sure that no current member of the GB would claim that the majority of these early Christian martyrs would be necessarily assigned to Gehenna. But the wording about "weeds" is not very reassuring.

I thought it was only supposed to be about "Boy George" so I avoided it. 😉

I think that the @admin will soon give up on trying to create topics that are supposed to be religiously neutral. The most active participants here (including me) will keep trying to make every topic about Witnesses ("CCJW").

JWs have heard that you can not be anointed if you are not sure of your anointing. But is that statement Scriptural? Or is it just something the GB tells to discourage JWs to accept the anointing from God?
Just recently Antony Morris, GB member, spoke about that in the following video from the 3:00 minute mark.
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/LatestVideos/pub-jwb_202003_10_VIDEO
I think many have had doubts about their anointing in the beginning. And that has surely been aggravated by all the discouragement the WT organization spreads about becoming anointed in these last days.
It is like they are shutting up the kingdom of heaven before men. That is very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew 23:13  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the Kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in.
But this hypochrisy has been exposed. Maybe it happened accidentally in the life story of Ted Jarazc's wife, Melita Jaracz. There she tells that her husband Ted Jaracz, a former GB member,  had prayed intensely about his anointment to be sure. So Ted Jaracz, the former GB member was not fully sure about his anointment in the beginning. So evidently it is very hypocritical by the WT organization, and now for GB member Antony Morris to tell if you have doubts about your anointing you are not anointed. It is just not that easy. According to Romans 8 :16 the realization of being anointed comes in the following way: "The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children."
The words bears witness indicates that it is a continual process. And for many it must be difficult to believe at once. But the spirit will continue to bear witness and by the time the anointed ones become more and more sure.
This is what Melita Jaracz said in the WT about Ted Jaracz:
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2015686
"Something I particularly respected about Ted was that he never took his relationship with Jehovah for granted. He cherished his sacred service to the greatest Person in the universe. We loved to read and study the Bible together. At night before retiring, we knelt next to the bed, and he prayed for us. Then we separately said our own prayers. I always knew when a serious matter was weighing on Ted’s mind. He would get out of bed, kneel down again, and silently pray at length. I deeply appreciated that he wanted to pray to Jehovah about matters great and small.
Some years after we got married, Ted explained to me that he was going to start partaking of the emblems at the Memorial. “I have prayed about this intensely to be absolutely sure that I am doing what Jehovah wants me to do,” he said. I was not entirely surprised that he had been anointed with God’s spirit to serve in heaven eventually. I viewed it as a privilege to support one of Christ’s brothers.—Matt. 25:35-40." (End of quote)
 
 

My wife and mother in law stay home tonight. Obviously meeting is canceled, but i think they are listen on tablet or by similar way, now, in her mother apartment.
There is no kindergarten, schools and university from tomorrow (Monday). I expect complete quarantine very soon.  

Sometimes weeds turn out to have medicinal uses and are thus not so bad after all.
If I put my car keys in the wrong drawer, it does not mean they no longer exist. It doesn’t mean I can never drive my car again. Nor does it mean I should have my license revoked for being reckless. Instead, when I next need to drive, i discover my keys are not in the right place. I find them and put them there.
It is the same with weeds. If the org put them somewhere improper, that does not mean that Jehovah does. It does not mean that they are in the wrong drawer forever. It does not mean that the ones who put them in the wrong drawer ought have their spiritual license revoked. Nor need it be any huge priority to revisit the drawer of 2000 years ago and put them into another when you need not do anything with the updated status for the foreseeable future. They misjudged, perhaps. It happens.
Probably Revelation 2:2 accounts for it:  “I know your deeds, and your labor and endurance, and that you cannot tolerate bad men, and that you put to the test those who say they are apostles, but they are not, and you found them to be liars.“ You know how our people are about keeping without spot from spiritual contamination. When the Sons of Thunder raged about people not doing things right, they were not booted out from the 12 on that account. Brothers probably overreacted and will in time rethink it. There is hardly any hurry with people that have been dead and gone for 2000 years.
You mentioned before about how Bart Ehrman is not nearly so annoying when he is just recalling background history, and not desecrating the scriptures themselves. So when he highlights how almost immediately Christianity began to be divided into factions—moving up the date of such to the minute after Jesus died—whereas we would say till the death of the apostles, who themselves had to strain for all they were worth to keep it all together—and so Bart outlines how unity (which he never thought was there to begin with) promptly went the way of the four winds. JW HQ of the past doesn’t want to hear it, so brands them all false. I don’t think it is across the board. They have covered apologists, also ones like Waldenses throughout history and described them as mixed bags—doing some things right but not others, and probably Jehovah will take that into account.
People are only responsible for aging upon what they know, and Bart makes clear no one knew too much of anything after a myriad of self-styled reformers and reformaters pulled the faith this way or that. The germ that was left was still precious enough for people to die for, and in the resurrection they can fill in the blanks, like Phillip did for the eunich.
 
The departure from unity that begins directly after Jesus death is reflected here, where a dozen people weigh in with a dozen different takes, and only a few try to hold the fort—and they presently give up because it is the internet and the internet is not the congregation. Though those who oppose are united in their opposition, it is easy to see that they are not united themselves and each promote their own views which cannot long coexist with each other—unless it is all a spectacle for social media, where getting along is not important.

I asked my father about this, because he has been to 'elder's school' in the last few months. I didn't ask how recently it came up, but he implied that it came up at a previous elder's school a couple of years prior. I don't know if he was quoting an instructor, but it sounded like he might have been trying to. His answer went something like this, not an exact quote:
Obviously, we don't want to create any documentation that makes it look like we are interfering with a person's right to participate in political activities. In some countries, that can be very dangerous. But if a person is so willing to get so involved with the world, then it surely means that he is not taking Jehovah's counsel to heart in OTHER areas, too. He will need counsel and discipline and we [elders] need to be alert to the OVERALL spiritual welfare of the brother.
He wouldn't say if he thinks this position might result in trying to replace the "discipline" for political involvement with "discipline" for other areas of conduct or belief. Actually, he said he didn't think so, but that it just meant that political involvement is a symptom of spiritual weakness.

I am absolutely sure that there is an answer that the GB has decided upon ...It's just that it has not been conveyed to us in general.
Somewhere in 8-1/2 million people it seems reasonable that this issue has been adjudicated one way or the other, already.... and the question HAS been answered in actual practice.
I think it is VERY important to know the answer.
That will establish either the nonsense or the credibility of the 1999 article about that subject, down on the ground, where "the rubber meets the road".
 

I am sure that it is "cancelled" in the sense of being cancelled until everybody gets a handle on this novel disease, and how it spreads, and like the swine flu which began in 2009 with the influenza virus known as H1N1, it spread around the world and according to the CDC there were 61 million cases globally, between April 2009 and April 2010, and globally, 575,000 people were killed by it.
No one has experience with this new, novel virus, and many false steps will be made by EVERYBODY, before an optimum protocol is realized and put into place.
Like a massive ocean liner carrying 8-1/2 million passengers ... it's easier to diagnose problems, and make repairs when it is temporarily stopped..
It is my firm belief that this virus has been hyper-hyped by the media to a frenzy of panic, as previous pandemics have not been, because the "fake news" media is infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), as shills of the Democrat Party, and is obsessed with trying to destroy Donald Trump and his Presidency, using any excuse imagined.
Perhaps what REALLY needs to be done to scale back artificial panic, is quarantine Democrats.
Like the old saying "Climate is what we expect .. weather is what we get.", we won't have a good handle on this for several months.
I hope that by June of this year the crisis will have proved to be artificial.
... and by June of 2023, ike H1N1, it will just be a footnote in history.
...soon enough, we will all know.
 
 

@4Jah2me This is really amazing!
I told my wife that maybe there will never again be meetings as before. I hope the JWs will wake up and start to examine the scriptures seriously and search what all this could lead to.

Tom you live in a dream world. Your GB doesn't tell JWs to trust in Jesus. Your GB tells JWs to trust in the GB.
Don't you remember that being said by one member of the GB. To trust them. 
Your words " Trust in him would set those Jews apart from others. Truth would then set them free through acceptance and obedience."
So the trust should be in God through Christ right  ?
Acceptance and obedience should then also be to God through Christ right ?
But your Governing Body call themselves the F&DS and they want acceptance and obedience to them, to those 8 men. But at the same time they admit to NOT being inspired or guided by God's Holy Spirit. 
They admit that they make mistakes and get it wrong but they still expect 'acceptance and obedience'. 
They make up rules, they take over people consciences, they domineer. They exalt themselves above all the true Anointed ones. 
Truth would set a person free from lies, but your GB do not have truth. All they have is their own personal opinions. You and I have our own personal opinions, but you wouldn't obey me and I wouldn't obey you. So why should anyone obey those 8 men that have exalted themselves above others ? They are no better than politicians that exalt themselves. 

I have been having similar thoughts. Maybe God through Christ could use this virus to do His will. 
I must keep some of my thoughts to myself as i do not wish to be d/fed from this forum. 

uomo di poca fiducia....

I dont think that would happen anytime soon, the WT can still milk this cow couple of more years. 

My wife, active JW, does not go to meeting today. She says meetings are canceled due to the Corona virus.
Very interesting.
A speculation rose in my mind, could this be the beginning of the fall of the WT organization. A soft start to the liquidation of the WT organization? The congregations would already had canceled normal meetings and then it would not be a big deal to close the headquarters.
The situation is no doubt very special.
Then the foretold flight to the desert could occure.

"Breaking news":
All spiritual events in the United States branch territory that are larger than a congregation meeting have been cancelled until further notice.
There goes our assembly....

When I was 9 years old, I got Scarlet Fever, and the Norfolk, Virginia Heath Department put a quarantine sign on our house, forbidding anyone to enter or leave ... so I took the screen out of the back window, lowered myself onto  our elevated furnace oil tank on stilts, held on to the filler pipe, and dropped to the ground ... and went to play with all my friends.
....... so much for quarantines.
.

@The Librarian 
You know it's never good when a public health scientist starts off a tweet with "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD."    

I think this is funny :))