Whom do the man with the secretary’s inkhorn and the six men with smashing weapons described in Ezekiel’s vision symbolize? ADJUSTED VIEW

[JAMMY]

THE WATCHTOWER (STUDY EDITION) JUNE 2016

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-june-2016/man-with-inkhorn/

 

In the modern-day fulfillment, the man with the secretary’s inkhorn represents Jesus Christ, the one behind the scenes who marks those who will survive

 

 

 

 

[HollyW]

On 8/21/2016 at 2:20 PM, JAMMY said:

THE WATCHTOWER (STUDY EDITION) JUNE 2016

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-june-2016/man-with-inkhorn/

 

In the modern-day fulfillment, the man with the secretary’s inkhorn represents Jesus Christ, the one behind the scenes who marks those who will survive

 

The WTS says that Jesus was at one time favorable to C.T. Russell being the man with the inkhorn marking his followers with a the shape of the cross (+):

The Finished Mystery, WTS 1917: http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/finishedmystery/fme9.html

EZEKIEL 9

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THE MAN WITH THE INKHORN

9:1. He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. — Chapter 9 depicts the slaughter of the idolaters of Jerusalem. It types the literal slaughter of the spiritual idolaters of Christendom in the Time of Trouble, and also their destruction as tares (Matt. 13:40) by the Word of Truth, which will manifest their true condition and cause them to cease the pretense of being Christians. The picture corresponds to the harvesting of wheat and tares by the sickle of Truth (Rev. 14:15), and the burning of the tares. There is a two-fold significance here — those having material charge of Christendom, and those having spiritual charge (D527.) The first class comprises the rulers of the great nations; the second class, the feet members of the Little Flock (Luke 12:32) — "All things are yours." (1 Cor. 3:21); "Inheritors of the Kingdom" (Gal. 5:21); "Given charge of all His goods" (Luke 12:44), the Bible truths. The first class has as weapons the armies and navies. The second has the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

9:2. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the North, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.  — The six with earthly weapons are the rulers of the six great nations — Russia, Germany, Austria, France England and Italy. The six with the Sword of the Spirit symbolize all the Elijah class, the six, with one other, making up the seven, the complete number. These have their commission from "the north," from the seat of Divine Dominion, from God Himself. Practically all Bible translators and commentators agree that the one with a writer's inkhorn by his side was not one of the six, but a seventh, garbed as a priest, or as a clerk or officer in an army of the East. The linen signifies the imputed righteousness of Christ, (Rev. 19:8.) The writer's inkhorn symbolizes that the seventh man's function was to write. God identified him thus: When The Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society was at Allegheny, Pa., an open Bible was to be

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painted on one of the large front windows of the office. A sign painter, not in the Truth, painted the open Bible; and without instruction from any one, of his own volition, he painted the Bible as open at Ezekiel, Chapter 9. The man in linen was the Laodicean servant, the Lord's faithful and wise steward, Pastor Russell. When Pastor Russell saw this, he turned pale. Ezekiel seeing the man in linen, types Pastor Russell thereafter seeing himself to be the antitype of that man — one of the most prolific writers of the Age, and the only one to write and publish widely the glad tidings of the actual Second Presence of Christ. The seven men stood beside the brazen altar — there, in connection with God's Plan, based upon the Ransom sacrifice to receive their Divinely appointed commission.

[....]

  9:4. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. — The center of Christendom is the nations of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Scandinavia. Hither and thither, traveling and preaching for nearly forty years Pastor Russell obeyed this command; and through the printed page of books, tracts and newspapers he went into every corner of the world. "Set a mark", literally "set a 'tav' upon the foreheads." The "Tav" was the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and in its earlier form had the shape of a cross (+)." The forehead signifies the intellect (Rev. 7:3; 14:1). Pastor Russell's great work was to imprint indelibly in the minds of certain ones the truth about the Cross, the sacrifice of the Christ, Head and Body, and the part of the Church therein. It was the duty of the clerk or officer of an oriental army to mark the people, either for slaughter or to be left untouched. The "mourners in Zion" (Isa. 61:3) are those faithful ones in Christendom that appreciate that conditions are evil in churchianity, perhaps with-

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out understanding just how. All those are to be marked in their minds with the knowledge of the Present Truth.

[moggy]

On 22/08/2016 at 5:20 AM, JAMMY said:

THE WATCHTOWER (STUDY EDITION) JUNE 2016

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-june-2016/man-with-inkhorn/

 

In the modern-day fulfillment, the man with the secretary’s inkhorn represents Jesus Christ, the one behind the scenes who marks those who will survive

 

 

 

 

As HollyW has pointed out, this has not always been the Watchtower's position. Over the past one hundred and twenty one years of its existence, the Watchtower has argued, sometimes more persuasively than at  others,  for different identifications for the Man with the Inkhorn.

This current identification is probably the most intelligent identification they have made yet. Such can be true only because the Watchtower have pushed this identification into the  future rather than having the identification run contemporaneously with the living. When any prophetic identification is made within a present tense existence, the viability of that prophetic conclusion becomes untenable at some point.

The Watchtower Leadership have learned their lesson in this regard, and consequently they have revised many of their previously held prophetic ideals into the future. Such as the Sheep and the Goats division, of Matthew 25.

For instance, the original identity for this prophetic figure of the man with the inkhorn, was the founder of the Watchtower movement, CT Russell, a man much admired by those who knew him. So it seemed like a good idea at the time. By 1931, however when Russell had been dead for a decade and a half, this identification appeared irrelevant since a new growing generation of converts to the Watchtower Movement were ignorant of who Russell was. Hence a change of identity in that year.

This brings us to the case in point. If anyone had in mind a future identification for the Man with the Inkhorn, it would have been Ezekiel himself, and unfortunately for prophecy buffs, he did not say anything along those lines. Ultimately then, I believe that the best position is to be like Ezekiel, and be silent when  attempting to make any such identification.  

Just Thinking Allowed