Changes vs. Additions to Truth

The current Executive Trustee’s “present view” of the dates for the existence of the Youthful Worthies was first expressed in print with his modification of the first paragraph of the quasi-elect article (we compare Bro. Jolly’s 1978 PT version to the ET’s 2004 version).

The First Sentence
In the first sentence, he replaces “additional light” with “considerable light” and thereby loses the meaning of adding to or building upon existing truth. This subtle alteration of meaning is confirmed with the replacement of “with a number of important additions” to “with few changes to reflect our present view” at the end of the sentence.

A, Then B, Then C
In the 1978 article, the rest of the first paragraph is a single sentence listing a sequence of events (A, B, C). The 2004 article keeps items A and B, but completely replaces Bro. Jolly’s item C with something new.

• 1978—“(c) the last two classes of the elect—the Great Company (Rev. 7: 14) and the Youthful Worthies, who constitute the antitypical Court of the Epiphany Tabernacle or Temple in the finished picture—have as classes been in the process of development (see E 4, The Epiphany's Elect; PT No. 519).”
• 2004—“(c) the antitypical Court of the Epiphany Tabernacle and Temple has been occupied by the Great Company and Youthful Worthies while in the flesh and is now inhabited solely by the Youthful Worthies.”

Notice how the 1978 version shows BOTH the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies developing AS CLASSES (not individuals) in the Epiphany. The 2004 version loses this parallel meaning completely. Even if one of the two classes is no longer in the flesh today, the 1978 item C is still grammatically accurate. Why the change?

The Error Introduced
The 2004 article then introduces two new sentences not found in the 1978 version. The first sentence completes the condition of the Great Company, while the second brings in the “present view” of the Youthful Worthies: “The Great Company has finished its course and has now received the spirit nature (Rev. 7: 1-14). The Youthful Worthies, as the last elect class, has been in the process of development since their inception in 1878 (see E 4, The Epiphany's Elect, pp. 372-376; PT No. 519).”

Notice how the development of the Youthful Worthies has been disassociated with the Great Company in item C and given its own focus in the second sentence. The parallel has been removed, the E 4 reference modified, and a date not previously used is brought into play. The 2004 version does, in fact, change the truth instead of adding to it.

Developed as classes at the same time.

"... in the Epiphany, or Apocalypse period. Then for the first time the Christ in all of its members came into a condition where the Oath-bound Covenant was confirmed to all of them, and the Great Company as the subordinate part of the heavenly seed and the Youthful Worthies as a part of the earthly seed began to be developed as classes, separate and distinct from the Little Flock and from each other."--PT July-August 1961, Page 54.

If the Great Company was not a class before the Epiphany (a truth not yet changed by the current Executive Trustee), how could the Youthful Worthies be a class before then? The above reference aligns their development as classes during the same time period.

As Respects The Youthful Worthies

"The antitypical Court will eventually consist of three classes: the Ancient Worthies, developed before the Gospel Age, and the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies, the two classes that as such are developed here in the Epiphany period, beginning in the Fall of 1914, which two classes therefore constitute the Epiphany Court (see, e.g., E 5, p. 420; P '40, pp. 13, 14; '59, pp. 34-36). Jesus as God's Executive has been in the process of building the Epiphany Court from 1914 onward, in His calling and development of the Youthful Worthy class and in His dealing with the Great Company as a class, in readying them for the Marriage Supper." --PT July-August 1964, Page 55.

Not only were both the Youthful Worthies and the Great Company developed AS CLASSES in the Epiphany, but the call for the Youthful Worthies began then too.

What was the special Parousia and Epiphany work?

Luke 12:37: Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

"Since in the Parousia it was due to complete the development of the Little Flock, as the special Parousia work, naturally the Truth teachings of that time centered in Christ and the Church. And since in the Epiphany it is due to develop the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies, naturally the Truth teachings of this time center in these two classes. . . . And as things not due cannot be seen before they are due, so during the Parousia, specifically Epiphany truths could not be seen. Thus when the Parousia ended, 1914, all error was removed from the Parousia truths, i.e., the truths needed for the development of the Little Flock. But by the same token not all error was by 1914 removed from matters pertinent, to the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies. This will have taken place by 1954, each of these things being set forth respectively by the purification of the mother of a son in forty, and that of a mother of a daughter in eighty days (Lev. 12) . . . Hence as the Epiphany advances the immaturities on the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies of the Parousia and of the past Epiphany times give way to clearer light, even as this same principle operated during the Parousia as to its immaturities. Thus 'the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect [full] day' (Prov. 4: 18). Accordingly, no new Truth for the development of the Little Flock for the Kingdom has come since the Parousia's end; all of it that has since come is for the development of the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies."

--Your Brother and Servant, PAUL S. L. JOHNSON. E5, p. iv.

The Transitional Period

Some read the following reference (reprinted in many PTs, such as 1920, 1924, 1927, etc.) and are confused as to the definition of the Transitional Period and those as persisting Gospel Age Levites. They simply need to compare this reference to other references, such as the ones shown below, in order to get clarification. "During the Transitional Period those Levites who will not consecrate lose their tentative justification—i.e., cease to be tentative Levites and are put out of the Court; while those who do consecrate, the Youthful Worthies, retain their tentative justification and remain in the Court as Gospel Age Levites of three groups, Kohathites, Merarites and Gershonites, throughout the Transitional Period. Additionally the Great Company becomes during this Transitional Period Levites of three groups, Kohathites, Merarites and Gershonites. But it must be kept in mind that the Great Company Transitional Levites are different from the Youthful Worthies as persisting Gospel Age Levites in the transition time."

Question Book, Page 500 (1943): "First of all, we must remember that there are three time sets of antitypical Levites: (1) the Gospel Age Levites, i.e., the tentatively justified Levites: (2) The Epiphany Levites, i.e., the vitalizedly justified Levites, i.e., the Great Company and the tentatively justified Levites, i.e., the Youthful Worthies; and (3) the Millennial and post-Millennial Age Levites, i.e., the Ancient Worthies, the Great Company and the Youthful Worthies."

In E. Vol. 4, p. 322 Bro. Johnson states that “During the Transitional Period [the Epiphany] those Levites, the tentatively justified, who will not consecrate lose their tentative justification, i.e., cease to be tentative Levites and are put out of the Court.”