Why have the Youthful Worthies not been favored with the High Calling? E5 Page 259 (55) Q5

…After the appearance of The Present Truth, especially Nos. 1, 6 and 12, this same resentment increasingly manifested itself the world over. In varying forms these dear brethren showed their great disappointment at coming too late for the High Calling. Their sorrow and disappointment have been great, and we are sure that the entire Priesthood has deeply sympathized with them; for theirs has been a terrible disappointment, which, however, affecting them with more or less resentment, has occasioned them as a class to contend strongly with the Lord ("they did chide with him sharply") at their not being called in time to have had the privilege accorded to the Very Elect exclusively, i.e., unto a completion and in the proper spirit to engage in antitypical Gideon's first battle, to smite Jordan the first time, to confess the sins over Azazel's Goat, to execute the Gideon judgment written. In not a few cases we have received letters from some of these dear brethren blaming us, as if it were our fault that they came in too late for the High Calling, and as if our announcing the Truth on the subject caused them the loss of this special privilege. Seemingly such dear ones forget that our setting forth the Truth on this subject did not cut off further access to the High Calling; for the opportunity of the Spirit-begettal had ceased nearly four years before we learned of it; and the sealing of the Elect had ended about two years before we learned of it. In complaining against us on this account they are, as the type shows, really murmuring against the Lord, the antitypical Gideon, as do all of those Youthful Worthies who, without blaming us, resent their not having been favored with the High Calling… 

E. Vol 5 - Par. 55 Page 231- ...All must admit that some time in the Lord's Plan the time for gaining the last member of Christ would have to set in, and this having set in would necessitate the withholding of the invitation of the High Calling from all others. Scripture, Reasons and Facts prove that that time has already set in with the indicated results... 

Despite "Scripture, Reason, and Facts," the current Executive Trustee's "present view" of the Youthful Worthies having its beginning in 1878 is completely contradictory to Bro. Johnson's teachings on the matter. If there truly had been a Youthful Worthy call beginning in 1878, instead of 1914, Bro. Johnson could have eliminated the above explanation of their disappointment that the High Calling ended when they were discovered, and identified as "The Youthful Worthy Class" in 1919 - See PT. 1919 Page 34 

153 Fishes

In John 21: 1-11 a still more restricted viewpoint is given; for here it was not "a great multitude of fishes"; nevertheless, they "were no longer able to draw it [the net], from [because of] the multitude of [the, so the Greek] fishes" (see Diaglott). Only "the very elect," the Little Flock (very small in number compared to the Great Company or to the world of mankind, but yet by itself rather large in number—144,000), is here indicated. The Little Flock was full and complete in its final membership by the Fall of 1914, the end of the 40-year Harvest reaping period (for proofs see E 5, pp. 143-177; P '37, pp. 182-192). Then the plowman—the Time of Trouble—began to overtake the reaper (Amos 9: 13), and it did so fully by the Spring of 1916, when the sealing of the 144,000 in their foreheads was finished (Rev. 7: 1-4; E 5, pp. 147-150), though many of them remained on earth for years thereafter. But by Oct. 1914 God had begotten by His Spirit the full number of those who He knew would finally make up "the fishes," the "many brethren" predestinated "to be conformed to the image of his Son [as members of His Body] " (Rom. 8: 29; Eph. 1: 5). Accordingly, in the Fall of 1914 the door of entrance into the High Calling closed—the net was full, they "were no longer able to draw it"—no more of "the fishes," those who would be of the Little Flock, were to be caught, and therefore no more Spirit-begettals were to be made for Gospel-Age purposes.

PT. 1964 Page, 42-C2

Permanent Marker Series: The Youthful Worthies Article, PT May-June, 1972, Page 34, C1-C2

 

We continue our edits of Bro. Jolly's Youthful Worthies article from 1972 in order to help the Executive Trustee with his new view (see previous post). We have one last tweak on paragraph 2. How is it possible that Pastor Russell was not aware of a second call to a class during the Harvest if, in fact, one did exist? We don't know.