for JWs - how to tell who can receive the elements?

Question

is there a central list? or is it self-determined? would an elder stop someone who claimed to be one of the 144,000 but was unknown to anyone else?

Answer 1

This question seems to refer to the commemoration of the Memorial of Christ's death (the "Last Supper", or "Lord's Supper", or "Lord's Evening Meal") by Jehovah's Witnesses.

In most congregations, attendants who pass "the emblems" (the wine and unleavened bread) are either congregation elders or ministerial servants. They do not stop any adult from partaking of these emblems (who does so in a respectful, hygienic manner).

The matter of a person's "hope" to be resurrected either to heaven or earth is between him and heaven. Interestingly, only about one Witness in 10,000 partakes of the emblems.


(1 Corinthians 11:23-25, NWT) The Lord Jesus in the night in which he was going to be handed over took a loaf... Keep doing this in remembrance of me.” 25 He did likewise respecting the cup.. Keep doing this... in remembrance of me.”

(1 Cor 11:24, 25, NEB) "Do this as a memorial of me.”

Christ Jesus himself personally celebrated and explained the significance of that Last Supper to his followers (see Matthew 26:26-29). Apparently Jesus Christ established the occasion to supercede the Jewish Passover, which occurs after sunset on the 14th of Nisan (a month of the Jewish calendar).

(Luke 22:14-16) At length when the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 And [Jesus] said to them: “I have greatly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it becomes fulfilled in the kingdom of God.


Sadly, it is only a minority of professed Christians who follow the BIBLICAL pattern for the Last Supper which was established by Christ himself. Sadly, most of Christendom ignores Christ's celebration and instead follow unrelated human traditions which purport to honor Christ, but in ways unconnected with what Jesus Christ established.

Like the former Passover, those Christians who commemorate the Last Supper have also done so on the date corresponding to Nisan 14, which generally falls between late March and mid-April. Interestingly, Christians in the centuries immediately after Christ's impalement were sometimes called "Quartodecimans" which literally mean "fourteen-ers"


There are fundamental differences between the Memorial which Christ Jesus instituted and the so-called "Easter" which Christendom adopted from pagan worship of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre (or Oestre). While most Easter celebrations merely repackage pagan fertility festivals and concentrate on eating, decorating, and frivolity, the Last Supper focuses on the value of Christ's sacrifice and the sober obligation of Christianity.

(Matthew 15:6-9) You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you when he said, 8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. 9 It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’”

Answer 2

Who is part of the 144,000 is known only by Jehovah and the 144,000.

Jehovah makes the choice and then makes it known to the person by holy spirit.

So it would seem self determined to those of us watching the partaking. However, it is a very serious claim to make. If someone made it falsely, that person would be displeasing to Jehovah.

Answer 3

It is self-determined.
I guess like knowing if you were alive. God's holy spirit lets them know they are of the anointed class. No elder or anyone else is in control of that.

Like me. I know I'm not of the anointed. And I'm fine with that. I like the idea of living on a paradise earth just as God promises at Psalms 37:9-11. That's what I'm looking forward to, thanks to the ransom sacrifice of Jesus. - John 3:16

Answer 4

“I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones.” It follows, therefore, that only if you are in this covenant with Christ for a kingdom may you partake of the emblems at the Memorial of Christ’s death. Those in this covenant Jesus termed a “little flock,” which they are, comparatively speaking, their number being limited to but 144,000.—Luke 22:29, 30; 12:32; Rev. 7:4-8; 14:1, 3.

Those who are in this covenant for a kingdom are persons who dedicated themselves to do God’s will, were accepted by Jehovah and were then brought forth by His spirit to be spirit sons of his, “born again,” and made members of Christ’s symbolic body. All such can say with the apostle Paul: “The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. If, then, we are children, we are also heirs: heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ, provided we suffer together that we may also be glorified together.”—Rom. 8:16, 17.

Nowadays Jehovah talks to us only through the Bible. He doesn't say to us who is part of the "little flock". The remnant of Jehovah’s spirit-anointed ones feel that they can partake.

Answer 5

they claim two hopes! 1. 144 000 and 2. Paradise on earth.

What does Ephisians 4;4 say?

Eph 4:4 [There is] one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling