OMG,
The FDS was a big topic that caused me to have doubts also. My issue was how the FDS works.. if the ones who really do the work are the GBs not the anointed in general.
In Gilead, Carey Barber gave a talk called, "The 1900 Year Old Faithful and Discrete Slave Class". I lloked forward to this talk, anticipating that it would clear up my misconceptions. In the end, it left me feeling unsatisified (about as unsatisfied as Onan's sister-in-law-wife
), since it all seemed to contrived.
You make a good point as to why the 1918 test had to occur. The WTS parallels it with the parable of the wheat and the weeds.. since the distinctyion would not be clear until the harvest (supposedly since 1914).
So for me the big issue remains 1914. If the end didn't begin in 1914, then the FDS wasn't appointed in 1919, and the rest is a load of BS.
A@G