What I would like to know is why it took from 1919 until 2012 for the faithful and discreet slave to figure out that they are the faithful and discreet slave and that the rest of the 144,000 are not...
Excellent point. From the time right after they were appointed--when they were teaching that Russell was the slave--until now, while they're having to again correct their own understanding, it really underscores the absolute idiocy involved.
Question: HOW can we trust a group of men to correctly interpret the Bible WHEN THEY CAN'T EVEN FIGURE OUT THEIR OWN IDENTITY? This should be the single most basic doctrine since it's clearly the most important one to them, and they can't figure out their own identity. God's channel of communication can't even figure out who makes up God's channel of communication. And yet God is communicating with them and took 93 years to tell them who they were.
The other thing is, it erases the potential counterpoint of their needing to establish an unbroken chain of individuals from 100 C.E. to 1919 C.E. who made up the "faithful slave". It also makes the Governing Body more exclusive and more unique, thus solidifying the "prophet" status even further. Because if they're saying there wasn't a "faithful slave" until them, and not even the apostles qualified as such, they're making themselves a sort of exception to the rule. They were appointed without getting any form of inspiration from God, unlike EVERY OTHER PROPHET IN THE HISTORY OF MAN. As Don Cameron put it--the 'uninspired true prophet'.
The other thing is, they're putting the cart before the horse here. The master only appoints the slave over the domestics to give them food, not to give them orders. The master is the one who gives orders, not the slave. Otherwise he would've been a faithful and discreet overseer. There's no mention of any kind of supervisory authority beyond giving food ("appointed him over his domestics TO give them their food at the proper time" indicates specific purpose and not a carte blanche scenario). Only after the master returns does he give the slave authority over all his belongings--and they're saying that the master has to return TWICE, not once. So the JWs are looking forward to the THIRD coming of Christ, apparently, since he already came a second time and appointed the faithful slave in 1919.
I have no choice but to throw in a double entendre, because this is just too rich. Isn't that right, Mary Magdalene? Jesus comes three times. That's what she said.
Anyway, it definitely boots all non-GB members from having any kind of authority. The irony is, without doing anything different from the average rank-and-file JW, somehow these other 'anointed' will inherit the same reward as the 'faithful slave' does. So we'd have what, maybe 50 people out of 144,000 who have some measure of rulership experience? If anything, this actually recommends the other people, the non-GB anointed, who didn't feel entitled to demand absolute obedience from their fellow brothers down to even shaving regularly, as being better kings than those who already starting ruling while they were on the Governing Body.
Guess I've got a lot of company--the rest of the anointed just officially became door mats!! HA!
--sd-7
