F&DS

drewcoul

I remember studying when I was about 13 or 14 with a pioneer brother from our hall. I remember for some reason learning that it was necessary for there to be a continuous line of F&DS from Jesus to our time. Does anyone recall why this is necessary? Was it apostolic succession?

Mad Sweeney

The only reason I know of is that it ties modern-day JWs to "original" Christianity and it explains the doctrine that all anointed ones are part of the FDS. If the period from Christ to present was the time of gathering the anointed, and the anointed ARE the FDS, then there had to be FDS members (aka anointed ones) during the period from Christ to present.

BTW, there is nothing scriptural about ANY of this.

brotherdan

There is a scripture about this. Mat 28:18-20: So Jesus came to them and said, "All authority (power) in heaven and on earth is given to me. So go and make followers of all people in the world. Baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach those people to obey everything that I have told you. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of the world." (ERV)

There would no longer be a time where there were no Christians. And there wasn't. There were true Christians from then, all the way up to today.

Unfortunately for JWs, this line NEVER attaches to them like they'd like to think. Watch the new DVD and you'll see how they pull and strain to try to connect themselves to the history of Christianity, but fail to do so. It's silly...and honestly pretty pathetic.

drewcoul

I remember asking the question when it became obvious that there had to be a continuous line to the brother studying with me (he's now a C.O.) I asked: "Then who were the annointed before the Witnesses?"....He said "The society's position is that there has always been honest hearted Christians who rejected false teachings and until 1935, they were the F&DS".

brotherdan

Interestingly, though, all those that they point to that were "FADS" were men that did not believe what the WT believes today. They look to many of the translators through the years. But many of these believed in the Trinity or Hell or the Immortal Soul.

They don't understand that Christianity is NOT A RELIGION!!! It is following Jesus, not a man made organization. There are true Christians in many different religions. But this is a concept that they refuse to acknowledge the truth of. The "body of Christ" is the entire group of those that believe in him.

wannabefree

I am not able to get into freeminds.org at the moment, but Barbara Anderson speaks about this in the research she did for the "Proclaimers" book. They tried to link JW beliefs to others throughout history but could not so abandoned the attempt.

leavingwt

When C.T. Russell decided to begin writing religious magazines/books, did he get approval from the (existing) Faithful and Discreet Slave?

wannabefree

http://www.freeminds.org/organization/barbara-anderson/the-discoveries-of-barbara-anderson.html

quote from above ...

An important teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses is that, after the apostles died around the end of the first century after Christ, a great apostasy developed producing imitation Christians from whom the Roman Catholic Church was eventually established. Nonetheless, the Witnesses say, there were always "true" Christians on earth from the death of the last Christian apostle up until the days of Charles Taze Russell and his associates all of whom adhered closely to the original teachings of Jesus and his apostles. One memorable and lengthy assignment from Karl was to identify these true Christians.

My examination was based upon four points or standards which the "sons of the kingdom" needed to have in common to link up with each other; three of those standards were rejection of the Trinity, hellfire, and immortality of the human soul. However, the fourth standard was the most difficult-there had to be acceptance of the ransom sacrifice of Christ, that is, as defined by Jehovah's Witnesses. For months the Writing Department brought in relevant library books from Europe and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States. I read English translations of important foreign-language books discussing break-a-way nonconformist religious groups before and after the Orthodox Reformation, including groups during what is commonly called the Radical Reformation period. To say the least, it was extremely fascinating to study early Arian movements, along with the Lollards, Waldenses, Socinians, and Anabaptists with a critical eye.

Subsequently, my careful analysis of the facts convinced Karl there was not one generation of true Christians linking to a succeeding generation based on the four points as outlined above. Karl closed this research project by promising this assertion would never again be made, although, to this day, the teaching has not been abandoned.

Mad Sweeney

Karl sounds like a bit of a powermonger making promises for the entire Society. Just sayin.

Coffee House Girl

thanks for enlightening me on this subject- it is very interesting

CHG

F&DS

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