Your understanding of Matt 24:45-47 is simply an interpretation of Scripture. The reason why you defend this interpretation instead of considering the alternative is due to the fact that YOU ARE TOLD by an implied authority to read it in this fashion. We do not need to show you biblically how this is wrong, as it is a very ambiguous scripture that can be debated a number of ways. The history of the WTS is the most vital when considering this scripture. They must go hand in hand, according to them, not us*
In a nutshell, the Watchtower teaches that the masters, Jehovah and Jesus Christ, turned their attention to the earth in judgment in 1918 and 1919, and as a result, the Watchtower was awarded the blessing as the “faithful slave.” The Watchtower believes they have served as a slave before that, but in 1919 the final decision was made. On what basis did Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, make such a decision? T he Watchtower answers very straightforward.
On page 352 & 353 of God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years has Approached, we read:
“In the year 1919, Jehovah did ‘turn his hand back upon those who are insignificant.’(Zechariah 13:7)…Like the Slave’s master in the illustration, the Lord Jesus did return to his house (and) inspect the situation within it. He did find there a ‘faithful and slave’ class that were striving, in spite of world conditions, to do as commanded, give the Lord’s ‘domestics’ at the proper time their spiritual food, food taken from the inspired word of God. So the Lord showed his favor by re-gathering them into a well-organized body of domestics in his house. The eight-day (general) convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, on September 1–8, 1919, was a notification to all the world that the invisibly present Lord Jesus Christ was re-gathering his faithful sheep. It indicated to the world who it was that the returned Lord Jesus had found to be his ‘faithful and discreet slave’ class. This made the slave class happy.”
The Watchtower, December 15 th, 1977, page 751 , says:
“Their faithfulness and spiritual wisdom in the Master’s service determines their worthiness to be put in charge of all the earthly belongings of their Master.”
God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached , page 356-7 and The Watchtower of October 1, 1981, page 28 :
“All these privileges, responsibilities, dignities and honors that have been reserved for the remnant of the “faithful and discreet slave’ class and that are bestowed upon them by their heavenly Father (Master), the reigning king Jesus Christ… Their being charged with these precious things denotes an elevation of them indeed. It resembles the picture presented in Revelation 11:11 (, 12)…‘And they heard a loud voice of heaven say to them; “Come on up here!”’ And they went on up into heaven in the cloud and their enemies beheld them.’”
(WT) ‘Pictorially speaking, the Almighty God has girded up their loins for the discharge of this weighty ministry by binding upon their hips the ‘sash’ of a steward or a majordomo… Further prophesying regarding the prophet Eliakim class, Jehovah said: ‘And I will drive him in as a peg in a lasting place, and he must become as a throne of glory to the house of his father and they must hang upon him (like upon a peg) all the glory of the house of his father…”’
God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years has Approached, page 350:
“The serving of food, the right sort of food, at the proper time was the issue. It had to be according to this that a decision must be rendered by the returned master…the quality of the food itself was to be considered,” (paragraph 40)
Now, there are a couple of important points here. First, it is the Watchtower’s faithfulness and spiritual wisdom that determined their being put in charge of all his belongings. Their spiritual wisdom and faith is not difficult to identify, the main spiritual food that was dispensed in 1918 and 1919 are found in a series of publications. In years prior to 1918-1919, there were 6 main books published in a series called Studies in the Scriptures. The last one, though, was published back in 1904. On the seventeenth day of the seventh month of 1917, the last one, the seventh, was published, entitled The Finished Mystery . It was greeted as exciting “new light,” the latest of the advancing “light of truth.” It was the only book the Watchtower Society published during this critical time of judgment. I encourage you Recovery to review the contents of this book, and determine for yourself if this food was meat in due season or proper for such an appointment.
In summary, The Finished Mystery or Studies in the Scriptures will completely dismantle the belief that by this food they were granted the greatest gift in mankind's history. Take into consideration that by the judgment of that wisdom they can disfellowship you and declare you dead in Jehovah's eyes.
I like the way Ray Franz demonstrates that the description of the slave in the parable as a “class” of Christians is unsupported by scripture and is used to emphasize the concept of the slave being connected to an organization, diminishing its application to individuals in encouraging the qualities of faith, discretion, watchfulness and individual responsibility. If the application of figures in Jesus' corresponding parables as members of a class were consistent, there would also be a “ten-mina class” and “five-mina class” relating to Luke 19:12-27 and a “many strokes class” and “few strokes class” arising from Luke 12: 47-48 .
Also, the Society's claim that a faithful and discreet slave class has always existed throughout the centuries since Pentecost has huge discrepancies. If this were so, Russell went against this currently established unbroken divine channel to study the bible "independently and privately without sectarian bias" as mentioned in the Proclaimers book. Russell neither consulted any existing "faithful and discreet slave" class for enlightenment, nor believed in the concept as currently taught by the society today. By Society standards, his actions alone show that he (Russell) acted presumptuously and ran ahead of Jehovah. He went against the slave arrangement according to doctrine. Why wasn't he reprimanded by the Governing Body existing in the late 1800's?
The most important problem with this doctrine is that there is no historical evidence or facts to support an unbroken chain of one sole channel of true Christianity over the centuries; this is even acknowledged by the Watchtower.
