No, I am not quoting the title of Van Halens greatest hits CD.
It is a statement of how successful the Society has been in molding their "Faithful and Discreet Slave" concept of total trustworthiness.
On one hand they deny that the Faithful and Discreet Slave are infallible when it comes to revealing the words and commandments of God. They have no position of "ex cathedra" as the Pope claims to possess. Therefore they can "sometimes" be overzealous or have a misunderstanding on a matter.
However on the other hand they claim that these occasional missteps are very few and far between therefore we should award them the honor of trusting them to be the sole channel of Gods communiqués.
This came to mind because of a JW that I work with made this comment. "I trust the slave to be the mouthpiece of God because there is nothing better out there."
I asked him "have you really looked at any other alternatives?"
He replied "No and I don't need to, they have proven themselves to me."
"And how have they done that? I queried.
"By diligent prayer and study of God word. I know that sounds silly to you, but it works wonders for me."
When I asked him if he had any issue with the Faithful and Discreet Slave claiming the best of both worlds in regards to infallibility he replied "Yeah I know on the surface it seems absurd, but being that we are imperfect beings, there is no other way for it to work."
"But cannot God pass on infallible information?"
"Yes, he can and does, but it is imperfect man who must make sense of that information."
"So if he passes on infallible information and the Faithful and Discreet Slave misunderstand it and pass that wrong interpretation to his sheep then that is acceptable?"
"Yes it is because as I said a minute ago, we are imperfect and there is no other way for it to work."
"So the Faithful and Discreet Slave have the best of both worlds of infallibility / fallibility when it comes to speaking for God."
"Yes they do. Being true servants of God brings advantages not afforded to Christendom." (I hadn't heard that word in a while)
"Well that must be nice."
"It is and you should start attending meetings again so you can reacquaint yourself of that truth."
That is an offer I will have to pass up. Although I was part of that organization for many years, it now sounds funny to me to hear such rationalization of a matter. How many other religions can so successfully claim the best of both worlds?