Who Is The REAL Evil Slave?

by mtwtf 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • mtwtf
    mtwtf

    Who is the REAL evil slave of Mt. 24: 48-51?

    My venting #7 mtwtf

    While this post is unlikely to achieve anything, just dragging the evil slave out of the shadows and into full view helps vent my feelings.

    __________________________________________

    The parable of the evil slave cries out to be explained just as the slave himself begs to be controlled. The wts should man-up to these tasks and not leave it to amateurs.

    All the focus has been on the evil one’s alter ego, the faithful slave. True, details of the faithful and discreet slave had to be prised out of the wts in court room dramas and gleaned from wts press releases about the 2012 annual meeting. But he has been publicized.

    Additionally, the overused term, “the faithful slave” is regularly invoked by the wts to legitimize its micromanagement of the lives of followers. This gives wts edicts the imprimatur of God. “The faithful slave has spoken….”

    On the other hand, having no license to promote wts interests, the evil slave is never mentioned, not even in the Insight Volumes or Reasoning book.

    Warnings

    Wts dubs are regularly warned of the danger of the internet yet they are never warned of the danger of the evil slave. If we compare their competing power to wreck the faith of dubs the evil slave would be the clear winner.

    Clearly the governing body is too frightened and ashamed to mention the evil slave because it will be traced back to it.

    Silence will not make the evil slave go away. Since the evil one cannot be hidden in the attic, avoiding mention of him may seem the next best thing. It isn’t. Is the wts silence a subliminal “how to shun your family” lesson for all dubs with a bad family member?

    Origin

    Since all people are capable of good and bad – with a bias toward bad – a single slave could conceptually fill both roles. It makes no sense to believe that when the master appointed a faithful slave to care for his interests he also appointed an unfaithful slave to work against his interests!

    Then,if the point of the parable is that all people can turn bad, even those in high places, the parable has no greater relevance to the governing body than to anyone.

    However, if the slave parable applies only to the governing body, as the wts claims, the evil slave has to be the other side of the good slave. It cannot be a separate slave. The good slave and the bad slave are different faces of the same slave.

    Appointment

    As reported in the 2012 annual meeting notes, anointing with God’s holy spirit alone is no longer (backdated to 1942) recognized as an adequate qualification to gain entry to the slave class. Membership of the slave class is gained solely on the invitation of the governing body. Once appointed to the governing body, an anointed new member becomes part of the slave class.

    This places membership of the slave class on equal footing with membership of the world’s richest and most exclusive private clubs! Strictly by personal, private invitation.

    The governing body chooses its own members. The door of the FDS Club is heavily guarded by members that include evil ones, whose main interest may be to keep-out good ones!

    What are the chances that an evil slave will vote to appoint a new slave who is sympathetic to his personal view? Whatever happened to the adage that a retiring executive should never chose his own replacement?

    Doubt & Faith

    The wts teaches that God grants dubs the privilege of belief in the truth and loyalty to that belief is essential if they want to live. Once dubs become afraid to doubt, the truth becomes a heavy burden weighing down on them. Hypocritically, the governing body itself is torn apart with doubt and disbelief.

    The doubt experienced by the governing body is stronger than the doubt suffered by dubs. A slave’s doubt becomes an overriding negative conviction about what he is teaching. The master (who reads hearts) knows immediately a slave no longer believes what he teaches, for the doubt registers in his heart.

    According to the parable, the switch from good slave to evil slave is triggered by onespecific doubt – about the timing of the master’s return. When might the governing body have fallen into depression because of doubt?

    Think:the1970’s. Think : the absurd overlapping generations copout.

    More Questions

    Do members of the governing body suffer their loss of faith collectively or individually? Do any keep their faith for their whole tenure with the governing body?

    Because faith and doubt are personal, each slave is probably held responsible for his own outcome. That is not to say that the overwhelming doubt of one slave could not spread among other slaves by say, contagion or infection, like a disease? Is there a “carrier” of the evil slave bug in the governing body?

    Emergence

    Is the emergence of an evil slave open and dramatic – compare Jesus overturning market stalls at the temple – enabling others on the governing body clearly to see the change?

    Alternatively, is his loss of faith surreptitious – compare, rotten fruit being slipped into the temple stall to make the food distasteful to all but the most vapid customers. If so, does his change escapes the attention of others on the governing body?

    At what point if any, do members of the governing body realize that one or more of their body is tampering with the fruit?

    Behavior

    The slave’s loss of faith leads to bad behavior. He governs harshly, he oppresses his colleagues, he serves the domestics less than wholesome food. For starters:

    Think pedophiles.

    Think shunning.

    Think poor dubs conned to build a debt free worldwide property empire.

    His lifestyle is questionable because he eats and drinks with confirmed drunkards – the great and the rich who have worldly ambitions. For starters:

    Think NGO membership of the UN.

    Think global hedge fund conferences and seminars.

    Think world travel and fine dining.

    Surely other members of the governing body would see this as bad behaviour and argue against it; yet it continues. The governing body has been unable to clean up this evil element in its ranks.

    Could the master clean it up? (See facetious note: Spontaneous Lobotomy)

    Apostate

    Evil slaves are protected by the fact that they cannot be labelled apostates while members of the governing body. This would be tantamount to confessing that there are apostates on the governing body!

    Reward / Punishment

    The slave may be a composite slave stretching back over decades, centuries or even millennia, but there is no evidence of rewards or punishments being meted out to past slaves.

    However it makes no sense to believe that a member of the slave class can evade judgement simply by dying before the master returns. So what happens? Nonbelievers may chorus that nothing happens; it is all a big lie. Believers would have little choice but to understand that all judgements and rewards will all be applied posthumously at the time of the masters return.

    As the faithful slave will be appointed over all the master’s belongings upon his return, we can only surmise that the master will extend the same reward to all previous slaves who had served him well.

    Those found by the master upon his return to have succumbed to doubt and engaged in bad behavior will lose everything. We can only surmise that master will extend the same punishment posthumously to all evil slaves.

    Either way, the stakes are high.

    Summary

    The evil slave wrecks the faith of dubs in many ways.

    The wts should man-up and deal with this super villain.

    Shunning the evil slave will not make him go away.

    The evil slave is nothing less than the other side of the faithful slave.

    A slave’s slide into the evil side is triggered by doubt that the master will return on time, or maybe that he will never return.

    Whether slaves simultaneously catch the evil bug and whether it is transmissible, are matters of conjecture.

    The evil slave’s bad behaviour has the tacit approval of the full governing body.

    No evil slave is likely to be labelled an apostate while still a member of the governing body.

    The master promises that every member of the slave class will be suitably rewarded or punished to the right extent.

    _______________________________

    This exposure of the evil slave as the hidden face of the faithful slave has not tried to solve the governing body’s problems, it has tried only to ensure that the evil slave is outed.

    mtwtf

    ………………………………………………………………

    (Facetious Note) Spontaneous Lobotomy

    Is the evil one’s condition due to dissociative identity disorder; once called ‘multiple personality disorder’? I dare say that the master could induce a spontaneous lobotomy of the slave’s frontal lobes, using spiritual neurosurgery to excise that part of the slave’s brain and effect a cure.

    Using idle speculation we can imagine the slave’s eyes spinning in their sockets for that split second when the lobotomy impacts his personality. He would know that he has been done only when family and friends start calling him “dear” or “darling”!

    ………………………………………………………………

  • Phizzy
    Phizzy

    The parable is addressed to believing christians as individuals, so YOU are the evil slave if you choose to be so, or the F&D one if you are a goody-goody.

    I acknowledge what you are saying about the GB, but the application of the parable is not to a group of any sort, the purpose of it is to urge each follower of Jesus to examine themselves as to how they are turning out.

    Nothing written almost 2000 years ago applies directly to any group or religion today, or to any event.

  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    @ PHIZZY

    Succinctly put!

    All Christ's followers become his slaves, and when he returns, he will decide who was faithful and who was not!

    Jesus asked at Matthew 24:45, who would be a faithful slave.

    Who qualifies as a slave in God's eyes?

    The following Scriptures speak primarily about slave/s of God and Christ.

    (Bear in mind that "by extension" occurs nowhere in the Bible, or is even hinted at)

    (Matthew 6:24) YOU cannot slave for God and for Riches.

    (Matthew 20:27) Whoever wants to be first among YOU must be YOUR slave.. . .

    (Mark 10:44) Whoever wants to be first among YOU must be the slave of all.

    (Luke 1:38) Then Mary said: "Look! Jehovah’s slave girl!. . .

    (Luke 2:29) "Now, Sovereign Lord, you are letting your slave go free in peace. . .

    (Luke 17:10) ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves.’"

    (Romans 1:1) Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ . . .

    (Romans 7:25) I myself am a slave to God’s law, . . .

    (Romans 12:11) Be aglow with the spirit. Slave for Jehovah.

    (1 Cor. 7:22) He that was called when a freeman is a slave of Christ.

    (Galatians 1:10) If I were yet pleasing men, I would not be Christ’s slave.

    (Galatians 5:13) But through love slave for one another.. . .

    (Galatians 6:17) For I am carrying on my body the brand marks [of a slave] of Jesus.

    (Col. 1:7) Ep´a·phras our beloved fellow slave, . . .

    (Col. 3:24) SLAVE for the Master, Christ.

    (Col. 4:7) Tych´i·cus,.... my fellow slave in [the] Lord.

    (Col. 4:12) Ep´a·phras, who is from among YOU, a slave of Christ Jesus. . .

    (1 Thess. 1:9) How YOU turned.....to slave for a living and true God.

    (2 Tim. 2:24) But a slave of the Lord does not need to fight. . .

    (James 1:1) James, a slave of God and of [the] Lord Jesus Christ. . .

    (2 Peter 1:1) Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. . .

    (Jude 1) Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ. . .

    (Rev. 19:10) All I am is a fellow slave of you and of your brothers....

    (Matthew 13:27) So the slaves of the householder . . .

    (Luke 12:37) Happy are those slaves whom the master on arriving finds watching!

    (Acts 2:18) Even upon my men slaves and upon my women slaves I will pour...

    (Acts 4:29) Grant your slaves to keep speaking your word with all boldness. . .

    (Acts 16:17) These men are slaves of the Most High God. . .

    (Romans 6:18) YOU became slaves to righteousness.. . .

    (Romans 6:22) Because YOU were set free from sin but became slaves to God. . .

    (Romans 7:6) That we might be slaves in a new sense by the spirit.

    (Romans 14:18) For he who in this regard slaves for Christ is acceptable to God. . .

    (Ephesians 6:6) But as Christ’s slaves, doing the will of God whole-souled.

    (Ephesians 6:7) Be slaves with good inclinations, as to Jehovah. . .

    (Philippians 1:1) Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. . .

    (1 Peter 2:16) But as slaves of God. . .

    (Rev. 1:1) A revelation by Jesus Christ...to show his slaves . . .

    (Rev. 2:20) She teaches and misleads my slaves to commit fornication . . .

    (Rev. 10:7) God according to the good news which he declared to his own slaves .

    (Rev. 11:18) To give [their] reward to your slaves....

    (Rev. 19:5) All YOU his slaves, who fear him. . .

    (Rev. 22:3) And his slaves will render him sacred service;. . .

    (Rev. 22:6) Sent his angel forth to show his slaves. . .

  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    Likewise, all of Christ's followers become his brothers & sisters as well as sons of God!! We (the earthly-hopers) don't have to wait for 1000 years for Jehovah to recognise us as His son or daughter! (despite what self-glorified ones would have us believe!!)

    (Matthew 12:50) whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

    (Matthew 13:38) The field is the world; as for the fine seed, these are the sons of the kingdom;

    (Matthew 25:40) To the extent that YOU did it to one of the least of these my brothers, YOU did it to me.

    (Mark 3:35) Whoever does the will of God, this one is my brother and sister and mother."

    (Luke 8:21) In reply he said to them: "My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."

    (John 1:12,13) However, as many as did receive him, to them he gave authority to become God’s children.........

    (John 15:14) YOU are my friends if YOU do what I am commanding YOU.

    (Rom. 8:14) For all who are led by God’s spirit, these are God’s sons.

    (1 John 5:1) Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God ..........(Revised Standard Version)

    Jesus said that the meek would inherit the earth, therefore, we all become joint heirs with Christ when he inherits his reward from our heavenly Father. At Psalm 37:9, 11, & 29, the same word 'possess' is used. In fact, according to Strong's Concordance, the Hebrew word yarash can mean "be an heir, to inherit".

    Jesus addressed Jehovah as his Father. How were all his disciples to address Jehovah? (Matt. 6:9)

    Jesus promised that he would have one flock of sheep, not two different "classes". (John 10:16)

    Different hopes , but not separate classes!

    It is God's will "that all sorts of men should.......come to an accurate knowledge of truth". (1 Tim. 2:4)

    The wording in the Scriptures above clearly identify to whom they apply - all Christians in the one floc k.

  • moggy lover
    moggy lover

    The point that I find significant and which the Watchtower Leadership has consistently neglected throughout its 133 year publishing history is the use of the unexpressed predicate in this parable. Very often in the Greek NT, the predicate [the verb "to be" in its various grammtical forms] is left unexpressed and is understood in the sentence. For instance, throughout the Beatitudes, the predicate has been ommited, yet the sentence, in Greek is unaffected.

    "Blessed ARE the poor....Blessed ARE those who mourn...etc"

    And we even find this in Matt 24, in this very parable under discussion. Verse 46 tells us "Blessed IS that slave who if his master...." If this is tenable in verse 48 as well, where the evil slave is mentioned, we then get:

    "But if that servant IS evil..." [see NAB, NJB, NLT, NIV etc] which leaves us with an interesting propsition:

    There are NOT two slaves, one faithful and discreet [conveniently interpreted by the Watchtower as themselves] and the other evil, [all those who oppose them] but only ONE salve. If he is faithful and dicreet he is commended, but if he is wicked, he is castigated. I think the NLT is the most explicit in this context:

    "That servant will be blessed IF his master finds him doing his job when he comes. On the other hand, IF that servant IS wicked....then his master will punish him serverly" [verses 46, 48, 51]

    Thus, as The Searcher has pointed out, the same servant is placed in either category, because of the two conditional clauses beginning with "If...." Whenever Matt 24:46 is fulfilled [evangelicals are debating this issue, some say it is past, in 70 AD, and others place it in the future during the Great Tribulation] those called to this responsibility can be of either class.

    I think that the Watchtower Leadership, as a result of sullying its collective hand with false prophecies and pretentious arrogance, has forfeited the right to be the faithful servant and has placed itself in the position of the wicked servant fit only for punishment when the Master comes.

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