I'll just skip the stuff people have already commented on--cedars did a pretty awesome job in his analysis and there are some other good comments on the fact that the 'slave' can't even figure out what year Jesus did his inspection. 1918? 1919? 1914? I don't know. Hey, slave! Maybe the guys who were on hand, to see this invisible inspection? Yeah, can you call 'em? Well, maybe they should've WROTE DOWN what year Jesus did his inspection. That would have helped you out a lot! Heck, maybe Jesus should've written it down himself! Oh, he did, but he used invisible ink. Day-um. Well, that's a problem. You guys keep at it, then, you'll get it sometime, just keep guessing.
Page 12, par. 11: "By 1919, it became evident that Babylon the Great had fallen."
How, exactly? Your so-called wheat just barely got out of jail from where Babylon the Great arranged to have them placed! Seems like they were doing pretty well, if they could do that to Jesus' wheat! You know, the same wheat that had to remove pages from their 'Finished Mystery' that would've qualified them as weeds by their own rules, and kept all the pages that retained false doctrines? And then predicted 1925 as the resurrection date? 'Tis you who have fallen, brother, right off the wagon if you're believin' that!
Still in par. 11: "What especially set true Christians apart from imitation ones? The preaching work."
Oh, so it wasn't love, then? Having love among themselves? Oh, let me tear John 13:35 out of my Bible--rip! rip!--then, 'cause that clearly doesn't matter at all. It was the preaching work. No scriptures next to that statement, but it was the preaching work. Says so right here in Watchtower, July 15th, 2013, Chapter 2, and Verse 11.
Page 13, paragraph 13: "Speaking about the condition of the weed class, Jesus states: 'There is where their weeping and the gnashing of their teeth will be.' (Matt. 13:42) Is that happening right now? No."
Wait! I thought you said that
"By 1919, it became evident that Babylon the Great had fallen."
So did it fall, or didn't it? 'Cause you said it did, and now you're saying it didn't, that that hasn't happened yet. Logically there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth when that happens, right? So apparently Babylon the Great has two falls, for some reason. One of these falls is not like the other, one of these falls is different. Because one of these falls did not actually happen, and the other of these falls hasn't happened either. Oh, wait....well that's...so Babylon hasn't fallen? At all? Nothing? So you're saying it's fallen once and will fall again, but then you're saying it hasn't fallen yet, but will fall.
Got it.
So basically, this article says the reasons JWs were the wheat class that Jesus inspected and ok'd are: (1) they preached against hellfire, for the ransom, taught about 1914, (2) got rid of the majority of the Governing Body who didn't want one man to give all the orders, which would totally destroy the whole point of having a Governing Body, (3) they went from door to door to preach. So...is there anything in the Bible that suggests that these are qualifications Jesus Christ would be looking for when he sends out his angels to gather the wheat?
Page 14, par. 19: "Knowing who the wheatlike Christians are is essential to finding the answer to a question raised by Jesus in his extensive prophecy about the last days."
So wait, let's pause there. "Knowing who the wheatlike Christians are"? So even though the angels are the ones who do the harvesting, you're saying that we already know who the wheatlike Christians are? So you've already made the decision for the angels. Go home, angels. You're not needed. We're Watchtower. We got this. We're the wheat. Look at the box, guys, 100% Whole Wheat.
Also, remember how the 'faithful slave' was an illustration? Now it's a "prophecy" again.
"He asked: 'Who really is the faithful and discreet slave?' (Matt. 24:45) The following two articles will provide a satisfying answer to that question."
So far, can we say we've been satisfied by any of the articles? By now, the question marks are spinning around our heads quite strongly and it seems that every detail just makes it that much more confusing. And gives the 'slave' that much more of an appearance of being either enlightened, truly enlightened, or being just a bit out there, in the Pleiades star cluster or wherever.
--sd-7