How exactly did Jesus choose the organization in 1919?

Ding

Great question.

It's similar to the questions:

1. If the faithful and discreet slave is really Jehovah's channel of communication in these last days, exactly how does he communicate with THEM?

2. If the faithful and discreet slave is really Jehovah's channel of communication (in a way that no other religious organization is), why have they gotten so many things wrong that needed to be changed?

3. If the revelations the faithful and discreet slave receive from Jehovah are progressive truths (getting brighter and brighter), wouldn't they start out as true but incomplete rather than as totally false?

blondie

https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/1919-derived.php Here is a breakdown of the history of the origin of the 1919 teaching by the WTS over the years.

enoughisenough

According to WT 1990 3/15 page 14, para 21, Jesus examined religions and found a group of international Christian students publishing Bible truths for both inside the congregation and to the world and so appointed him the faithful and discreet slave in 1919. A point of interest in this article, the magazine isn't in a drop down dated box on the jw website. You have to search for it in a different way...why wouldn't they want that magazine easily found? Perhaps because of the title: The Faithful Slave and it Governing Body. ( they no longer teach the faithful slave has a governing body, but rather the 9 men who make up the governing body ARE the faithful and discreet slave. The question was how he did it...HE DIDN'T...I did read or see somewhere that some people started calling Russell the fds and so he attached that title to himself.

Nathan Natas

What happened is this: Jesus and C. T. Russell got into the ethereal storage room for Passover wine, and Russell challenged Jesus to 1,000 rounds of "Rock, Paper, Scissors". Jesus promised Russell that if Russel won Jesus would say "Watch Tower is best."

Amazingly, Russell won!

That is really what happened, honest-to-God.

Your salvation guaranteed! Send me your credit card information NOW! Rational people need not apply.

BoogerMan

The cornerstone of JW belief is not Jehovah/Jesus Christ - it's based on the Gibbering Body!

Disbelief in the G.B.'s self-proclaimed appointment or teachings, means gehenna for all.

w90 3/15 p. 12 par. 10 - "Christ, the active Head of the congregation, used this enlarged governing body to settle the important doctrinal matter of non-Jewish Christians’ being circumcised..." (according to "God's org" dogma!)

Also - bt chap. 13 p. 103 - "....the first-century governing body settled the circumcision issue...")

But what does the Bible really teach?

Galatians 2:1-6 shows that it was the apostle Paul who was used to resolve the issue, being directed by a revelation to teach the older men in Jerusalem - not the other way around. (especially verses 2 & 6)

1 ...after 14 years I again went up to Jerusalem with Barʹna·bas, also taking Titus along with me.

2 I went up as a result of a revelation, and I presented to them the good news that I am preaching among the nations. This was done privately, however, before the men who were highly regarded, to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain.

3 Nevertheless, not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, although he was a Greek.

4 But that matter came up because of the false brothers brought in quietly, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we enjoy in union with Christ Jesus, so that they might completely enslave us;

5 we did not yield in submission to them, no, not for a moment, so that the truth of the good news might continue with you.

6 But regarding those who seemed to be important whatever they were makes no difference to me, for God does not go by a man’s outward appearance - those highly regarded men imparted nothing new to me.

Claims that the apostle Paul was a member of a "governing body" are dispelled in verse 1 where it reveals that he never went near Jerusalem for 14 years.

Neither the teaching nor the term 'governing body' appear anywhere in the Bible.

TonusOH

enoughisenough: why wouldn't they want that magazine easily found?

Honestly, I'm surprised they put it online at all. So much of their early stuff is completely at odds with later teachings, much less current teaching. Are any of Russell's teachings/interpretations still kept today?

I would be really impressed if they ever published Studies in the Scriptures online. All versions/revisions.