Active JW's: If asked, can you explain/defend this belief?

by The Fall Guy 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  The Fall Guy

  As all JW's and awakened ex-JW's know, the very existence of the religion is dependent on people's belief that the "holy trinity" of the WTBTS, the CCoJW, and the Governing Body (aka the organization) were personally selected by God/Christ.

  1) Mr. Rutherford claimed that this divine choosing occurred circa 1919, and that all anointed members were personally chosen by God/Christ to be the faithful slave.

  2) In 2013 this long-held, "profound scriptural truth" was discarded by apostates in Brooklyn (the present-day governing body) when they personally decided that only GB members were chosen by God/Christ to be the faithful slave. (WT July 2013, p.22, par. 10)

  Question: Apart from these men's (conflicting) claims, is there a shred of Biblical evidence to support either of these claims and the timing, and to justify your "faith" in this self-appointed hierarchy?

  Evidence can be sent via PM if desired. Start 2019 with an honest and open heart.
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  Wasanelder Once

  Even Rutherford accepted Russell's mantle of being chief provider of spiritual food.

  For all my childhood and most of my adulthood, the Governing Body was officially NOT exclusively the Faithful Slave specifically. They taught the Watchtower was simply the legal entity being used by "part" of the full body of anointed who made up a "Faithful Slave" class who spiritually fed their brothers worldwide. The position was important but the Governing body was not supposed to be better than any other anointed ones. Oddly enough, despite this everyone referred to them as THE "Faithful Slave" and most viewed them as such. The concept of a faithful slave composed of thousands of non contributors was absurd and nonsensical. The "New Light" of a Governing Body Faithful Slave actually makes better PR. Still a cult.
  
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  DesirousOfChange

  Most JW's cannot defend their beliefs because THEY DO NOT KNOW their beliefs.
  
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  WillYouDFme

  I recently asked a JW who is still my friend (only one left) to answer 3 questions using the bible and the bible only.

  1. Show me a 1st century governing body that has a similar structure as we have today.

  2. Show me how 1914 was an important year.

  3. Show me clear proof for Overlapping Generations.

  He could not.
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  Vanderhoven7

  Actually, Pastor Russell was being heralded as the FDS in 1919.

  • "Thousands of the readers of Pastor Russell's writings believe that he filled the office of "that faithful and wise servant," and that his great work was giving to the Household of Faith meat in due season. His modesty and humility precluded him from openly claiming this title, but he admitted as much in private conversation," (Watchtower, Dec. 1, 1919, p. 357).

  "Bible Students consequently regarded Russell as the "faithful and wise servant" of the parable. In 1927 the Watch Tower Society announced that the "servant" was not in fact an individual, but was made up of the entire body of faithful spirit-anointed Christians; by 2010 that group numbered about 11,000 Witnesses from around the world. In 2012 the society announced an "adjustment" of the doctrine, explaining that the slave was now understood to be synonymous with the Governing Body, a small group of anointed elders serving at the denomination's world headquarters. The announcement also marked a change in belief about the timing of the slave class's appointment by Christ: it was said to have taken place in 1919 rather than in apostolic times, as previously believed." (Wikipedia)

  
  

  Obviously then, Rutherford et al at Brooklyn headquarters had no idea they indeed were supposed to have been appointed to this office.
  
  
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  SoundofTruth

  I think your questions are unfair. For example, if you and I lived in the first-century and you asked me to prove that the apostle Paul was hand-picked by Jesus, how you would you like a person to go about proving that to you?
  
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  Nitty-Gritty

  Question: Apart from these men's (conflicting) claims, is there a shred of Biblical evidence to support either of these claims and the timing, and to justify your "faith" in this self-appointed hierarchy?

  I thought the WT you quote showed Biblical evidence to support these claims. As for justifying ones faith in this; when it comes down to it, it's a personal thing, you either find the evidence sufficiently believable or you don't.
  
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  fastJehu

  SoundofTruth

  ... for example, if you and I lived in the first-century and you asked me to prove that the apostle Paul was hand-picked by Jesus, how you would you like a person to go about proving that to you?

  
  

  Easy. Paul could do miracles to give prove:

  
  

  (Acts 14:8-11) 8 Now in Lysʹtra there was a man sitting down whose feet were crippled. He was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice: “Stand up on your feet.” So the man leaped up and began walking. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out in the Lyc·a·oʹni·an language: “The gods have become like humans and have come down to us!”

  
  

  
  
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  Nitty-Gritty

  "Easy. Paul could do miracles to give prove:

  
  

  (Acts 14:8-11) 8 Now in Lysʹtra there was a man sitting down whose feet were crippled. He was lame from birth and had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice: “Stand up on your feet.” So the man leaped up and began walking. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out in the Lyc·a·oʹni·an language: “The gods have become like humans and have come down to us!”

  
  

  That hardly proved that Paul was hand picked by Jesus. The Lycaonians were pagan and believed in many gods. They thought Paul and company were gods.They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Hermes. And even when Paul explained who he was they still tried to sacrifice to him. Obviously nothing that Paul said convinced them he was not Hermes.

  Which proves my point; you are going to believe what you want to believe, regardless of evidence. No matter how many miracles Jesus performed and how many prophecies regarding himself he fulfilled, people still did not believe he was the messiah.
  
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  newsheep

  Didn't they change the fds again and said it only materializes when the gb members come together to discuss something. I thought they did this for court appearance. Yet they also claim they are not directed by holy spirit. And didn't their in house lawyer claim it was only an entity? She said that right in court. It was on this site that I read these. Maybe someone can find it