WHY TRUST "THE FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE"

by Oubliette 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Oubliette
    Oubliette

    In 2005, the Watchtower publication, Organized to Do Jehovah's Will (OD), gave us this powerful reason for trusting the “Faithful and Discreet Slave” (FDS):

    WHY TRUST "THE FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE"

    There are many reasons to have complete trust in the slave class. First and foremost, Jesus has appointed them over all his precious "belongings." This is a clear indication that he has complete trust in them. - OD, p. 18 – [Italics in original]

    That sounds really good, doesn’t it? Confidence inspiring, isn’t it? Or at least it seemed that way for the last 7 years or so.

    Unfortunately, the recent "New Light" about the identity of the Faithful Slave has revealed a serious problem with this reason for trusting them. What is that? Consider this point from the very Watchtower article that explains this “New Light” explanation of the FDS, the July 15, 2013 Watchtower Study Edition:

    WHEN DOES JESUS ARRIVE, OR COME?

    A further consideration of Jesus’ prophecy indicates that an adjustment in our understanding of the timing of certain aspects of Jesus’ prophecy is needed. … So it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus’ arrival to appoint the faithful slave over all his belongings, mentioned at Matthew 24:46, 47, also applies to his future coming, during the great tribulation. 1 - Watchtower, July 15, 2013, p. 8, paragraphs 17 & 18 – [Italics in original]

    Whoa! Did you catch that?

    The primary reason that we were given in 2005 for having "complete trust" in the Faithful and Discreet Slave has now been taken away from us. The reason for that trust was based on an event that has not yet happened! When we shine this "New Light" on the "Old Light" we find that the most important reason we were ever given for trusting the FDS doesn't exist, at least not yet, not now in the present. I guess we'll just have to wait until the Great Tribulation and see if Jesus actually does appoint them over his belongings to know if we can really trust them or not.

    In the meantime, I think I'm going to proceed with caution and a healthy dose of skepticism.

    Of course, many active JWs are only just now learning about this “New Light” and some probably won’t learn about it until it is considered in the WT Study in their congregations in the first week of September.

    By the way, have you noticed that every time the WT publishes an "adjustment in our understanding" in an attempt to solve one problem with doctrine it usually ends up creating more problems? Why do you suppose that is? What does this mean?


    1 - See also the Annual Meeting Report, November 9, 2012 on the official jw.org website where this important doctrinal change was first announced publicly. Under the subheading, When Does Jesus Appoint the Slave “Over All His Belongings”?, we read: “Jesus’ appointment of the “slave” over his “belongings,” then, must also be a future event. He will make that appointment during the great tribulation.” <http://www.jw.org/en/news/events-activities/annual-meeting-report-2012/>

  • Wholly
    Wholly

    Thanks for highlighting this latest "adjustment in understanding".

  • wha happened?
    wha happened?

    So the slave that is over every individual in this organization. Seems like a strange arrangement

  • breakfast of champions
  • yesidid
    yesidid

    Good one!!!!!!!!!!

  • alecholmesthedetective
  • zeb
    zeb

    I just wish jesus would leave the office and get on down here.

    There has never been a time in human history when good humanity and the plantet itself needed him more.

    "Oi! J. what about it?"

  • Larsinger58
    Larsinger58

    OUBLITTE:

    WHEN DOES JESUS ARRIVE, OR COME?

    A further consideration of Jesus’ prophecy indicates that an adjustment in our understanding of the timing of certain aspects of Jesus’ prophecy is needed. … So it is reasonable to conclude that Jesus’ arrival to appoint the faithful slave over all his belongings, mentioned at Matthew 24:46, 47, also applies to his future coming, during the great tribulation. 1 - Watchtower, July 15, 2013, p. 8, paragraphs 17 & 18 – [Italics in original]

    Whoa! Did you catch that?

    The primary reason that we were given in 2005 for having "complete trust" in the Faithful and Discreet Slave has now been taken away from us. The reason for that trust was based on an event that has not yet happened! When we shine this "New Light" on the "Old Light" we find that the most important reason we were ever given for trusting the FDS doesn't exist, at least not yet, not now in the present. I guess we'll just have to wait until the Great Tribulation and see if Jesus actually does appoint them over his belongings to know if we can really trust them or not.

    In the meantime, I think I'm going to proceed with caution and a healthy dose of skepticism.

    OKAY. Do you want REALITY? Or do you want to stay in a fantasy world? Now. I was raised a JW! Then I started doing my own research! I found out that the books of Esther, Song of Soloimon and Ecclesiates were not quoted from by the NT Bible writers! That's BIG!

    This is from the "Insight" volume on the "Apocrypha":

    Additional ancient testimony. One of the chief external evidences against the canonicity of the Apocrypha is the fact that none of the Christian Bible writers quoted from these books. While this of itself is not conclusive, inasmuch as their writings are also lacking in quotations from a few books recognized as canonical, such as Esther, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Solomon, yet the fact that not one of the writings of the Apocrypha is quoted even once is certainly significant.

    Ooops! This is quite significant! SOS is definitely pagan! The LXX version of Esther has her married to "Artaxerxes" and not Xerxes ("Ahasuerus). The Hebrew version thus revises the Book of Esther to fit the revised timeline.

    In other words, the Bible has always dated the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE!! The WTS went astray when they decided that 539 BCE was a reliable secular date, upon which they accepted, only because it fit the 1914 chronology based on 607 BCE. But the FACT is, that this timeline was revised. Xerxes faked his own death and then claimed his secondary name, Artaxerxes, was his son to fool the Greeks! It worked. But later, they needed to add extra years to the Persian Period to cover this propaganda and so it distorted the Biblical timeline.

    So I'm just saying, as a witness and someone doing his own research, the Bible would date year 1 of Cyrus to 455 BCE and when you add the 70 years of desolation, which completely contradicts the revised timeline for the NB Period, then you get year 23 falling in 525 BCE. This is CONFIRMED now by the VAT4956. That means 607 BCE is a farse for the fall of Jerusalem; the true date is 529 BCE. That means the 2nd coming occurred in 1992!

    So in REALITY, Christ arrived in 1992! So there is really no "skepticism" any more as far as the Bible prophecies or Bible chronology. But are you up on this? Are you interested in this? Are you ready to do the research?

    Bottom line is, Christ arrived in 1992. The second wave offering proves he will be in an imperfect man's body, the "prodigal son"!!! So I'm HIM! I'm it. And the WTS knows it! So they are just defying me now!

    To most people, I'm just a psycho needing psychiatric help. But the GB of the WTS sees that I can expose all their false teachings. They see I know how to correct the ancient timeline. For them, those of the anointed, they know this cannot have happened without Jehovah! They know Jehovah has cast them out, but at the same time has anointed ME! So I'm really the FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE who is now in charge of all the master's belongings! Jesus Christ at the 2nd coming becomes the faithful slave. Lazarus ends up in the bosom position of Abraham, while the "rich man" (GB of JWs1) ends up cast out and in torment. That's what is going on now!

    So that is what is ACTUALLY going on! If you really are concerned, then you need to find out WHEN the messiah is to arrive based on our best research. You need to understand in what manner Christ arrives. Remember the "antichrist" would be saying Christ did not return in the flesh! That is what the WTS is saying now! That Christ arrived in 1914 invisibly and not in the flesh. FALSE!

    So don't blame the Bible for what false guidance you get from the WTS! But you still have to examine the Bible yourself to discover what it really teaches. Bottom line, it teaches that Jesus Christ uses the body of one of his followers to return in the flesh at the 2nd coming! He must return in 1992 if you use the strict Bible timeline which dates the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE, which is a piece of cake now, thanks to the VAT4956 and C14 dating from Rehov! So only ignorant and stubborn or dishonest people still think the current popular timeline is credible. Seriously!

    But, people like their fantasies. My job is to just sound the warning and be informative.

    So: CHRIST ARRIVED ON DECEMBER 25, 1992, based on the 1st of Cyrus being corrected to occur in 455 BCE. This is a "claim" like any other, but it can't be dismissed unless you do the research to dismiss it. I can tell you now, it is NOT dismissible. But in that case, 1992 is the date the Christ has to return. AND HE DID! I witnessed it! The WTS knows this and thus is just buying time and playing a game. That is what is really happening now!

    People will either face REALITY or keep their own fantasies and denials going. The choice is yours. But don't think the Bible has failed just because the WTS has been cast out.

    There is nothing I can do at this point but tell the truth and reveal the reality in connection with the WTS. "My sheep will hear my voice." Otherwise, God himself will impose darkness on those who resist (i.e. "goats') the truth.

  • ÁrbolesdeArabia
    ÁrbolesdeArabia

    Thank's for the good work on the Org book, once again the "Famous Scholars of the Watchtower" have caused more problems than solved with their followers. I spoke with one of the smartest pro-JW apologist I know, he was at a loss of words and said it would take him two weeks to a month to decipher and sink in his head!' Wow, their own apologist are scratching their heads in embarassment and shame? This guy who I still talk to is on another level and he is confused by their Bafflegab Magazine? Whoah!

    Lar's brings up another point we need to address.

    Jerome of the 400s was commissioned to write the Latin Vulgate and he translated all 14 books Lars speaks of. The KJV translated none of those books and the Catholic Duay kept 11 books. What is the conspiracy behind the leaving out these books found in the Greek Septuagint?

    I read the Apocrypha because we had a Duay Version in our home and asked the same questions Lars did, I was not shocked to learn the reasons why the Early Church refused to make the books into Bible Cannon. The debates that followed in the councils to decide what is the Bible was intense, I thought the Church Fathers were rather conservative and did their best to determine what is Gospel and what is not. It beg's the question, if God is Almighty, he should have no problem keeping the message he wanted to get to his people throughout the ages to his people.

    If Satan and God are equal, than the Bible would be composed of half Satan's works and half Jehovah's works, I do not believe that to be the case, I think Jehovah has the power to do what he desires to do! Jesus warned us of potential threats to our spiritual being while encouraging us that "he would be with us till the end of the Age", I believe the Holy Spirit Jesus went to have to pour out upon us has kept the Bible clean.

    Apocrypha and Psedepigraphy (new word for me!

    http://bible.org/question/why-are-some-books-missing-kjv

    "

    Apocrypha, term coined by the 5th-century biblical scholar Saint Jerome for the biblical books received by the church of his time as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament (see Septuagint), but not included in the Hebrew Bible.

    Derived from the period 300 BC to New Testament times, the books of the Apocrypha included Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and the two books of Maccabees. Also generally included with the Apocrypha are the two books of Esdras, additions to the Book of Esther ( Esther 10:4-10 ), additions to the Book of Daniel ( Daniel 3:24-90 ;13;14), and the Prayer of Manasseh.

    Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians include all the Apocrypha in the biblical canon, except for the two books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh. They generally refer to the Protestant Apocrypha as deuterocanonical books, and reserve the term Apocrypha for those books entirely outside the biblical canon, which Protestants call the Pseudepigrapha.

    The Reasons the Protestant Church excludes them is as follows:

    1. The early church fathers only accepted the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. The only exception was Augustine (A. D. 400) who included the books of the Apocrypha (those "extra" books that some Bibles include between the books of the Old and New Testaments). However, he did acknowledge that they were not fully authoritative.

    2. The books of the Apocrypha were not officially recognized as part of the canon until the Council of Trent (A.D. 1546) and then only by the Roman Catholic church.

    3. There are some 250 quotes from Old Testament books in the New Testament by the writers of the New Testament, but none from the Apocrypha. All Old Testament books are quoted except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

    4. In Luke 11:51 , the Lord said something definitive about the extent of the canon of the Old Testament which He accepted. In condemning the leaders of the Jewish people for killing God's messengers throughout their history, He charged them of being guilty of shedding the blood of all the righteous from Abel to Zechariah. Now the murder of Abel is recorded in Genesis 4 , and the murder of Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24 which in the arrangement of the Hebrew canon was the last book in order (as Malachi is in our arrangement). So the Lord was saying, "From the first to the last murder recorded in the Old Testament." Now, of course, there were other murders of God's messengers recorded in the Apocrypha, but the Lord does not include them. Evidently He did not consider the books of the Apocrypha to be of equal authority with the books from Genesis to 2 Chronicles.

    Beyond the Apocrypha, there were many other books that were considered false and were called the pseudepigrapha. These were spurious writings, especially writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times. They included a number of texts written between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 and spuriously ascribed to various prophets and kings of the Hebrew Scriptures.

    Jewish and Christian writings that began to appear about 200 BC and continued to be written well into Christian times; they were attributed to great religious figures and authorities of the past. Pseudepigrapha were composed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and they include apocalyptic writings, legendary histories, psalms, and wisdom literature. In most cases, Pseudepigrapha are modeled on canonical books of a particular genre. Although Pseudepigrapha, in the sense of pseudonymous works, are included in the canon of the Old Testament (see Bible), Protestants and Jews customarily use the term Pseudepigrapha to describe what Roman Catholics would term Apocrypha- late Jewish writings that all scholars consider extracanonical (Encarta® 98 Desk Encyclopedia © &

    Other than these, I know of no other books that could be involved here. Historically, the books of our present-day Bible, as found in the KJV and NASB, etc., are the only ones that the Protestant church has recognized as inspired of God and thus canonical. For more information on the issue of canonicity, see the study, Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Written Word on our web site as well as other studies on canonicity."

    http://bible.org/question/why-are-some-books-missing-kjv

  • konceptual99
    konceptual99

    I raised this point with my wife a couple of months ago after seeing this passage in the OM book. She didn't say much other than they still have been appointed to feed the domestics. She couldn't get the reasoning that we are being told to trust a group of men who are still liable to a negative judgement according to the new "light". I think her thinking will reflect most of the R&F.

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