A Word Before We Get Going
We started this forum with the intention of providing a virtual meeting ground for brothers and sisters from around the globe who wanted to engage in deeper Bible study than that which is possible in our congregation meetings. We wanted it to be a secure environment, free from the pigeon-hole judgment such discussions often evoke from the zealots among us. It was to be a place for the free, but respectful, interchange of scriptural insight and research.
It has been a challenge to keep to this goal.
From time to time we have been forced to remove comments from the site which are overly judgmental and hypercritical. This is not an easy line to trace, because the difference between an honest and open discussion which results in proving that a long-held, cherished doctrine is unscriptural will be taken by some as a judgment upon those who have originated that doctrine. Determining that a particular teaching is scripturally false does not imply judgment upon those who promote said teaching. We have a God-given right, indeed, a God-given obligation, to judge between truth and falsehood. (1 Thess. 5:21) We are obliged to make that distinction and indeed are judged on whether we hold to truth or cling to falsehood. (Rev. 22:15) However, we go beyond our authority if we judge the motivation of men, for that lies within the jurisdiction of Jehovah God. (Rom. 14:4)
Who Else Could the Slave Be?
We frequently get emails and comments from readers who are greatly disturbed by what they perceive as an attack upon those whom they believe Jehovah has appointed over us. They ask us by what right we challenge such ones. The objections can be categorized in the following points.
- Jehovah’s Witnesses constitute the earthly organization of Jehovah God.
- Jehovah God’s appointed a governing body to rule over His organization.
- This Governing Body is also the faithful and discreet slave of Matthew 24:45-47.
- The faithful and discreet slave is Jehovah’s appointed channel of communication.
- Only the faithful and discreet slave can interpret Scripture for us.
- Challenging anything this slave says is equivalent to challenging Jehovah God himself.
- All such challenges amount to apostasy.
This line of attack puts the sincere Bible student on the defensive immediately. You might merely want to research Scripture as the ancient Beroeans did, yet suddenly you are accused of fighting against God, or at the very least, of running ahead of God by not waiting on him to deal with matters in his own time. Your freedom of expression and in fact your way of life is put into jeopardy. You are threatened with disfellowshipping; being cut off from family and friends that you have known all our life. Why? Simply because you’ve discovered a Bible truth that has been previously hidden from you? This should be a cause for rejoicing, but instead there is displeasure and condemnation. Fear has replaced freedom. Hatred has replaced love.
Is it any wonder that we must engage in our research using aliases? Is this cowardice? Or are we being cautious as serpents? William Tyndale translated the Bible into modern English. He laid the foundation for every English Bible that would follow right down to our day. It was a work that changed the course of the Christian congregation and indeed of the history of the world. To accomplish it, he had to hide and often had to flee for his life. Would you call him a coward? Hardly.
If the seven points we have outlined above are true and scriptural, then we are indeed in the wrong and should desist from reading and participating in this website immediately. The fact is that these seven points are taken as gospel by the great majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses, because that is what we have been taught to believe all our lives. Like Catholics taught to believe the Pope is infallible, we believe that the Governing Body is ordained by Jehovah to direct the work and teach us Bible truth. While we acknowledge they are not infallible, we treat everything they teach us as the word of God. Essentially, what they teach is God’s truth until they tell us otherwise.
Fair enough. Those who would accuse us of going against God by our research on this site often challenge us with the question: “If you don’t think the Governing Body is the faithful and discreet slave…if you don’t think they are God’s appointed channel of communication, then who is?”
Is this fair?
If someone is making the claim that they speak for God, it isn’t up to the rest of the world to disprove it. Instead, it is the one making this claim to prove it.
So here is the challenge:
- Jehovah’s Witnesses constitute the earthly organization of Jehovah God.
Prove that Jehovah has an earthly organization. Not a people. That is not what we teach. We teach an organization, an entity that is blessed and directed as a single unit. - Jehovah God has appointed a governing body to rule over His organization.
Prove from Scripture that Jehovah has chosen a small group of men to rule over his organization. The Governing Body exists. That is not in dispute. However, their divine ordination is what remains to be proven.
- This Governing Body is also the faithful and discreet slave of Matthew 24:45-47 and Luke 12:41-48.
Prove that the faithful and discreet slave is this governing body. To do so, you must explain Luke’s version which mentions three other slaves. No partial explanations please. This is too important a point to explain only part of the parable. - The faithful and discreet slave is Jehovah’s appointed channel of communication.
Assuming you can establish point 1, 2, and 3 from Scripture, that doesn’t mean more than that the Governing Body is appointed to feed the domestics. Being Jehovah’s channel of communication means being his spokesman. That role is not implied in “feeding the domestics”. So further proof is required. - Only the faithful and discreet slave can interpret Scripture for us.
Proof is needed to support the idea that anyone has the right to interpret Scripture unless acting under inspiration, in which case it would still be God doing the interpretation. (Gen. 40:8) Where is this role granted in Scripture to the faithful and discreet slave, or anyone else during the last days for that matter? - Challenging anything this slave says is equivalent to challenging Jehovah God himself.
What scriptural basis is there for the idea that a man or group of men not speaking under inspiration is above being challenged to support their statements. - All such challenges amount to apostasy.
What Scriptural basis is there for this claim?
I am sure we will get those who will try to answer these challenges with statements such as “Who else could it be?” or “Who else is doing the preaching work?” or “Isn’t Jehovah’s evident blessing on His organization proof that he has appointed the Governing Body?”
Such reasoning is faulty, because it is based on a number of unsubstantiated assumptions being true. First, prove the assumptions. First, prove that each of the seven points has a basis in Scripture. After that, and only after that, will we have the basis for seeking corroborating empirical evidence.
The commenter cited at the start of this post has challenged us to answer the question: If not the Governing Body, then “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave?” We will get to that. However, we are not the ones claiming to speak for God, nor are we the ones imposing our will on others, demanding that others accept our interpretation of Scripture or suffer the dire consequences. So first, let those challenging us with their claim to authority establish the basis for the authority from Scripture, and then we’ll talk.
I would like to quote the wording of Mat.24:45-50 from Hebrew Matthew (prof. HOward’s translation): 45 What do you think of the faithful and wise servant whose lord places him over his children to give (them) food in its time? 46 Blessed is that servant whose lord (finds) him doing thus when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will place him over his children. 48 But if that servant should be evil and should say in his heart: My lord is late (in) coming, 49 and should begin to beat the servant of his lord and should eat and drink with… Read more »
[…] https://beroeans.net/2013/07/01/identifying-the-faithful-slave-part-1/ […]
1 John 5:2: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and carry out his commandments”
The anointed should be happy when we are obedient to God, not them. It’s always been that simple to me.
Luke 11:27-28:”Now as he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd called out to him: “Happy is the womb that carried you and the breasts that nursed you!” But he said: “No, rather, happy are those hearing the word of God and keeping it!””
[…] 1919 is when Christ named the Governing Body as his appointed faithful and discreet slave. […]
[…] quickly then: Our judicial system, apostasy, the role of Jesus Christ, the Governing Body as the Faithful Slave, our no-blood policy…each one crumbled as I found no basis in […]
In addressing this issue I find it is easier to start by attempting to prove who wasn’t the faithful and discreet slave and go from there. The current teaching of the organization is that the Faithful and Discreet Slave is composed of the 8 members of the Governing Body when they agree as a collective body. They claim that the Faithful Slave was chosen by Jehovah in 1919 because of its timely distribution of quality spiritual food. Notwithstanding the fact that at that time the slave consisted of only one man, J.F. Rutherford, the quality of the food upon examination… Read more »
Lets not forget That in the 2013 July WT the evil slave has been relegated to a state of hypothetical non existence. Article says an emphatic NO to the evil slaves existence on Page 24… (article) “Was Jesus foretelling that there would be an evil slave class in the last days? No. Granted, some individuals have manifested a spirit similar to that of the evil slave described by Jesus. We would call them apostates, whether they were of the anointed or of the “great crowd.” (Rev. 7:9) But such ones do not make up an evil slave class. Jesus did… Read more »
If the parable about the faithful and discreet slave is literal then so must be the one about the 10 virgins. So now where did we misplace the ten virgins, anyone???
I think you hit the nail on the head crazyguy. A parable is not literal, nor is it prophetic. The WT 02 9/1 says: Jesus’ illustrations took many forms, including examples, comparisons, similes, and metaphors. He is well-known for his use of the parable, which has been defined as “a short, usually fictitious, narrative from which a moral or spiritual truth is drawn.” It would seem Jesus use of the parable regarding the various slaves would describe classes of people, instead of foretelling a ruling class. What i find strange though is I am finding this information right in WT… Read more »
Thanks for isolating these seven points. As we examine them one at a time it becomes quite evident that a scriptural basis does not exist for those statements made. Sadly though, very few will even consider the possibility to examine these points in the light of scripture. In fact it would seem that of the most part, sincere JW are advised not even to consider such a notion that the GB is not the FADS. Such leads to a circular logic and thus no one questions anything the GB says or does. As we know, if anyone does, such ones… Read more »
It can be argued that we are God’s organization in that we have dedicated ourselves to doing his will – we have given ourselves to Him. But the claim we seem to be making is that the earthly organization is directly analogous to an organization in heaven designed and created by Jehovah himself, the every movement of which is dictated directly by Him. This seems to me to be an unnecessary and imprudent claim.
I fully understand the complexity of conscientiously averting causes for stumbling as others try to assert the obvious. Error has always learned correction over time and some are just too prepared to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I began my studies with “Make Sure of All Things,” and I subscribe to “All scripture [being] inspired of God” and not by men. So you have my support in keeping reason alive on this site, Meleti, as well as in the hearts and minds of those faithful to Jehovah through Christ!
On point 3, note the following quotes: w81 3/1 pp 24-5: “The objectors may argue that not all of Christ’s anointed disciples have a share in preparing the spiritual food, so perhaps the “slave” pictures only the LEADING ONES and the domestics those they serve in the congregation. There is no point trying to force an interpretation of the parable. Self deception is of no benefit and is spiritually damaging.” w13 7/15 p 22: “Who, then, is the faithful and discreet slave? that slave is a SMALL GROUP of anointed brothers who are directly involved in preparing and dispensing spiritual… Read more »
Good catch!
Our current understanding seems to be based on the thought that only a small group prepare the food. However, the parable speaks nothing about preparing food; only of feeding. Do we not all feed one another?
A most interesting article Meleti.
Great catch on that w81 quotation JimmyG. I guess at the time of publishing that they didn’t consider that they might want the option to change their minds later. Except it wasn’t “their minds”. It was simply the product of a different group of men. And by reversing a position so radically it simply demonstrates that is all that is going on.
Here is another interesting quote from the book “God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached” (1973) Chapter 17: “This limiting the “slave” to the twelve apostles, however, might allow for the doctrine of an apostolic succession or an episcopal succession, a succession of bishops (overseers) by the religious process of ordination. .. However, when we view the “faithful and discreet slave” as being the whole body of disciples (including spiritual overseers), it eliminates such a thing as “episcopal succession” that history shows has worked such harm and oppression in Christendom. The way in which the disciple Mark words Jesus’… Read more »
What a classic quote Vassy.
Once again they convict themselves with their own words.
Laughable
Genesis 18 22 And the men faced around from there and went toward Sodom. And Abraham was still standing before Jehovah. 23 ¶ And Abraham drew near and said, Is it so? Will You cut off the righteous with the wicked? 24 Perhaps there are fifty righteous within the city; is it so You will cut off and will not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones that are within it? 25 Far be it from You to act in this way, to put to death the righteous with the wicked. Far be it from You.… Read more »
What an excellent question!
Great question. However, sadly I think they believe they are above questioning
Verse 25 has always been my favorite scripture. Particularly after a good friend of mine committed suicide many years ago and several ignorant individuals in the congregation said he would not be entitled to a resurrection. I have always found that verse comforting.
I’m very sorry to hear about that Chris. It would seem that this is an area in which our stance has softened more recently. One of the finest and most encouraging funeral talks I heard in recent years was for a congregation member who had committed suicide. The matter was dealt with very sensitively, and it was made very clear that Jehovah knows the mind and the heart in ways that we cannot. The speaker openly spoke of the resurrection hope in connection with the person. No doubt you will have the chance to see your friend again too.
Apollos
Meleti, your website helped me analyse 1914 with objective eyes. After careful consideration of the points presented, I couldn’t help but become more cautious before believing something, checking the evidence for it. If what I believe is the truth, why should I be afraid to research it more deeply? It’s not about wasting time with pointless debates, it’s about making sure we’re on the right path now and that one’s hope for the future is built on rock, not on sand. If what I believe is true, it can stand any test. Truth doesn’t change. And by proving it to… Read more »