Jesus=slave=Russell?
Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to YOU, He will appoint him over all his belongings. Matthew 24:45-47 (New World Translation of the Holy Scripture 1984 (NWT))
The above verses in Jesus’ parable are used more frequently then any other verses by The Watchtower Society (WTS) to keep a stranglehold on Jehovah’s Witnesses.
It is our intention to show, in this treatise that the WTS has used these parabolic verses to take on an incorrect and completely unjustified prophetic sense. (The Watchtower (WT) 1981 March 1, p. 24; WT 1960 July 15 p. 462; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached. 1973. p. 350)
The “Slave” was the whole body of Christ
The WTS up to 1895 taught that the Slave was the whole body of Christ.
(WT 1881 November p. 291; 1890 January p. 1171; 1895 April 1 p.
1797).
Russell was the “Slave”!
But soon in 1896 the thinking was changed and an individual, Charles
T.Russell, was chosen as the Slave. Russell also happened to be
the head of the WTS.
Bible commentators, outside the WTS understand the
passage as a parable, which Jesus gave to encourage each of his
individual followers to be a faithful and wise servant rather then
an evil slave. Jesus was not giving here a prophecy as WTS contends.
In support Jesus continued by saying in the next verses:
But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master
is delaying,’ and should start to beat his fellow slaves and should
eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards, the master of that
slave will come on a day that he does not expect and in an hour
that he does not know, and will punish him with the greatest severity
and will assign him his part with the hypocrites. There is where
[his] weeping and the gnashing of [his] teeth will be. Matthew
24:48-51 (NWT)
Russell however converted this admonition into a
personal appointment for himself as the “Faithful and Wise Servant”
- God’s mouthpiece to mankind! The WTS maintained from 1896 to 1927
that Russell was that Servant (Slave). (WT 1896 March 1, p. 1946;
Studies in Scriptures Vol I 1924-1927 editions p. 7; Vol.4 p. 613;
Vol. 7 pp. 3, 5, 422, 418; WT 1917 March 1, p. 6049; Harp of God
1921 p. 229).
Russell was not the Slave”!
Rutherford, the second president of the WTS changed this belief
in 1927 and asserted that the Slave designation applied not to an
individual - Russell - but to the WTS organization. It was also
falsely publicized that Russell had never claimed to be that Slave.
(WT February 15, 1927 p. 56; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has
Approached 1973 p. 346). However, since critics exposed this lie
of the WTS they made a half-baked and false admission in their latest
biography Jehovah’s Witnesses Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
(1993) that “…the idea that Russell himself was the faithful and
wise servant…came to be generally held by the Bible Students for
some thirty years.” (p. 143) The Proclaimers book on the same page
also places the blame on Russell’s wife Maria for the teaching that
Russell was that Servant. The writers of the Proclaimers book pretend
to be unaware that that the WT of 1917 March 1, p. 6049 states very
clearly that, “Watch Tower unhesitatingly proclaims brother Russell
as ‘that faithful and wise servant’” (p. 143)
The “Slave” is over 1800 years old!
The WTS also teaches, without any support, that the “Slave” represents
the Christian congregation from its beginning in A.D. 33 up to now:
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that this parable pertains to the
one true congregation of Jesus Christ’s anointed followers. Beginning
with Pentecost, 33 C.E., and continuing through the 19 centuries
since then, this slavelike congregation has been feeding its members
spiritually, doing so faithfully and discreetly. (WT 1981 March
1, p. 24)
And further:
From Pentecost, A.D. 33, up to this very present hour this (”feeding”)
has been lovingly and carefully performed. Yes, and these “domestics”
have been fed on progressive spiritual food that keeps them abreast
of the “bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until
the day is firmly established.” WT 1960 July 15 p. 435.
So the well-nourished Christian congregation (Slave)
as WTS claims was more than 1800 years old by the time Russell appeared
on the scene in mid 1870s. This claim is downright nonsense without
any proof or justification. Because, if it was the case that there
was a Slave operating for over 1800 years, there was no need for
Russell to have “revived the great truths taught by Jesus and the
Apostles” (Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose 1959 p. 17).
WTS cannot answer where this 1800-year-old congregation was located!
Russell certainly did not seek out this non-existent congregation
and neither did this mythical congregation seek Russell out! In
fact Russell never turned to any earthly organization. He acted
independently on his own. Russell and his associates were actually
anti-earthly organization. Russell affirmed that:
We belong to NO earthly organization…All the saints
now living, or that have lived during this age, belonged to OUR
CHURCH ORGANIZATION: such are all ONE Church, and there is NO
OTHER recognized by the Lord. Hence any earthly organization
which in the least interferes with this union of saints is
contrary to the teachings of Scripture and opposed to the Lord’s
will. (WT February 1884)
“Slave” was spiritually unclean!
The next consideration is to be given to the WTS’s claim that Christ
returned invisibly in 1914 and in 1919 he made a temple judgment
which resulted in WTS being selected over all other churches! Jesus
accomplished this despite the fact that he knew that WTS was spiritually
unclean at that very time!
The Scriptures describe them as having unclean garments because
of their long association with Christian apostasy…They had many
practices, characteristics and beliefs similar to the weedlike
sects of Christendom. (WT 1960 July 15 pp.435-6)
“Slave” served contaminated food!
An another criterion for selection of the WTS was “the serving of
the food, the right sort of food was the issue at the proper time.
It was according to this that a decision must be rendered by the
returned master.” (God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached
1973 p. 350).
We observe that the “right sort of food” served by
the WTS at that time consisting among other things was that:
*
The teaching of the time of the end began in 1799
*
Christ returned invisibly in 1874.
*
The world would be destroyed in 1914
*
The Pyramids were God’s Witness - a Bible in Stone
*
Rutherford had started to preach in his talks that the world
was to end in 1925. He later, in 1925, published a book on the
same topic.
*
The Finished Mystery was published in 1917. The book
contained the most extensively nonsensical material, which WTS
has ever put together in one book.
We are asked to believe that despite all these aberrations
of the WTS at that time, Jesus chose to select the WTS above all
other Christian sects! And of course the appointment was confirmed
by Jesus and conveyed to the WTS - all invisibly too! As regard
the proof required that the WTS was consistently serving food that
was clearly superior to any being offered by other Christian sects,
we have to simply refer to the WTS’s own admissions as quoted above
in WT 1960 July 15 pp. 435-436; and in God’s Kingdom…
book p. 350!
Over 99% of “Slaves” do not provide any input!
Another important point is that the “faithful and discreet slave”
is supposed to comprise of the entire remnant of the 144,000, which
presently number 8755 by WTS’s last count. These “anointed” remnants
are scattered throughout the world. This composite slave of 8,755
anointed persons are supposed to share the parabolic dispensing
of food and as a collective body they are ALL placed over the master’s
belongings. (United in Worship of the Only True God 1983 p.
120; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached 1973 p. 343;
WT 1981 March 1 p. 24). It is a complete charade to say that these
8755 anointed remnants, who are distributed around the world, do
any type of developing and sharing of the spiritual food presented
to JWs by the WTS. Ray Franz ex-Governing Body member of the WTS
in his book In Search of Christian Freedom (1991) referring
to this topic says:
It is perhaps the most obvious fiction found in the whole range
of published explanations of Scripture produced by the organization.
The fact is that not even 1 percent of the number of “anointed”
ones have the slightest part in determining what Jehovah’s Witnesses
receive in the way of Biblical material or in the forming of policy
or the directing of the activities of that people.…By far the
majority of the articles published in The Watchtower magazine
were written by persons not of the “anointed class” (p. 154)
Chronologically the “slave” does not exist!
Another point is the fact that the 1914 date for the arrival of
Jesus is based on a WTS chronology which is indisputably false.
Their incorrect linchpin 607 BC date for the fall of Jerusalem has
a very heavy burden of evidence against it and has simply no support
outside the WTS. The fact that the concept of identifying the Slave
rests on false chronological calculations obviously demonstrates
that the Slave has no justifiable “existence”. Carl Olof Jonsson
in his book The Gentile Times Reconsidered (1998), with the
aid of irrefutable and scholarly arguments, demonstrates the WTS’s
false stance on the 1914 date and the subsequent myth of the Slave.
In conclusion we would like to state that the story
of the “faithful and discreet Slave” is a man-made counterfeit fable.
This “Slave” deserves full contempt and rejection by all thinking
persons.
Summary
We have considered not one but six reasons why “the faithful and
discreet slave” is a figment of the imagination of the WTS. A summation
of these reasons is given below:
*
The WTS has not even been sure about what they wish to put
across about the entity of the Slave. Up to 1896 the WTS speculated
that the Slave was an organization (the whole body of Christ).
After 1896 up to 1927 (11 years after Russell’s death) the WTS
held that the Slave was an individual - Russell. After 1927
the WTS again conjectured that the Slave was an organization.
*
The Slave was considered to have had an existence for some
1800 years from Pentecost. No justification or proof was provided
- just asserted. This was again rank speculation.
*
Despite the fact that the Slave was spiritually unclean and
was serving tainted “food”, we are expected to believe that,
Jesus selected the WTS to be the Slave from amongst all the
other Christian sects. Christ did this despite the fact that
the WTS was still spiritually unclean and serving tainted “food”
at the very same time the appointment of WTS was being made
by Jesus! All this was admitted by the WTS in their own publications
as shown above.
*
The Slave which is supposed to comprise of the entire remnant
of the 144,000, presently totalling some 8755 “anointed” persons,
are all supposed to provide input in dispensing of “food” to
JWs around the world. However, in reality, these persons are
just figureheads and are never consulted in any decisions or
announcements the WTS makes. The whole concept of the functionality
of the remnant is a ridiculous pretence and patently false.
*
A defunct and entirely false chronology established 1914 as
the date of “return” of Jesus. Since this chronology is proven
false it can be asserted that Jesus did not return in 1914 and
consequently could not have selected the WTS as the Slave in
1919!
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/137760/1.ashx
The above verses in Jesus’ parable are used more frequently then any other verses by The Watchtower Society (WTS) to keep a stranglehold on Jehovah’s Witnesses.
It is our intention to show, in this treatise that the WTS has used these parabolic verses to take on an incorrect and completely unjustified prophetic sense. (The Watchtower (WT) 1981 March 1, p. 24; WT 1960 July 15 p. 462; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached. 1973. p. 350)
The “Slave” was the whole body of Christ
The WTS up to 1895 taught that the Slave was the whole body of Christ.
(WT 1881 November p. 291; 1890 January p. 1171; 1895 April 1 p.
1797).
Russell was the “Slave”!
But soon in 1896 the thinking was changed and an individual, Charles
T.Russell, was chosen as the Slave. Russell also happened to be
the head of the WTS.
Bible commentators, outside the WTS understand the
passage as a parable, which Jesus gave to encourage each of his
individual followers to be a faithful and wise servant rather then
an evil slave. Jesus was not giving here a prophecy as WTS contends.
In support Jesus continued by saying in the next verses:
But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master
is delaying,’ and should start to beat his fellow slaves and should
eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards, the master of that
slave will come on a day that he does not expect and in an hour
that he does not know, and will punish him with the greatest severity
and will assign him his part with the hypocrites. There is where
[his] weeping and the gnashing of [his] teeth will be. Matthew
24:48-51 (NWT)
Russell however converted this admonition into a
personal appointment for himself as the “Faithful and Wise Servant”
- God’s mouthpiece to mankind! The WTS maintained from 1896 to 1927
that Russell was that Servant (Slave). (WT 1896 March 1, p. 1946;
Studies in Scriptures Vol I 1924-1927 editions p. 7; Vol.4 p. 613;
Vol. 7 pp. 3, 5, 422, 418; WT 1917 March 1, p. 6049; Harp of God
1921 p. 229).
Russell was not the Slave”!
Rutherford, the second president of the WTS changed this belief
in 1927 and asserted that the Slave designation applied not to an
individual - Russell - but to the WTS organization. It was also
falsely publicized that Russell had never claimed to be that Slave.
(WT February 15, 1927 p. 56; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has
Approached 1973 p. 346). However, since critics exposed this lie
of the WTS they made a half-baked and false admission in their latest
biography Jehovah’s Witnesses Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom
(1993) that “…the idea that Russell himself was the faithful and
wise servant…came to be generally held by the Bible Students for
some thirty years.” (p. 143) The Proclaimers book on the same page
also places the blame on Russell’s wife Maria for the teaching that
Russell was that Servant. The writers of the Proclaimers book pretend
to be unaware that that the WT of 1917 March 1, p. 6049 states very
clearly that, “Watch Tower unhesitatingly proclaims brother Russell
as ‘that faithful and wise servant’” (p. 143)
The “Slave” is over 1800 years old!
The WTS also teaches, without any support, that the “Slave” represents
the Christian congregation from its beginning in A.D. 33 up to now:
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that this parable pertains to the
one true congregation of Jesus Christ’s anointed followers. Beginning
with Pentecost, 33 C.E., and continuing through the 19 centuries
since then, this slavelike congregation has been feeding its members
spiritually, doing so faithfully and discreetly. (WT 1981 March
1, p. 24)
And further:
From Pentecost, A.D. 33, up to this very present hour this (”feeding”)
has been lovingly and carefully performed. Yes, and these “domestics”
have been fed on progressive spiritual food that keeps them abreast
of the “bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until
the day is firmly established.” WT 1960 July 15 p. 435.
So the well-nourished Christian congregation (Slave)
as WTS claims was more than 1800 years old by the time Russell appeared
on the scene in mid 1870s. This claim is downright nonsense without
any proof or justification. Because, if it was the case that there
was a Slave operating for over 1800 years, there was no need for
Russell to have “revived the great truths taught by Jesus and the
Apostles” (Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose 1959 p. 17).
WTS cannot answer where this 1800-year-old congregation was located!
Russell certainly did not seek out this non-existent congregation
and neither did this mythical congregation seek Russell out! In
fact Russell never turned to any earthly organization. He acted
independently on his own. Russell and his associates were actually
anti-earthly organization. Russell affirmed that:
We belong to NO earthly organization…All the saints
now living, or that have lived during this age, belonged to OUR
CHURCH ORGANIZATION: such are all ONE Church, and there is NO
OTHER recognized by the Lord. Hence any earthly organization
which in the least interferes with this union of saints is
contrary to the teachings of Scripture and opposed to the Lord’s
will. (WT February 1884)
“Slave” was spiritually unclean!
The next consideration is to be given to the WTS’s claim that Christ
returned invisibly in 1914 and in 1919 he made a temple judgment
which resulted in WTS being selected over all other churches! Jesus
accomplished this despite the fact that he knew that WTS was spiritually
unclean at that very time!
The Scriptures describe them as having unclean garments because
of their long association with Christian apostasy…They had many
practices, characteristics and beliefs similar to the weedlike
sects of Christendom. (WT 1960 July 15 pp.435-6)
“Slave” served contaminated food!
An another criterion for selection of the WTS was “the serving of
the food, the right sort of food was the issue at the proper time.
It was according to this that a decision must be rendered by the
returned master.” (God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached
1973 p. 350).
We observe that the “right sort of food” served by
the WTS at that time consisting among other things was that:
*
The teaching of the time of the end began in 1799
*
Christ returned invisibly in 1874.
*
The world would be destroyed in 1914
*
The Pyramids were God’s Witness - a Bible in Stone
*
Rutherford had started to preach in his talks that the world
was to end in 1925. He later, in 1925, published a book on the
same topic.
*
The Finished Mystery was published in 1917. The book
contained the most extensively nonsensical material, which WTS
has ever put together in one book.
We are asked to believe that despite all these aberrations
of the WTS at that time, Jesus chose to select the WTS above all
other Christian sects! And of course the appointment was confirmed
by Jesus and conveyed to the WTS - all invisibly too! As regard
the proof required that the WTS was consistently serving food that
was clearly superior to any being offered by other Christian sects,
we have to simply refer to the WTS’s own admissions as quoted above
in WT 1960 July 15 pp. 435-436; and in God’s Kingdom…
book p. 350!
Over 99% of “Slaves” do not provide any input!
Another important point is that the “faithful and discreet slave”
is supposed to comprise of the entire remnant of the 144,000, which
presently number 8755 by WTS’s last count. These “anointed” remnants
are scattered throughout the world. This composite slave of 8,755
anointed persons are supposed to share the parabolic dispensing
of food and as a collective body they are ALL placed over the master’s
belongings. (United in Worship of the Only True God 1983 p.
120; God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached 1973 p. 343;
WT 1981 March 1 p. 24). It is a complete charade to say that these
8755 anointed remnants, who are distributed around the world, do
any type of developing and sharing of the spiritual food presented
to JWs by the WTS. Ray Franz ex-Governing Body member of the WTS
in his book In Search of Christian Freedom (1991) referring
to this topic says:
It is perhaps the most obvious fiction found in the whole range
of published explanations of Scripture produced by the organization.
The fact is that not even 1 percent of the number of “anointed”
ones have the slightest part in determining what Jehovah’s Witnesses
receive in the way of Biblical material or in the forming of policy
or the directing of the activities of that people.…By far the
majority of the articles published in The Watchtower magazine
were written by persons not of the “anointed class” (p. 154)
Chronologically the “slave” does not exist!
Another point is the fact that the 1914 date for the arrival of
Jesus is based on a WTS chronology which is indisputably false.
Their incorrect linchpin 607 BC date for the fall of Jerusalem has
a very heavy burden of evidence against it and has simply no support
outside the WTS. The fact that the concept of identifying the Slave
rests on false chronological calculations obviously demonstrates
that the Slave has no justifiable “existence”. Carl Olof Jonsson
in his book The Gentile Times Reconsidered (1998), with the
aid of irrefutable and scholarly arguments, demonstrates the WTS’s
false stance on the 1914 date and the subsequent myth of the Slave.
In conclusion we would like to state that the story
of the “faithful and discreet Slave” is a man-made counterfeit fable.
This “Slave” deserves full contempt and rejection by all thinking
persons.
Summary
We have considered not one but six reasons why “the faithful and
discreet slave” is a figment of the imagination of the WTS. A summation
of these reasons is given below:
*
The WTS has not even been sure about what they wish to put
across about the entity of the Slave. Up to 1896 the WTS speculated
that the Slave was an organization (the whole body of Christ).
After 1896 up to 1927 (11 years after Russell’s death) the WTS
held that the Slave was an individual - Russell. After 1927
the WTS again conjectured that the Slave was an organization.
*
The Slave was considered to have had an existence for some
1800 years from Pentecost. No justification or proof was provided
- just asserted. This was again rank speculation.
*
Despite the fact that the Slave was spiritually unclean and
was serving tainted “food”, we are expected to believe that,
Jesus selected the WTS to be the Slave from amongst all the
other Christian sects. Christ did this despite the fact that
the WTS was still spiritually unclean and serving tainted “food”
at the very same time the appointment of WTS was being made
by Jesus! All this was admitted by the WTS in their own publications
as shown above.
*
The Slave which is supposed to comprise of the entire remnant
of the 144,000, presently totalling some 8755 “anointed” persons,
are all supposed to provide input in dispensing of “food” to
JWs around the world. However, in reality, these persons are
just figureheads and are never consulted in any decisions or
announcements the WTS makes. The whole concept of the functionality
of the remnant is a ridiculous pretence and patently false.
*
A defunct and entirely false chronology established 1914 as
the date of “return” of Jesus. Since this chronology is proven
false it can be asserted that Jesus did not return in 1914 and
consequently could not have selected the WTS as the Slave in
1919!
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/137760/1.ashx