-How did you envision the FDS and GB did their work?

by Awakened07 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  Awakened07

  The weird thing is - I almost can't recall what I once believed about the FDS and GB ["Faithful and Discreet Slave" and "Governing Body"], who they in fact were, and how they came to their conclusions and 'revelations'.

  Come to think of it, I think that was because I was conditioned to not ever question them, because to question them would be to question the Organization, and to question the Organization was to question Jesus and Jehovah.

  But I've been trying to 'dig into' my brain to see if I can remember how I as an active JW saw them:

  - I believed them to be inspired, just not in the same 'degree' (?) as the biblical writers were. When non-JWs would say "How can you follow an organization ruled by a bunch of old men in Brooklyn?", I vehemently denied such a claim; "What are you talking about - I don't follow what a bunch of old men in Brooklyn says - I follow what Jehovah says". How did I not see that that was essentially the same thing? I don't think I ever allowed myself to dwell on it, but I guess I figured that these men in Brooklyn were inspired and guided through prayer, and therefore I wasn't following their teachings, but God's teachings given through them. Besides - they only revealed what the Bible actually said. Didn't they?

  But I don't think I ever really understood what the FDS and GB were while I was active. I'm still a little uncertain, actually. I guess my current understanding - and it may still be wrong - is that the FDS is in effect a few select (selected by who? The GB?) of the 'anointed' class (144000), serving on the Writing Department of the WBTS. And that the GB started out as consisting of the board of directors of the WBTS, and are in fact a 'bunch' of old men deciding - by a vote - on what stand the organization should take on all manner of subjects.

  But did you know any of that when you were a JW? What was your impression of them and who they were and what they did? Did you ever dare question them when you were still active? Did you view them as being inspired? How did you envision Jehovah guided them?

  I vaguely remember hearing that one member of the GB had been disfellowshipped. I now know that it was Raymond Franz. Back then it hit me like a ton of bricks. "How can anyone on the GB be disfellowshipped!? How is that even possible - aren't they chosen by God!?" I think perhaps that in itself caused my first doubts about it all, even though I was quite young at the time.
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  Gopher

  The FDS (Faithful and Discreet Slave) is taught by the WTS to be the entire remnant (remaining ones) of the 144,000 on earth at any point in the last days.

  So that entire body is supposed to have "holy spirit" to enable them to bring God's truth to mankind.

  The WTS sets up the Governing Body as the "representative" of the FDS class. (We know in reality the Governing Body doesn't generally take ANY input from other anointed ones, they set themselves up as the spiritual leaders of 7 million JW's.)

  As for Ray Franz -- yes he was dismissed from Brooklyn Bethel for daring to bring his more liberal views to the forefront. However, he wasn't officially disfellowshipped until he was "caught" eating with his disassociated employer/landlord (Peter Gregerson) after he had already moved back to Alabama.
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  REBORNAGAIN

  I never even thought about them, whoever they were. Like most JW's I'm sure, I just considered them some brothers in NY who knew something I didn't know, and were obligated to spread the news that they learned. I never thought about their sources of info, was just flattered in hearing the latest news, the latest updates, anything that made me think the end was even closer. So brainwashed.

  LINDA
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  By the time I got around to thinking about how this worked with the FDS and GB, I really was
  fully indoctrinated. Telling me that "they know" they are anointed, I believed it. Telling me
  that they were spirit-directed, I thought of it much like a prophet writing a prophecy. He just
  lets God's spirit direct the writing.

  Later, I was able to fill in that most of the writing is done without "prophecy" so it's just
  spiritual men doing spiritual writing. If the GB members had something important to add, they
  would write it and tell the writing committee make an article out of it.

  Since Jehovah was directing all the anointed, the FDS outside of Brooklyn didn't have to be
  consulted. Jehovah just made sure He guided the ones nearest the typewriters in Brooklyn.
  The FDS in Iowa or Kenya would just keep an eye on local matters.

  I envisioned the GB where they would pontificate using the Bible. Member One would say
  what he "understood" from holy spirit, and Member Two would add to that (since they were
  all directed by the same spirit). Matters would be discussed until there was a unanimous
  decision reached on everything and anything.

  WELL- imagine as I learned it just ain't so. It really threw me when I learned of the two-thirds
  majority vote in the GB. Sure, a judicial committee could go by two out of three, or a body of
  elders could use the majority vote, but we learned to discuss things until we could avoid this
  majority and get total unity. I couldn't even imagine all the doctrine decided upon without a
  need for unanimous agreement.

  Telling me that these guys made "mistakes" and were not inspired- that was a mistake, too.
  I read enough WT articles that said "a prophet is among us" to know that the writings in the
  WT were really considered the last word. If things were wrong in the articles I have read, then
  how do I know that some major teachings might be wrong, like the end coming before the
  1914 generation passed away. That was "proven" to me. Oh my god, there's an error.
  What should I do? I will keep my mouth shut until I know what to do, afterall, I was just appointed
  an elder in 1995 because I know how to promote WT propaganda.

  That's my story, and I am sticking to it.
• 

  Awakened07

  Thanks for the replies.

  The FDS (Faithful and Discreet Slave) is taught by the WTS to be the entire remnant (remaining ones) of the 144,000 on earth at any point in the last days.

  So that entire body is supposed to have "holy spirit" to enable them to bring God's truth to mankind.

  - Didn't 'new light' recently reveal that the anointed around the world don't have any special 'spiritual guidance' or insights? "Not even more so than any experienced member of the great crowd may have"? Does that then even count those who write their publications?
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  Gayle

  I thought they all read the Bible all day & prayed. After going to Bethel it became clear most of their jobs/time were administrative, treasury or factory related. Then, in early 70's, they started to get together a couple hours on Wednesdays (for further info read Ray Franz' book). They took turns weekly to conduct 'morning text.' Most only repeated existing literature that we already had read/studied (could hardly wait for the coffee).
• 

  journey-on

  Awakened

  I think this is BIGGER than most of us realize right now. In the near future, this one little "revelation" is going to be a MAJOR

  component of some "new light" coming out......mark my words....wait and see.

  Didn't 'new light' recently reveal that the anointed around the world don't have any special 'spiritual guidance' or insights?
• 

  Gopher

  - Didn't 'new light' recently reveal that the anointed around the world don't have any special 'spiritual guidance' or insights? "Not even more so than any experienced member of the great crowd may have"? Does that then even count those who write their publications?

  If the anointed/FDS class doesn't have any special insights, then you'd have to wonder what's the point of their existence? Didn't the Bible say that they had a "feeding" job.

  As you mention, the vast majority of the so-called spiritual food in WTS publications is written by members of the "other sheep" class. It's all so boring these days, you'd think a computer was randomly copying-and-pasting snippets of old magazines.

  This teaching of "classes" introduced by Rutherford is so troublesome for the organization 70 years later, now that the old Governing Body are dying off. (Yeah there's new Governing Body, but c'mon, who really believes they're anointed? They were born after 1935. Oh yeah, that date was dropped too. How convenient.)
• 

  jaguarbass

  I remember from being raised as a witness, I had a respect for the wisdom and knowledge of older mature persons.

  Until I was burned and to my detriment came to realize that there is no fool like an old fool.

  Most of the fds class I met in my 31 years seemed eccentric and border line retarded. I did meet one that seemed to have his shxt together.
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  blueviceroy

  i read somewhere or was told by some brother that the ones with the heavenly hope aren't more spiritual or holy than anyone else they are just chosen by God for no apparent reason, they just know they are special and thats how it is, It was just one more bit of nonsense on a laundry list of nonsense . I think a more important question would be" how can they live with themselves after practicing such calous deception?"