The One Mistake We All Made And the January 15, 2008 Watchtower
Page 24 the Governing Body makes the following statement:
"When Christ inspected’ the faithful and discreet slave’ in 1918, he found those anointed ones on earth
(Joseph Rutherford and his associates) to be faithful in providing spiritual ‘food at the proper time.’ Hence, Jesus was pleased thereafter to appoint them ‘over all his belongings.’ (Read Matthew 24:45-47)"Question: If Jesus did inspect the Society in 1918 would he have found that the Society had been faithful in providing the right spiritual food at the right time’? The only way to know if the Society could have passed a food-at-the-proper-time examination by Jesus Christ in 1918 is to make the same examination they say Jesus made.
The one mistake that all former Witnesses and all present Witnesses have made, and the one mistake all future Witnesses will make is the failure to make that examination before deciding to get baptized. As essential as passing that exam is to the Society’s claim to being Jesus’ "faithful and discreet slave organization," nobody checks for themselves to see if the Society could have passed it.
Even Raymond Franz made this mistake for some 60 years before he finally corrected it in "the late 1970s’" when he began to examine for himself what they Society had been teaching down till 1919 .- Crisis of Conscience, p.138, paragraph 7
After completing his examination he concluded the following: "It would be an insult to Christ Jesus to say that he selected this organization on the basis of what it was teaching as of 1919." - - In Search of Christian Freedom, p. 145
It is much easier to correct this mistake today then it was in the 1970’s. Much of the Society’s pre-1919 teachings are now plastered all over the Internet for the whole world to see. But the source of information I like the best is their most up-to-date history book, "JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom." Although it contains thousands of details that don’t matter, it contains several that do. It’s just a matter of knowing what to look for and where to find them.
For example, the first surprising thing the book taught me is that the Society’s first three presidents never realized that Jesus’ returned in 1914 to begin his "invisible presence" (assuming that he did return in that year). How faithful could those men have been when God never allowed them to understand when His Son returned? And how discreet could they have been since they all announced the wrong date of 1874 for almost seven decades (67 years)?
The more the "Proclaimers" book taught me the more I could understand why Ray Franz said what he said. I too cannot understand how anyone could know what the Society had been teaching down till 1919 and still conclude that ‘Jesus would have been pleased thereafter to appoint them ‘over all his belongings as the January 15, 2008 Watchtower asserts.
The point being that without the above appointment the Society cannot be God's organization today no matter what they are teaching today.
Don Cameron