Matthew 24:45-51 — “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.
“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.”
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that loyal ones among the International Bible Students were chosen in 1919 as the Faithful and Discreet Slave after Jesus made a diligent search from 1914 to 1918 of all religions claiming to be Christian. These “adopted sons of God” are said be the brothers of Christ.
This is an important doctrine to Jehovah's Witnesses because only this choosing grants any air of divinity to the spiritual authority asserted by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, a very small group deceptively claiming to represent the interests of a class of people identified as the Faithful and Discreet Slave. We will examine this claim herein, along with examining the perverse purpose served by identifying an indistinguishable, nebulous "class" of people as the FDS.
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that the FDS is comprised of all the anointed remaining on the earth from the special choosing in 1919 onward.
(1) First and foremost, the text itself bears examination. Does Jesus stipulate that anyone at all will eventually be identified as a faithful and discreet slave? No. He asks a question. He does not state that such a slave will be found when the master returns, he only says, "Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so." The word "if" makes this a conditional phrase, not suitable for a prophecy at all.
(2) The time of examination is "on arriving". In the Greek, the word erchomai does not mean the same thing as the word parousia. There is a parallel account found at Luke 18:8 that says, "I tell you, He will cause justice to be done to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man arrives, will he really find the faith on the earth?" Here again, Jesus isn't saying he will find the faith on the earth, he is asking whether he will.
(3) Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jehovah was using C.T. Russell in a unique way at least as early as 1879. Why would Jehovah require Jesus to conduct an exhaustive search of religions claiming to be Christian if he already knew whom Jesus should use? Why would Jesus not have known about C.T. Russell, his remarkable insights, and his identification as the faithful and discreet slave? It makes no sense to believe Jesus was oblivious of a special relationship C.T. Russell enjoyed with Jehovah.
(4) Jehovah's Witnesses teach that there has always been a remnant of anointed ones ever since Pentecost 33 CE. While they cannot identify this group throughout history, they assume that such a group must have existed at all times. They further identify this remnant as the brothers of and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. These each received an anointing and each was born again by spirit adoption as sons of God. To accept that Jesus needed to do a search through all religions claiming to be Christian in order to locate this remnant is to accept that even Jesus didn't know who his own brothers and joint heirs were.
(5) In order to identify the FDS accurately, we must know who they are. In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses teach that identifying these "brothers of Christ" is absolutely essential to salvation, since one must "do good" to them in order to be saved. Jehovah's Witnesses say the FDS is a group of people comprised of all the remaining anointed ones. Well, who are anointed? They are not necessarily all partakers, because not all partakers are necessarily partaking worthily. Ironically, while JWs teach that identifying the anointed brothers of Christ is vital for salvation, they simultaneously hold a doctrine that such identification is impossible on an individual basis. So, the Faithful and Discreet Slave can only be identified as a group made up entirely of unidentifiable individuals. In other words, they can only be identified as an intangible concept—one that may or may not have basis in reality.
(6) The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, not the FDS, has all authority among Jehovah's Witnesses. This group claims to represent the interests of the aforementioned intangible concept, but even they have no way of knowing who are the individual constituents of the FDS. So, in exactly what way does the identified intangible concept "FDS" exercise authority over anything, much less all of Christ's belongings? They don't. In fact, the FDS "as a class" have no authority, whatsoever, over anything.
Why does the sixth point serve the perverse interests of the Governing Body? They have the perfect scapegoat. They are not held organizationally accountable to anyone but God and each other, yet they can pretend to only be serving the interests and aims of the FDS, the members of which even they cannot by any means identify. In this way, they have a huge cushion of nebulous, intangible air called "the Faithful and Discreet Slave class" as a buffer between their arbitrary, often unscriptural decisions and the rank and file Jehovah's Witnesses. These lowly Jehovah's Witnesses, from elders on down, are the ones spiritually, physically, and/or emotionally damaged by the Governing Body's doctrines.
(See also Dispelling JW Myths: Governing Body)