Can you think of any other Christian religion that fullfils the criteria for Evil Slave more than the Watchtower Society?
Hello Nambo and welcome to the forum. The parable of the Faithful and Evil slave is a riddle.
rid·dle /'ridl/
| Noun: | - A question intentionally phrased to require ingenuity in ascertaining its answer.
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as·cer·tain /?as?r'tan/
| Verb: | | Find (something) out for certain; make sure of: "ascertain the cause of the accident". |
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The riddle can be solved (ascertained) using the chapter it's derived from and nothing else. Consider the verses preceding the parable:
Matthew 24 - 37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
There was a fire where I grew up when I was 15 years old. It came from a chain dragging underneath a pickup truck and sparked the fire without the driver even knowing. The day was very windy and the fire that came was traveling around 60 miles per hour devouring everything in it's path. It came through my neighborhood and burned my house to the ground with everything in it. The fire seemed to pick and choose houses at will. Two houses would be on a single property and one would be burned down and the other untouched. It had to do with probability because of how fast the fire was traveling.
The point is there was no way we could have ever guessed which houses were going to burn and which were not. We knew that there was going to be fires that season, because we always have them. The only thing we could do is have a general plan that we hoped would have the best chance for success.
Now lets say my mother was paranoid about fires. Lets say she's so out of balance within her mind about the fires coming that she spends our family savings on equipment that she thinks will be necessary in the future. Every piece she buys has some sort of hypothetical involvement for when the fire will come. Let's say one day my father approaches her and asks to stop dipping into the family fund to pay for anti fire equipment. He explains to her that the whole family appreciates the support and the brain storming, but that we just don't have enough funds to continue purchasing items for every idea she has.
She calmly agrees with her husband that her behavior was out of line and agrees to stop. However while he is at work every day she starts to resent the kids for costing so much. If they weren't around there would be more money available to purchase fire safety items. Eventually she gives into the dysfunctional thought process and loses her mind into a frenzy. She then chooses to beat my brother and I out of pure spite without her even realizing it. She thinks that we are an obstruction to safety. Then, one day a fire comes by and all the equipment she bought, at the cost of her children's future, are consumed by a raging and unpredictably strong fire.
There is a simple message within the parable and it is a concise way to explain what happens when you worry about things you have no control over. You eventually go mad and start demonizing, ostracising or even physically beating people who question your own delusions. It's best to be faithful and discreet when dealing with things you don't understand and that's a mark of a true leader. Which is why in the parable the master appoints the faithful and discreet slave to a position of authority, because he earned it, and the other is left to gnash their teeth in jealously. Because the evil slave could have been the faithful slave, but tripped over their own foolishness.
The Watchtower thinks they have created an Armageddon Survival Kit and they vehemently target anyone who questions its validity. They certainly are the poster child of the Evil Slave of Matthew 24.
-Sab
