2012 annual meeting notes (page 9)

moshe

that the Manhattan Project "setting up tables on the street" is going nationwide.

Their table won't be set up very long , if me or judgeRutherfraud decide to stop by for a chat.

Now that they have returned to the Russellite idea of a 2-tier heavenly class, the next step will be to say that the count of "144,000" only applies to the top-ranking dudes, and the rest of the "anointed", while a minority of JWs, are an unnumbered "little flock".

At some point X years in the future, they'll come up with more "new light" to that effect.

This will (1) eliminate the embarrassment of the skyrocketing count of memorial partakers each year (those new partakers are part of the unnumbered "little flock" but not part of the "FDS"), and (2) finally and completely marginalize the "non-approved" anointed.

They've probably already decided this is the route to take, but want to give folks a little "breathing room" to assimilate this little factoid before springing step 2 on them.

respectful_observer

Apologies if this has been floated out there in this or any of the other Annual Meeting threads, but I found it interesting that they specifically excluded Russell from the FDS.

I wonder if this might be a first step in explaining away some of Russell's more bizarre ideas (e.g., using the measurements on the Egyptian pyramids to calculate Bible prophecy). Arguing that he wasn't a member of the FDS would allow them to disavow many of his teachings.

As a vaguely related aside, I was a litte surprised that the article in the back of this month's Study Edition WT included Russell's pyramid timeline graphic from Studies in the Scriptures.

kepler

R_O,

Don't have an answer for that last question about Russell, but have a few questions of my own.

If a member [sic]of the Faithful and Discreet Slave decides to retire, then would it not be unseemly for the remainder of Faithful and Discreet Slave to hound that individual to death, disfellowshipping all his associates and eventually disfellowshipping him? I mean, I don't see visions of doves and light from heaven in such accounts. I see Politburo machinations like Stalin going after Bukharin or Trotskij. Or maybe Khrushchev deciding what to do with Beria.

When we examine this crazy lexicon that is invented and continually revised - why not join the fun and come up with some of our own? At least there are some obvious metaphors.

A number of governing board members became inactive beside Ray Franz and Olin Moyle. But the ones that probably deserved the millstones around their necks got to retire into obscurity like Molotov, supervising a Siberian hydroelectric plant, or Khrushchev, subsequently, promoting hydroponics as a pensioner. But I have to admit that despite the secrecy in preparation "Khrushchev Remembers" caused less of a stir in the Politburo than "CoC" did among the Faithful and Discreet Slave (?) excuse

It would appear that the revision of the term "faithful and wise servant" to faithful and discreet slave" came sometime after the 1934 yearbook. During the period of the Olin Moyle banishment which term did the then extant authorities clothes themselves in?

Is it not strange as well that disfellowship and the FDS are so intricately wound together? Only a few days earlier I was listening to RayPublisher's trial recordings in which the Judicial Committee members were asking him repeatedly (circa September 25) about how he felt about the Faithful and Discreet Slave? Do you belief in his authority? We have pledged an oath to the FDS...

Meanwhile, those who considered themselves either the one or part of the FDS were busily preparing for a RE-DEFINITION of the FDS. If historically it had been assumed either an individual or a class, now it was going to be... members of a board. These are individuals who are hardly known to the rank & file, hardly even traceable in public records - and I am not even sure how many there are. Seven? Eight? Does number 8 count or is the re-organization intended to deal with just such circumstances as his background provided?

But going back to the trial video, would that not be a pertinent point in any matter of jurisprudence, even in a star chamber? Should not the articles of faith be the same when you exit as when you arrived? Since I did not detect a specific charge in that proceeding or a specific accuser, it would seem that the FDS itself would have a specific nature for the question to be of any relevance.

...Other than its presumed authority.

elderelite

Wow sir82 thats really good! make only the FDS the 144,000.... wow! but then you have to distinguish those who are going to heaven and those who are living on earth somehow... cant really go back on the earthly panda petting paradise. The resurection, the issue of universal soverignety and a several other key doctrines all hang on the earthly paradise...

St George of England

We have pledged an oath to the FDS...

Cue... Re-write baptismal questions to include oath to GB.

George

JW GoneBad

Leolaia, sent you a PM

DaveS

Hello everyone,

First post on this forum, I've lurked for a while and will probably return to lurking after this post but I felt the need to point something out that (as far as I can tell) has been missed regarding this Nu-Lite(TM).

Taken from the Wikipedia article on the NWT of the holy scriptures -

In October 1946, the president of the Watch Tower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, proposed a fresh translation of the New Testament, which Jehovah's Witnesses usually refer to as the Christian Greek Scriptures. Work began on December 2, 1947 when the "New World Bible Translation Committee" was formed, composed of Jehovah's Witnesses who claimed to be anointed.

Surely, if the faithful slave is only the members of the governing body they have invalidated their own translation of the scriptures? If all members of the annointed are not held in the same regard then how can they possibly justify their translation? Unless they claim the original "Anonymous" members were all part of the governing body?

Any way, just a thought. Carry on :-)

Cheers,

Dave.

kepler

R_O,

Some further reflection on your Russell-pyramid question amid a jog in the fall air.

I don't know. Perhaps these musings are too whimsical; perhaps not. But looking from the outside in, 144,000 "shares" sold over a period of millenia sounds like a pyramid scheme in itself. Someone earlier noted that twenty centuries requires 72 elect a year. And I believe there are considerable obligations BC as well as AD. For example, if Gideon had 300 men that he selected from a larger group of applicants, shouldn't they have an opportunity to be eternal astronauts too?

There have always been problems with this number. If they stand in a square, how many elect would be on a side? To the closest integer elect?

By tribes? Three back, four wide?

And then nobody's counting at the quartermaster's.

Now another thing. Why this parable? Do all the parables have validation in church offices?

Aside from the fact that right now there are more than five, why not, as the NWT says, "5 discreet virgins"? They were bridesmaids actually since there was only one bridegroom. How a foolish virgin maintains virgin status very long, if that's how they are defined as characters, that also presents a conundrum, but never mind. In the narrative they were also just as hypothetical and the next metaphor in Matthew's narrative.

If the trinity is supposedly manufactured out of whole cloth ( and I suggest reading Genesis Chapter 18, the apparition at Mamre by Abraham before you decide), then what about the faithful and discreet slave as a church office?

Bobcat

DaveS:

Interesting thought. They would probably say that the then FDS authorized it. So it wouldn't matter who actually did the work.

To anyone else:

Does anyone have access to any references that would show how early Christians (2-4th century or there abouts) viewed the parable of the faithful slave? It would be interesting to see those viewpoints.

Take Care

2012 annual meeting notes

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