Why Russell could not have been the faithful and discreet slave (from the standpoint of JW belief)

JWB

WHY RUSSELL COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE FAITHFUL AND DISCREET SLAVE (FROM THE STANDPOINT OF JW BELIEF)

This thread was started in order to answer a question raised elsewhere about Russell being the Faithful and Wise Servant (aka FDS).

The reason Russell was originally considered the FDS was that he taught 1874 as being the start of the Parousia, with 1878 as the time that Jesus began to reign proper. That would mean he was alive at the time (according to his calculations) of the selecting of the FDS. Remember that the FDS was identified as such, in the parable, only AFTER the Master's return. However, we know that Russell's calculations for the 1874 date was based on a 100-year error. His dating hinged on the supposed start of human creation and a time period of 6,000 years stretching from there up to 1874. However, JWs base their FDS time calculations on 2,520 years stretching from 607 BCE to 1914 CE, with the subsequent selection around about 1918-1919. So, by the current reasoning, Russell could not have been selected as the FDS (or part thereof) since he died before the time of selection!

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Charles Taze Russell's Hundred Year Error

"In 1877, Russell joined Nelson H. Barbour in publishing the book Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World. It indicated that the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 would be preceded by a forty-year period to open with a three-and-a-half-year harvest beginning in 1874 C.E. According to Bible chronology thereafter adopted, it was understood that 6,000 years of man's existence on earth ended in 1872, whereas six millenniums of human sin concluded and the seventh millennium began in 1874. Christ's presence was thought to have begun in October 1874, at the start of the great antitypical Jubilee.--Lev. chap. 25; Rev. 20:4." [Watch. 15 Aug 1974, pages 506-507, "No Spiritual 'Energy Crisis' for Discreet Ones"]

"Man's creation was placed in 4128 and sin's entrance in 4126 B.C.E. Such chronology followed an incorrect manuscript rendering of Acts 13:20 in the Emphatic Diaglott, which said that God gave Israel judges 'about four hundred fifty years, till Samuel the prophet.' A footnote stated that this was at variance with 1 Kings 6:1, where the Hebrew letter daleth (thought to represent the number 4) supposedly had been mistaken for the similar character he (5). Hence, it was suggested that 580 (not 480) years elapsed between Israel's exodus from Egypt and the time that Solomon began building Jehovah's temple. But the oldest manuscripts spell out all numbers. So a transcriber's visual error could not have occurred at 1 Kings 6:1, which gives this period correctly as 480 years. This harmonizes with a correct reading of Acts 13:20, which indicates that the period of 'about four hundred and fifty years' there mentioned preceded the era of the Judges. In 1943 the Watch Tower Society's book "The Truth Shall Make You Free" did away with the nonexistent extra 100 years in the period of the Judges and placed the end of 6,000 years of man's existence in the 1970's. It also fixed the beginning of Christ's presence, not in 1874, but in 1914 C.E.'" [Watch. 15 Aug 1974, footnotes, "No Spiritual 'Energy Crisis' for Discreet Ones"]

breakfast of champions

Interesting. . .

00DAD

Russell made an error, that's right. He made a couple in fact. Come to think of it, he wasn't really right about anything, but this is STILL God's Visible Organization, the only true religion on earth today!

Have you turned in your Field Service report?

Phizzy

But the choosing of the Rutherford mafia in 1919 was supposedly based on what they were teaching at the time, all the mistaken stuff produced by Russell , including the infamous Finished Mystery (ascribed to Russell ,if very little in fact was by his hand).

Where is the logic ? there is none, where is the advantage in trying to distance themselves from Russell ? there is none.

On what possible basis would Jesus choose them ?

keyser soze

Whether or not he was is actually beside the point. The fact of the matter is that he proclaimed himself to be. Either he really was, which makes their current understanding wrong, or he was proclaiming it falsely, which begs the question- why would Jesus have approved them in 1919, after they had shown themselves to be false prophets? This is a conundrum they have never been able to solve, no matter how much 'new light' they come up with.

00DAD

Phizzy: On what possible basis would Jesus choose them ?

Only if he'd lost his mind!

keyser soze: This is a conundrum they have never been able to solve, no matter how much 'new light' they come up with.

Great point Keyser, they're wrong either way. The ONLY way to fix it is to ADMIT IT and move on. This is something that never seems to occur to them.

RubaDub

I think Russell's beard disqualified him as being part of the FDS.

Rub a Dub

NOLAW

Flawed reasoning. Jesus would find him providing spiritual food. The FDS existed before Jesus arrived. Would you expect Jesus to characterize as FDS someone who didn't provide spiritual food the previous day but only the day he (supposedly) arrived? Thinking of the slave as a group, then Russell was part of that group.

yadda yadda 2

Russell was believed by many to be the (singular) faithful and discreet slave (a belief he never publicly professed to agree with, but that he never publicly denounced either) because he was regarded as reviving and teaching important truths of primitive Christianity that had been buried under centuries of pagan, Babylonish falsehood. In other words, he was appointed by Jesus as a FDS because he 'turned the hose on hell', exposed the trinity as false, realised that an immortal human soul is not taught in the Bible, etc, Bible 'truths' he taught to millions. Yet he also taught some things, even bizarre things, that were very wrong. (But, hey, no ones perfect, JW's say. Its what the Watchtower Society has right that counts)

This is actually a very good way of proving that the FDS as a composite 'class' of a few senior writers at world headquarters could not have been appointed in 1919 especially, since in 1919 Judge Rutherford and his senior colleagues at the Watchtower headquarters were just as guilty of perpetuating and inventing wrong things that Russell taught, in fact Rutherford was even worse at inventing religious nonsense, and insisting it was all true and sure to be fulfilled with much greater bombast than Russell. Russell and his fellow writers at the Watchtower Society clearly met exactly the same test pre-1919.

But what really is the distinguishing feature now between the pre-1914 and post-1914 individual members of the FDS at the Watchtower Headquarters - who in all other respects are indistinguishable from one another as a small group of men at the the Society publishing spiritual truths except for minor variations in teaching - is of course that the GB is now saying that Jesus could not have appointed Russell et al as a composite FDS 'class' over the domestics because Jesus had not returned yet! So yet again, the delusional 1914 is used to to hang arbitrary time-based fulfillments on while throwing logic and common sense out the window.

So its the ultimate insult to Russell and irony that the chronology that he invented that pointed to 1914 is now the perfect excuse for this new wave GB to bite the hand that fed them (Russell) and now totally lord it over the flock and rule as kings without their fellow anointed. Bit of beating of their fellow slaves to follow next?

ÁrbolesdeArabia

well done, very interesting read!

Why Russell could not have been the faithful and discreet slave (from the standpoint of JW belief)

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