As written in the July 15 2014 wt
What Gerrit used to believe and teach...
“The Roman Catholic teaching of apostolic succession claims that there is an unbroken succession of popes in a line extending all the way back to the apostle Peter. (The church misinterprets Jesus’ words that are quoted at Matthew 16:18, 19.) Catholicism also claims that the pope is infallible in matters of doctrine when he speaks ex cathedra, or in an official capacity. I believed this and thought that if the pope, whom Catholics call Holy Father, is infallible in doctrinal matters and has proclaimed the Trinity to be true, then it must be true. But if he is not infallible, then the doctrine may be false. No wonder that for many Catholics the teaching of apostolic succession is the most important teaching, since the correctness or incorrectness of other Catholic teachings hinges on it!”
Edited to reflect what Gerritt now believes and teaches...aka the "new fds" understanding. Bold are the only changes... Note that apostolic succession has been replaced with fds and catholiscm has been replaced with org, and pope is replaced with GB ...
“The Witness teaching of the Faithful and Discrete Slave succession claims that there is an unbroken succession of Governing Body members in a line extending all the way back to Judge Rutherford (The Organization misinterprets Jesus’ words that are quoted at Matthew 16:18, 19.) the Organization also claims that the Faithful and Discrete Slave is infallible in matters of doctrine when they speaks ex cathedra, or in an official capacity. I believed this and thought that if the Governing Body, whom Witnesses call the Faithful and Discrete Slave is infallible in doctrinal matters and has proclaimed 1914 to be true, then it must be true. But if they are not infallible, then the doctrine may be false. No wonder that for many Witnesses the teaching of Faithful and Discrete Slave is the most important teaching, since the correctness or incorrectness of other Witness teachings hinges on it!”