by Etude 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
CYP,
see Acts 15 and Gal 2.
"When God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his undeserved kindness, thought good to reveal his Son in connection with me, that I might declare the good news about him to the nations, I did not go at once into conference with flesh and blood. Neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles previous to me." (Gal 1:15-17).
M.J.:
Thanks for the references. They make it very clear that the Society has maneuvered the GB as being a group within a group, representing the FDS, all who are the 144,000. Of course, that includes individuals who lived in the first century. This will come back to bite them. Not just their manipulation of the facts about an "early governing body", but the fact that, in years to come, the number of 144,000 will increase or at least not diminish. That will force them to change their explanations. Hopefully and because of improved access to information via technology, it will be less difficult to hide.
The thing I get from their descriptions you cited is that if the GB represents the FDS, how do the members of the FDS who are not of the GB fulfill their role as "providing spiritual nourishment at the proper time"? The example I gave in my original post to illustrate those "anointed" who are marginal to the operation of the Society begs the question of how many of this class actually fulfill their role. As far as I can see, they do nothing, except those in the GB. I would hope that most Witnesses could see that as well, simply by thinking about it.
Realistically though, the fact that I thought about this issue when I was still a practicing Witness and managed to shove it aside should be indicative of what it is that they do that allowed me to gloss over it. I just can't put my finger on it.
Etude.
Farkel asked:
==========
Could anyone with authority in the WTS who is NOT on the GB go to New York and "straighten them out?" Sure he could, and his ass would get booted clear across the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan!
==========
I had a pre-1935 annointed in my congregation when I was a kid. In retrospect, this gentleman received his communication from God's holy spirit in the same way the rest of us did: he read about it in the pages of the Watchtower.
If you are not in Bethel, being annointed gives you a fancy title, and absolutely nothing else.
EDULE, According to my understanding, the christians are of the faithful slave(s),(my opinion), yet my opinion doesn't count as scripture states that Christ is the Faithful Slave.
POLE, gave an example by a link, http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/94909/1.ashx . But when I went to the link, ESTEPHANLEVESE, brought up another question in my mind.
If Jehovah God created all things, yet in John 1:2-3, tells us that Christ created all things. As a BAC, I agree. Yet it would be a huge paradox to any or all Jehovah Witnesses, because it would say that Christ is Jehovah God, which I agree....
I read an account here on JWD (I believe) some time ago by a person who had professed to be of the anointed while he was a JW. He was asked by an older sister one time at the hall how often Bethel had consulted him on spiritual matters, in light of his position. The answer obviously was "never" but it really got him thinking, eventually leading him out of the borg.
The explanation I've heard about (God created everything and Christ created everything) was quite satisfactory to me. It's like saying: Frank Lloyd Wright built the Johnson's Wax building. We know that a contractor/project manager did. No, wait, it was the laborers who actually built it. Well, they can all claim that they did and be right. The point is that the credit ultimately goes to the architect. But the job foreman/contractor is the actual builder.
I don't like the idea that I'm agreeing with anything the WTBTS says. However, their view that Christ was used by God to create all things would put him in the place of the contractor/foreman for the job and would therefore eliminate any contradiction. Does that seem reasonable?
Etude.
I know, off topic, but allow me to throw a monkey wrench in that one, etude
Isaiah 43:12
12 It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.
Isaiah 44:24
24 "This is what the LORD [Yahweh] says—
your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the LORD [Yahweh],
who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
M.J.:
You've got a good one there. That is very keen of you. I would have to agree if we decided that we are not to ascribe any poetic license to those words, that there's nothing "representative" about the phrases, that it should be taken strictly literally. Forgive me for nit-picking here, but that's the problem with ancient languages and with how people think, and particularly with the Bible. A lot of things are subject to multiple interpretations.
I tried to use my own analogy and pictured Frank Lloyd Wright saying those words. From the context of a designer, it seems to fit. Yahweh "alone" is the creator. Yahweh "alone" is the one who "stretched" his hand out to make all things. Does that mean to the exclusion of any helper? Not necessarily.
The verses you quoted and the ones in the book of John:" 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ", throw a monkey wrench in the idea as to who made what. It is what has caused dissension and differences of opinion for centuries about the Bible. The dilemma continues.
Etude.
Well said. "God" could conceivably include Christ...
Pet peeve alert: It's DISCREET, DISCREET.
Outside of the JW's the meaning of this parable is quite different. Any Christian is to be faithful and discreet. What Christian wouldn't want to please God in this way?
http://www.inspiredchristian.org/cyber/050701rf.html
Another pet peeve: Servants serve. They don't boss around the other servants. This alone sets the WTBTS FDS closer to the evil slave.
As an amusing sideline, when I googled "discreet servant", subtracting all the JW entries, I found a gratifying number of testimonials about faithful butlers who served their Kings with discretion and grace. Dollars to doughnuts none of them wrote their own autobiography.
Louis Marchand was a reliable and discreet servant, and he had a warm and affectionate relationship with the emperor. He also kept extensive notes that contradict testimony by one member of Napoleon's court.
http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/spring03/html/exhuming_bonaparte.shtml
When the new building is finished, modern traders will sit down barely a minute when a discreet servant soundlessly and graciously will serve them a small, welcoming cup of hot tea like the one we drink this afternoon.
http://www.teamuse.com/article_010301.html
While Bromley's official title is general manager and regional vice president of the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences in the city, he generally refers to himself as "butler to the rich and famous." And like any discreet servant, he only reluctantly divulges details of the celebrities, diplomats and other powerful people his hotel typically caters to. "We see some goofy things, but we don't talk about it," says Bromley, with a hint of a smile. A typically demure remark for a veteran with more than 35 years working at some of the world's top-rated hotels. The Pennsylvania native studied at the Swiss National Hotel School in Lausanne, graduating in 1965 and working his way up the ranks.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2001/03/19/focus3.html
Harold Brown is a faithful and trusted servant who has worked for the Royal Family for more than 30 years. "He is... everything a butler should be: professional, discreet, dependable. He was always unobtrusively there, and was such a help to Princess Margaret over the years.
"His loyalty to the Royal Family is without question."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2538765.stm
There you have it, some genuinely faithful and discreet servants.
