Este: Good questions! I agree! The slave will be appointed when the master arrives! Im not sure if the JW's believe Jesus has arrived yet, or whether he has yet to arrive! If he has arrived (which i think logicaly they would believe) then he has made his choice, but if he arrives during Armageddon or whatever (which is the way i understood his second coming) then he will choose this slave THEN!!! This makes sense to me!
Jesus has arrived and it did occur around the year 1914 as they teach. But this time period was not the end times the scripture specifically says but the end is not yet but the beginnings of distress (paraphrased).
The Kingdom was born around the time the wild beast of revelations chapter 13 wages war against the holy ones. This is the time period when the slave is born, or becomes aware of his calling.
The slave then fulfillls the scriptures referring to the slave. He is appointed when jesus imprisons satan and the demons for the thousand years. All takes place in the heavens first.
Estephan
Note that the language is clearly conditional:
"Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so"
Jesus never stated the final outcome. Therefore the faithful and wise steward was a fictitious character in a parable with a very obvious meaning.
JW's don't treat it as a parable, they treat it as a prophecy which ignores that conditionality. Further, in the parable, Jesus is the one who judges the slave and makes that determination. The JW leadership has usurped that role and declared themselves righteous, which is completely backwards.
They can dress it up any way they want, but when you strip away the clever writing and state it plainly, the perception that they were the ones that Jesus found faithful at his alleged return in 1914 is an inference they've drawn based on their own imperfect perception of events. Since when does a slave decide for themselves whether they've been righteous or not?
The faithful slave and the wicked slave are "the same person".......
45 “Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. 47 Truly I say to YOU , He will appoint him over all his belongings. 48 “But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master is delaying,’ 49 and should start to beat his fellow slaves and should eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards, 50 the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect and in an hour that he does not know, 51 and will punish him with the greatest severity and will assign him his part with the hypocrites. There is where [his] weeping and the gnashing of [his] teeth will be.
The faithful slave has to endure whatever his master has puts forth before him, good and evil.
weeping is heartfelt sorrow and gnashing of teeth is anger, the exact same thing Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles endure "in like manner"
Estephan (the slave) out of the tribe of Levi, the offspring of Abraham
