The evil slave are those who were at one time were anointed by God's spirit but who thereafter apostatize from the truth. The original congregation in the 1st century certainly had an antichrist element comprised of those of whom John said, "went out from us, but they were not of our sort, for if they had been of our sort, they would have remained with us. But they went out that it might be shown up that not all are of our sort." Jonh went on to say: " And you have an anointing from the holy one; all of you have knowledge." Those who abandoned the congregation back then formed the beginnings of Christendom, which essentially is apostasy institutionalized. As Jesus said: "Many are called but few are chosen." The evil and sluggish slaves are those who were at one time called as anointed ones, but in one way or the other they failed to be finally chosen, so the Devil uses them to set up counterfeit organizations that are really anti-Christ in nature.
At the time of the re-organization of Christianity, back during Russell's day, it is reasonable to also expect to see a re-emergence of those who similiarly "went out from among us." About half of the anointed back then apostatized and refused to advance with the organization. Their faith more or less died with Russell. Ray Franz is the most recent example of an evil slave who went out from among us. The vast majority of apostate JW's today are in essence followers of Ray Franz, in that his writings are the foundation of the entire apostate movemnt predicated on the well-vocalized premise that "My Master is delaying."
Going forward, we may anticipate a final decisive outbreak of apostasy among those who are really not of our sort. Paul in fact said that the true sons would not be gathered to Christ "unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction." While we presently recognize that the clergy comprise a composite "man of lawlessness" class, Paul's prophecy indicates that apostasy will continue to ferment and develop from within the ranks of the anointed all the way up until the time that Christ arrives; at which time all apostates are purged from Christ's church by the angels who gather up all the lawless ones like bundles of weeds to be burned. The fact that the man of lawlessness "sits down in the temple of The God," which temple is the anointed themselves, and the fact that Jesus has not exposed the son of destruction yet, reveals that there is more work for the apostate to do within Jehovah's organization before he meets up with his destruction. Interestingly, Jesus dubbed Judas "the son of destruction." That's also what Paul called the man of lawlessness, making a definite connection with the man that personally betrayed Christ. So, in the future then, apostates will no doubt be instrumental in betraying Christ's brothers during the oncoming tribulation. Just as Jesus' apostles were not aware that Judas was a two-faced fraud, no doubt that will be the final act that exposes those who are apostates---making up a modern-day Judas class as I have dubbed them. The stage seems to be pretty much set for the final act to commence. The Tribulation is certain to be a time of such hysteria, great confusion, darkness, and massive deception on the part of false Christ's, that only the true sons of the kingdom will be able to follow the beacon leading them safely home. / You Know
