“who really is the faithful and discreet* slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?
- matthew 24:45. let's be honest, the faithful and discreet slave logically cannot refer to any and every christian.
this is not merely an encouragement for all christians to prove themselves faithful and discreet.
Your over thinking it , Luke 12:41 says it's just a parable. What should be more important is how many times the Borg leaders call Jesus a liar!
based from many of the doctrines the wts has come forth with since its existence as publishing house which were obviously incorrect or false and propagated doesn't make you wonder why there were so many who embraced this organization with full devotion and acceptance ?
even back in the late 1800's there was scrutinizing skepticism to what the leaders of the wts theologically taught.
millions of people since then have accepted the teachings of a really couple novice bible theologians, who brought forth many weakly supported doctrines such as and concerning that mankind was living in the end times and all of mankind should be prepared for its imminent destruction.. very view other christian based faiths from catholicism or protestantism have made these kind of outlandish doctrinal assertions and they make up an overwhelming greater amount of practicing theologians, to those who achieved a high a level of academic training in bible theory.
Many of the teachings of the Catholic church and others are blatantly false. Watchtower focused heavily on this - the errors of the established churches - thus portraying themselves as the righteous and insightful underdog exposing the corruption of "Big Religion". Many disaffected Catholics got swept away by this Watchtower tactic.
Additionally, Watchtower preys on persons who are largely ignorant of what the bible says, and who lack the ability to accurately interpret and apply scripture. Such persons are dependent on others to explain and interpret the bible to them. So Watchtower explains to them the errors of other churches, thus getting them to distrust the other churches while trusting Watchtower as an insightful and knowledgeable teacher.
So who will use the bible to explain to them the errors of Watchtower - the same churches that they now distrust? They will not listen to them. Will Watchtower expose and draw attention to their own errors? No, Watchtower hides its errors. But even if it did, the JW would see it as evidence of unparalleled honesty and humility and greater reason to stick with Watchtower. So such biblically illiterate persons are left completely at the mercy of Watchtower until they learn the bible well enough through independent and objective bible study. But wait...Watchtower warns against independent bible study, saying it leads to apostasy ... Few are able to escape from the psychological prison that Watchtower creates for its followers.
“who really is the faithful and discreet* slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time?
- matthew 24:45. let's be honest, the faithful and discreet slave logically cannot refer to any and every christian.
this is not merely an encouragement for all christians to prove themselves faithful and discreet.
“Who really is the faithful and discreet* slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? - Matthew 24:45
Let's be honest, the faithful and discreet slave logically cannot refer to any and every Christian. This is not merely an encouragement for all Christians to prove themselves faithful and discreet. The text says that the faithful and discreet slave is "appointed over" Jesus' "domestics" or his "body of attendants" (Luke 12:42). Thus the faithful and discreet slave obviously refers to one(s) in a position of responsibility or authority over others. Who? Well, who are the "domestics"?
Luke refers to them as being Jesus' "body of attendants". Several scriptures refer to the congregation as being Christ's body. I think it's very reasonable to conclude that the domestics or body of attendants refers to the congregation. Therefore the faithful and discreet slave refers to one(s) having authority over the congregation. Authority for what purpose?
Jesus says their role would be to feed the domestics. Does this not remind you of Jesus' words to Peter: "Feed my little sheep"? Jesus appointed Peter to feed the newly formed Christian congregation. Thus it can be clearly seen that Peter falls within the role of the faithful and discreet slave mentioned at Matthew 24:45. Does it end there? No.
Jesus' direction to Peter: "feed my little sheep" implicitly refers to Peter as being a shepherd. For shepherds feed sheep by leading them to their pastures of food. Who else does the NT refer to as being shepherds, thus showing they have a role of feeding the congregation? Elders. A chief role of an elder is teaching - providing spiritual food. Elders are appointed over the congregation. They are "overseers". Thus elders also fall within the role of the faithful and discreet slave mentioned at Matthew 24:45.
So my conclusion is that the faithful and discreet slave does not refer to a specific group of men serving on a Governing Body at a particular time in history. No. It refers to all Christians living at all times who are appointed to serve as teachers of the congregation. It applies to Peter and the apostles and it applies to elders. It applies to all who are appointed with authority to teach the congregation. So the parable of Matthew 24:45-51 and Luke 12:42-46 is an encouragment/warning to all who would be appointed to teach the congregation, to prove themselves faithful and discreet.
Further corroborating this point is the statement in the parable, that the slave will be punished with "the greatest severity" if found unfaithful when the master returns. This matches the scripture in James that say: "Not many of you should become teachers as you would face heavier judgement." We also see that the elders in the congregation - the stars in Jesus' hand - are the ones that Jesus addresses when he counsels the congregations in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation. This harmonizes with the idea that they are the slaves appointed to feed the domestics and have to answer for the state of the congregation. For further evidence, have a read of the scriptures that give the qualifications for elders and contrast it with what Jesus says about the evil slave in the FDS parable.
Very funny strawman satire of atheism.
jesus said that his true disciples would love him more than family.
(matthew 10:37) therefore, ex-jws worthy of reinstatement should be returning because they love jesus more than family - not because of wanting to restore family association.
if they truly love jesus more than family they would still return despite their family continuing to communicate with them, because they will value their relationship with jesus as a prize to be attained above and beyond their relationship with their family.
Watchtower is unwittingly insulting Jesus. They're telling Jesus that their members don't love him enough to return to him without family shunning. They're telling Jesus that members love their family more than they love him so family has to be taken away to force them to return to him. JWs, do you not see how obscene your organisation's admission of the need to use family shunning, actually is?
jesus said that his true disciples would love him more than family.
(matthew 10:37) therefore, ex-jws worthy of reinstatement should be returning because they love jesus more than family - not because of wanting to restore family association.
if they truly love jesus more than family they would still return despite their family continuing to communicate with them, because they will value their relationship with jesus as a prize to be attained above and beyond their relationship with their family.
Jesus said that his true disciples would love him more than family. (Matthew 10:37) Therefore, ex-JWs worthy of reinstatement should be returning because they love Jesus more than family - not because of wanting to restore family association. If they truly love Jesus more than family they would still return despite their family continuing to communicate with them, because they will value their relationship with Jesus as a prize to be attained above and beyond their relationship with their family.
Your organization says that ex-JWs are unlikely to return if their family fails to shun them. Doesn't this claim imply that love of family is prized more than love of Jesus? By using family shunning to coerce your ex-JW relatives to return, aren't you unwittingly contradicting the principle of Matthew 10:37? For you see, the tactic of deprivation only works as a tool of manipulation if the thing being withheld is valued more by the subject, than the demand being made of him.
A kidnapper keeps your relative hostage unless you hand over money. Why? He's working on the assumption that you love the relative more than money. A mother withholds candy from her child until he eats his spinach. Why? She's working on the assumption that he loves candy more than spinach. So when Watchtower teaches you to withhold your familial association to coerce your disfellowshipped relative to return - are they not unwittingly assuming/implying that family association is valued above love of Jesus?
thousands of years old.
this makes my blood boil.. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/jehovahs-witnesses-destroy-ancient-indigenous-temple-in-mexico-20160628-0009.html.
"The point is whether the JW community or its organization condones or promotes these acts, and to be fair the answer to that is no."
I agree. But Watchtower does bear some indirect responsibility for shaping the religiously bigoted minds some of which may feel motivated to go on to do such acts. Watchtower unwittingly contributes to creating motives for such acts to be committed.
I think the real issue here is about accuracy in ascribing blame, if indeed the act was done by JWs. It would be technically correct to say it was done by JWs. But such statement needs to be clarified to make it known that it was done by rogue individual JWs and their action is not representative of typical JW conduct and is not encouraged or condoned by JWs as a group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktxjuyiat4.
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thousands of years old.
this makes my blood boil.. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/jehovahs-witnesses-destroy-ancient-indigenous-temple-in-mexico-20160628-0009.html.
I don't think it the least bit implausible that a few recently converted rogue JWs could do something like that. Maybe the rogue JWs are members of the indigenous group and formerly worshiped at the shrine and now that they're learning from the JWs they feel the need to affirm their stance for pure worship and renounce their former course of false worship by engaging in this act. Maybe they were inspired by the actions of Gideon.
Whatever the case, I don't see how anyone can honestly say that JWs wouldn't or couldn't do something like this. JWs condemn all other religions as false and part of Babylon the Great; they often consider the example of faithful kings who destroyed altars and shrines used for false worship. It does't require any stretch of the imagination to see how/why a rogue JW could do something like this.
Yes, JWs are taught to not use violence and not take matters into their own hands by acting physically against false worshipers and apostates, etc. Yes, the vast majority of JWs would never do something like this and it would be unfair to give the impression that such conduct is typical of JW culture and condoned or encouraged by the organization. We can fairly say that the behavior is atypical for JWs but we cannot outright dismiss the possibility of it being done by a few rogue JWs.
the james webb telescope is set to launch in october of 2018 and will allow us to study the formation of first generation stars, the molecular clouds that became the first galaxies, and directly image exoplanets.
roughly one hundred times more powerful than the hubble space telescope the jwst is going to push back the current boundaries of science.. this is what 100-million man hours can accomplish.. .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8p0samsz7m.
Science is the genuine pursuit of truth. Religion is the arrogant and ignorant assertion of ancient and ignorant myths, as truth.
