The Faithful and Discreet Slave

"Who really is the faithful and discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to YOU, He will appoint him over all his belongings." Matthew 24:45-47

The bible verses that the Jehovah's Witnesses use to solidify their claim as the one true religion. But how, you might ask, can this be possible? Let's look at a few articles from JW literature to see exactly what they have claimed.

"Over a period of more than 1,960 years, that work of education has continued, preparing a little flock made up of people from "every tribe and tongue and people and nation" to serve with Christ in his heavenly Kingdom." Yearbook 1996 p.3

"In this regard, the book God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached stated: "As to just how the 'faithful and discreet slave' class existed and served down through the centuries after the death of the apostles of the Master Jesus Christ, we do not have a distinct historical picture. Apparently one generation of the 'slave' class fed the next succeeding generation thereof. (2 Timothy 2:2)" Watchtower 1995 May 15 p.16

"Jehovah's Witnesses believe that this parable pertains to the one true congregation of Jesus Christ's anointed followers. Beginning with Pentecost, 33 C.E., and continuing through the 19 centuries since then, this slavelike congregation has been feeding its members spiritually, doing so faithfully and discreetly . the one approved channel representing God's kingdom on earth in the "time of the end."" Watchtower 1981 March 1 p.24 Do You Appreciate the "Faithful and Discreet Slave"?

"That "slave," according to Jesus' description, would be on hand when the Lord departed for heaven and would still be alive at the time of Christ's return. Such a description could not possibly fit an individual human. But it does fit Christ's faithful anointed congregation viewed as a whole." United in Worship of the Only True God p.119

"We understand that this heavenly calling continued down through the centuries, though during the so-called Dark Ages, there may have been times when the number of anointed ones were very few." Watchtower 1996 Aug 15 p. 31


From those articles, it appears that the faithful and discreet slave is the anointed followers of Jesus, which have existed from the time Jesus left to the time of his return. Also, this slave class has been passing the teachings on from one generation of slave class members down to the next. They have fed the true congregation spiritual food all the way down to our modern times.

Yet admittedly, this cannot be proven historically. This raised many questions for me as I attempted to find the answers to this claim. Why can no line of descent be found at anytime in history? If the true teachings were handed down from generation to generation, would it be possible for any false teachings to slip into the congregation? Since the slave class would know who they were, why would it be necessary for Jesus to return in order to identify who the modern day slave class was? Since Charles Taze Russell is considered an anointed one by the JWs, who handed him down the teachings from the previous generation?

I presented these questions to the JWs, who were sent by the Watchtower Society to answer my questions. I was a little surprised at the response given. They turned to the wheat and the weeds parable found in Matthew 13:24-30,36-43. This parable states that the wheat and weeds will grow together and remain that way until harvest time. Jesus explains who the wheat and weeds are, along with when this harvest would happen. After reading this to me, they pointed out how the clergy had been supressing christianity down through history. I was handed two seperate printouts, each of which listed individuals/groups that rallied against the clergy, such as the Waldenses and the Lollards. So apparently the slave class members were deceived into believing false doctrines. But there were several that began to reject the teachings of the clergy.

The push against the clergy became stronger with groups like the Millerites, the Adventists, and individuals like Henry Grew and George Storrs rejecting certain teachings. The following quote sums it up by saying,

"Throughout the centuries there have always been truth lovers. To mention just a few: John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384) and William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536) furthered the work of Bible translation even at the risk of their life or freedom. Wolfgang Fabricius Capito (1478-1541), Martin Cellarius (1499-1564), Johannes Campanus (c. 1500-1575), and Thomas Emlyn (1663-c. 1741) accepted the Bible as God's Word and rejected the Trinity. Henry Grew (1781-1862) and George Storrs (1796-1879) not only accepted the Bible and rejected the Trinity but also expressed appreciation for the ransom sacrifice of Christ. Although we cannot positively identify any of such persons as "the wheat" of Jesus' illustration, certainly "Jehovah knows those who belong to him."" Jehovah's Witnesses-Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p.44

They also handed me a booklet titled "What Does the Bible Really Teach?" Page 147 has a list given by the JWs as to Those Who Worship the True God. These are the identity marks they give. 1)Base their teachings on the bible, 2)worship only Jehovah and make His name known, 3)show genuine love for one another, 4)accept Jesus as God's means of salvation, 5)are no part of the world, 6)preach God's kingdom as man's only hope. Before I get into addressing this list, we need to understand that they believe the harvest work being done is identifying them as the wheat-like ones mentioned in the parable. According to them, since we are living in the conclusion of this system (others use the term age or world), there really can be only one choice as to who Jesus picked as God's chosen people.

My opinion of their view is as follows. Right from the start, the jump to the wheat/weeds parable is a direct contradiction to the view about slave class members passing down spiritual food from one generation to the next. If the slave class had "grown together" with the weeds, they would have inherited false doctrines, believing them to be true. So how would it be possible to give spiritual food at the proper time if the food is rotten?

My next point is about the attempts at identifying who these wheatlike ones were in history. Why even make an attempt if they can't "positively identify" the wheat of Jesus' parable? The parable never states that anyone would rebel against the church. Growing together means that it would be impossible to identify one from the other. Making any such claim is speculation, and verse 41 is pretty clear as to who makes the decision. "The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil." Notice it does not say that a new group of people will be gathered. It states that the evil ones get removed. Once the angels remove the evil ones, the true worshippers will be the only ones left. So if the JWs are identifying the clergy as the evil ones, wouldn't it be reasonable to think that it will be the ones left from "their congregation" as the true worshippers?

Back to those identity marks. 1)Base their teachings on the bible. All bible based religions do this. What if the interpretation of the bible leads to false doctrines?

2)worship only Jehovah and make His name known. Jehovah's name was never written in the New Testament, and the translation of the name Jehovah is incorrect. Would it please God if His name was being mispronounced? We know how He felt about those that did not give Him full devotion. Since no other religions use the name Jehovah (at least to my knowledge, but I could be mistaken), it is easy to see why this would make the JWs list of identity marks given for true worship.

3)show genuine love for one another. This is included on the list because of war. The JWs can point out other christian based religions that have killed one another during times of war. However, there are several religious groups that refuse to fight in wars. Another thing to point out here is why the JWs have such a hatred towards the Catholics, since it would be entirely possible that a Catholic of the past could have been a slave class member.

4)accept Jesus as God's means of salvation. Although the JWs claim to do this, it is very evident that it is the Governing Body and the faithful and discreet slave. Note the following quote.

"These overseers faithfully seek to apply instructions received from Jehovah God and Jesus Christ by means of the faithful and discreet slave and its Governing Body." Watchtower 1990 Mar 15 p.20

I thought Jesus was the mediator between God and men? But somehow, he has passed that duty on to this governing body? I think not.

5)are no part of the world. The involvement with the United Nations puts an end to this claim. Then there was the Jimmy Swaggart case, to which the JWs were involved with due to the fact that they might get taxed for selling literature. Then there was the matter in Bulgaria. The next quote taken from jwfacts.com states,

On March 9th 1998, the Watchtower Society and the European Commission of Human Rights brokered an agreement with the government of Bulgaria. For Jehovah's Witnesses to be recognized as a religious organization in Bulgaria, the Watchtower Society had to ensure that "members should have free choice in the matter [of blood transfusions] for themselves and their children, without any control or sanction on the part of the association." The Watchtower Society guaranteed that Witnesses are free to make their own choice on the use of blood, with blood transfusions removed from being a disfellowshipping offence. This was quite deceptive, as taking blood became an offence to be disassociated instead, making any freedom of choice quite meaningless.

There are also cases of Government lobbying, and documented involvement in the world's commercial system. I thought materialism was wrong?

6)preach God's kingdom as man's only hope. Ok, I will give them this one, although it is a rare occasion when a jw actually preaches about the kingdom. Need proof? Take a poll in your neighborhood and see if anyone will tell you that God's Kingdom was even discussed.

What is commonly overlooked though is that this checklist of theirs is a modern day checklist that applies to what world religions are doing now. The problem with this is that Jesus inspection, according to jw teachings, occured during the year 1919. So we can't base our conclusions on what religions are doing now since it would have been well after Jesus' inspection. Now if we were to take the criteria the jws use today and apply it to what was being taught back then, the results might surprise you. Let's go through that list again.

1)Base their teachings on the bible,

Michael the Archangel was the Pope? The Leviathan in Job was a locomotive? God would destroy the churches in 1918? The glory of the angel of Revelation 18:1 refers to modern discoveries such as a SEWING MACHINE?

I could list many more examples, but I think it is quite clear that they would have failed on this point.

2)worship only Jehovah and make His name known,

The jws worshipped Jesus too, all the way up to the year 1954, in which the view was changed. Since Jesus was the inspector, I think he would recognize this as a failure.


3)show genuine love for one another,

This is from a WT 1900 Oct 1, p-296-297.

"From Black to White He Slowly Turned"

Parkersburg, W. Va., Sept. 8. It has fallen to the lot of the Rev. William H. Draper, pastor of the Logan Memorial church, of Washington Conference, A.M.E. church, of this town, to give a living affirmative answer to the famous Biblical question, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" Though once as black as charcoal, the Rev. Mr. Draper is now white. His people say that his color was changed in answer to prayer. Many years ago Draper was employed by a fair-skinned man, and he was often heard to remark that if he could only be white like his employer, he would be happy. While in the white man's service Draper `experienced' religion.

Really? Fail!

4)accept Jesus as God's means of salvation,

"To receive everlasting life in the earthly Paradise we must identify that organization and serve God as part of it." Watchtower 1983 Feb 15 p.12

And Jesus??? If Jesus was the inspector, do you think he would be upset that these people are placing more emphasis on this organization, and less on him? Fail!

5)are no part of the world,
6)preach God's kingdom as man's only hope.

The last two they appear to pass. But by their own criteria, they fail on 4 out of 6 lines of these identity marks. However, most current members are unaware of this since the focus has been shifted to a modern day inspection instead of when the actual claim took place in 1919.

Another factor to consider is that the jws believed that C.T. Russell was the faithful and discreet slave up until the year 1927, when the view was changed. However, Russell died in the year 1916. So for 11 years, a person that was dead was considered as this faithful and discreet slave? The following quote verifies this.

The Finished Mystery (1917) p.144

Though Pastor Russell has passed beyond the veil, he is still managing every feature of the harvest work.

Wouldn't this be considered spiritism?


In conclusion, I think that the view of this slave class is incorrect. Jesus' parable in Matthew 24 about the slave was a decision that this slave was about to make during his master's absence. This was not a prophecy. It was an illustration told to help Jesus' disciples understand the importance of staying alert. The other main fault that I see in their reasoning is that they attempt to identify certain individuals as the wheat, and then give a specific date as to when Jesus returned to identify the Watchtower society as the modern day slave class. And lastly, the view given about the slave class feeding the flock from one generation down to the next is a complete contradiction of the view about how the slave class had "grown together" with false religion.

And now it appears that only the Governing Body is considered as the slave class. And now instead of this being passed down from generation to generation, the JWs changed the view to it beginning in 1919. Interesting that they had no idea who the slave class was until recently. I would think that if one was appointed an important position by God, they would know who that person or group were at the time of being appointed. The fact that they recently identified whom the faithful and discreet slave is only solidifies this as a false teaching.

Also, why would Jesus wait all of this time to appoint the slave? Wouldn't the Master have appointed the slave as soon as he had departed? Even using their own faulty reasoning, this concept caves in on itself.