It seems as though at least one article in every issue of the study Watchtower is devoted to reinforcing the Governing Body's authority. This from pargraph 10:
10 Christ provides loving oversight of his congregations on earth by means of appointed elders. (Eph. 4:8, 11, 12) In the first century, all the overseers were spiritbegotten. They were depicted in Revelation as stars in Christ’s right hand. (Rev.1:16, 20). Today, most congregation elders are of the other sheep. They are appointed after prayer and under the guidance of the holy spirit, so they too can be regarded as under Christ’s direction, or guiding hand (that's a laugh, epecially when you know some really shady men have been appointed elders) . (Acts 20:28). They recognize, however, that Christ is using a small group of anointed Christian men as a Governing Body to lead and direct his disciples on earth.—Read Acts 15:6, 28-30.
I counted the number of times the term 'Govening Body' was used in the current study Watchtower (5 articles in all). It occurred a total of 8 times.
Also, did you notice that they are now capitalizing Governing Body? What arrogrance.
Of course, the teaching that Jesus is using a group of anointed Christians as a Governing Body has been always taught by the Witnesess based on the various NT descriptions of the 1st century Christian congregation.
However, the point is that this teaching is reinforced almost weekly now.
This was not the case 20, 15, or even 10 years ago.
The scriptural citation of Matt. 24:45-47, one of 2 verses in the entire Bible that mentions a "faithful & discreet slave" or equivalent, is included in at least 1/2 of of all study articles in the Watchtower.
It is also emphasized quite frequently in the Kingdom Ministry, Theocratic Ministry School, and every assembly and convention.
A couple dozen new songs in the latest songbook either outright praise the Governing Body, or at least mention "how wonderful and happifying it is to obey those taking the lead".
All of which begs the question: Since when does a slave have authority?
5 comments:
Yep. Paragraph 4 of the same study says:
"as Head of the Christian congregation, Christ has used this "faithful and discreet slave" to administer His Kingdom interests on earth. He has provided direction for the anointed "domestics" (meaning the other anointed not in the GB-my comment) and their "other sheep" companions by means of a Governing Body.-John 10:16.”
John 10:16 refers to the "other sheep" and "one flock", nothing about having a smaller fraction of the FDS that is appointed upon the rest of himself (the other 9,000 anointed)!! Note here they are being clear that most of the little flock (all the anointed) does not feed anyone.
This is sick and circular logic: we have a FDS that is appointed to feed himself and the other sheep and we say that this FDS is the GB with no biblical suggestion of a smaller flock within little flock that is in charge of ALL the sheep (shouldn't Christ himself be in charge? After all, He is the Shephard!
And to think that I sat though this study without noticing any of these flaws only few days ago. WT can even say these things in their study and most followers won't even think anything about it other than it’s a blessing...
Thinking in terms of a JW:
If we believe we have 10,800 anointed and 7
million followers, any help from anointed ones would be of great
value, as the proportion of anointed : followers is much lower. In the
early christians' days they were all anointed so the proportion was
1:1 or 100%. Now it is 0.0015 anointed : 1 JW, or 0.15% ((10,800 /
7,000,000) x 100), even when the times are much more difficult, as we are "in
the last days". However, instead of having the proportion of 0.15%, the
actual proportion of anointed guides is 0.0000001:1 JW or 0.001% ((7 / 7,000,000) x 100) because there are only 7 members of GB and leaders. Well, if you like I can let you add the entire directive of the WTS, yet these do not count according the JW doctrine, as they are not anointed and therefore not part of the FDS.
Would you follow a religion that according to its own ideas is led by 0.15% (not 15% but 100 times smaller then that) of the available spirit-anointed workers?
.....
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