This section is more or less a quote from the booklet: The Faithful & Discreet Slave is cut in two; sent to 100 congregations in NYC in 1995Shebat as part of an accusation against 9 brothers on the governing body of FDS3, the Watchtower:
God's true people have identified that the submission to Caesar is a relative one:
Let every soul be in subjection to the superior authorities, for there is no authority except by God, the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. Therefore he who opposes the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God (Romans 13:1,2).
We recognised that since God is not divided against himself, if he says: Do not kill, and Caesar says: Kill, then we should in fact oppose Caesar's authority, because we are not in this case opposing his God given authority, through Satan. Rather Satan, the manslayer, has incited Caesar to exceed his God given authority in telling us to kill.
Likewise we are under the authority of the FDS, but just as Caesar has authority by the arrangement of God, so the FDS has authority by the arrangement of his master, the Christ. Since sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, we must also be in a relative submission to the FDS, but in total submission to Jesus. So for example if Jesus tells us to treat our fellow witnesses as our brothers, then we would tell them our names if they ask us for them, since everybody knows the names of his fleshly brothers. This we would do even if the FDS issues instructions to us not to do this. If we on the other hand, choose to obey the instructions of the FDS when these are at variance with the instructions of the Christ then we are no longer Christians, we are Catholics, obeying the priest, or the pope, in preference to our Lord, living by 'infallible' Papal decree, from the 'wide awake Pope class' bearing witness that to us, the FDS is God.
How is it that when I ring up presumably an unbelieving woman in the main post office in New York City she says to me: Hello my name is Linda how can I help you? But when I ring up my believing sister in the writing department of the Watchtower, she refuses to tell me her name, and says that I can refer to her as:
"The girl who picks up the phone when the girl who normally picks up the phone does not pick up the phone?"
I then ring back and ask to be put through to this girl and I am told: I am sorry sir, I did not put you through to her, I do not know who she is! So then I need to find the girl, who put me through to the girl who picks up the phone in the writing department when the girl in the writing department who normally picks up the phone does not pick up the phone!
You do not have to be a bible scholar to see that these women are not treating me as their brother, and that therefore they are all sinning. Because I don't know about you, but I do actually know the names of my fleshly relatives, and this is the template that the Christ gives for my spiritual relatives. And if you sin, disobeying God and Christ, because you are told to by the FDS, this is no excuse. The FDS cannot change God's standard of sin by a decree in opposition to him. God has not changed, his law is not overruled by men. The captain cannot overrule the admiral. No one is ignorant of the command to treat each other as brother and sister.
It is not true to say that the FDS always issues instructions which are in harmony with God's will as expressed in the bible. The above example of hiding one's name from one's brother proves this, and there are many, many, many more. Furthermore they are divided against themselves both in a temporal way and in a spatial way. In the US there is food at conventions, in the UK there is not, both of these cannot be in harmony with God's will. Today smoking is a disfellowshipping matter, whereas the anointed remnant in the second half baptism, the sanctification of which lasted from 1895Tishri to 1955Tishri - see [194], were chosen with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. This did not appear to inhibit the spirit of God from giving them a clean conscience even if their lungs might have been somewhat defiled. So it is apparent that one of these two opposing positions was wrong, since God does not change, and he accepted the smokers to be his heavenly sons, new covenant saints, born again by the holy spirit, angels and humans together. This latter position is wrong.
So now the big test on the reader, on the judicial committee who judge this accusation and on every witness of the true God is:
You will each individually have to choose whether to obey the slave or the master of that slave. You cannot contract this choice out to any committee, it is your choice, it is the choice between true worship and false worship. Here is our master's view:
Now the latter were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so (Acts 17:11).
They each did this individually, they did not contract this examination out to the elders or to a committee of some of the elders. They did not appoint a Beroean scripture examination committee to report back to them, there was no Beroean public enquiry set up by the presiding overseer. They served God with their whole minds, their own minds, each one of them used their own power of reason. For this they are each individually pronounced noble-minded by the holy spirit.
Keep on the watch therefore because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming (Matt 24:42).
Everybody has to be on the look-out. You cannot contract out this watching. This is a command from Jesus to all Christians.
Then they grasped that he said to watch out not for the leaven of the loaves, but for the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees (Matt 16:12).
The Pharisees were God's appointed priesthood under law at the time that this warning was given. We do not eat bread from Babylon, this warning relates to our own food, the food from the FDS. You cannot watch out for leaven from your priest, the remnant, by asking them to make your examinations for you, these examinations will be full of the leaven that you are supposed to be watching out for. This watching is a thing that you must do yourself. This too is a command from Jesus to all Christians.
Keep on seeking and you will find (Matt 7:7).
It is not sufficient to look up the results of the seeking of your priest, you must seek yourself. You break this command if you continually ask your priest to do a search for you of something, to see if it has any merit.
If you love your Master, then you will obey his commandments to keep on the watch and to keep on seeking personally, and you will read the booklet and assess it yourself, in harmony with your conscience. If you love his slave, then you will obey the slave's commandments not to watch or to seek yourself but to leave that duty to him, the self declared 'Wide awake John class', and you will give the booklet to a multi-headed committee. So which is it to be? Whom do you love more? Who do you worship? How noble is your mind? Now do you see the spiritual household meaning of the scripture:
Do not think I came to put peace upon the earth; I came to put, not peace, but a sword. For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a young wife against her mother-in-law. Indeed, a man's enemies will be persons of his own household. He that has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and he that has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me (Matt 10:34-38)?
And don't you know that it is for this very day that Satan has been working for the last 40 years in particular, persuading all of you to rely totally on the FDS, which he knew he could corrupt - because he corrupts every Adamic priest, and he ruins every Adamic priesthood. Even the writer of this letter he will succeed with, but not until God has granted me victory in cutting the head off the present house of Eli.
He has lobotomised you, he has stolen not the bible, but your bible reasoning. Can you not see this? Do you want him to succeed in your case, you haters of Adam, your father? Will you, at one and the same time condemn your fleshly father for failing his test, dishonouring him, breaking the principle of the law to honour your parents, and like him fail the test that Satan has set up for you? Do not be fooled. And if you should sin, then let it be with your own mind at the very least! But don't sin brothers, show Jesus that it is him whom you love first, truly be a witness of Jehovah, not a witness of his witnesses. Be a slave of God and of his Christ, do not be a slave of a slave. Look what Peter said:
Whoever is overcome by another is enslaved by this one (2 Peter 2:19).
Do not continue to be enslaved by the now evil slave. Use your power of reason, let no man restrict it.
In the case of Paul and the circumcision, do you think that Paul blindly handed this issue to the governing body without using his whole mind on it first and coming to his own conclusion? Do you think that Paul had no opinion on the matter himself? The scriptures say:
When there had occurred no little dissension and disputing by Paul and Barnabus with them, they arranged for Paul and Barnabus and some others to go up to the apostles and the older men in Jerusalem regarding this dispute (Acts 15:2).
Therefore become an imitator of him, here is your precedent set by Paul. For in this he is certainly imitating the Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 Corinthians 4:16), who is known to have had a few disputes with Jews about the law of Moses. Paul did not refuse to think about the issue, or refuse to discuss the issue because it was going to have to go to the body. He served God not only with his whole mind but also with his whole mouth, nobody can dispute that. Likewise, you too, serve God with your whole mind. And serve him with your whole mouth, and dispute personally with me if you disagree with any aspect of the booklet, like Paul did. For if you pass this booklet on without reading it and without discussing it, then you are attempting to serve God not with your whole mind but with a whole committee of other people's minds, and this is idolatry, it is disgusting to God. For this issue laid before you is also about circumcision, not in the flesh made with hands for the first race of Jews, and not in the heart made by the spirit both with and without hands for the second race of Jews, but in the heart made with the spirit of God without hands for the Nethinim and through their/my [ - ed] hands for the third race of Jews, the Edenic Jews. This is the once only baptism in the holy spirit of the great crowd.
Possibly the most astounding scriptural precedent for open bible discussion that I have yet seen, and this one even shook me, comes again from Paul:
Brothers, when you come together in one place, one has a psalm, another has a teaching, another has a revelation, another has an interpretation. Let all things take place for upbuilding...Let two or three prophets speak and let the others discern the meaning. But if there is a revelation to another one while sitting there, let the first one keep silent (1Corinthians14:26-30).
This has the meaning that if a brother is giving a talk, and another brother in the audience suddenly realises some new understanding of relevance, then the brother giving the talk should shut up, and brother brainwave should stand up and talk. He should immediately tell the whole congregation his new understanding. He does not have to silently submit it to the writing committee in order for them to consider it for a few decades first. This is the glorious freedom of the children of God as regards new understandings. This is the command from the scriptures. This does not mean that he should discuss it outside the congregation, for the passage is prefixed with 'come together in one place'. Incidentally this all being together in one place defines a congregation meeting. The book study is not a such a meeting, because it occurs in several different places. It would therefore for example be permissible for sisters to 'speak' i.e. take the floor in such meetings.
But we must be able to discuss anything with our brothers, although of course we should all recognise what is and what is not accepted doctrine by the slave. We are all big boys now. If a man refuses to discuss anything which has not yet been covered by the slave, then he is not a bible student he is a Watchtower student. He is not a Christian he is a slavian, is this not absolutely obvious? In the same way, if a body of elders refuses to allow discussion of anything from the bible, unless it has first been discussed by the slave, then they are not bible students they are Watchtower students. And of course this is what we have all become. And it is straight from Satan. He is the one who stops bible discussion. And what a great triumph he has had with us! He has eliminated all bible discussion from God's own people. We only discuss bible interpretations that have already been made by the Watchtower. Then all he has to do is restrict the Watchtower to only discuss bible interpretations made by the writing committee, and then restrict them to only discuss bible interpretations made by the head of the writing committee, and then corrupt him and we are all goners.
So here is your chance to show God that you love him more than you love your priest, and that you love the Master of the slave more than you love the slave itself, if you truly do. This is your test, and it is for this sin, about which they are fully aware, that the FDS has been rejected by God, and has become the evil slave of Matthew 24, and a part of the wicked slave of Matthew 25.