The faithful and discreet slave: who is it really?

PART 0 — First of all

1.Dear brothers and sisters, before beginning this reflection, let’s pause for a moment. Let’s breathe. And let these words find our heart before our mind starts defending itself:

What we have found through study has changed our perspective. But one thing has not changed: the God of the Bible, Jehovah, loves us. He has not abandoned us. He will not abandon us.

2. There is a beautiful, almost hidden image in the first chapters of Genesis. A detail we often pass by without stopping to feel its weight:

“Then they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden about the breezy part of the day.”

God who walks. In the garden. In the evening breeze. Not a distant God, not a sovereign watching from on high on his throne. A God who strolls in the garden to be with His children. This is the God of the Bible. And this God has not stopped walking. He has not stopped looking for us. He has not lost sight of us for a single instant.

3.What we are about to examine in this reflection concerns an organization. It does not concern God. And God has never been “over there”, far, distant, somewhere up in heaven. He is here. Beside us. In front of us. So close that the Scriptures use a breathtaking image:

“For I, Jehovah your God, am grasping your right hand, the One saying to you, ‘Do not be afraid. I will help you.’”

And again:

“Yet I am continually with you; you have taken hold of my right hand.”

4. Let’s pause on this image. Not God above us. Not God in front of us as a judge. God besideus, so close that His right hand takes our right hand — like a father walking with his son, hand in hand. This is not poetry: it is what the Scriptures say about Him. His love for us doesn’t depend on a card, on a monthly report, on how many hours of preaching we’ve put down. His love for us depends on one thing: that we are His children. And a father never stops holding his children’s hand.

5.A necessary premise: everything we will read together can be verified with our Bible, with publications of the Watch Tower Society, and with historical and legal sources accessible to anyone. These are reflections, not dogmas. Let’s not ask each other to take it on faith, but to verify together. Let’s do exactly what we’ve been taught from the very first Bible study: verify. If the truth is true, it has nothing to fear from examination. If we verify it and it stands, our faith will come out stronger than ever.

PART 1 — Condolences and respect

6.If you have lost someone you loved because they refused a blood transfusion following the organization’s instructions, these lines are also for you. Your pain is real. Your loss is real. And you deserve answers.

7.If you are a parent who had to look a doctor in the eyes and say “no” while your child needed blood, and you felt the weight of that obedience crush your chest like a stone, know that no one here is judging you. You did what you believed was right. You did what men you trusted told you God required. Your heart was pure. Your intention was holy.

8.On March 20, 2026, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses announced a significant update to the blood doctrine, easing restrictions that for decades had bound millions of people. An update that, in fact, means this: what before was considered a serious sin — for which one could be disfellowshipped, for which one had to be ready to die — is no longer.

9.Let’s pause on this point. Because it’s a point that burns. And it deserves to be said with all the honesty we’re capable of.

We can’t know with certainty what would have happened in every single case. But for the people who died before March 20, 2026, by refusing blood transfusions, having tried to save them would have demonstrated love and respect for life. Not even having tried — that is what weighs heavy. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters. Real people with real faces, real families, lives that still had so much to give. Who weren’t even given the chance to try.

10.According to estimates based on data from medical publications and statistics from the organization itself, about 33,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses have lost their lives over the decades for refusing life-saving blood-related treatments. Thirty-three thousand. That isn’t a number. They are 33,000 stories that were cut short. 33,000 families that are no longer whole. 33,000 empty chairs at the table.

11.We don’t say this with anger. We say it with grief. And with the duty — that we feel as brothers — to reflect. Because if even one of those people died for an interpretation that has now been revised, then we have the right and duty to ask: on what basis were those decisions being made? And who had the authority to make them?

PART 2 — Jeffrey Winder and the role of the Governing Body

12.To answer these questions, let’s start with what the Governing Body says about itself. Not with what critics say. Not with what “apostates” say. With what they say.

13. Brother Jeffrey Winder, a member of the Governing Body, clearly stated in an official video of the organization:

The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible.

This is not an accusation. It is their own admission. The “new light” — that mechanism by which the organization explains doctrinal changes — does not come from Jesus Christ in the form of divine inspiration. It comes, as they themselves recognize, from “a thorough study of the Scriptures.” In other words: it is the result of the intellectual work of a group of men.

14. And this changes everything. Because if the Governing Body is composed of uninspired and fallible men, then they are exactly what they say they are: plain men who can make mistakes. Unfortunately, those mistakes have not stayed on paper. We are paying for them. The 33,000 people who are no longer with us paid for them.

15.We want to be clear on one point: we don’t hate the Governing Body. We are not angry at them as individuals. We treat them for what they are — men who have made mistakes, not enemies. Their role, as they themselves have defined, is not to receive blind obedience, but to provide spiritual food to nourish the brothers spiritually. And for this we appreciate them. We are grateful for the work they do.

16. But from there to obeying without reflection on questions that can determine our life or our death, there is a huge step. A step that the Bible itself does not ask us to take. On the contrary, it asks the opposite:

“Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.”

“Beloved ones, do not believe every inspired statement, but test the inspired statements to see whether they originate with God.”

17.If even “inspired statements” are to be tested, how much more directives from men who admit to being uninspired?

PART 3 — The metaphor of the ring

18.To fully grasp what happened with the blood doctrine, let’s use a simple image. An image that speaks to the heart before it speaks to the mind.

19. In the Bible, blood represents life. That is clear. Jehovah said to Noah:

“Only flesh with its life — its blood — you must not eat.”

Blood is sacred because it represents life. It is a symbol. A powerful symbol, an important symbol, a symbol God established. But it is still a symbol. Blood represents life just as a wedding ring represents marriage.

20.Now imagine this scenario. A man deeply loves his wife. He proudly wears the ring on his finger. One day, someone says to him: “To safeguard your ring, you must betray your wife. You must destroy the marriage itself — but at least the ring will be safe.”

Absurd, isn’t it? No sane person would destroy a marriage to save the symbol of marriage. Because the symbol exists to honor what it represents — not the other way around.

21. Yet that is exactly what was asked of thousands of people. To honor the symbolof life — the blood — they were asked to sacrifice life itself. To preserve the ring, they destroyed the marriage. To protect the symbol, they annihilated the reality the symbol was meant to represent.

22. Does it make sense? Does it make sense, in order to honor the symbol of life, to kill life?

It is a simple question. And the answer, deep in our hearts, we all know.

PART 4 — The God who saves — always

23. But there is something even deeper that deserves our attention. And it is the character of God. Not what men say about God, but what God has shown about Himself, page after page, from Genesis to Revelation.

24. The God of the Bible has always done everything to save even one faithful one. He is not a God who looks for excuses to condemn. He is a God who looks for excuses to save.

25. Consider Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham stands before Jehovah and begins to negotiate:

“Suppose there are 50 righteous men within the city. [...] Will you really sweep them away and not pardon the place for the sake of the 50 righteous men inside it?”

And Jehovah replies: “If I find in Sodom 50 righteous men in the city, I will pardon the whole place for their sakes.” Then Abraham comes down to forty-five. Then to forty. Then to thirty. Then to twenty. Then to ten. And every time — every single time— God says yes. Not “enough now”. Not “you’re going too far”. He says yes. Because God looks for excuses to save. He doesn’t look for excuses to destroy.

26.Consider the manna in the wilderness. The people of Israel — that rebellious, complaining people who at the first problem wanted to go back to Egypt — God fed them. Every. Single. Day. For forty years.

“Then Jehovah said to Moses: ‘Here I am raining down bread for you from the heavens.’”

He didn’t let them starve. He didn’t say “figure it out yourselves, you deserve it for your complaining”. He fed them. Every morning. For forty years. Because He is a God who provides. Even when His children don’t deserve it.

27. Consider the Exodus itself. The people were enslaved in Egypt. They suffered under the yoke. And what did God do?

“Jehovah said: ‘I have certainly seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their outcry because of those who force them to work; I well know the pains they suffer. I will go down to rescue them out of the hand of the Egyptians.’”

God heard. God saw. God came down. He didn’t send a press release from heaven. He came down personally. Because the suffering of His children does not leave Him indifferent.

28. And then there is Jesus. Jesus, who healed on the Sabbath.

“Then he said to them: ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill?’ But they kept silent.”

“The Sabbath came into existence for the sake of man, and not man for the sake of the Sabbath.”

29.Let’s pause on these words. The Sabbath was a law given by God Himself. Not a human interpretation — a divine law. Yet Jesus, the Son of God, broke it to save life. Why? Because the law existed to serve man, not to kill him. The Sabbath had been made forman. Blood — as a symbol — had been established to honor life. The moment respect for the symbol requires the destruction of what it represents, something has broken in the reasoning.

30. And consider the woman bent over for eighteen years, whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath:

“However, the Lord answered him: ‘Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his bull or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to give it something to drink? Was it not, then, proper for this woman who is a daughter of Abraham, and whom Satan held bound for 18 long years, to be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?’”

Jesus did not say: “Wait until tomorrow, today is the Sabbath.” He said: “She is a daughter of Abraham. She must be set free. Now.” Life comes before the symbol. Always.

31.Now, the question that arises naturally — and which we let enter our hearts without fear:

If this is the God of the Bible — the God who negotiates to save, who feeds every day, who comes down to free, who breaks the Sabbath law to heal — would this same God sacrifice 33,000 of His children for a wrong understanding of a symbol?

Is this the God we know? Or perhaps — just perhaps — someone has told us a version of God that does not match what He Himself revealed?

PART 5 — The questions that arise

32. At this point, it is natural for questions to arise. Not questions of rebellion. Questions of conscience. Questions every sincere Christian has the right and the duty to ask.

33.If the Governing Body is composed of uninspired and fallible men — as they themselves admit — then three fundamental questions arise:

34. First question:Does the Governing Body really represent a group of men appointed by Jesus Christ in 1919 as the “faithful and discreet slave”? On what basis? With what proof? And if that claim doesn’t hold, what does it mean for the structure of authority that depends on it?

35. Second question:Did the Bible actually prophesy that in the “time of the end” an organized slave would be appointed to whom obedience was owed? Or is this an interpretation the text doesn’t support?

36. Third question:If they are not inspired, on what basis do they demand obedience on life-or-death issues? If they can be wrong — and they have been, as the March 20, 2026 update demonstrates — is it wise to entrust your life and that of your children to an interpretation that may change tomorrow?

37.These are legitimate questions. They deserve honest answers. And the answers — as we will see — are found in the Bible itself. No external sources are needed. No “apostates”. Only the Word of God.

PART 6 — The faithful slave: a parable, not a prophecy

38.The official teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses identifies the “faithful and discreet slave” of Matthew 24:45 with the Governing Body. According to this interpretation, Jesus would have given a specific prophecyabout a group of people who would lead the true Christian congregation in the “last days”. But let’s look at the context. Let’s take the Bible — ourBible, the New World Translation — and read.

39. Matthew 24:45 is not an isolated verse. It is found in the middle of a series of four consecutive illustrations Jesus uses to teach the same lesson: be watchful and be ready.

1. The thief in the night(Matthew 24:43-44) — You don’t know when he will come, so be ready.
2. The faithful and discreet slave(Matthew 24:45-51) — Be faithful in our assignment.
3. The ten virgins(Matthew 25:1-13) — Keep ready, for you do not know the day.
4. The talents(Matthew 25:14-30) — Use well what has been entrusted to us.

40. They are all didactic parables. Illustrations. Images Jesus used to teach a principle. No serious Bible scholar — no one, outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization — interprets the parable of the ten virgins as a prophecy about a specific group of women. No one interprets the talents as a prophecy about a specific group of investors. No one interprets the thief in the night as a prophecy about a specific theft.

41. Yet it is claimed that only the “faithful slave” is a prophecy about a specific group of men. Why? What reading criterion justifies treating one illustration in a series as a prophecy and the other three as parables? The text doesn’t do it. The context doesn’t support it. Only the organization requires it — because its very authority depends on the answer to that question.

42.But there is another element that makes the interpretation even more problematic. Let’s read the full text:

“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 coming finds him doing so. Truly I say to you, he will appoint him over all his belongings.”

43. But the parable does not stop there. It continues:

“But if ever that evil slave should say in his heart, ‘My master is delaying,’ and should start to beat his fellow slaves and to eat and drink with the confirmed drunkards...”

The slave in the parable is one. And he can turn out faithful orwicked. It is not an appointment already made. It is an open possibility. It is a “who will be found faithful when the master arrives?” — not a “who has already been appointed in 1919?”

44. And what does the wicked slave do? “He beats his fellow slaves.” Let’s pause on this image. Who “beats his fellow slaves” — that is, mistreats his own brothers — by forbidding life-saving medical care? Who forces men and women to choose between life and belonging to the congregation? Who has created a system in which refusing a transfusion is an act of faith, and accepting it is grounds for disfellowshipping?

45. We are not accusing anyone. We are reading the text. And the text speaks for itself.

PART 7 — 1914 doesn’t hold up

46.But there is an even more fundamental problem. Because even if we were willing to accept that Matthew 24:45 is a prophecy (and it isn’t), the entire construction is based on a date: 1914. And 1914 is based on a calculation. A calculation based on a date: 607 B.C.E.And 607 B.C.E. doesn’t hold up.

47. Here is the calculation, as the organization teaches it:

• Starting point:607 B.C.E. — the year in which, according to the organization, Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, marking the beginning of the “Gentile times” (Luke 21:24).
• Duration:2,520 years — based on Daniel chapter 4 (the dream of the tree), applying the “day-for-a-year” rule (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6): 7 times × 360 days = 2,520 days = 2,520 years.
• Arrival point: 607 B.C.E. + 2,520 years = 1914 C.E.

The reasoning seems logical. But the very first step — the date of 607 B.C.E. — is the point where everything crumbles.

48. No historical source outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization confirms 607 B.C.E.

Not “almost none”. Not “few”. None.

49. The astronomical tablet VAT 4956, kept at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, records lunar and planetary positions for the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar II. These astronomical observations — verifiable with modern astronomy software — place the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar unequivocally in 568/567 B.C.E. Counting backward, his 18th year (when he destroyed Jerusalem, according to 2 Kings 25:8) falls in 587/586 B.C.E. Not 607.

50. This dating is confirmed by:

• The Nabonidus Chronicle(British Museum) — chronology of the Neo-Babylonian kings
• The Babylonian astronomical diaries — independent observations
• The Babylonian king lists— official records
• The Encyclopaedia Britannica— entry “Nebuchadnezzar II”
• Every single ancient history department of every university in the world

51. Even the Insight on the Scriptures, published by the Watch Tower Society itself, admits that “secular” sources point to 587/586. The organization simply rejects them, claiming the Bible points to 607. But it provides no independent archaeological, historical or astronomical proof in support. None.

52. The consequence is devastating for the entire doctrinal system:

If 1914 doesn’t hold, there is no basis for saying that Christ began to reign in that year. If Christ did not begin to reign in 1914, there is no basis for saying that in 1919 he “inspected” the religions of the earth and chose the Watch Tower Society. If he did not choose the Watch Tower Society, there is no basis for saying that the Governing Body is the “faithful and discreet slave”. The entire structure of authority collapses. Like a house of cards from which the bottom card has been pulled.

53.Raymond Franz — nephew of Frederick Franz (fourth president of the Watch Tower Society) and a member of the Governing Body from 1971 to 1980 — recounts in his book Crisis of Consciencethat when he was asked to research material on chronology for the organization’s biblical encyclopedia, he sincerely looked for proof to support 607 B.C.E. He searched for months, with all the resources of headquarters at his disposal.

He found none.

All the sources — all of them, without exception — pointed to 587/586. Franz documented everything in his book. Not out of anger. Not out of revenge. Out of honesty.

PART 8 — Jesus warned us

54. There is an aspect of this story often overlooked, but of crucial importance. Jesus himself warned his disciples about those who would try to set dates and times:

“Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”

55.Nobody. Neither the angels. Nor the Son himself. Only the Father. Yet the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization has predicted the end — or events linked to the end — on at least six occasions:

• 1874— initially indicated as the year of Christ’s “invisible presence”
• 1914— year of the end of the world (later reinterpreted as the start of the invisible kingdom)
• 1918— year in which governments and churches would be destroyed
• 1925— year of the resurrection of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Judge Rutherford had a villa built in San Diego — Beth Sarim, “House of the Princes” — to house them
• 1975— year in which 6,000 years would have passed since the creation of Adam (with strong implication that Armageddon would arrive)
• “Generation of 1914”— those alive in 1914 would see the end. Doctrine taught for decades, then changed in 1995, then changed again in 2010 with the “overlapping generations” theory

56.Six attempts. Six failures. And every time, the weight of those wrong predictions fell on the faithful. People who sold their houses, left their jobs, gave up education and careers, postponed marriages and children — because “the end is near”. And then the end didn’t come. And they had to pick up the pieces of their lives in silence.

57.But Jesus did not just say “no one knows the day”. He also gave a specific warning:

“He said: ‘Look out that you are not misled, for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, “I am he,” and, “The due time is near.” Do not go after them.’”

“The due time is near.” Do not go after them. The words of Jesus. Not ours.

58. And there is another teaching of Jesus that deserves attention:

“But you, do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your Teacher, and all of you are brothers. Moreover, do not call anyone your father on earth, for one is your Father, the heavenly One. Neither be called ‘leaders, ’ for your Leader is one, the Christ.”

59.One Leader. One Teacher. The Christ. Not a governing body. Not a group of men in Warwick, New York. Jesus did not say: “One day I will appoint eight men to lead you and whom you must obey.” He said: “The Leader is one — me.”

Let’s verify these verses together in our Bible. The New World Translation. The words are there. Clear. Unambiguous.

PART 9 — Geoffrey Jackson at the Royal Commission

60.On August 14, 2015, something extraordinary happened. Geoffrey Jackson, an active member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, was called to testify under oath before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia (Case Study No. 29).

61. The inquiry concerned the handling of child sexual abuse cases within the organization. But during the questioning, a statement emerged that is impossible to ignore.

When asked whether the Governing Body considered itself the spokesman of Jehovah on earth, Jackson answered:

“I think it would be presumptuous for us to say that we are the only spokesperson that God is using.”

62. Let’s read it again. “It would be presumptuous.” These are the words of a member of the Governing Body. Under oath. Before a government commission.

63. But for decades, the publications of The Watchtower have taught exactly the opposite. The magazines, books, and assembly talks constantly repeat that the Governing Body is the only channel God uses to communicate with humanity. That leaving the organization is equivalent to leaving God. That there is no salvation outside.

64. The Royal Commission itself called this answer inconsistent with what the organization teaches its members. And the question naturally arises: if a member of the Governing Body says one thing to the faithful at meetings and another under oath before a tribunal, which of the two is the truth?

65.We are not suggesting an answer. We are asking the question. And let’s think it through together honestly, using our reasoning faculties — the very faculties Jehovah gave us.

The full transcript of Geoffrey Jackson’s testimony is publicly available in the archives of the Australian Royal Commission. Anyone can verify it. It’s worth doing together.

PART 10 — You are not alone

66.If you have come this far, your heart is probably beating fast. Maybe you feel a knot in your stomach. Maybe a part of you wants to close this page and forget everything. Maybe another part of you knows — knows deep down — that these questions deserve answers.

67.If you feel in free fall after this reading, that’s normal. It is absolutely normal. When the floor you have walked on for years begins to creak under your feet, the first reaction is fear. But there is one thing we have discovered walking together — and which must be felt with the heart, not just the mind:

You are not alone.

68.There are thousands of brothers and sisters all over the world going through the same questions. Discovering the same things. Feeling the same emotions. We are not “apostates”. We are not “spiritually sick”. We are sincere Christians doing exactly what the Bible asks: verifying. Making sure. Examining.

69.And one thing we have understood together: our faith in God doesn’t have to crumble because the organization wavers. God and the organization are not the same thing. If we discover that an interpretation was wrong, this doesn’t change who God is. It doesn’t change His love for us. It doesn’t change His purpose. It only changes our understanding of who was telling us His story.

70. Remember Genesis 3:8? The God who walks in the garden in the breeze of evening? That God is still there. He is still walking. He is still searching for His children. And He has not lost sight of us.

71.This is just the first reflection. The journey doesn’t end here — in fact, the best is yet to come.

In Reflection 2we will discover who the men behind the organization are. The story not told in the study books. The decisions made behind closed doors. Not to judge — but to understand. Because knowing the whole truth is every Christian’s right.

72. In Reflection 3we will discover a God we may never really have known. Not the God of the organization — the God of the Bible. A Father who doesn’t ask us to earn His love. A Father who walks in the garden every evening to be with us. A Father who sent His Son not to condemn us, but to save us (John 3:17).

73.Let’s not stop here. Let’s not let fear stop us. The journey may be painful, but the destination — we are convinced — is worth every tear shed along the way.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.”

Questions to reflect on

Let’s take a quiet moment. Let’s not close this page out of fear. Let’s read these questions and let our heart answer honestly: