Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be the sole advocates for God's truth at this point in redemptive history. Basing this belief on their interpretation of Matthew 24:45-47 and Luke 12:42-45, the Watchtower Society proclaims that their organization is led by "the faithful and discreet slave" (FDS) of the end times. This FDS is the Governing Body of the Society, which has been charged with the responsibility of providing spiritual food for Jehovah's people. According to the Witnesses, to discount the message of the FDS is to ignore the voice of God. History reveals that the identity and the message of the FDS have changed since the conception of the Watchtower organization. The movement's founder, Charles Taze Russell, was first known as the FDS of Matthew 24 but lost the title after his death when the new leader of the group shifted the identity away from an individualistic understanding to a corporate one. After proclaiming for the bulk of the organization's history that the 144,000 anointed Witnesses were the FDS, the Society recently changed their understanding of this end times' servant in 2012. Currently, the FDS is only the anointed Witness men that are serving on the Governing Body of the Society. This progressive shift in the organization's understanding of the FDS and the eventual disappearance of these anointed Witnesses continues to necessitate theological realignments, which in turn lays the apologetic groundwork for evangelism to the Jehovah's Witnesses. As redemptive history continues to unfold, the Watchtower Society will be forced to clarify or reinterpret many of their foundational teachings. Such reinvention further opens the apologetic door for evangelism among disillusioned Witnesses. When the Watchtower organization again searches to recast their leadership along with their message, authentic Christians must be ready and seeking to direct Witnesses to the unchanging message of the gospel.

Thesis (MA(Religion))--University of South Australia, 2000

Thesis (M.A.)--David Lipscomb College. Graduate Program in Bible Studies, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-196).

The Watch Tower movement was a millennial social movement which was popular in Nyasaland, Southern and Northern Rhodesia, and the Belgian Congo, and in parts of the countries bordering these territories, between the two world wars. It derived its doctrine initially from the writings of Charles Russell, the founder of one of the largest sects of the twentieth century, the Jehovah's Witnesses. The African Watch Tower however was largely independent of the Jehovah's Witnesses, although this body attempted to establish its control in central Africa, and its ideology and organisation changed and developed in accordance with local conditions. While some similarities in the conditions of rapid urbanisation which surrounded the origins of the Jehovah's Witnesses in America, and the Watch Tower in Africa, may be discerned, its political and historical role was a very different one. Spread by labour migrants moving between employment centres and from the village to the urban compound, the Watch Tower contributed to the new forms of association which enabled workers to protest against their conditions of employment, and assisted in spreading a pan-Africanist consciousness which was a significant current in the development of anti-colonial nationalism. It was not only an urban movement, but also selectively influenced the countryside, where external factors and the nature of local social organisations were favourable. It spread rapidly, in a wide variety of forms, and with little formality regarding who was or was not a member, but retained a central core of ideas and an organisational structure, which allows the movement to be treated as a unity.