"Babylon the Great has Gallen--God's Kingdom Rules!"

by Terry 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Terry

  This was the book we studied when I went to prison in 1967 at Seagovilled Federal Correctional facility near Dallas.

  The Babylon book, we called it.

  It is where I first encountered Fred Franz's mania for specificity. Franz was the lone ranger prophetic mouthpiece for JW's for a long time and pounded out on his typewriter an amazing array of weird books. But, the Babylon book had it all. Franz composed his own chronology, for one thing. This chronology abandoned the standard Archbishop Ussher chronology of christendom and substituted what Freddy called, "Absolute Dates" which he invented himself

  Further, Freddy describe in this book how verses in Revelation specifically applied to events in Watchtower Society history.

  For example, in 1922, during the Cedar Point, Ohio convention a resolution was read out loud and voted on. Franz identifies this as the actual latter-day fulfilllment of the plagues in Revelation!

  We've all been to big conventions where resolutions were read and voted on, right? They were boring even to us! Newspapers and radio outlets didn't flash bulletins to the populace at large following these events! Like almost everything connected with conventions it was ignored. And yet, Fred Franz is telling us that John's vision from Christ Jesus in the last book of the Christian Greek Scriptures described a Cedar Point, Ohio resolution in mystifying apocalyptic visions!!

  Years later, I read a lot of Matin Luther's writings. I saw that Fred Franz had read them too! So much of Fred Franz exposition about scripture is right out of Luther and disguised and dressed up in Watchtower-speak!

  I can't believe this little maroon book seemed like such an extraordinary achievement to me at the age of 20!

  It was also my first encounter with history vis a vis the bible; the melding of actual events outside of Israel with events described interior to that framework.

  On the positive side of things; I'll say what I did come away with was more than a head full of memorized phony dates. I developed a real love for reading history that has come to serve me in good stead.

  So, it wasn't a total loss.

  The reason I bring this book up now is because a copy came in to the bookstore where I work on a buy from the public. It was placed in the "no pay" box and was to be donated in bulk. I grabbed it out and am re-reading it now.

  What a feeling of nostalgia this evokes inside me!!

  It is like having my life flash before my eyes.

  I'm coming to appreciate how insane the theology of Jehovah's Witnesses truly was/is!
• 

  drew sagan

  You're making me want to actually read that book! Good grief.
  
  I have this theory about JWs. They are deniers of their own revelations.
  
  Unlike groups who proclaim out in the open that God has given them a direct revelation (take mormons for example) JWs instead hide their "revelations" behind the mask of "fullfilled Bible prophecy"
  
  It is in this manner they are able to actually fool themselves that they actually do not teach that they have been given revelations from God.
  
  Of course it is quite obvious that the core of their theology revolves around the fact that God gives them revelations. But they hide it well.
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  mrsjones5

  I think my parents still have that book
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  zack

  My grandparents ate that stuff up! And then they forced it down our throats!

  Thanks for the memories......
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  Clam

  Yeah remember that book well, along with of course The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life. I loved that little book, imagining that one day I'd be waving it in the Great Crowd, in the aftermath of Armageddon, rather like the Chinese used to wave their little red books at Mao.

  
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  Open mind

  Good post Terry. Thanks for that trip down repressed memory lane!

  They've wised up just a smidge in the Revelation Orgasmic Climax book.

  They still refer to those non-event 1920's conventions but now they hedge it by saying they were a "part of" the trumpet blasts or something like that. Still, if you were to ask most dubs who are half-way awake during the CBS, "Hey Joe Publisher, what did the conventions in the 1920's correspond to in Revelation?" If they were able to come up with ANYTHING (fat chance), they'd say "trumpet blasts".

  Have a good read & keep the anti-nausea medicine handy!

  Open Mind
• 

  snowbird

  I read the Truth book from cover to cover in 1970 at the age of 16. I noted the Babylon book was mentioned in one of the footnotes so I accosted a JW doing streetwork and asked for a copy. She was so surprised! The rest is history.

  Sylvia
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  snowbird

  Just to inject a little levity: "Babylon the Great has Gallen--God's Kingdom Rules!"

  But then, BTG does have gall.

  Sylvia
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  Jim_TX

  Yeah... I remember that book. I was a teen at the time, and was assigned 'reader' at the Tuesday night bookstudy.

  Like you - I have a 'positive' memory or two as a result. My older sister, she was very studious - and would pre-read the 'lesson' for the night (there was no assigned number of pages or paragraphs - so you had to read/study far enough ahead to cover what might be studied that night), and then quiz me on pronunciation of some of the more difficult words in the book.

  She would help me not make a fool of myself in the reading of the paragraphs. As a result, I have a better vocabulary, and can read pretty well.

  Ironically - my older sister quit going to the meetings. She always seemed to have disabling migranes when it came meeting time. I often thought that she was faking it - but maybe not. What I think she did was learn the real 'truth' about the JWs - through her research of their publications (pre-internet), and decided she didn't want anything to do with them.

  Regards,

  Jim TX
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  stillajwexelder

  Of all the publications, this to me was the most difficult read - published in 1963