A Bethel Memory #14 - Angels and Women, kinda like a Playboy

by LivingTheDream 7 Replies latest members private

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  LivingTheDream

  Angels and Women, kinda like a Playboy

  I was a young man at Bethel about 30 years ago, back in the early 80's and one day I walked into the Bethel library (the regular Bethel library, not the "secret" one I never saw) and found a book on the shelf called "Angels and Women". Now this was one of the most fascinating books I had ever seen up until my young life back then. We didn't have the internet back then, so we were much more innocent about many things. This book was something beyond what I had ever heard or conceived of.

  Now, in order for you to understand why this was so fascinating to me, I have done some research recently and found the foreward to this book on the internet. The foreward was long, so I will only print the first part of it here in order for you to see what I read all those years ago in that quiet Bethel library. By the way, no author is given for this "revisor" but in the forward it is said that he was a personal friend of Pastor Russell and worked with him often as a "confidant". Opinion was that this was Rutherford because the theology, phrasing and wording in the foreword could be found in Rutherford's writings and whoever wrote it was definitely related to the WTBS. Here is the first part of this foreword:
  

  Angels and Women - The Foreword

  TRITE but true is the saying, "Truth is stranger than fiction." Fiction sometimes illumines the truth.

  A number of years ago Mrs. J. G. Smith published a Novel entitled Seola. She claims to have been impelled to write it after listening to beautiful music. She made no pretense of a knowledge of the Bible. Yet so many of her sayings are so thoroughly in accord with the correct understanding of certain scriptures that the novel is exceedingly interesting and sometimes thrilling.

  The greatest Bible scholar of modern times read this book shortly before his death. To a close personal friend he said: "This book, if revised according to the facts we know about spiritism, would be instructive and helpful." Long prior thereto this noted Bible scholar had written and published the first clear presentation of the Bible teaching on spiritism. He advised his personal friend to revise the novel Seola and to publish it if opportunity afforded at some future time.

  This book deals with the events transpiring between the date of the creation of man and the great deluge. The principal characters figuring in the novel are Satan, fallen angels and women. Angels are heavenly messengers. There was a time when all angels were good. The time came when many of them allied themselves with Satan and became evil, hence called "fallen angels.".... Evil spirit beings started good human beings on the downward road. Evil angels and bad women have made countless millions mourn.

  The Bible story of fallen angels or evil spirits, is briefly told as follows: Lucifer, once a good spirit being...

  I read those words and I was off to the races! I just had to read this thing.

  Before Bethel, I was an avid reader of Greek Mythology. It started out as a school assignment, but I ended up reading every single Greek and Roman mythology book or collection that I could get my hands on. I loved this stuff. One of the main reasons I loved it was that some Bible commentators had postulated that all Greek Mythology was rooted in actual fact and that these were actually altered accounts of people who had witnessed the time before the flood. The "gods" of these mythology stories were actually demons (like Zeus was Satan for example) and the demi-gods, those born from the Gods and humans (like Hercules) where actually nephilim. I didn't know if this is true or not, and I still don't, but I wanted it to be true. I ate this stuff up.

  When I found Angels and Women at Bethel, why there was a book that claimed to be about pre-flood days, about (fallen) angels and those women the Bible says they took "all of whom they chose", and best of all, it was a JW book! I used to ask myself all the time, what WOULD it have been like to have lived back then? How did these Angels (demons) act back then, what did they look like? How did they get the women, did they seduce them or did they just grab them and carry them off by force? Did anybody fight back? If so, who? Why didn't these demons just kill Noah and his sons, didn't they know them? Weren't they powerful enough to kill them? Or, did God protect them somehow? And so on, I used to ask myself those things all the time. This book, which claimed to be channeled by somebody who didn't even know the Bible, HAD THOSE ANSWERS! Here, I could read about how Noah survived supernatural demonic attack. Here I could read about how the gorgeous, hulking, buffed-out angels acted and seduced or otherwise "took" women. Wow! Really cool.

  So I read. I could not finish the first night I found the book, so the next time I got the chance I went back to read more. (We could not check out books from this library.) When I finished reading this book I was thrilled and even shaking a little bit. It was soooo cool to read this and, best of all, it was a Society book! Yes sir, it was right in the Bethel library and so I could quote from it from now on too, right?

  Wrong.

  I found out how wrong I was when I brought this up to one of my elders in a car ride to the meetings one day. When I excitedly brought up this book there was silence by my elder at first. He then told me in a lowered voice that "we should not be reading that book". What? Why? "Well" he said "because that book has spiritism connections". He went on to explain that this book, if authentic at all and not made up, then can only be understood to have come from a demon itself. We should not be reading words from demons. If not authentic, then it was a sham as it claimed to have supernatural authorship, claimed to be from a demon. So, you see, either way, we should not read it, and especially not talk about this book.

  Bummer. I so wanted to talk about this book with somebody! I had so many questions now. Why in the heck would brother Russell get mixed up in a spiritism related thing? Wait a minute! Didn't that mean I read a book that might have been written by a demon and enjoyed it? Yikes! Why would Bethel subject me to this?

  Well, this particular elder had no patience for me on much of anything in general, so I didn't fight back much. I politely asked him why the book was there in the Bethel library in the first place. Although his answer was forgettable, I do I recall saying to him in response: "Well, to me, then, this is like putting a Playboy in the Bethel library and then telling us not to look at it."

  He had no answer for that.

  LivingTheDream

  ---

  For more information on this book, I have put in a few links:

  Background on "Angels and Women": http://www.seanet.com/~raines/women.html

  Background on the original, "Seola" in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seola

  Buy "Angles and Women" at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Angels-Women-Jim-Rizoli/dp/0595005160

  Download "Angels and Women" free on the public domain: http://www.archive.org/details/AngelsAndWomen
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  A.Fenderson

  Freaking sweet! Lovely. Delicious even. How the hell do they reconcile this, and the Society's glowing review and hearty recommendation of the book, with current JW views on spiritualism?
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  Leolaia

  Seola, the original novel, is much better. Angels and Women, for instance, got rid of the whole sci-fi subplot re blowing up Wan Planet.
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  stapler99

  I've heard that the early Christians believed that the pagan Gods, rather than being fictions, were demons impersonating Gods. So Zeus would be one demon, Poseidon another, and so on, and the pagan temples were temples to demons.
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  freetosee

  the now GB Samuel Herd mentioned reading it during one of his talks.. I guess its ok for higher-ups to read it..

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/188233/1/GB-Samuel-Herd-on-Angels-and-Women
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  WingCommander

  Ah-Ha!!!!!! So this is where my long-held belief came from!!!! My parents came into this religion right after 1975, after studying for several years with some very old ladies whom were originally "Bible Students" but whom followed Rutherford and became JW's. I was always told growing up that the reason there were other "lesser gods" and other false religions, was that Satan, knowing he would lose in "The End" started out with the demons shape-shifting, etc to make themselves into false gods, to induce false-worship such as Baal, the Greek Gods, the Asian and Indian Gods, etc, etc.

  This does seem to make sense, especially if Satan is such a clever bastard. Make yourself into multiple God's, and then mankind will worship you, no matter what name you take, instead of the one true YHWH God. Makes sense. What didn't make sense for me at least, was the fact that 1914 was tied into the Great Pyramids of Giza. That one rung my bell even as 4-5 year old. Thanks ol' Bible Student Russell-Quoting-Ladies!!!

  - Wing Commander
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  stapler99

  Here is an eighteenth century author on the subject.

  But whatever difference of opinion might subsist between the Orthodox, the Ebionites, and the Gnostics, concerning the divinity or the obligation of the Mosaic law, they were all equally animated by the same exclusive zeal; and by the same abhorrence for idolatry, which had distinguished the Jews from the other nations of the ancient world. The philosopher, who considered the system of polytheism as a composition of human fraud and error, could disguise a smile of contempt under the mask of devotion, without apprehending that either the mockery, or the compliance, would expose him to the resentment of any invisible, or, as he conceived them, imaginary powers. But the established religions of Paganism were seen by the primitive Christians in a much more odious and formidable light. It was the universal sentiment both of the church and of heretics, that the daemons were the authors, the patrons, and the objects of idolatry.38 Those rebellious spirits who had been degraded from the rank of angels, and cast down into the infernal pit, were still permitted to roam upon earth, to torment the bodies, and to seduce the minds, of sinful men. The daemons soon discovered and abused the natural propensity of the human heart towards devotion, and artfully withdrawing the adoration of mankind from their Creator, they usurped the place and honors of the Supreme Deity. By the success of their malicious contrivances, they at once gratified their own vanity and revenge, and obtained the only comfort of which they were yet susceptible, the hope of involving the human species in the participation of their guilt and misery. It was confessed, or at least it was imagined, that they had distributed among themselves the most important characters of polytheism, one daemon assuming the name and attributes of Jupiter, another of Aesculapius, a third of Venus, and a fourth perhaps of Apollo;39 and that, by the advantage of their long experience and aerial nature, they were enabled to execute, with sufficient skill and dignity, the parts which they had undertaken. They lurked in the temples, instituted festivals and sacrifices, invented fables, pronounced oracles, and were frequently allowed to perform miracles. The Christians, who, by the interposition of evil spirits, could so readily explain every preternatural appearance, were disposed and even desirous to admit the most extravagant fictions of the Pagan mythology. But the belief of the Christian was accompanied with horror. The most trifling mark of respect to the national worship he considered as a direct homage yielded to the daemon, and as an act of rebellion against the majesty of God.

  - Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I., Chapter XV (Edward Gibbon)

  (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/7/1/25717/25717-h/files/731/731-h/gib1.htm)

  If you keep on reading there is some interesting description of how paranoid the early Christians were about anything which could have been pagan, including various festivals.
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  LivingTheDream

  To everyone who has encouraged me to continue with my stories,

  THANKS!

  It's been a blast to write them and your posts and PMs have been awesome. I plan on slowing down to one story a week to pace myself. I'll probably post on the weekends.

  Here are previews of coming stories I have been working on, the working titles being:

  • Big Tex
  • False advertisements for a fake future that will never happen
  • Welcome to New York, now f**k off
  • Seven brides for seven sorcerers
  • I see loser quitter dead people

  LivingTheDream