A Bible for the Scientist, by W.E. Van Amburgh

by garybuss 10 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  garybuss

  A Bible for the Scientist, by W.E. Van Amburgh
  
  Van Amburgh was a director for the Watch Tower Society after the purge of 1917, was charged, tried, found guilty of sedition by the United States Government, and sentenced to 80 years in Federal prison along with Rutherford and the other members of the board of directors. Van Amburgh was freed with the other directors after 9 months in Federal prison in Atlanta, Georgia. Van Amburgh was listed on page 2 of The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence July 1, 1924 edition as being on the editorial committee of the magazine.
  
  A Bible for the Scientist is presenting the thesis to the reader that there are two Bibles, that is, the published book called "The Bible" and "The Scientific Bible". "The Scientific Bible", is the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. The article fondly visits the section of Charles Russell's book, Thy Kingdom Come, copyright 1891, also known as Volume 3, Studies In the Scriptures, called "STUDY X", The Testimony Of God's Stone Witness And Prophet, The Great Pyramid In Egypt.
  
  The article confirms the credibility of the pyramid by showing how measurements taken from the pyramid serve as a calendar, a astronomer's guide, and a map of Bible Chronology. Careful pyramid measurements show Christ's return in 1874, the date 1914, the start of the French Revolution in 1789, and the last Jewish Jubilee due in 1925. 1926 was shown by pyramid calculation to be the first year of the great Jubilee for all the earth and the start of Christ's 1,000 year reign as King.
  
  The publication was interesting to me because I had not had access to the Golden Age publications to read, and I had not been aware of the late date for pyramid lessons or for the late prediction of delivery of the promised rewards in 1925.
  
  I'm happy to add this book to my collection. I recommend it to even a casual student of the Bible Student movement. Gary Busselman, Sioux Falls, SD
  
  http://www.freeminds.org/buss/buss.htm
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  skyman

  Thank you this is the type of information I love.
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  greendawn

  It's interesting that they got the 1925 date from the pyramid "stone prophet", 1925 was a big date for Rutherford with Armageddon and the return of the patriarchs due.
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  moshe

  I have one of his books,too. I used to keep it by the door and show to JW's. I had them read a page where it says that after 1926 there would be no need of undertakers as people would no longer be dying. It always got them chocked up.

  Moshe
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  garybuss

  I posted reviews at:
  
  http://www.amazon.com
  
  http://www.lulu.comTo buy the book, just go to one of the sites above and do a search for A Bible for the Scientist

  It's good sized print, easy to read, nice color cover and it's an interesting read.
  It makes Witnesses look like they have been really wrong for a really long time.
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  VM44

  Hi Gary,
  

  This is a topic in which I am interested.

  The pyramid calculations in Van Amburgh's book turns out not to be the same as Russell's pyramid calculations. The calculations came from the Edgar brothers, who were prominent Bible Students at the time.

  Russell wrote about the Great Pyramid in his 1890 Studies in the Scriptures (SiS) book, Vol 3, "Thy Kingdom Come".

  Russell's chronological pyramid calculations in that book depended upon measurements he obtained from Piazzi Smyth's "Great Pyramid" book. Russell's calculations are obscure in that he gives a calculation that results in the year 1874 as the beginning of the "time of trouble", but does not give information as to specifically where the numbers used in the calculation originated. He just tries to vaguely state that they came from Smyth's book with no further clarification. Russell included in the book a letter of praise that Smyth had written concerning an advanced copy of the pyramid chapter that was sent to him by one of the directors of The Watch Tower.

  In SiS3 published after 1905, the pyramid measurement numbers were changed, so as to give the year 1914. Again, no documentation as to the source of the new numbers was given in the book. No indication is given in the book that any changes had been made.

  In a Watchtower issue published almost 20 YEARS after it was mentioned that the calculation was not correct as "paper" measurements were used and were obtained by measuring a pyramid diagram in Smyth's book. The Watchtower then says the newer calculations were based upon more accurate measurements, but fails to state from where these so-called more accurate measurements were obtained.

  One would assume if Russell was giving the interpretation of the pyramid measurements as elements in a prophetic historical calculation, that he would take great care in specifying exactly from where the measurements originated.

  Russell did the exact opposite! He obscured the exact source of particular measurements! He INTENTIONALLY glossed over the question as to from where did specific numbers came!

  Russell reprinted Smyth's scaled pyramid diagram in SiS3, but omitting Smyth's notation that the measured values for the "Descending Passage" down to "The Pit" had an "Uncertainty". It was these two measurements, plus a "paper" measurement of 41 inches, that Russell used originally to compute the year 1874.

  The conclusion is that Russell wanted very much wanted the Great Pyramid measurements to confirm the dates he had already determined from his interpretation of Bible chronology. But he could not firmly establish a corroboration using accurate documented measurements, so he obscured the source and uncertainty of the numbers he used, and then tried to imply an endorsement of his calculations by including Smyth's letter of praise for an early draft of the pyramid chapter.

  This is a clear case of CT Russell being sneaky and less than honest with his readers.

  --VM44
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  garybuss

  
  Thanks VM44, Interesting information.
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  VM44

  An interesting letter from Morton Edgar. --VM44

  http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/treatises/edgar%20parsons%20letters.htm

  MORTON EDGAR 27 AYTOUN ROAD, S. 1 GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

  29 DEC 1939

  Dear Brother Parsons, I am forwarding by book-post in three packets the two volumes you require, and some of the Pyramid booklets, besides others (in all: 2 cloth-bound books, 15 paper-bound booklets, and two pamphlets, which I trust will prove of interest to you and the brethren with you).

  Yes, I have heard of the interest that the "British Israel" sect is seeking to arouse in your part of the country, also in the Western part of Canada. But one wonders if real interest is being manifested amongst the people in general.

  I rather doubt it. It is quite true that the "Watch Tower Society" should be upholding the true way of understanding the Great Pyramid, -but this is where "Judge" R. has betrayed us.

  However we must take it that the Lord has permitted this for a wise purpose, to manifest those of the brethren who are truly His, and love the truth. When "Judge" R. discarded the teaching of the Great Pyramid, he discarded the works of Brother Russell too. At that Detroit Convention in 1928, where this Evil Servant denounced the inspired testimony of the Lord’s Stone Sign and Witness, he did not permit a single copy of any of Brother Russell’s "Studies", or any of the booklets of Brother Russell, to appear in the book-stalls. The only books on sale (were) those of "Judge" R. And in the elaborate program of the Convention, no mention whatever was made of Brother Russell’s books, whereas there were colored illustrations of the various books and booklets of that "Evil Servant". Did you particularly notice this?

  The discarding of my books on the Great Pyramid was a mere detail, the great betrayal was in the discarding of the books of that "Faithful and Wise Servant".

  A lot of the brethren think that I was "cut up" because "Judge" R. denounced the Great Pyramid at that Detroit Convention, and later in the "Watch Tower".

  How little they understand my attitude in this matter, -for as a matter of fact I was reassured in my faith, for I had for some time previously expected this very move of that Evil Servant. I knew that his confessed belief in the Great Pyramid’s inspired testimony was insincere, -a make-believe. His outburst at the Convention in Detroit was merely his revealing his true attitude, -and his denunciation of the Great Pyramid was but a cloak for his real and vital denunciation, namely, his casting out of the faith-inspiring books of Brother Russell. Previous to his public denunciation of the books on the Great Pyramid, "Judge" R. had already showed his hand, in the Brooklyn Bethel, when he declared to the brethren there that he had now discarded the testimony of the Great Pyramid. This was sometime in May, 1928, -some of the Bethel brethren, who were much interested in the Great Pyramid, and always had been from the first, wrote me in this connection, saying at the same time that so far as they were concerned they still believed in the Witness to the Lord, no matter what "Judge" R. said against it. Brother Van Amburgh was one those who declared his continued faith in the Bible in Stone (he had just shortly before written an article on the Pyramid, which appeared in the "Golden Age", and which had to be reissued in a later copy, for the demand was so great, thus proving the immense interest manifested by the brethren in general in the Great Pyramid). But even Brother Van Amburgh had to hide his faith, when he was how determined "Judge" R. was to get rid of the witness of the Pyramid. The fact is, "Judge" R. was jealous, -jealous of the attention that the Great Pyramid was undoubtedly getting, and probably jealous of the interest manifested in the Pyramid’s teaching through that article by Brother Van Amburgh (which, by the way, Brother Van Amburgh could not have written without my direct assistance!).

  You ask about the two sons of my late Brother John, -one died a few years ago, the elder one. The other now lives in America, and has done so for several years, in fact since the end of the 1914 war. John, the elder one, manifested some interest in the truth, though not so much as we had hoped he might. The other one, Stanley, does not keep up his interest, I am sorry to say. But we trust that one day he will get an awakening, and remember his one-time faith. Immediately after the death of their father, these two joined the Bethel in London, taking their part in the work of the Society for some little time. But their experience there does not seem to have been to their spiritual welfare. They became skeptical because of the manifest lack of love in the older members of the Bethel staff, who should have been an example in faith and love. Personally I do not know much about the matter, but they could not fail to see that the faith and love of my two nephews was being undermined in some way. They both left the Society before the outbreak of the 1914 war. I shall be glad to hear from you again, soon.

  Your loving brother, MORTON EDGAR
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  VM44

  Van Amburg titled his work "A Bible for the Scientist".

  I wonder if Van Amburgh knew that Piazzi Smyth was the only person to have resigned from the Royal Society, an organization made up of scientists. The reason for his resignation? The Royal Society would not publish his memoir on the Great Pyramid!

  Van Amburgh did not have that problem. The non-scientist Woodworth, the editor of the Golden Age magazine, happily published his Great Pyramid article.

  The discussion of the Great Pyramid among the Rutherford controlled Bible Students came to an end in 1928 when Rutherford decided that the Great Pyramid, instead of being "God's Stone Witness", was really "Satan's Bible"!

  --VM44
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  rebel8

  Hi gary, thanks for posting that interesting info. In the reprint, does it specifically state that it was originally printed in Golden Age and that the author was a member of the GB?