Lyman Swingle (GB) told me what would bring down the Organization! (page 3)

greendawn

I often wonder are the lawyers employed by the WTS dubs that do not get paid for their services? And is the org really in trouble financially? Can we really be sure of that, without knowing their (genuine) finances? I somehow find it hard to believe they are in trouble because their overheads are apparently not really high and they pay no taxes. They pay out some money to missionaries, special pioneers, bethelites, they have some building maintainance to do, but the local congos pay for all their expenses, including COs and assemblies. Then they have legal fees perhaps also accountant fees.

blondie

*** jv (Proclaimers book) chap. 26 pp. 577-578 Producing Bible Literature for Use in the Ministry ***

First of all, where should they locate the Society’s offices? Should they move the headquarters back to Brooklyn? The Society’s board of directors considered the matter, and a committee was appointed to check into the situation.

Brother Rutherford instructed C. A. Wise, the Society’s vice president, to go to Brooklyn to see about reopening Bethel and renting premises where the Society could begin printing operations. Desirous of knowing what course God would bless, Brother Rutherford said: "Go and see whether it is the Lord’s will for us to return back to Brooklyn."

"How will I determine as to whether it is the Lord’s will for us to go back or not?" asked Brother Wise.

"It was a failure to get coal supplies in 1918 that drove us from Brooklyn back to Pittsburgh," Brother Rutherford replied. "Let’s make coal the test. You go and order some coal."

"How many tons do you think I should order to make the test?"

"Well, make it a good test," Brother Rutherford recommended. "Order 500 tons."

That is exactly what Brother Wise did. And what was the outcome? When he applied to the authorities, he was granted a certificate to get 500 tons of coal—enough to care for their needs for a number of years! But where were they going to put it? Large sections of the basement of the Bethel Home were converted into coal storage.

The result of this test was taken as an unmistakable indication of God’s will. By the first of October 1919, they were once again beginning to carry on their activity from Brooklyn.

Qcmbr

I don't think the WT is in any real financial hardship since it can easily stop cash outflows (reduce printing, lay off staff) without impacting the system - event legal fees are in and of themselves too small to seriously hurt the org unless a class action was taken and even then the org doesn't actually need money per se. If the org ran out of money through legal challenges then that would probably have the perverse effect of increasing its strength with the persecution complex. Its very easy to spin of the company into parts that are immune to litigation (and that I think is what the Wt has done??) so the printing could survive.

badboy

BLONDIE,THANKS.

REALLY INTERESTING,ISN'T IT HOW THEY MAKETH DECISIONS!

garybuss

Yearbook 1975 pp. 120-122 Part 2?United States of America
"WILL THE BETHEL HOME BE RESTORED?"

That was another big question. The Brooklyn Tabernacle had been sold. Though Bethel still belonged to the Society, it was practically unfurnished and headquarters operations had been transferred to Pittsburgh. There the brothers had little money and their Federal Street quarters were far from adequate for expansion. Printing facilities were lacking, and even many of the plates from which the Society's literature was printed had been destroyed. Prospects were bleak.

During J. F. Rutherford's stay in California, however, an interesting thing happened at the Society's Pittsburgh headquarters. One morning a Christian, George Butterfield, a person of considerable means, walked into the office. A. H. Macmillan spoke with him in the parlor, informed him that Brother Rutherford was in California, and then this is what happened, according to Macmillan's own report:

"He said, 'Have you got a private room here?'

"'Well, we'll lock this door, this is private. What do you want to do, George?'

"He began to take his shirt off as I talked to him. I thought he had gone crazy. He looked a little dirty and travel-worn, whereas ordinarily he was a tidy and well-kept man. When he got down to his undershirt he wanted a knife. Then he cut out a little patch he had on there and took out a bundle of money. It was about $10,000 in bills.

"He put it down and said, 'That'll help you to get this work started. I wouldn't send a check because I didn't know who was here. I didn't travel in a sleeper because I didn't want anybody to come and take this away from me if they suspected I had it, so I sat up all night. I didn't know who was in charge of the work, but now that I see you brothers here whom I know and I trust, I am glad that I came!' . . . It was a pleasant surprise and certainly an encouragement."

Upon Brother Rutherford's return to the Society's Pittsburgh offices, he instructed the Society's vice-president, C. A. Wise, to go to Brooklyn and see about reopening Bethel and renting premises where the Society could begin printing operations. The conversation went like this:
"Go and see whether it is the Lord's will for us to return back to Brooklyn."

"How will I determine as to whether it is the Lord's will for us to go back or not?"

"It was a failure to get coal supplies in 1918 that drove us from Brooklyn back to Pittsburgh. Let's make coal the test. You go and order some coal." (In New York coal was still being rationed at the end of the war.)

"How many tons do you think I should order to make the test?"

"Well, make it a good test; order five hundred tons."

That is just what Brother Wise did. And upon making application to the authorities, he was granted a certificate to get five hundred tons of coal. Immediately he wired J. F. Rutherford. That much coal would ensure operations for a number of years. But where could they put it all? Large sections of the Bethel home's basement were converted into coal storage space. This successful test was taken as an unmistakable indication that it was God's will that the move to Brooklyn be made. So it was, as of October 1, 1919.

garybuss

"This successful (COAL) test was taken as an unmistakable indication that it was God's will. . . "

wozadummy

This is interesting ,going back in time there is a definite thread of measuring spiritual success by financial gain.

What comes to my mind is the way the old time colporteurs depended on selling their books to survive ,even taking food as payment to keep their ministry going. Selling books was woven into the belief that sales = blessing.

I can remember brothers jangling the coins in their pockets to show their success in the service of placing magazines and books. And this mentality followed on into the quick build era of the eightees when they would quote Malachi 3 : 10 "Bring all the tenth parts into the storehouse, that there may come to be food in my house,and test me out please, in this respect ,Jehovah of armies has said, "whether I shall not open to you people the floodgates of the heavens and actually empty out upon you a blessing until there is no more want" "

So throughout the WTS history finance = blessing .This always troubled me over the years and I could not reconcile this because the congregations were in fact being coerced to dig deep for the money to give an appearence of blessing , and of course we would give money , because of the fear of failure of money coming in would be evidence of gods disfavour of the JW's in the area and this would then lead to challenging our faith , so we all felt that we had to make it work.

The same went for quoting the financial status of assemblies at the lunch break so we would feel compelled to pay up to save face.

new boy

Back to the old "double standard" thing. Rememder brothers would say if they had alot of money "Well Jehovah has really BLESSED me"...........

Then some Circuit Overseer said "That we shouldn't say that anymore, because if he is really blessing the rich....That means he must be cursing the poor............and we know that can't be right.......right? God being fair and all.

But that is really what the GB believes anyway.......the hot news is they don't know what the hell to believe!

VM44

This scripture comes to mind:

Matthew 4:7 Jesus said to him: “Again it is written, ‘You must not put Jehovah your God to the test.’”

rebel8

move the whole show to upstate

Ugh!!!1!

Lyman Swingle (GB) told me what would bring down the Organization!

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