From Puritan times there was an urge to expand the Kingdom of God on earth by creating as many communities of christians as possible.
This was to be done by setting a "pure" example of utopian harmony. A "shining city on a hill" with a beacon of light for all nations to see.
Perfectionism and personality development was key.
It was to be Christianity by Example!
From the time of the Puritans until the Civil War this theory was tested and proved false. With christians on both sides (north and south) murdering each other the "beacon" went dark and the city of purity crumbled into battlefields of blood and gore.
From that shattered dream the Adventist Movement arose with a different theory altogether.
The Adventist's strongly advocated a reverse solution to mankind's woes; Jesus himself would return to earth and wipe away wickedness!
What man could not accomplish by example God could accomplish from heaven.
Apocalypse!
From the time of lay preacher William Miller through the creation of International Bible Students and subsequent Jehovah's Witnesses an ongoing
proclamation of ARRIVAL DATES for Jesus became the central focus of religious enthusiasm.
On the other hand, mainstream Christendom pursued a different theory of christianity: social reform, charity, political involvement and missionary outreach with a view to building creature comforts into the christian messege.
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Pastor Russell adopted the Adventist theory of christianity and preached a definite arrival and destruction in 1914.
This proved unworkable in the long run.
The actual destruction seemed confined to the battlefields of earth AS ALWAYS.
Stubbornly, Russell shuffled the "proofs" and simply bargained for very brief delays until Doomsday and the rapture of saints to heaven.
History tested this Adventist theory and proved it as worthless as the Puritan theory.
Russell's successor did not seem to learn from the mistakes of Adventism. He continued to ram it down the throats of any who listened.
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Judge Rutherford, after the failure of all the promises of Russell that 1914 would usher in destruction of evil and heavenly reward for saints,
simply DOUBLED DOWN on the same losing theory. However, the Judge could not be seen merely as an echo of the failed Russell.
Rutherford trashed Russell and started afresh: new name (Jehovah's Witnesses) and new game: attack the world, the church and the state.
Judge Rutherford scrapped the social reform and focus on perfecting the christian's personality. He externalized the mission statement.
By attacking everybody and everything Rutherford created a bunker mentality among the flock. By marginalizing and radicalizing the rank and file congregations he would FORCE THEM INTO A COALITION under his authority simply for survival's sake.
Jehovah's Witnesses became so DIFFERENT in every way they had only one refuge from the backlash they themselves created: placing all their hopes in Rutherford's end game strategy: Armageddon just in the nick of time!
Instead of Custer's Last Stand this was christianity's Last Stand; provoking absolutely EVERYBODY!
Had Rutherford not died when he did the radicalization may have devolved into something very nasty indeed. As it was, Kingdom Halls were
havens of misfits in the eyes of the community, the state and the mainstream christian milieu.
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Nathan Knorr changed this inevitible plunge into darkness. Knorr created a modest missionary program, a Theocratic Ministry School, a door to door "education" work and a bible study plan for converts.
A kinder and gentler religious movement emerged for awhile.
Was this a NEW THEORY?
No!
Knorr COMBINED the missionary and social reforms of christendom with the Adventist/Armageddon theories.
A period of Peace and Security developed in the Kingdom Halls. Fewer and fewer clashes with authorities were orchestrated simply for the sake
of creating martyrs.
Only on the Politcal front was it business as usual with thousands of young men from local congregations finding themselves in the crosshairs
of Draft Boards and Military conscriptions.
The policies were so flabby at this time and unevenly enforced a kind of Orwellian DOUBLE-THINK pervaded the religion.
No better example can be found than Malawi vs Mexico.
In Malawi the brothers and sisters could not purchase a political party card upon pain of death. Integrity was urged at all cost.
While in Mexico, bribing local officials for I.D. cards was seen as perfectly okay and business as usual.
DOUBLE THINK and DOUBLE STANDARD.
Why?
Knorr was trapped by Rutherford's hard line policies on the one hand and his own urge to mollify and recreate a kinder-gentler mainstream way.
Double think was the only path possible.
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Jehovah's Witnesses were reforming their image as polite, dedicated, soft-spoken defenders of the faith in sharp contrast to Rutherford's
screaming bomb-throwers who attacked everybody and everything angrily with denouncements.
JW's walked softly and carried a big stick: WATCHTOWER propaganda.
The "education work" of Knorr's version of Jehovah's Witnesses was apolitical on the surface. It was pacifist militarily (although a clever dodge was used to deny pacifism: JW's advocated war in heaven!). The charitible aspects, however, were confined to charity FOR OTHER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ONLY!
Deaths from blood transfusion policies began to haunt and stalk the authorities in Bethel.
Bad publicity is never good.
Magically, Fred Franz, the resident oracle and "prophet" (notice the quotation marks) quickly came to the rescue: DIVERSION through DATE SETTING.
The focus shifted to the arrival of 1975 as a "date of signficance".
Notice how cleverly this diversion was marketed at first.
In the past, date setting was geared toward the DESTRUCTION aspects under Russell and Rutherford.
Under Knorr, the 1975 date setting was stressed as a POSTIVE occurance!
How?
The punishment was played down (death to the wicked) and the REWARD ASPECT was played up: MILLENNIAL PARADISE!
The chronology was designed and sold and marketed as a RESTORATION of paradise.
Sure, evil people and institutions had to be destroyed, but heck--doesn't everybody want that anyway??
This Knorr/Franz plan to bang the drum slowly and encourage enthusiasm for bible studies, converts and magazine sales
went awry, however. VERY AWRY!
Instead of simply creating a buzz in the congregations that motivated enthusiams and more door to door sales a PARADIGM SHIFT
took place with seismic repercussions!
The rumor mill exploded!
It was as if 1849 and the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill had hit the front page of newspapers around the world all over again!
The millennial cat was out of the bag and became a lion devouring the front pages of newspaper and magazines everywhere!
This was a runaway train of a story which NOBODY could CONTROL. Especially those who dreamed it up in the first place!
Here is the really really interesting part of the story!
The folks in charge of the Watchtower Society started responding to this tidal wave of FEEDBACK in the press and from congregations.
THEY BECAME TRUE BELIEVERS simply from the magnitude of frenzy and excitement!
The Governing Body, such as it was : Nathan Knorr/Fred Franz (chiefly) were drinking their own Kool-Aid and getting drunk on it!!
A feedback mechanism pumped this hollow prediction full of so much hot air nobody could break free of it and cool their head long enough
to see this train was going off the edge of a cliff eventually AS DOOMSDAY DATES ALWAYS DID IN THE PAST!!
Yes, the fools FOOLED themselves!
It felt so damned good that finally after all these years of being seen as crackpots and crybabies and Chicken Littles, JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
were finally at the very CENTER OF THE HURRICAINE!
These sad little old men in their cramped and old-fashioned quarters in brick buildings swallowed up in a giant city were now KING OF THE WORLD simply because they were the ONLY SOURCE AUTHORITY of what comes next!!
Thousands and thousands of phone calls, letters, interview requests, demands for clarifications swamped Brooklyn Headquarters like an enormous Tsunami!
Who in their right mind wouldn't feel so damned important and right and powerful at such a moment in time??
The choice was made to go for it! Ride it out and make it count!
The sublte phraseology of Franz and the writing department could tease everything along with enough disclaimers they could always use the old dodge: YOU WENT TOO FAR by READING INTO IT.....and then stonewall it all for as long as necessary.
After all, anybody who up and left the religion wasn't anybody worth keeping anyway---right?
By the end of 1975 a sold stonewall had been erected: Adam's time before Eve's creation was "unknowable". It could be weeks or months
but, surely, not years!
This was a preview of explanations yet to come.
As one prediction and foundational theory after another crumbled to dust the same stonewall was built to contain the disappoinment.
The OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS non-explanation is a demonstration of contempt for all previous publicity generated to the contrary.
What is the NEW THEORY to replace all the old theories?
A return to the era of Judge Rutherford has begun anew.
Fear-mongering, strong denunciation for "enemies", bunker mentality and ironclad control of local congregations from the top.
The Watchtower religon has simply come full circle in its tail-chasing failure to live up to its own TRUTH and integrity.