by Terry 29 Replies latest watchtower medical
Well, one day we can ask him what was really going on in his tiny mind! While we, the horny handed sons of toil, are working up a sweat planting and sowing in the new order, he will be sitting in heaven governing our every move. What a wonderful and uplifting thought brothers and sisters!!! What joys we can partake of!
If we are really lucky (oops) he may even pop down to see us so we can partake of his wisdom.
I agree with James-Woods- Both Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz were around-one of them would have come to be in charge.
Sorry-this double posted for some reason-I erased the second post.
Reminds me of something Ben Franklin said:
"For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail." -
-- Benjamin Franklin
Rutherford was the nail!
Rutherford's books today are seen as useless gibberish with little value, even to the JWS.
50 years from now the books and magazines published today by the WTS will seem equally useless over time.
Says a lot to the viability of what the WTS pronounces about itself and to the editorial leaders.
Sir82, tou made a fascinating comment that fits nicely with thoughts flying around my head I think most Jehovah's Witnesses have some kind of mental issue that makes them want to be in a system.
And the 7 million JWs of today, being of a certain mental & emotional disposition, would belong to other (non-JW) high control groups and/or cults.
There are 10's or even 100's of millions of people who function best under authoritarian constructs. JWs have a significant market share of such individuals, but by no means have the market cornered.
I see similarities with this - the protecting of the abuser; how JWs praise the Governing Body whatever it does, lying to cover what may cause a 'bad witness':
Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted at age 11 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido at a school bus stop in 1991 and was imprisoned at their residence for 18 years. In August 2009, Phillip brought Nancy and Jaycee (who was living under the alias "Allissa") along with two girls that Garrido fathered with Jaycee during her captivity, to be questioned by Garrido's parole officer after he noticed some suspicious behavior. She did not reveal her identity when she was questioned alone. Instead, she told investigators she was a battered wife from Minnesota who was hiding from her abusive husband, and described Garrido as a "great person" who was "good with her kids". Dugard has since admitted to forming an emotional bond with Garrido with great guilt and regret.
The Daily Telegraph (London) . Retrieved May 24, 2010
I believe that "what if" concerning historical happenings cannot ever be adequately addressed. God is not unaware of anything that is happening, and absolutely nothing can happen that he does not, at least, permit, or allow to happen. The Bible Students' movement was becoming, even before Russell died, a sectarian movement. Divisions and secta have always exsited in the Christian congregation. The apostle Paul wrote of such exsiting in the first century. Although he stated that this should not be, he stated: " there must be also factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you." (1 Corinthians 11:19) Thus, God allows divisions and sects so that those whom he approves may be revealed. Not that they are made known publicly and by carnal recognition. But they reveal themselves to God so as to be approved by God. Man, however, even most of those who belong to Christ, continue in the mode of carnal thinking, and remain as babes in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:1) It would appear from the carnal standpoint that we should seek to establish the church with some human authority to control it, so that there may be a united front. It was this kind of thinking that Russell often preached against, although I must admit, at the same time he seemed to not recognize that such an attitude was developing within the Bible Students' movement itself. Perhaps he believed that, since the church would soon no longer be in the flesh, that it was not important to speak out against such, although he did more or less quietly speak out against it, as in a meeting of the Pilgrims, Elders, and Deacons during a convention in 1910.
http://mostholyfaith.com/bible/CRS/1910a.asp#CR125:1
He published his sermon on " The Catholic Church -- St. Peter's Kingdom Keys" in 1915 in the Bible Students Monthly, which shows that he still did not condone sectarianism.
http://rlctr.blogspot.com/2008/09/xf01-catholic-church.html
Nevertheless, God is proving his people, not by what "group", or "sect", or "denomnation", or "movement", that they associate with, but by their association with, and obedience to, the one whom He sent to die for us. Indeed, sectarianism, despite how much other considered "truth" is otherwise being upheld by any group, often leads one to fail in obedience to Jesus in loving one another, since the sectarian attitude often would restrict that commandment to their own particular group,
See:
Bet we'd still have all the holidays and could take blood.
Maybe Rutherford was Gods way of "making the rocks cry out."
Excellent thread.
Andrew Pierson was elected vice-president at the January 1917 AGM, so it's possible that he would have been elected president in the absence of JFR. Although in the stoush of 1917 he initially sided with Rutherford, he later backed the old board, deciding the president had been wrong in dismissing the majority of the board and appointing his mates to fill the four vacancies, thus stacking it with his sycophantic supporters.
Rutherford's major contributions to the religion were to impose greater central regulation on it, forcing congregations to obey him. He also commissioned The Finished Mystery, which stirred up government opposition and attracted attention to the religion it otherwise wouldn't have received. He sought controversy and was successful at gaining it with a succession of ploys (hate-speech tirades against government and religion, stance against flag salutes, gramophone witnessing, marches, radio broadcasting).
He introduced the requirement to go witnessing door to door and field service record-keeping; introduced worldwide uniformity, created the current concept of Armageddon, "God's vs Satan's organisation", the us-and-them mentality, the picture of a vengeful Jehovah, killed the celebration of birthdays and Christmas. Through The Finished Mystery and other books, he also turned Russell's neat and intriguing system of Bible chronology into a weird set of dates and interpretations that needed constant revision.
Take away all that and Pierson's group would have blended into the background, remaining just another low-key millennialist religion that would have probably died a natural death or remain today as a tiny minority denomination.
