You might say religion apostatizes against reality to infuse people with a state of emotional illusion, making illusion a reality for these people.
An Apostate Twist Ending
by Terry 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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thetrueone
The biggest and most notable apostate the JWS ever had was the exact individual who created the name for the organization,
J Rutherford. He was a true apostate toward the very stated beliefs he professed and annunciate others about.
He lavished with all the obtainable riches he could exploited from the WTS. publishing house, which he once grappled away for himself
then exploited other people's misfortune who may not have been in the same position in life.. He wasn't at all humble but was a ostentatious philander
who wore hand tailored suits, drove around in lavish Cadillacs, drank booze even when it illegally prohibited and built a lavish home
which he proclaimed was for the returning resurrected ancient worthies. ...... Right
In reality he listed the tittle of the homes/properties (Beth Sarim & Beth Sham) as properties designated for religious purposes to dodge
any property taxes. $$$ Then moved himself with his assistant ( mistress ) into the home where he lived the rest of his life.
If there ever was a glorious example of apostasy against Christianity and the principles of the Christian faith, one could confidently point out
nun other than J Rutherford, the once president of the WTS/JWS.
This man was deviously corrupt at the core who hid behind a masquerade of religious virtue, structurally supported by the Watchtower Corporation.
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Bubblegum Apotheosis
@trueone The money appears to corrupt everyone who decides to lead a religion. Think of Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Asa Alan, L.Ron Hubboard, Jimmy Bakers Billion dollar scam. If the Judge was using funds to further his personal pleasure, he deserves to go Gehenna!
The poster I was thinking of, seemed to use Terry's post as a launching pad for his Catholic or Reformist view, of who is allowed to preach the Bible and who is not. I can't agree C.T. Russell was trying to fleece the brethern, or was a incompetent Bible teacher. History of the Catholic Church and Reformist based religions have had their fair share of failed prophecy, crooks, swindlers and blood thirsty theology.
and I agree "a broken and ruined life, is a broken and ruined life" yet we as JWs were never told to slaughter another race, to wipe out a entire relgion or creed. The hatred as recent as Darfur, Serbs,Croats and Bosnians, Islam killings in Kenya, Uganda ects. Our bad teachers never asked us to kill another race, or sanctioned it.
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Terry
we as JWs were never told to slaughter another race, to wipe out a entire relgion or creed. The hatred as recent as Darfur, Serbs,Croats and Bosnians, Islam killings in Kenya, Uganda ects. Our bad teachers never asked us to kill another race, or sanctioned it.
Yes, JW's never directly injure anybody, they just bore into people's brains and lives and infest them with fear, antisocial and self-destructive thoughts.
It is a slower and more agonizing destructive path. How virtuous, indeed!
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thetrueone
I can't agree C.T. Russell was trying to fleece the brethren, or was a incompetent Bible teacher.
Really, most people thought even in his own time he was quit incompetent, William Conley the once president of the WTS. and
greatest financial supporter, left because he thought Russell derived most of theological expressions through other people's cultivated
theology, Pyramidology for example. Russell being the consummate salesman, found something else to fleece the publics attention and money
as well to create public notoriety for himself, that being a propagating salesman for religious beliefs. A kind of public notoriety that just being a
simple clothing salesman could never possibly offer.
Russel never was a well trained or schooled bible theologian by any stretch of the imagination.
His personal endeavor was enough in some people's eyes, to build up a public image of a modern day prophet,
a spiritually chosen spokesmen for God.
Was he really ? naah...., what he was, was a opportunistic charlatan, creating and pursuing his own public image of himself.
God is great, therefore aren't all men who chose to promote God therefore also great.
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thetrueone
Btt.
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Terry
Men tend to start exclusive clubs for themselves.
They like secret handshakes.
Rituals. Inside knowledge.
Good old boys start these things and it makes them feel important.
Russell wasn't so much interested in starting a club or a religion.
But, he certainly got carried away being the great Swami!
All those adoring faces looking up at him.
The man was almost certainly a fine example of Asperger's Syndrome.
Sex meant little or nothing. He just threw himself into that narrow tunnel of focus on revealing THE END.
Rutherford was obviously an angry man. Probably his father had made him that way. He got off on controlling people and
shaking his fist in the face of authority. He jumped on Russell's horse and rode it to a lather.
Unfortunately, he attracted the worst mixture of followers: True Believers and radical charlatans in love with crazy-thinking.
I can't say that I think Rutherford was designing his own religion so much as coalescing his power grid and pumping radical mind-poison
into the atmosphere. I doubt there was a happy moment in even one day of his life.
I think it was Nathan Knorr who shaped the publishing empire into a religious structure and sanded off the rough edges and the splinters.
As long as Fred Franz had free reign over the writing Knorr was free to organize things into a Blue Collar paradise.
A High School graduate's idea of crafty intelligence was built-in to the dogma and presentation.
The rank and file would be given a substitute for actual education under Knorr. A Phd in Awake! magazine snippets was all any JW thought they
needed to stand up to the Theologians and Academics on equal footing. A sad waste of human brains!
