by cedars 67 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I hope this doesn't come across as nitpicking, but I would not say that Russell, Rutherford and Knorr were the forbears of the present-day Governing Body. That word implies those three were the ancestors of today's ruling clique. I believe it would be more accurate to say that Russell et al were their predecessors rather their forbears.
Great job, cedars, on this piece. I appreciate the effort you put forth to assemble and present this important material.
Quendi
marked
Hi Quendi - thanks so much for the feedback, I do appreciate your comments and input.
I've tried searching for the word "forebears", but I can only find it in the second paragraph, which says nothing about Russell, Rutherford and Knorr. To be honest, I've gone to great pains to stress that Russell, Rutherford and Knorr were not predecessors to the governing body (e.g. the part where I say "It certainly cannot be said that the Society’s early presidents such as Charles Taze Russell and Joseph F. Rutherford sat on any “governing body” as we know it today."). So if I've said anything that has unintentionally gone against what I meant to say, then please let me know where it is, and I'll gladly change it.
Thanks again for the help!
Cedars
Great Job Cedars!
I think you would be getting more search hits. For some reason right after Candice's case WTBTS Official sites and press releases started ranking much higher in search results. ...hummmm.. It certainly is not content. Do you think they are paying Google Big bucks $$ for ad words?
It would be pretty obvious under careful scrutiny that the GB of the JWS were self created as the top executive editors of the WTS. publishing house.
Just as obvious of the past Presidents of the WTS.
Anyone could have done it , with a bit of money and ambition.
The connection made by these men to god was also self devised and why wouldn't they since the marketing advantage in doing so.
Actually, the WTS never referred to a Governing Body (caps) before 1971. It was "governing body" and referring to the 1st century although the phrase "governing body" never occurs in the bible.
The WTS said that they would only discuss terms found in the bible in the Insight volumes and the phrase "governing body" is not one of the major discussion terms. But they do use the phrase in the explanatory material once again referring to Acts 15 where the phrase does not occur either. It took years before that occurred to me, that "governing body" was not used there and could not be a support of their teaching.
*** it-1 pp. 498-499 Congregation ***
Organization of the Christian Congregation. While Christian congregations of God were established in various places, they did not function independently of one another. Instead, they all recognized the authority of the Christian governing body at Jerusalem. This governing body was comprised of the apostles and older men of the Jerusalem congregation, there being no rival bodies elsewhere seeking to supervise the congregation. It was to the faithful Christian governing body of the first century C.E. that the issue of circumcision was submitted for consideration. When the governing body made its decision, as directed by the holy spirit, that decision was accepted and became binding upon all Christian congregations, these willingly submitting to it.—Ac 15:22-31.
Just finished the article and found it very informative. Thank you for putting this together and sharing it with us.
Marking for later....
Thanks Cedars for putting the time and effort to put this together. The pre-71 photo of the Board of Directors was interesting, I think I remember seeing it before someplace (was it in MacMillen's book Faith on the March?).
The timeline of governing body members is good to have to. I would also like to see, if it is possible to even get the information, a timeline for all the Board of Director members from 1917 to 1971. It would be quite a task to compile, but interesting. While it is fair to say that there was NO governing body before 1971, and all major decisions were made by the President or Vice-president in the Knorr-Franz years, there was a Board of Directors all those years. The Board members, I suspect, were among the more influential individuals at Bethel, even though they did not function as a governing body.
Now, of course, the President, and board members of the legal corporations are not aligned at all with the governing body.
One thing that has always irked me is the way the 7 associates of Rutherford are referred to as the 'seven directors of the Society'. Maybe someone could confirm this, but I don't believe that was true. They were not directors at the time they were sent to prison (maybe later they were made directors, but in 1918 they were not. Especially DeCecca, who was not even at Bethel at the time.)
Thanks everyone, glad you're finding it informative!
Blondie, I appreciate your "insight" on the Insight volumes! However, I'm confused because I went to great lengths to explain in my article that there was no "Governing Body" (caps) before 1971. Is there are point in my article where I need to make this more clear? I do appreciate your expert input!
Balaamsass, normally how it works with Google is that, if you want your website to display prominently, you pay them to display ads of your website according to selected "keywords" via their Adwords system. However, this only gets you in an advertizers slot near the top of the page, and not in the "organic" results. If you have a website with poor content, but you still want it to rank highly "organically", you need to hire a specialist SEO company to work their magic and pull some strings. It wouldn't surprise me if the Society is investing an absolute fortune in making this happen. Their only problem is that there is little commercial interest in JW matters, so any JW-related website with decent content can compete with the official WT websites, even if it means coming a close 2nd or 3rd behind them. Ultimately, therefore, spending exhorbitant amounts on SEO for such a non-competitive field is a total waste of money.
Cedars
