by oldguy 25 Replies latest jw friends
As history has shown any off shoot religions coming out of the WTS/JWS has been minutely few.
Most likely for the reason that people are so mentally saturated with the WTS's own dogma, they rather leave ending up being agnogtists or atheists.
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Its certainly possible though.
Maybe its the fact the WTS. force feeds so much theological bullshit, most end up sticking their nose in the air to religion all together.
It pays to bare in mind that the JW organization has a rigidly controlled order much more that those religious groups you mentioned.
The WTS intensionally places a big wall around its members and watches them closely, doubters and dissidents are quickly picked
out with ernest attention.
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Back when Rutherford took over the WTS/IBSA and he started to disregard the teachings of Russell, this spurred on off shoot groups
that held to most of the Adventist theology taught by Russell.
Today is a different story though where much of the secular population has given religion a glancing push off mostly from knowledge based information.
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Thank you for enlightening us about them. I knew the Masons factored in at the beginning, and someone had said, "well, yes, but they're not now." My question was, "when did they stop". Another poster had said that in some of the older books that a mirror image revealed masonic emblems.
Another poster had said that in some of the older books that a mirror image revealed masonic emblems.
I really, really think people put the cart before the horse on this one. Masonry borrowed this imagery from Christianity; not the other way around. Every major Christian denomination either uses or has used the cross and crown, the portate (St. Gilbert's) cross and most other emblems you can find in Zion's Watch Tower.
The fascination with Egyptology and pyramids in particular is a little weirder, but it is not entirely out of place in the context in which it occurred. This was part of popular culture at the time and you can see the same fascination mirrored in the Art Deco movement especially after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
While doing research a few years back, I discovered a Charles T.Russell as a member of a masonic lodge in another state. It was common then for some people hold membership in lodges outside the area where they live. Also Russell admitted to being a freemason in one of his speeches. he just stated that he was from a different order than the group he was speaking to.
Junction-Guy, can you find the quote where Russell says he is a Mason. 5cents says you are reading that wrong.
That quote was on JWN several years ago, but I will google it until I find it.
Good, thanks. I think you'll be surprised.
Also Russell admitted to being a freemason in one of his speeches.
That part is not true, JC. It was a semantic allusion given for effect. (A mason can either be a builder in the general sense or a member of a goofy men's club before radio, television or the internet.)
"I am very glad to have this particular opportunity of saying a word about some of the things in which we agree with our Masonic friends, because we are speaking in a building dedicated to Masonry and we also are Masons. I am a Free Mason. I am a free and accepted Mason, if I may carry the matter to its full length, because that is what our Masonic brethren like to tell us, that they are free and accepted Masons. That is their style of putting it. Now I am a free and accepted Mason. I trust we all are. But not after the style of our Masonic brethren. We have no quarrel with them. I am not going to say a word against Masons, and I can appreciate that there are certain very precious truths that are held in part by our Masonic friends. I have talked to them at times, and they have said, How do you know about all these things? We thought nobody knew anything about these things except those who had access to our very highest logic."
Even above he states several times to being a Free and Accepted Mason, but then again false prophets do cloak their words in confusing ways.
