Watchtower Reformation's Grand Climax

by Derrick 19 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Derrick

  Each successor to the Watchtower estate from Rutherford onward has virtually reformed the organization.

  Rutherford was an attorney for the Society and court Judge. Like modern-day reformers he didn't like the direction the Watchtower was going, and staged a corporate takeover. Chaos reigned at Bethel when the brothers split into two religions. Many departed from the "pure" teachings of Pastor Russell who was considered the Watchtower's first and only true "faithful and discreet slave."

  Reaching a fork in the road, one group loyal to Pastor Russell left to call themselves Dawn Bible Students. They worship today under the same name and like the Watchtower have their own web site:

  http://www.dawnbible.com/

  Their magazine is The Dawn - A Herald Of Christ's Presence. Perusing the site it seems to accentuate the positive. It is a reflection of what this organization might have become if it remained on the course that Pastor Russell had set.

  The group loyal to Judge Rutherford (affectionately referred to as "The Judge") became Jehovah's Witnesses. Believing they were "spiritual Israel" and soon to inherit the Earth, Rutherford set high hopes for them. Promising that "millions now living will never die," Rutherford ensconsed this belief in a book under the same name. Rutherford was the driving force for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, changing the direction of the Watchtower corporations. Like the Dawn Bible Students, Jehovah's Witnesses have their own web site:

  http://www.watchtower.org/

  The group of brothers and sisters who didn't accept the reforms and left to form their own corporation, the Dawn Bible Students Association based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, ironically teach what the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses said was the truth. Judge Rutherford on the other hand formed essentially a new religion as a result of the same brash reformation that has the modern-day Society in a disfellowship frenzy. Indeed, the Dawn Bible Students like their founder Pastor Russell are now considered apostates. Simultaneously, the same Pastor Russell is considered by the Society as the original faithful slave of the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses, spiritually alive in Heaven with Christ and other anointed Christians helping Christ to direct Earth's affairs in these "last days."

  Many Jehovah's Witnesses today are confused about the Society's split personality regarding Charles Taze Russell. On the one hand he's an "apostate" whose Dawn Bible Students continue to promote his teachings today. On the other hand he's a true Christian who is anointed. Pastor Russell was commissioned by Christ to become his faithful slave, and inspired by the true Holy Spirit to found the "one true religion" in the form of Zion's Watch Tower in the late 1800's. Therefore, Russell simultaneously directs the Dawn Bible Students and Watchtower Society's Governing Body if we combine all this information. The "truth" is therefore published on both the Dawn Bible Students and Watchtower Society web sites! Confused yet?

  "What goes around, comes around" is so true. The next corporate takeover of the Watchtower Society could result in a similar separation that started with open displays of anger in, of all places, the Bethel dining room 85 years ago. One wonders if another attorney will take the helm and become the Society's next President? Are attorneys right now planning a takeover of the Society to stop it from self-destructing in a tidal wave of litigation from its psychologically barbaric disfellowship policies, its irresponsible interpretation of the Bible's prohibition on blood, and its latest child abuse fiasco (http://www.silentlambs.org/) that ironically could attract a flood of litigation similar to the tobacco industry's?

  Billions of dollars a year. Can you conceive this number?

  That is the revenue of the Watchtower corporations. At the tip of a gigantic financial iceberg rests a vast fortune of wealth in cash holdings at major banks, real estate and stock in industries as diverse at those serving the military. Should a television documentary exposing the depth of the Watchtower fortune ever be made it would surely compete in economic size with the Church of Jesus Christ's Latter-Day Saints and the Masons.

  In 1917 the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society controlled a tiny percentage of its vast holdings today. The outcome of any takeover will obviously call into question the sincerity of those seeking its control. Billions of dollars a year are pouring into the Watchtower's cash accounts from all over the world. The entire wealth of the Watchtower could rival Microsoft and other large corporations. These vast resources are positioned to potentially provide great benefit to mankind in the form of world distributions of Bibles and Bible educational literature, as well as hunger and medical relief efforts to the poorest nations where literature is distributed.

  Jehovah's Witnesses have specific beliefs about the Bible, that this book was inspired by God and is a literal blueprint for God's plan from Eden lost to Eden restored. Christ plays a pivotal role in that plan. Pastor Russell believed this. Rutherford believed this. Franz believed this. Even those on the Governing Body today believe this. Regardless of differences there has always been a thread of continuity that has allowed Jehovah's Witnesses today to hold treasured first editions published way back to the start of this organization.

  Given all these considerations, perhaps there's hope Jehovah's Witnesses will finally find the truth they have been seeking for over a century in the "wilderness" upon the Watchtower reformation's grand climax?

  It would be refreshing to hear your opinions in this regard.

  Derrick
• 

  abbagail

  Thanks Derrick. This was veeeery interesting. I had never thought about it - that Russel could be seen as the father of two ongoing religions! And the thought that another attorney[s] may be in the wings waiting to take over (like JFR in days gone by) seems more than just likely. The next GB will probably be a group of "anointed" attorneys running the show, who are probably already being "groomed" [or grooming themselves] for the "job."

  Grits
• 

  searcher

  Wow! This is great!

  I am really looking foreward to telling the next jw that comes to my door that I am studying with the 'mother organisation' and do not believe in 'splinter groups'.

  searcher.
• 

  Farkel

  Derrick,

  That was the best piece I've ever seen you write.

  : ...the Dawn Bible Students like their founder Pastor Russell are now considered apostates. Simultaneously, the same Pastor Russell is considered by the Society as the original faithful slave of the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses, spiritually alive in Heaven with Christ and other anointed Christians helping Christ to direct Earth's affairs in these "last days."

  I would have milked this absolutely beautiful dilemma for all it was worth, though!

  Farkel
• 

  obiefernandez

  Billions of dollars per year in revenues is wild speculation and, in my opinion, ridiculous. But other than that, good post!
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  outoftheorg

  Thanks Derrick, an interesting look into the early origins of the wbts.

  Using the present truth thinking of the wbts one could call them Apostates. This would be true since they abandoned the original founders teachings and substituted theirs instead. That is Apostasy as the wbts explains it.

  Since the original church is still in existance and apostates are such terrible people, the world as a group should not have anything to do with the wbts and make a full effort to expose their apostasy as well as their demonic practices such as df'ing&deaths due to blood policy etc.etc.etc.

  What a tangled web the wbts has wove since they took over the Russelites and made a drunken lawyer their lord and master.

  outoftheorg

  Edited by - outoftheorg on 28 August 2002 23:27:12
• 

  somebody

  Derrick,Thank you for the bit of historey

  GRITS,

  And the thought that another attorney[s] may be in the wings waiting to take over (like JFR in days gone by) seems more than just likely. The next GB will probably be a group of "anointed" attorneys running the show, who are probably already being "groomed" [or grooming themselves] for the "job."

  I hope you hold onto that thougth. Copy it and past it and save it. You may hold the future accurate knowledge! ( not to be confused with past,present, or future truth) ;) I KNOW that the next group will find a scripture to justify their being spirit appointed. Perhaps they will teach that Jesus had a third invisible coming and told them to hog this life saving message for themselves, by disguising it as an icorporated printing factory.

  Don't laugh....there will always be a group of people who would believe it.

  peace,

  somebody
• 

  VeniceIT

  . The next GB will probably be a group of "anointed" attorneys running the show, who are probably already being "groomed" [or grooming themselves] for the "job."

  hmmmm why does this make me picture a group of monkeys picking at each other????

  Ven
• 

  Derrick

  I thoroughly appreciated and enjoyed your replies.

  VeniceIT wrote:
  . The next GB will probably be a group of "anointed" attorneys running the show, who are probably already being "groomed" [or grooming themselves] for the "job."

  hmmmm why does this make me picture a group of monkeys picking at each other????

  Ven

  LOL, what a lovely vision. But you never can tell, Ven, if perhaps God may decide to use a law firm and its attorneys to put a halt to the pain and suffering caused by various misguided Watchtower policies?

  somebody wrote:

  GRITS wrote:
  And the thought that another attorney[s] may be in the wings waiting to take over (like JFR in days gone by) seems more than just likely. The next GB will probably be a group of "anointed" attorneys running the show, who are probably already being "groomed" [or grooming themselves] for the "job."

  I hope you hold onto that thougth. Copy it and past it and save it. You may hold the future accurate knowledge! ( not to be confused with past,present, or future truth) ;) I KNOW that the next group will find a scripture to justify their being spirit appointed. Perhaps they will teach that Jesus had a third invisible coming and told them to hog this life saving message for themselves, by disguising it as an icorporated printing factory.

  Are you implying that there's a group of attorneys running the show at Bethel in some future parallel universe?

  outoftheorg wrote:
  Using the present truth thinking of the wbts one could call them Apostates. This would be true since they abandoned the original founders teachings and substituted theirs instead. That is Apostasy as the wbts explains it.

  Excellent point. They believe Russell is one of the "annointed" in heaven directing the affairs of the Watchtower Society but fail to understand that technically, Russell considers them "apostates" by their own definition. Then again, I recall that after my baptism is felt like being behind the "looking glass" in Alice's wonderland. The deeper we go down the rabbit's hole the more confusing logic gets.

  Farkel wrote:
  That was the best piece I've ever seen you write.

  : ...the Dawn Bible Students like their founder Pastor Russell are now considered apostates. Simultaneously, the same Pastor Russell is considered by the Society as the original faithful slave of the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses, spiritually alive in Heaven with Christ and other anointed Christians helping Christ to direct Earth's affairs in these "last days."

  I would have milked this absolutely beautiful dilemma for all it was worth, though!

  Farkel

  I was tempted but decided that too long a post might lose the reader's interest. You're absolutely right, this dilemma deserves a lot of reflection by each and every Jehovah's Witness because it reveals the kind of "new light" that presently illuminates the organization. I liken modern-day "new light" to light similar to a black light bulb in that black light causes certain things to glow, while rendering most objects in its path invisible. Turning on a black light bulb in a dark room allows only those things we want others to see -- the things we purposefully coated with special "paint" to draw attention to the coated objects -- while everything else remains hidden in the darkness.

  That's the problem. The use of this type of illumination seems diametrically opposed to the purpose of Jehovah God, who is said to reveal the things that are hidden in darkness, according to the Holy Scriptures.

  Thanks for the compliment, which I value coming from one who is talented at writing.

  Derrick
• 

  conoroberst

  Unfortunatly your post loses weight through either hyperbole or just plain inaccuracy.

  If there are "billions of dollars" puring into Brooklyn, whats being done with it all, i have met members of the GB, and the UK Branch Commitee, I didnt see any Ferraris, Rolex watches or Bespoke suits, deluded though they may be, they are power freaks not monetarily greedy.

  If you have evidence of financial mispropriety please provide it, otherwise just stick to the facts, your arguments will be much more powerful that way...

  (rivalling microsoft, ha)

  Edited by - conoroberst on 29 August 2002 19:22:53