Thanks PAB.
Astounding! How much do you REALLY know the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses? I bet you DID NOT know about this!
by park ave boy 31 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Beth Sarim
''That's pretty clever since Russell died 31 October 1916''
He died pretty much 2 years bang-on from ''Declaring the Gentile Times have ended!!!!""
A timetable to 1914 which was determined by his chronology of studying pyramids. When 1914 came and went, with no sensational events, other than the onset of WW1, he must have experience unsurmountable disappointment which could have undermined his health resulting in death.
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TD
For one, Russell was called out for selling "Miracle Wheat" which costed $5/bushel back in 1918 but was selling it for $60/bushel and people were buying it up and he made tons of money.
Why would you quote from a rag as if it were gospel? I dislike the JW faith as much as any xJW, but that doesn't mean that every single criticism out there should be swallowed hook, line and sinker.
As Jim Penton and other real researchers have pointed out, Russell was very likely taken in himself on this one. There is nothing unusual about high-yield strains of wheat reverting back in a generation or two and no evidence that he made a killing.
I would agree that the incident says something about his ignorance and naivete and the fact that he was quite evidently not being used by God in any discernible way.
But charlatan? Snake oil salesman? Why on God's green earth would a man who was already wealthy spend every penny and every ounce of energy, finally dying broken, disappointed and relatively young if he didn't actually believe it?
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Beth Sarim
''Why on God's green earth would a man who was already wealthy spend every penny and every ounce of energy, finally dying broken, disappointed and relatively young if he didn't actually believe it?''
Because maybe he didn't actually ''believe'' it. Actions speak louder than words. People do things contrary to what they say, when they don't believe.
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Bob Loblaw
Thanks. Interesting read.
"Everything indicates that Russellism had its day. The money which Russell accumulated will serve to keep the sect alive for a little longer, but it will not be many years before it will be as dead as the 999 other religious fads that served to delude simple minded people for a little while."
-Dang!, I wish you were right newspaper journalist.
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krismalone
This thread proves that former JW's (apostates) are liars....
Example:
J.F. Rutherford had 2 (TWO) 16 cylinder cadillacs instead of ONE as a poster stated above. This was during the depression mind you. While the rest of the world was starving and the poor JW's were selling literature, J.F. Rutherford had a mansion built in San Diego and was driven around in his TWO 16 cylinder Cadillacs.
Another point is that both Russel and Rutherford had very happy marriages. The wives were happy as hell to be far away from their delusional, power hungry abusive husbands and the husbands were happy to have young female assistants accompanying them in their travels. Today if any brother that has privileges is separated from his wife, they will immediately be disqualified for special privileges. But that didn't apply to both Russel & Rutherford.
In 1907 Mary Russel was the plaintiff in her divorce proceedings. She was granted alimony to be paid by C.T. Russel. Immediately after that, Russel transferred ALL his assets to the Watchtower Corporation and he told the court that he didn't have any personal assets or cash to pay alimony. The courts saw through this as an excuse to evade his financial responsabilities and made him pay. Mary Russel survived financially by renting apartments in Chicago and one day Russel with his cohorts entered the building unannounced and kicked her out. The 1907 Russel vs Russel court transcript is very revealing and exposes C.T.R. as an abusive, delusional individual. C.T.R. also had a celibate marriage (no sex) because he said that the 144,000 in Revelation were virgins and not defiled by women.
The WT paints Russels wife being ambitious and wanting more power and that's the "reason" why she divorced him. Nothing is published about his abusive treatment towards her.
Conclusions: Not even the wives of these false, abusive prophets escaped harm from the cult. They were cheated from having a normal, loving marriage.
KM
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TD
BethSarim,
Because maybe he didn't actually ''believe'' it. Actions speak louder than words. People do things contrary to what they say, when they don't believe.
I agree that actions speak louder than words, (Which was actually the point of my comment) but when we are interpreting the motives of people living more than a century ago, we generally try to stay under the umbrella of plausibility. Selling 30 bushels of wheat at an inflated price is simply not a plausible scheme for a man of Russell's means to have furthered his ambitions.
Let's assume just for the sake of discussion that the Brooklyn Eagle was correct and the Russellite movement was collecting an income of ~500K a year at this point. For the common man in 1916, eighteen hundred dollars (The total proceeds of the 'Miracle Wheat' incident.) was nothing to sneeze at, but in light of the Eagle's claims, it would have been a very tiny little drop in a pretty damn big bucket and the exposure and potential risk would not have been worth it.
In other words, why would a man who has discovered a successful way to rob banks and pocket millions of dollars risk counterfeiting a tiny little sum of money that he didn't really need? It's just not plausible and there's no way to make it plausible without assuming the man is a low grade moron, which is completely incongruent with the starting proposition. On the other hand if the Eagle was exaggerating, then its reliability as a source starts to erode (Which is a conclusion most researchers eventually reach.) and the information doesn't fall into the realm of, "verified history."
I'd also caution against lumping Russell and Rutherford together. As Brown, Hoffer and others have pointed out, these type of movements are usually started by an idealist (a Joseph Smith, for example) and subsequently taken over by a hard-fisted pragmatist (a Brigham Young) The former tends to be a 'Trotsky,' while the latter tends to be a 'Stalin.' These personalities and their motivations aren't the same and shouldn't be conflated.
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Terry
MIRACLE WHEAT: the complete story (from Bible Students blog)
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Excerpt:
THE CASE BRIEFLY REVIEWED
Below is the article from:
The Watch Tower, February, 15, 1913, page 62"I am interested in everything progressive and tending to prove that we are entering the great Thousand Years of earth’s blessings under Messiah. In the columns of THE WATCH TOWER I have noted the coming of Divine blessings in fulfilment of the prediction that “The wilderness shall blossom as the rose,” “The earth shall yield her increase,” etc. Five years ago we quoted in THE WATCHTOWER columns reports respecting “Miracle Wheat.” We gave the name and address (Mr. Stoner) of the farmer who discovered this new wheat and his reports of its remarkable qualities. We published also the report of Mr. Miller, the Government expert, who thoroughly investigated it and pronounced upon its superior qualities.
Some of our readers purchased seed from Mr. Stoner at $1.25 per pound and approved it. In 1910 one of the friends of our Society, who had raised some of this wheat, sold it for seed at $1.00 per pound, and donated the proceeds to our Society. In 1911 the same friend, having raised more seed, asked that THE WATCH TOWER give the benefit of this to its readers at $1.00 a pound post-paid, and appropriate the net results to the furtherance of its work. Another friend, who had some of the same seed, also donated similarly, the total amount being twenty bushels.
For the accommodation of our readers, we allowed this seed-wheat to be put up in pound packages and mailed from THE WATCH TOWER Office, just as the U.S. Government handles such seeds at Washington. We did the business at the request of others and in their interest, and credited them on our books with the results, setting aside to them proportionately voting shares in our Society. We made no claim for the wheat on our own knowledge. We merely gave the report of the Government expert, of the originator, and of our friends who had tried the wheat. We merely acted as intermediary.
Nevertheless, everything that was said respecting the wheat was fully proven at this trial by expert witnesses, interested and disinterested, and their testimony was not shaken. It was also shown that farmer Stoner and his business partner, Mr. Knight, made no sales of this wheat under $1.25 per pound until September, 1911; and that they had a written contract between them that none of the wheat was to be sold at any price until the following year — 1912. Suddenly in September, 1911, they changed their plans, considering that they had wheat enough accumulated, put the price down to $5.00 per bushel, about the time that THE WATCH TOWER wheat was all sold at a dollar a pound. This The Eagle’s attorney claimed was proof of fraud on the part of THE WATCH TOWER — sufficient excuse for the slanderous assaults of The Eagle upon me.
It was in vain that my attorney sought to show the Jury The Eagle’s malice — that it really was attacking me along religious grounds; that it had set itself as the champion of certain clerical enemies of mine, and was seeking to destroy my influence and, if possible, to drive me from Brooklyn. In the court-room sat about twenty-five of my friends, who had come long distances at their own expense to have an opportunity to speak a word in my behalf. Through some intricacies of the Law respecting evidence, these were unable to be heard in my behalf.
Instead, the Law gave The Eagle’s attorney the privilege of saying all manner of evil against me falsely — for the sake of the Doctrines of Christ, which I hold and teach. He was allowed to picture me, as The Eagle had done in its cartoon — as a thief and robber, masquerading in the garb of a minister of Christ. He was allowed to ridicule the “Miracle Wheat,” although I had nothing whatever to do with it, nor with the naming of it; and notwithstanding the fact that its superiority was proven.
He was allowed to inveigh against the fact as criminal, that I hold the office of President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and to claim that I hold the office in some corrupt or unlawful manner, and that I misuse the Society’s income in some unexplained way to my own advantage. Meantime, scores present in the courtroom and thousands all over the land, would have been glad to testify that their donations have come to the Society because they have the utmost confidence in my integrity and management of its affairs as its Executive Officer, and that had anybody else been President their donations would have been smaller or none at all.
Presumably because there were seven Catholics on the Jury, The Eagle’s attorney was prompted to refer to the Sisters of Charity and their noble work as nurses in the hospitals, without referring to the fact that those nurses are well paid, and that the hospitals in large measure are supported by State taxation.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was held up to scorn because it did not have any hospital work nor draw any revenue from taxation, and because the female members of the Society do not visit the workshops of the land weekly or monthly on pay-day, and exact donations to its work. Our society was held up to scorn also because we do not send a wagon around the city collecting groceries and provisions for the up-keep of our work; because we do not take up collections even on Sunday; because we have never solicited a penny or a dollar from anybody; and because we never have fairs, grab-bags, “chances” or “raffles.” Our Society was held up to scorn and ridicule because it offers its literature free to the poor, while other similar Societies charge both rich and poor for their tracts and other publications. The Eagle was pictured by its attorney as a dove, a bird of Paradise. For defending it the Protestants on the Jury were led to hope for escape from eternal torment through “the pearly gates” of heaven, welcomed with the words, “Well done!” for giving The Eagle the verdict. Neither I nor my attorneys could offer such inducements conscientiously."
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Terry
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