This is what I found while cruising the internet this afternoon: Interesting indeed!
In the beginning God created Charles!
 |
| Charles |
Who taught his bible students that without His Counsel, they couldn't possibly understand the bible. And that the spiritual "Rapture" of those who had already died, began in 1878.
Born into a "well to do" Pittsburgh Presbyterian family in 1852. By age sixteen, Charles had learned the salesman's trade from his father and changed his religious affiliation to Congregationalist. He soon became dissatisfied with the doctrines of "Salvation by Faith," and "Eternal Punishment" but found more appealing doctrine within the "Adventist" movement. By the time he turned twenty three, he discovered the sales persistence of printed pamphlets, magazines and hand bills. It wasn't long before he had his own publishing house and was well on his way to becoming a self styled non-ordained preacher.
| Matthew 24:45-47 |
| 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. |
What she has to say, takes on a familiar sound!
 |
| Would you buy a religion or a bushel of wheat from this man? |
With very few original ideas of his own, Charles found it easier to borrow bits of doctrine and dogma from various "Christian" writers, people and religions, then mould them into his own version of;
| " T h e T r u t h ! " |
Along with his Second Adventist mentor, Nelson H. Barbour, Charles believed that Bible verses containing numbers were encrypted messages from God, about the scheduling of future events such as Armageddon. Russell originally claimed that the second coming of Christ had already ocured in 1874 but later re-scheduled the start of Armageddon to 1914 when he found new ways of anticipating what God was going to do. Charles based his 1914 prediction for the start of Armageddon, on his interpretation of numerical bible passages and backed his arguments with measurements derived from the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. If a measurement didn't quite fit his theory, Chuck had no problem "adjusting" his calculations to make the measurement fit (go ahead and chuckle, this is meant to be a fair presentation, not one biased in any particular direction.) He referred to the pyramid as;
"God's Great Stone Witness."
"Once a Con Man always a Con Man." Charlie got to be so good at his con, he even coned himself. Besides being the founder of the Russellites / Jehovah's Witnesses, Charlie's biggest claim to fame was, Believing His Own Rhetoric to the point of spending the entire night, of October 4/5, 1914 on the roof of the sects Brooklyn headquarters waiting to view the arrival of "Gods Heavenly Forces." He believed that the outbreak of "World War I" in August of 1914 to be the start of Armageddon. By now Charles had also become an accomplished obscurantist. He was disappointed with the failure of God's army (led by Christ,) to arrive on schedule, so he published a series of "Dance Steps" designed to get him around the responsibility of being viewed as a "false prophet." Charles borrowed and incorporated some unused doctrine that he had picked up from a former friend and business partner N. H. Barbour, that "Christ had returned invisablly," he declared that Christ indeed did arrive on time, but that the return was invisible and that Christ would become visible at a later though unspecificed date.
Ah! The marvels of the "Lateral Shuffle."
| "Furthermore, Science declares that there is a far mightier Center, around which these countless millions of suns revolve, accompanied by their planets and satellites. This great Center seems to be associated with the Pleiades, particularly with Alcyone, the central star of this renowned group. For this reason the suggestion has been made that the Pleiades may represent the Residence of Jehovah, the place from which He governs the Universe." |
| ZWT Jun 15 1915 p.185 |
And if you didn't, you hid your disbelief, and hoped you were wrong.
Two years after the "Armageddon Fiasco," while riding a train from California to Kansas City and wearing a toga, sixty two year old Charles was "called to meet his maker," on; October 31, 1916 (Halloween.)
Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor?
Here Comes The Judge!
In every organization of five or more people, there is always one person who is really in charge, there is always one person favoured by the one in charge to take over and there is always one person who thinks he should be in charge. Charlie's little band of zealots, was no different. In his last will and testement, Charles named a committee of men to take over from him, to form a "Governing Body." They were all "friends" of Charles and were willing to substitute for him. The presidency was to be perodically rotated by democratic voting. However there was one person in that crowd who believed that he should be in charge, who hated the idea of democracy and was prepared to act.....
Charlie's legal advisor Jehovahs or Joes Organization?
by Randall Watters','wheat')" onmouseout=kill() href="http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/thejudge.html" target=main ;>Joseph Franklin Rutherford!
 |
| Joseph Franklin Rutherford |
"Booz Rutherford," as his contemporaries knew him, was hard drinking, hard smoking and vain. He did a little Jail time during World War 1 having been convicted along with several other "Russellities" of Sedition. Like his predecessor Charlie Russell, Joe used the Watch Tower magazine as an outlet for his own personal agendas. Because of his drinking, the Watch Tower magazine published many articles against prohibition. Joe was big on international evangelism, he set up printing plants in Switzerland and Palistine. He established the field service reporting system, and made evangelism a mandatory duty of all witnesses. He was also anti vaccination, anti aluminum, anti Catholic and viewed "The League of Nations" as "The Great Beast 666."
| Matthew 24:46-47 |
| 46 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. |
"The Great Harlot."
| Isaiah 43:10 |
| 10 Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] HE: before me there was no ùGod formed, neither shall there be after me. |
"We must be 'God's Organization,' see how 'Satan's Henchmen' persecute us!"
Joe was a prolific writer, averaging a book a year and wasn't deterred in the slightest by previously failed prophesies, he worked up another and in September of 1920, published a book titled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die." This of course meant anyone who was a "Russellite." Because of this prophesy the Watch Tower Organization garnered many new converts. The "Judge" didn't like living in Brooklyn and figured California was more to his liking.
 |
| Beth Sarim |
God's sense of humor kicked in, and proved that Joe wasn't one of the "Millions who would never die."
Nathan The Bland!
Nathan H. Knorr, "Brownie" (referring to the condition of his nose,) as he was called in his absence, operated as vice president under Rutherford and replaced Rutherford by inheriting the presidency once it had been vacated.
 |
| "the Scriptures justify the 'war strategy' of hiding true facts from the enemy." |
| THE WATCHTOWER May 15, 1960, page 295 |
June 1, 1960, page 352The unofficial policy of lying became official, and that opened the door to all kinds of abuses. Witnesses automatically assume that as a Witnesses they are entitled to the truth. However that has never been officially stated and Witnesses could no longer rely on the Watch Tower to hand them the truth. During the 1960's the Watch Tower and Awake Magazines began promoting the idea that Armageddon was definitely going to happen, this time in the fall of 1975. Ordinary Witnesses, Men, Women and Children began receiving lessons in effective salesmanship, at the Kingdom Halls. Known as Theocratic Ministry School, the techniques that were taught, replaced the windup phonographs, and Rutherford's speaches, as means of persuading new people to join. Faceless anonymity, became a Watch Tower standard, articles were no longer signed, authors are never identified, and the names of those translating the bible into the two witness bibles, The New World Translation and The Kingdom Interlinear, have never been published. This is of great value to the organization, because it leaves open the issue of responsibility. Because nobody takes responsibility when things go wrong, the organization can claim "We never said that!" When there is no particular individual to identify, it also leaves open the ability of the organization to change it's own official history, as frequently as pleases it. Leaving the blame for things that go wrong to be applied either to miraculous persecution by "Satan" or to "misunderstanding" on the part of the rank and file witness. Nathan finally turned over to the "Governing Body" the majority of power that Russell originally declared should be theirs.Taken out by Cancer at the age of 72 and like his predecessor Charlie Russell, Nathan Homer (Brownie) Knorr died, two years after the failure of "Armageddon 1975" on June 7, 1977.
God's sense of humor again?
Freddy Theology!
Once again the vice president took over when the president died. Fred Franz, another scallywag in the list, took over the emancipated presidency left behind by Knorr.
 |
| Gensis 2, 4-6 |
| 4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground |
Future History, Armageddon of A Different Sort!
Milton Henschel now fills the presidential seat and if the pattern of history, remains intact this man will promote Armageddon once again and die two years after it doesn't happen.
 |
The Organization will be left without, it's president, governing body and visible head.
With new doctrine, new leadership and control of the wealth up for grabs, An Unfolding Crisis for Jehovahs Witnesses
by David A. Reed','wheat')" onmouseout=kill() href="http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0157a.html" target=main ;>Jehovah's Witnesses will face the equivalent of civil war. Moral corruption fostered by the lying policy combined with the effects of the self appointed anointed and driven by greed (desire to control the wealth,) will quickly eat out the remaining internal structure (nobody will trust anybody) and organizational collapse will be imminent. Watch Tower and Awake magazines will publish new and conflicting doctrines on a per issue basis, they may even cease publication. It is conceivable that there will be two or more strong contenders for the top job. In that case there is the possibility of a schism, resulting in two or maybe three splinter groups. Just look at the history of the Catholic Church for some real good examples and don't forget, the Jehovah's Witnesses are more like the Catholics than either would ever care to admit.
Either way Witnesses world wide, will loose "Jehovah God's guiding Voice" and the authority structure on which they are dependent (with it changing so much what can you believe and trust?) Regardless of what happens in Brooklyn, the rank and file witnesses will be the most affected and they will stand to benefit the least from either the changes or the collapse. The organization is also under legal and moral challenges from it's failure to effectively deal with child sexual abuse problems within the body of Elders. Much like the Catholic Church and the Mount Cassel crisis, Witness Eldership has condoned, glossed over and "swept under the rug" many child sexual abuse cases, with the idea of protecting the organization's image. Those policies in that direction are now bearing their fruit, very bitter fruit. There is a great desire amoungst the rank and file witnesses to give up much of the hatred that seperates them from the rest of Christanity. Very many witnesses desire to be accepted as equals by the general Christian community. Milton is also under severe pressure from the rank and file, to radically change their blood transfusion policy. There have been recent rumblings in that direction, with statements from Bethel, saying that it is a matter of personal conscience for the individual but at the same time, the individual faces autodisassociation, if he/she does.
I really don't envy Milton. He is "between a rock and a hard place." He will be chastised by one or more factions, if he does absolutely anything or nothing at all. Milt, is a "Stats Quo" man, which means he abhors change, and would rather sit tight and wait for it all to go away. Wether he likes it or not the WTBTS is in for radical change, rapidly blinking new light, doctrinal and policy flipflops almost on a daily basis, and an internal civil war like struggle for control of the financial assets. Many witnesses will be disheartned, disappointed and disillusioned, some won't know what to believe, some will embrace other, possibly more deadly cults and some will become mainstream Christians, or even Agnostics.. I don't envy Milton or any individual witness.
The time for the end, their end, is at hand.
Richie :*)