Would You Ever Become A "Bible Student" & Believe In Russell's Writings?

by minimus 49 Replies latest jw friends

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  minimus

  RR---are you listening to what Gita said?? Perhaps, this thread could be useful to you.
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  RunningMan

  I think Russell created a more caring organization, and he appeared to be a genuinely decent person. However, he was also a kook. Even by turn of the century standards, he was flakey. When viewing his writings with the benefit of a century of hindsight, his stuff is just plain wrong.

  On the other hand, his successor, who was also a kook, was a genuinely mean guy. I would probably rather be a Bible Student than a JW, but I couldn't possibly imagine believing either.
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  minimus

  OK....so who is the biggest kook?? Which kook do you think was nicer? "His stuff is just plain wrong"......YUP! That's the bottom line, unless of course you're blinded by the light.
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  frankiespeakin

  I would say Knorr was the least nutty. Russell was the nuttiest. Rutherford was the meanest. Franz would follow a close second to Russell for being nutty.
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  little witch

  I see it as Russell, Rutherford, Knorr, Franz, etc were bricks. Bricks laid one on top of the next, making bigger and bigger a wall on a bad foundation. Once Rutherford realized Russell had a following to be used and a publishing business underway, He used it to further his own interest. And on and on, until we have the quasi-religious publishing empire that we all know and love today

  And build a wall they did, between society and "the society".
• 

  GermanXJW

  At the end of my JW "career" I read the literature of the Russell-era. I attended a BS convention and even today I get the German "Dawn"-magazine regularly.
  
  I found the BS sympathetic. (I also found RR sympethic until recently.)
  
  But no - I had my problems with JW chronology. If I do not believe in 1914 I will not switch to people insisting on 1874.
  
  However, it is a nice atmosphere - as if time stands still in the 19th century.
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  Dino

  Well damn minimus! I was just going to start a different thread on this when I saw yours!

  But I will be glad to give you due deference on this subject.

  I have found it so interesting that, myself aside, everyone was so polite in asking questions of RR. That is commendable. However, the only questions I felt that he was comfortable with were those about his family, not his faith. Adroitly (maybe that's too complimentary) dodging questions while taking the "moral high ground" over the JWs is so repugnant to me, it goes beyond cognitive dissonance into moral dishonesty.

  Dino
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  Earnest

  We live in different times...but had I lived in the late nineteenth century there is much I would have found attractive in the movement.
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  minimus

  My take is that the Bible Students try to get JWs or exes to look into their brand of faith. That's why they pop up on these boards. They might say that they're not looking for converts but I think, in reality, they are feeling out people on the internet to get their interest aroused so that they might try out the BS movement....(just my opinion).
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  minimus

  As I mentioned in the other thread, when a person simply reads the chronology in CTR's writings, it's easy to see that 1799 was not the beginning of the time of the end or that 1917 did not usher in worldwide anarchy that would precede the saints all going to heaven.