WT "History Lesson" shows Russell's Pyramidology Beliefs - w2012 8/15

by 00DAD 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    In last week's WT, JWs are encouraged to study the early history of the "earthly organization".

    Like them [the sons of Korah], do you have a desire to study and recount the history of the earthly part of Jehovah’s organization? The more you learn about God’s organization and how Jehovah supports his people, the more real God’s Kingdom will be to you. -- w2012 8/15, p. 12, para. 5 - [Emphasis added]

    On pages 31 - 32 is a From Our Archives featurette which offers a highly sanitized version of early JW history.

    Interestingly, there is an image of one Benjamin Barton in front of a blueprint looking diagram that shows some early Russell chronology. It's hard to make out because of the size and the fact that the profile of Mr. Barton is obscuring part of the chart.

    Benjamin Barton’s c. 1905

    Does anyone here recognize the chart? Is there a complete scan of it showing the part that's hidden?

    It seems odd to me that they would include an image that shows Russell's kooky pyramid-based chronology!?!

    Thanks in advance!

    00DAD

  • james_woods
    james_woods

    It was OK for Russell to base things on the "demonic & pagan" pyramids because - after all - we now know that he was not part of the "Faithful & Discrete Slave".

    Not only not THE faithful and discrete slave (as they used to think) - but not even PART of it as a class according to the new revelations.

    He didn't live to the earth-shaking year of 1919, you see.

  • tornapart
  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    Tornapart: It's the chart from the Divine Plan of the Ages.. he's hiding the pyramid.

    Thanks for the references. I suspected he was hiding the pyramid. The placement of Mr. Barton is just too convenient!

    Still, you can discern the base of the pyramid in the part that's visible.

    I'm making the images from your links visible:

    Divine Plan Chart

    Divine Plan of the Ages

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    From the Wikipedia article on Pyramidology:

    Pyramidology is a term used, sometimes disparagingly, to refer to various pseudoscientific speculations regarding pyramids, most often the Giza Necropolis and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

    Pyramidology is regarded as pseudoscience by scientists today, who regard such hypotheses as sensationalist, inaccurate and/or wholly deficient in empirical analysis and application of the scientific method.

    Some pyramidologists claim that the Great Pyramid of Giza has encoded within it predictions for the exodus of Moses from Egypt, the crucifixion of Jesus, the start of World War I, the founding of modern-day Israel in 1948, and future events including the beginning ofArmageddon; discovered by using what they call "pyramid inches" to calculate the passage of time (one British inch = one solar year).

    Charles Taze Russell

    In 1891 pyramidology reached a global audience when it was integrated into the works of Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Bible Student movement. Russell however denounced the British-Israelite variant of pyramidology in an article called The Anglo-Israelitish Question . Adopting Joseph Seiss's designation that the Great Pyramid of Giza was "the Bible in stone" Russell taught that it played a special part in God's plan during the "last days" basing his interpretation on Isaiah 19:19-20 which says - "In that day shall there be an altar (pile of stones) to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar (Hebrew "matstebah" or monument) at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt." Two brothers, archaeologists John and Morton Edgar, as personal associates and supporters of Russell, wrote extensive treatises on the history, nature, and prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid in relation to the then known archaeological history, along with their interpretations of prophetic and Biblical chronology. They are best known for their two-volume work Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, published in 1910 and 1913.

    Although most Bible Student groups continue to support and endorse the study of pyramidology from a Biblical perspective, the Jehovah's Witnesses, who emerged from the original Bible Student Movement in 1931, have abandoned pyramidology entirely.

  • wha happened?
    wha happened?

    Looks like the move to change who is, and who is not part of the FDS goes back to Russell. It was easy fodder for all those nasty and wicked apostates to cry foul with all the pyramidology used as a basis for all their dates, that supposedly came from the bible. Not the great pyramid of Giza

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    wha happened?: Looks like the move to change who is, and who is not part of the FDS goes back to Russell.

    Yep, they're throwing the founder of the modern religion under the bus. Next they'll toss Jesus by the wayside, then Jehovah. Finally every JW will be able to worship the Governing Body alone in all their glory!

    They'll have to change their name though ... I'm sure they'll come up with something. They always do.

    But the fact that they hint at things like Russell's extra-biblical theological influences in an article on JW history in a magazine that encourages the study of JW history is bizarre. It's almost like they want the more thoughtful among the R&F to see the cover-ups, lies and contradictions and get the hell out of the religion!

    I'm guessing of course, but it's really hard to understand WHY they would do this.

  • 00DAD
    00DAD

    Bumpin' it for the Sunday crowd that missed yesterday's WT endorsed History Lesson

  • blondie
    blondie

    Volume 3 - "Thy Kingdom Come" / C309 - The Testimony Of God's Stone Witness And Prophet, The Great Pyramid In Egypt

    Try this site and search under "pyramid" or some other site with a pdf of it.

    http://www.ctrussell.us/

  • slimboyfat
    slimboyfat

    I am sure there is a big spread with the same image in the Proclaimers book.

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