Interesting Pictures I took (page 2)

Leolaia

Compare:

"Prior to his death, Pastor Russell was the Editor of THE WATCH TOWER, since which time it has been edited by a committee of five Bible students, provided according to the terms of his last will and testament" (Prefatory Note to Watch Tower Reprints, 1 July 1919, p. 2).

with:

"In the beginning of the first Hebrew month The Watchtower of March 1, 1925 published the article 'The Birth of The Nation,' meaning the kingdom had begun to function. An editorial committee, humanly provided for, then was supposed to control the publication of The Watchtower, and the majority of that committee strenuously objected to the publication of that article 'The Birth of The Nation,' but, by the Lord's grace it was published and that really marked the beginning of the end of the editorial committee, indicating that the Lord himself is running his organization" (Watchtower, 15 June 1938, p. 185).

"The dreamers, who are opposers, wept and howled, and still weep and howl, because the 'last will and testament of a dead man was not strictly followed', assuming that any man could put a restriction on God's work" (Preparation, 1933, p. 117).

Q. Who subsequently became the Editor of the magazine, the main Editor of the "Watchtower" magazine? A. In 1931, October 15th,as I recall, the "Watch Tower" discontinued publishing the names of any editorial committee on the second page. The Court: He asked you who became the Editor. The Witness: And it said.... The Court: Who became the Editor? Q. Who became the Editor when this was discontinued? A. Jehovah God. Q. And who wrote the magazine under the direction of Almighty God? A. Various individuals contributed to the magazine, Judge Rutherford and others" (Frederick Franz, testifying in Olin R. Moyle vs. Watchtower Society trial).

Note that Rutherford admitted in 1938 that the majority of the committee objected to the publication of the "Birth of The Nation" article. So that makes this statement published in the same issue a lie:

"This journal is published under the supervision of an editorial committee, at least three of whom have read and approved as truth each and every article appearing in these columns" (Watchtower, 1 March 1925, p. 66).

Lady Liberty

Holy Cow Dan!!

You have been BUSY!! THANK YOU for these scans! Where did you find all these old issues?

Lady Liberty

dorayakii

I heard that right up until as late as 1943, the Watchtower Society taught that Christ's Presence began in 1874. Are there any photographs or scans of articles written closer to 1943 that show this erroneous teaching?

SickofLies

LL,

The photos are taken from 1879-1887 bound volume simply titled Volume 1

I found this rare, extremely valuable item just laying around at the kingdom hall library and figured I could put it to good use

Smiles

I love the footnote in the first scan.

Leolaia

Sick of Lies....That is volume 1 of Watch Tower Reprints, published in 1919.

dorayakii....I think rather it was in 1943 when the Society explicitly replaced the teaching about 1874. There is a Watchtower article from 1943 which does mention a belief in 1874, but as something that the "evil slave" teaches. The phrasing is ambiguous as to whether the Society still endorsed this teaching. I am not aware of other references (there may have been), but what is striking is that in the pages of the Watchtower and in Rutherford's books, the date "1874" almost completely vanishes from 1938 onward. The book Children from 1941, for instance, mentions 1914 a lot without a hint of 1874. That Rutherford was already letting go of the 1874 date is clear from this statement from 1938:

*** w38 6/15 p. 189 Opening the Seals ***

It is Christ Jesus who opens the “seven seals” of the book “in the right hand of him that sat on the throne”, thus proving that no man can open the prophecies; but God permits his men to understand the prophecies after the seals are opened. It does not even follow that a man would understand the prophecies as soon as the seals are open. It can now be seen that the events pictured in the first five seals were fulfilled from A.D. 1914 to 1918, but the meaning thereof man could not understand until after the coming of the Lord to his temple, in 1918. Prior thereto the faithful church had been applying the prophecy of Matthew twenty-four to the events that came to pass from A.D. 1874 to 1914. Not until after 1918 was it understood by the church that these sealed events apply after 1914; and hence the seals were not open to or discerned by the John class, that is to say, by the remnant, until after 1918, and, in fact, very little until after 1922.

This implies already that 1874 wasn't quite right....

TD

I heard that right up until as late as 1943, the Watchtower Society taught that Christ's Presence began in 1874. Are there any photographs or scans of articles written closer to 1943 that show this erroneous teaching?

No that's not true at all. The date for the parousia was moved forward from 1874 to 1914 in the early 1930's See page 37 here: http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/Historical%20Idealism%20and%20Jehovahs%20Witnesses.pdf What actually happened in 1943 was an adjustment to the end of the 6th millenium in JW chronology. It was moved forward 100 years and this in turn paved the way for the 1975 fiasco

candidlynuts

wow i dont think i've ever seen a watchtower publication in my lifetime that used the word Lord and Jesus as much as these older pubs do.

its all ORG and SUBMIT now.

SickofLies

This is interesting, look at what Russell says about the one true name:

Interesting Pictures I took

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