Legal takeover and Dismantling of the WT Possible? (page 2)

Interestingly, there is a lot to consider. Yes the congregations are owned by a local board of directors made up of the local elders. However, the Society too often acts as the bank, so until those Kingdom Halls are paid off, like a bank, the Society owns the property.

In the early days, there was no property, depending on the size of the class, the ecclesia [congregation] met in individual homes or rented halls [as Bible Students still do] at their business meeting, usually the 4th quarter one, they voted in their officers, ]elders, deacons, secretary, etc.] and would often vote Pastor Russell as an elder, that did not mean Russell could come in and do things, simply that he/the Society were conferred upon when needed on spiritual and congregational matters, but the congregation made the final decision.

Later on, Rutherford took over the congregations and those that gave up their Christian freedom surrendered to him, those that did not, separated.

The Governing Body as far as we can tell are leaders of the 5 million JWs by faith, based on Matthew 24:45-48. They have no vested interest in the various organizations. So it would be easy[???] for any one of the corporations to separate, but not without controversy.

If the congregations are independent, then they can separate on their own, but they would be cut off. and not without problems. I'd hate to see the last congregation I was apart of under control of those elders. Unless congregational polity was reinforced. As it is, the various congregations do not answer to the Watchtower, they now answer to the new corporation, "Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses," the WT of NY is simply a publishing house, while the WT of PA is copyright holder.

Of course, it is quite possible that a split will occur in the near future. It has happened in Europe, it can and will happen in the USA, just as it did with the Mormons [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Reorganize Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] What will happen to the property? Who knows, and I don't think it will matter. Look at the World Wide Church of God, they kept the property, they even held the copyrights to ALL of Armstrongs books, despite their not publishing them, but that did not stop the various offshoots, of pooling their resources together and organizing, purchasing property and printing facilities and carrying on the work. Where there is a will, there is a way.

The issue is, what direction will these various groups go off to? The Independent JW's in Europe are even more extreme than the Society is, due to their love of Rutherford. The Society does not have a monopoly on the name "Jehovah's WItnesses." Anyone can use it!

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I Still Believe ....

Legal takeover and Dismantling of the WT Possible?

Rex B13

RR

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