I find this thread difficult because I couldn't see any religious leader looking good under this kind of examination! Joseph Smith leader of mormons was gun toting one that died in a gun battle he liked having multiple wives, L Ron hubbard founder of dianetics later called scientology did it for a bet saying founding a religion was the way to make money, he spent most of his later life avoiding tax collectors on his boat, name any pope and you will find a very human person with failings behind the so-called divine office.
Jehovah's Witnesses - A Hijacked Religion
by B_Deserter 24 Replies latest jw friends
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Gopher
Reniaa,
When you say all religious leaders would have difficulty under this kind of scrutiny, I couldn't agree more!
Except that the leader being scrutinized in this case was JF Rutherford, the guy who hijacked the Watchtower Society and not in accord with the orders of CT Russell. However, Russell is a dubious fellow for very many reasons too.
Rutherford did get one thing right though -- when he preached "religion is a snare and a racket". Ironically, his religion is also guilty of being a racket.
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Seeker4
This is an interesting and provocative thread. I've studied the origins of the WTS quite a bit over the years, and I'd have to say that this agrees with a lot of what I've read.
If you read Russell's writings, they are a far cry from what JWs believe now. But then, that's also true of Rutherford.
A case could be made that every 50 years or so, the Jehovah's Witnesses are a religion that has to reinvent itself by shedding the previous generation's ideas.
Rutherford cast aside Russell's, Franz and Knorr cast aside much of Rutherford's, and now they are trying to get rid of much of what Franz came up with. One problem is that there are no thinkers now in the WTS with either the intellectual kutzpah or the balls to the wall personality of one of those four former heavyweights.
Good thread.
S4
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steve2
Apparently one of the very few times of the day Rutherford would wear a full-face smile was in the morning just after rising. He would look in the mirror with that smile and say to himself with the wink of an eye: "Ah, religion...it sure is a snare and a racket...now what will I get Jehovah's servants to do for me today?"
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Johnny
In my own examinations I have found C.T. Russell's understandings to me MUCH more in harmony with Scripture, than that of Rutherford. Also, the teachings of the Society of today have actually changed little since the final days of Rutherford. Those changes have been further distancing from Scripture, and into the darkness of conjecture and control.