by Terry 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Watchtower policy is a Pharisee obsession with RULES. And worse: wrong interpretation of rules, at that!
Modern scholarly opinion, Jewish and Christian alike does not support that stereotype about the Pharisees. They were actually the spiritual fathers of modern, enlightened Judaism.
The transfusion medicine taboo is far, far beyond anything the Pharisees would have come up with.
Great information, as usual, Terry.
...and you are correct, I had never ever heard the term "Noahide" at any time before this. I've never studied Judaism, but my NYC congregation had bunches of smart and articulate former Jews in it. I learned something today! How remarkable is THAT?
TD, I meant to tell you I enjoyed your post about pharisees and modern Judaism. It was a good read. We discussed the subject at lenght during my conversion classes and you are spot on in your research.
Very good topic - and posts!
I like this guy's perspective, also.
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2000/20000725.htm
Sylvia
Fred Franz and J.F.Rutherford were an amazing dynamic duo.
Franz, of course, was the more educated of the two.
But, Rutherford was prolific as a writer.
If we take a backward look through time at Franz and his influence on Jehovah's Witness theology we can see how hardcore was his crackpot instinct.
Franz was untouchable, too.
If he stated it--whatever "it" was, it was unimpeachable. Especially when he was dead wrong.
It was really this resident sage, guru, psychic channeler of Jehovah who SET THE TONE for all Governing Body hard-hearted policies.
The unwillingness to reason, consider, change or apologize originates with Franz and his example.
He was not far removed from being a Jim Jones if you stop and think about it.
The destruction of reputation to Jehovah as a brand reached a peak between 1968 and 1975 with the amazing bogus buildup to THE END OF SIX THOUSAND YEARS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE and the thinly veiled Armageddon prediction.
Consider this: After completely destroying credibility for the Watchtower, Jehovah and all his door-to-door prophets of doom----HE WAS REWARDED by being made the President!!
What does this tell you about honesty, intellectual probity or a love for truth?
No, the Blood policy is but a symptom of a greater disease among the Governing Body. Cold Hearted insanity rules.
A person doesn't need any moral laws when he is living alone in the wilderness, but the closer people live in proximity to each other the more laws that are required to preserve social order. Birds in a flock naturally follow the leader, sheep follow a leader and humans like to follow leaders, too. Men looked to leaders to maintain safety, peace and prosperity for the tribe. While many of the ancient laws seem rather cruel to us, with all the executions for minor crimes (by today's standard), but you have to realize that people did not have locks on doors to keep out violent men and they did not have a prison system to keep criminals locked up. The only way to ensure the safety of the tribe was to execute or exile anyone who was a threat to the public. England decided to empty out their prisons in the 1600's of petty thieves and ship them to the American colonies instead of hanging them from a gallows and later they used Australia as a sort of penal colony, too. So it seems that the application of a universal law of morality has changed with the times, but the goal has always been the same- to get a good night's sleep and not get robbed or killed during the daytime.
I have just begun reading a book, 'Kant's search for the Supreme Principle of Morality', which discusses why the Categorical Imperative is that universal law. I was watching a professor discussing Kant in his College lecture on PBS TV and I just had to find out more. -retirement lets me do that now.
The destruction of reputation to Jehovah as a brand reached a peak between 1968 and 1975 with the amazing bogus buildup to THE END OF SIX THOUSAND YEARS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE and the thinly veiled Armageddon prediction.
Consider this: After completely destroying credibility for the Watchtower, Jehovah and all his door-to-door prophets of doom----HE WAS REWARDED by being made the President!!
Indeed - Franz was pretty much out of control the whole way through, and probably REALLY off his rocker post 1975. Remember that the whole Governing Body thing was largely designed to get the society leadership back under some control and away from his dictatorship - and that Freddy fought it all the way. Of course, it (GB) did not work - for reasons Ray Franz clearly wrote about in COC...and set the stage for today's hyper-controlling society.
Now, post-Freddy, there seems to be a sort of theological vacuum going on; note how they have foundered about with the "Generation" teaching in the past few years. Even the blood rules are now diffused into sort of a gray area over fractions and the transplant rule is apparantly gone.
It's sad...
After seeing that video about the Worldwide Chruch of God and what happend after Armstrong died and those left behind had to contend with all the failed profecies and errors, one can see that when Fred Franz died that too was an ideal time for "good people" to stand up and say something and correct the mistakes.
Too bad there weren't any...
Excellent Terry! I have nothing to ad, except that I'm glad to so you posting again.
After seeing that video about the Worldwide Chruch of God and what happend after Armstrong died and those left behind had to contend with all the failed profecies and errors, one can see that when Fred Franz died that too was an ideal time for "good people" to stand up and say something and correct the mistakes.
Indeed - and I still think that people like Ed Dunlap and Ray Franz tried their best post 1975 to no avail.
In a way, you do have to kind of admire the courage that the reorg of the WW Church of God tried to do.
BTW - does anybody else remember how much the 1950-60 era old-timers hated Armstrong? (they used to accuse each other of plaigarism back and forth between the Plain Truth and the Watchtower).
