Interesting that quotes below from Penton, that show how the watchtower "stood squarely with the German government's principles and ethical goals. Indeed!
M. James Penton, author of the explosive book, Apocalypse Delayed, exposed the Watchtower's hypocrisy in an article written for the Christian Quest Journal. 5 According to Penton, the Watchtower took a definitive stance against the Nazi government only after Hitler rejected their Declaration. 6 In a personal letter which accompanied the Declaration, Watchtower leaders endeavored to convince the Fuhrer that they supported the "principles" of his government--No doubt, an effort to continue their book selling activities in Germany. 7 Hitler, however, was not impressed. In the Declaration Rutherford wrote:
The present government of Germany has declared emphatically against Big Business oppressors and in opposition to the wrongful religious influence in the political affairs of the nation. Such is exactly our position:...Instead of being against the principles advocated by the government of Germany, we stand squarely for such principles and point out that Jehovah God through Christ Jesus will bring about the full realization of these principles... [emphasis ours] 8
What principles did Germany advocate under Hitler's rule? The Watchtower reported the following in their publication, God's Kingdom of A Thousand Years:
Shortly after the United States was plunged into World War II, information on this Nazi plan was gleaned from seized Nazi documents....This plan aimed at a Nazi world order that Hitler, if successful in World War II, would mercilessly enforce upon the world and mankind...[He] evidently had in mind the Germanic Holy Roman Empire...At any rate, there was no reestablishment...as many people of Hitler's religion had hoped. 9"
(remember that song in the old song book...."that soon Gods neworder will be here")!!!
While it is quite evident that the Society didn't believe in Nazism, the Declaration reveals that they are just as guilty as they claim Christendom is for "Sleeping With The Enemy."
During WWI and II the Society criticized ALL governments, including Germany, for being manipulated by the Catholic Church whom they identified as the "Great Whore Of Babylon." 12 Yet the Declaration invariably exposes their own hypocrisy.
[The] Bible Students are fighting for the SAME high, ethical goals and ideals that the national German Reich proclaimed to regarding the relationship of man to God....there are no opposing views....but that, to the contrary, respecting the purely religious and apolitical goals....these are in complete harmony with....the National Government of the German Reich." 13.
www.freeminds.org/organization/rutherford/sleeping-with-the-enemy
So, maybe the idea of who's your Mediator got started here, with the Nazi's...I have heard of crazier things!
Designs, I had my hands clapped over my ears!
clarity