by james_woods 6 Replies latest watchtower bible
I thought I would start a thread on this in conjunction with the other one on the pronunciation and use of the "Jehovah" name.
My premise is that the very early Russellites, while being aware of the "Jehovah" name, were not OBSESSED by it as are modern JWs.
Could some student of JW history again enlighten us (for the record) of how and when this "Jehovah fixation" occurred in this religion?
After the 1925 fiasco, many Bible Students left and the ones that remained were not obedient to Rutherford's directives. They were called "elective elders" which came to an end in 1932 just one year after the JW name was made official. Rutherford did not want to have the WT organization associated with the "Bible Student" name, groups of which still existed and made known their beliefs.
Yes, Blondie - I had forgotten that this name change was practically simultaneous with the killing off of the "elective elders".
Thus, we could in fact view the Jehovah emphasis on yet another attempt by Rutherford to gain absolute power over the organization.
Interesting - it would seem that Rutherford never produced any doctrinal or religious idea that DID NOT ACT TO SOLIDIFY HIS RULING POWER OVER THE ORGANIZATION.
(The Great Crowd and Other Sheep is to this purpose also - it created a mysterious "ruling elite" that the Governing Body still cloak themselves as)
The BS acknowledged Jehovah as God's name like many others of the era.
You do see the name Jehovah used in SITS. Rutherford clearly wanted to distinguish himself from other Bible Student groups forming at that time and also stick it to Christendom. The KJV and ASB came out with revised editions taking the name out so JR saw an opportunity.
I think C.T Russell used it a lot in his writings because of his anti-trinity views, and so he made it plain when he was talking about the "Father" and when about Jesus, but not always, he often referred to "our Lord" or similar without qualification.
But I think the obsession began with the Rutherfored driven name change, to JW's, and has been fostered ever since, to the point where they use the name "Jehovah" excessively IMHO.
As has been shown on here in excellent threads and posts by Leolaia and others, the JW's, as a group, and the writers of the WT literature particularly, have an abysmal grasp of the history,etymology and meaning of YHWH .
Not only did Rutherford want to distinguish himself from other Bible Study groups, but he wanted to distinguish himself from Russell.
I just finished 30 years a Watchtower Slave - Schnell spends some time on this very subject.
