We all know that people are helpless and unable to understand the Bible on their own. Only by getting your hands on some Watchtower literature will you be able to “understand” the Bible. For all intent and purpose this of course makes the Bible redundant. Today it isn’t politically correct for any Jehovah's Witness to actually say such a thing but if the Bible is worthless without the aid of the Brooklyn produced tripe this is of course the case. In the earlier days of the Watchtower Society history, they didn’t hesitate to spell out their real attitude towards this to their readers.
Of course the same attitudes are alive and well among the Witness population today as well, but as with so many other things, you just don’t say it. As we can read below, C. T. Russell must have been a very humble man. Anyway feast your eyes on these very candid words.
“If the six volumes of SCRIPTURE STUDIES are practically the Bible topically arranged, with Bible proof texts given we might not improperly name the volumes - the Bible in an arranged form. That is to say, they are not merely comments on the Bible, but they are practically the Bible itself, since there is no desire to build any doctrine or thought on any individual preference or on any individual wisdom, but to present the entire matter on the lines of the Word of God. We therefore think it safe to follow this kind of reading, this kind of instruction this kind of Bible study .. .
We would conclude, practically, that we could not understand anything about the Bible except as it was revealed. We would, therefore, not waste a great deal of time doing what we know some people do, reading chapter after chapter, to no profit. We would not think of doing it. We would not think we were studying the Scriptures at all. We would think we were following the course that had been anything but profitable to ourselves and many others in the past - merely reading over the Scriptures. We would say that the same Heavenly Father who had guided us to this Truth, to this understanding of the Scriptures as his children, if he had some further information for us he would bring it to our attention in some manner; and therefore we would not, see the necessity of reading the New Testament every day or every year; we would not consider that necessary. We were not put here primarily to read the Bible, but primarily to, serve the Lord and his Truth . . . God favors us in this time with an understanding of Present Truth, he has given us a knowledge of more truth than we could have gained in a thousand years if we had read and studied unaided. . . we might remark that quite a number of the friends in the Truth are making it a rule to read twelve pages of the SCRIPTURE STUDIES a day . . . whoever reads two pages of SCRIPTURE STUDIES each day with the suggested passage connected with those two pages, would do more Scripture studying in that, time than he could do by any other method.” WATCHTOWER, September 15, 1910, pp. 298 299.
J.F. Rutherford, was of course no less confident that his own insane ranting was far superior to the Bible. Merely 15 minutes with one of his booklets was worth a whole year of Bible reading. Imagine that! All the faithful Bible thumpers could put a whole year of Bible study under their west in half an hour!! Wonder why the Society doesn’t reprint and distribute Rutherford’s booklets. Would save valuable time for all Witnesses, time they could spend peddling Watchtower literature to the public:
“Each treatise can be read in just fifteen minutes, and more genuine satisfaction and profitable pleasure derived there from in that length of time than can be gotten from studying the Bible by yourself in a whole year.” VINDICATION 111, 1932, p. 383. See also GOLDEN AGE, August 17, 1932, p. 736.
Of course it is hard to imagine any reading so utterly useless and a waste of time as reading the Bible, the only reading material that could possibly be more hopeless would be Watchtower literature.
All I can say is that I do not have any problems with the parts of the Bible I don't understand. It is the parts I understand that is so utterly revolting.
Norm.