1954: the year Jehovah's Witnesses stopped worshiping Jesus Christ
Watchtower Charter: http://www.jehovah.net.au/books/1945_Cha..._WTBTS.pdf
Did you know that from 1879 until 1954 the writings of C.T.Russell, J.F.Rutherford, Nathan Knorr and the Watchtower's own charter all agreed that Jesus Christ was worthy of worship?
No present day Jehovah's Witness would ever believe this to be true! This fact has been cleverly and dramatically hidden by manipulation of older quotations.
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Pastor C.T.Russell taught that Jesus was to be worshiped:
“Question. The fact that our Lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was God the Father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man. Was he really worshiped, or is the translation faulty?
Answer. Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus while on earth was really worshiped, and properly so. … It was proper for our Lord to receive worship in view of his having been the only begotten of the Father and his agent in the creation of all things, including man."
Zion’s Watch Tower 1898 Jul 15 p.216
Judge J.F.Rutherford also taught that Jesus was to be worshiped:
“Jehovah God commands all to worship Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah’s purpose (Heb.:3–6).”
Watchtower 1939 Nov 15 p.339.
Nathan Knorr continued the policy of teaching that Jesus was to be worshiped by all:
"Since Jehovah God now reigns as King by means of his capital organization Zion, then whosoever would worship Him must also worship and bow down to Jehovah’s Chief One in that capital organization, namely, Christ Jesus, his Co-regent on the throne of The Theocracy.”
Watchtower 1945 Oct 15 p.313
In 1945 Knorr amended the Watchtower Charter. Included within the new Charter is the statement that the purpose of the Watchtower Society is to promote the worship of Jehovah and Jesus. This charter is a legal document that continues to be the Watchtower Charter to this day.
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All the above is unknown to today's Jehovah's Witnesses. They believe a lie about their own history. They have been taught they were selected among all other religious worshipers in 1918 because of their teachings. Yet the chief teaching about Jesus--by today's current TRUTH standard--marks those teachings as apostate and blasphemous!
How have Watchtower leaders been able to keep this fact a secret? It is by the insidious strategy of avoidance, misquotation, substitutions and omissions!
The section of the charter shown above is quoted almost in full in the footnote of the 1971 Watchtower on page 760. The quote in the 1971 Watchtower only changes one word, but this is significant as it hides the true meaning of the sentence. It correctly puts the wrong word in brackets, but certainly leads the reader to the incorrect impression.
“…for public Christian worship of Almighty God [through] Christ Jesus: to arrange for...” Watchtower 1971 Dec 15 p.760
The Yearbook of 1969 p.50 leaves the words ‘and Christ Jesus’ out altogether, by dishonestly replacing them with dots...
“for public Christian worship of Almighty God …; to arrange for”
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Why the change? Why stop the worship of Jesus?
The answer comes from the release of the New World Translation by Fred Franz and other secret committee members in 1954.
Franz insisted that contrary to most other translations, this new Bible for Jehovah’s Witnesses translate the word proskuneo as obeisance rather than worship whenever it referred to Jesus. This is despite the fact that in almost every other place the New World Translation translates proskuneo as worship.
Proskuneo occurs 55 times. Of the 15 times it applies to Jesus it is translated 15 times as obeisance!
Franz goes out of his way to remove worship for Jesus for Jehovah's Witnesses.
Questions from readers:
“Should we worship Jesus?—G. B., Ethiopia.
" ...the answer to the above question must be that no distinct worship is to be rendered to Jesus Christ now glorified in heaven. Our worship is to go to Jehovah God..." Watchtower 1954 Jan 1 p.31
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Judge Rutherford had created the title: Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931.
Instead of "Christians" the Watchtower was encouraging identification with a brand name religion.
Peculiar doctrines were introduced effectively creating martyrs to publicize this new religious Brand. Almost everything a Jehovah's Witness "stood for" was contrarian and provocative. Mainstream Christians were mocked, scorned and labeled "satanic' and business and military institutions were attacked.
Now, in 1954, the transition from christian to Jehovah's Witness cult came full circle.
By publicly changing the object of Christianity's worship from Jesus Christ to the replacement "faithful and discreet slave" (i.e. governing authority of men) a coup was wrought deliberately!
Thus, false worship was officially instituted by Fred Franz for Nathan Knorr and later himself.
Current Watchtower teaching makes it absolutely clear that Russell, Rutherford and Knorr were (by their new standard) committing idolatry!
This outrageous blasphemy is described in Revelation 21:8 as worthy of the 2nd death!
This means none of the Watchtower's leaders or followers could possibly have been part of the 144,000 anointed heavenly rulers!
Rationally and logically the entire history of Jehovah's Witnesses as "chosen" as a "mouthpiece of God" and guided by The Truth is demonstrated to be a patent falsehood!
Nothing christian remained.
Gradually, by the year 1971, a Governing Body became the MEDIATOR between God and man replacing Jesus Christ. Loyalty to the GB instead of Jesus permeated the organization. This religion became, in effect, Anti-Christ!
From 1966 through 1975 the entire worldwide work of these Jehovah's (non-christian) Witnesses consisted of warning people of the most important date in human history about to take place in their own lifetime: 1975--THE END of six thousand years of human history!
A casual glance backward to that year is all the proof any sober, thinking, skeptical realist needs
to put the cork in the bottle of False Prophecy created by a False Religion that won't even call itself
christian by honest definition!
It remains to ask current Jehovah's Witnesses if they EVEN KNOW what happened in 1954?