British astronomer Sir John Hershel, it was reported in the Chicago Sun Times, made some extraordinary discoveries on the moon!
The year was 1835. This famous astronomer reportedly had discovered life on our moon.
All manner of strange and wonderful creatures including men with wings like bats had been observed using a new and powerful telescope.
Fire-wielding biped beavers and batmen were quite extraordinary discoveries indeed!
For a period in the summer of 1835, New Yorkers were led to believe that there was life on the moon. And, many of them believed every word. In what became known as “The Moon” series, the editor wrote a multi-part report on the discovery of life on the moon complete with detailed descriptions of the creatures living in harmony on the lunar surface. New Yorkers clamored for the latest updates.
MORAL OF THE STORY: New York Sun's circulation increased dramatically because of the hoax and remained permanently greater than before, thereby establishing the New York Sun as a successful paper.
NEXT:
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THE GULLIBLE leading the even more GULLIBLE
Meet WILLIAM MILLER.
Jesus Christ was going to return in 1843!
Miller records, "I was thus brought… to the solemn conclusion, that in about twenty-five years from that time 1818 all the affairs of our present state would be wound up."(Apology and Defence, William Miller, 11-12).
From 50,000 to over 100,000 people were in some ways persuaded, disturbed and provoked into life changing decisions as a result of Miller's published opinions and publicly preached views.
MORAL OF THE STORY: (SPOILER: Miller was dead wrong. It didn't matter! True Believers continued his work!)
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GREAT PYRAMID foretells the FUTURE!
MEET CHARLES PIAZZI SMYTH!
Another famous astronomer, Charles Piazzi Smyth, published astounding and widely-circulated opinions on the meaning of measurements made of the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
In 1859, Smyth published his findings along with detailed analysis and charts.
His assertions made blunt impact on religious people and bible students.
Smyth claimed, and presumably believed, that the pyramid inch was a God-given measure handed down through the centuries from the time of
Israel, and that the architects of the pyramid could only have been directed by the hand of God.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Gullible people will apparently believe any nonsense if it has enough "proof".
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MEET THE PURITANS!
PURITANS were fanatical religous zealots. They founded America and infected generations of true believers with crazy ideas.
Along with SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIANS these people went against the grain in almost every facet of daily life!
These true believers did not call themselves Puritan, it was their critics. Why?
The adherents were "holier than thou" and imagined they could be pure to the point of PERFECTION!
The New World would be America as a "shining city on a hill" attracting everybody else in the world to----ready for this?---to COPY THEM IN THEIR PURITY and PERFECTION!
MORAL OF THE STORY: they failed to perfect anything but created an atmosphere of credulity in the minds of others who came after them.
Enter our hero:
Scottish Presbyterian-raised CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL
C.T.Russell's first exposure to religion, God, a divine plan and attitudes about authority stem from his mother who was a Scottish Presbyterian.
Russell's mother was a "PURITAN" Scottish Presbyterian who filled young Charles' head with fear of hell AND impure thoughts. Being intelligent and sensitive, it electrified his very being with an intellectual struggle to grasp why a loving God might kill him for being impure!
Scottish Presbyterian belief was staunchly contrarian in origins (against the Catholic authority). Among this church's distinguishing features was the prohibition against members voting or holding office in American politics because Jesus Christ was not acknowledged as Lord by the Constitution. Russell's mother, like many women of her time, would only be able to find self-expression in a male dominated society by force of her intellectual pursuit of religious philosophy and activity.
Russell had a crisis of faith at an early age due to the "harsh" judgements of mainstream religion and due to an encounter with a free-thinker who demolished him in debate.
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FACTOID: In 1647, the British Parliment under the control of PURITANS embraced Presbyterianism. Puritan views of sex are notoriously neurotic and obsessed with cleanliness and self-perfection by abstention from passions of the flesh.
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The most persuasive element in Russell's theology is the extreme preoccupation with creating God in the image of a reasonable, loving, accepting persona who would never burn anybody in Hell. This Jehovah of Russell's imagination merely wished to employ reasonably reverent christians as advertisers of his Divine Plan to usher in a reward for faithful activity. It would be the scoffers and deluded (mainly by mainstream religion, i.e. believers in hell; who would be destroyed at Armageddon.
After a period of drifting and casting about, Russell listened to an explication of End Times which tickles his senses. On the basis of charts, graphs and dispensation theology, Russell moves to throw himself willy-nilly into financing a project of latter day Millerism.
STILL USED TODAY by leftover "bible students" legacy of Miller and Russell.
Due to his personal talent for self-expression, Russell (like William Miller before him) becomes the center of attention in his writings about End Times. He becomes a "star".
He starts calling himself "Pastor." After all, William Miller became an overnight Pastor, why not Russell, too?
He found himself at last! Growing ever more confident in his own special qualities Charles Taze Russell sold the family business and put beaucoup dollars into self-promotion. Like William Miller before him, Russell set about as an absolutely confident explainer of the divine plan.
Russell's dad was a successful businessman who gave him a unique sense of resonsibility. He learned how to make a business flourish profitably. Russell was tutored, educated and driven by a sense of personal mission and purpose early in life. Surely, Jehovah would purify and employ him!
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MEET MARIA FRANCES ACKLEY!
What warm-blooded man would not share a bed with a willing and attractive wife? Only a neurotic or dysfunctional geriatric would embrace the platonic marriage Russell and Maria concocted. NO, that's unfair! What about a PURITAN?
Russell compensated for lack of sex by throwing himself into a sublimation in religious purification. His Puritan upbringing compelled him to self-perfect.
Russell was handsome, rich and autonomous as well as charismatic in personality. He attracted admiring hero-worshipping throngs. Scandal soon followed. Maria was dispatched around the world as his apologist and agent of mollification. Her travels, reported back to Russell diligently, revealed a rising status in celebrity for Maria while his own reputation began to nose dive.
March 13, 1879
Russell's marriage:
Russell married Maria (pronounced 'moriah') Frances Ackley (29 years old) after merely a few months' acquaintance. Although expressing a fondness for each other, the marriage was not based on a romantic love, but was a mutually agreed upon celibate partnership established for preaching the gospel.
Maria was clearly C.T. Russell's intellectual equal. Her writings and self-expression were extraordinarily gifted, poetic, well-informed and equally crackpot! That Russell viewed Maria as an important helpmeet is obvious.
Maria sought to share his limelight. She would endure Russell's eccentricities (and coldness in the bedroom) if he allowed her equal measure of admiration and authorship which he refused. The marriage ended and Russell's personal woes commenced.
Scandal, lawsuits, failed dates of prediction and accusation of "impurity" took Russell's reputation on a downward spiral.
For all his efforts Russell had influenced tens of thousands (if not more) of latter-day Puritans with End Times fever.
Stubborn followers were just as gullible as the people who thought bat-men were on the moon or that the Great Pyramid could predict the future!
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MEET FRED FRANZ!
Franz had set his sights on being a Presbyterian minister until Russell's persuasive argument about 1914 bringing Armageddon captured his mind.
Frederick Franz was baptised just in the nick of time! Except, no Armageddon occurred as predicted! He knew Russell for three years until the Pastor's death in 1916.
(Walsh Trial transcript:
Q: Did you graduate? A: No I did not. I left the University in 1914 because I realised, according to the Scriptures, that that was the crucial year which was to be marked by the outbreak of a great trouble, and I realised that the ministerial work was the most important thing in the world to do and I wanted to get into the ministerial work before the great trouble broke, and so I wanted to get in earlier but my father refused to permit me to leave the University because I was still under 21. In April 1914 he acceded to my wishes and allowed me to leave the University and I immediately entered full time ministerial service as a pioneer. )
Franz held the distinction of becoming a scholar in residence for the Watchtower Corporation. Successor, Judge Rutherford, appointed him head of the Editorial Department. Franz had the scissors and the cunning to cut and paste new arrangements of past 2nd Adventist concoctions into appearing like New Light and progressive revelation. In time, Franz became the resident oracle. A singularity among no peers.
Franz was an admirer of William Miller's style of oratory and the flippant dismissive attitude toward mainstream scoffers. Franz never challenged the ego-tripping of Rutherford nor sought to one-up him with his own superior knowledge of languages or historical matters. On the other hand, Hayden C. Covington constantly revealed a better grasp of all matters in belittling the Judge and making him feel stupid.
Attorney HAYDEN C. COVINGTON
Judge Rutherford (intimated by the superior education of Attorney Covington)
Nathan Knorr
When Rutherford died Franz replaced the ousted Covington as Vice-president to the new Nathan Knorr.
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Was Franz a true scholar and intellectually honest researcher? Or--was he a MOUNTEBANK?
Franz had been nominated as an outstanding student to take the test for a Rhodes Scholarship. Franz never followed up. He testified under oath he had been "offered" the Scholarship but had refused.
Franz's True Believer psychology drove him to warn as many people as he could in the colporteur (Pioneer) work that Armageddon was about to occur.) Armageddon did NOT happen--but--Franz took no note of it! No matter how many disconfirming teachings arose and proved useless, Franz was blind to any dissonance to truth.
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Under oath in Scotland, Franz was queried about "false teachings" being taught and loyalty being demanded by the Watchtower religion. Franz confirmed that solidarity with the Society was the most important consideration for him. Flip-flops, in the long run, did not matter; only loyalty mattered.
(Walsh Trial transcript:
Q.Back to the point now. A false prophesy was promulgated?A.I agree that.Q. It had to be accepted by Jehovah's Witnesses?A.That is correct.Q. If a member of Jehovah's Witnesses took the view himself that that prophesy was wrong and said so he would be disfellowshipped?A. Yes, if he said so and kept persisting in creating trouble, because if the whole organisation believes one thing, even though it be erronious and somebody else starts on his own trying to put his ideas across then there is disunity and trouble, there cannot be harmony, there cannot be marching. When a change comes it should come from the proper source, the head of the organisation, the governing body*, not from the bottom upwards, because everybody would have ideas, and the organisation would disintegrate and go in a thousand different directions. Our purpose is to have unity.Q. Unity at all costs?A. Unity at all costs , because we believe and are sure that Jehovah God is using our organisation, the governing body of our organisation to direct it, even though mistakes are made from time to time.
Q. And unity based upon an enforced acceptance of false prophecy?A. That is conceded to be true.Q. And the person who expressed his view, as you say, that it was wrong, and was disfellowshipped, would be in breach of the Covenant, if he was baptized?A. That is correct.Q. And as you said yesterday expressly, would be worthy of death?A. I think - - -Q. Would you say yes or no?A. I will answer yes, unhesitatingly.
Under Rutherford the solidarity of the International bible students had been shattered into divisions, sects and counter-insurgent opposers.
Within the next 10 years, 78% of the Bible Students would leave never to return or to become (eventually) Rutherford's newly coined Jehovah's Witnesses.
Fred Franz is among the very few who stayed and signed on in a show of solidarity with Rutherford in creating events that would publicize the new Religion and greatly stimulate the work of the Watchtower.
It was Franz's LOYALTY in the face of disconfirming events which solidified his philosophy and his value as a partisan to Jehovah's Witnesses.
Franz sat there and watched as Rutherford tore the work of Pastor Russell to shreds with threats and violence and he said nothing.
Facts meant little.
The Finished Mystery book had been released with ghost-written finishing chapters, theology and predictions wildly contrasting Russell's own temperment and policies. The manipulations in this book stirred up enough hatred against theologians, churches and governmental authorities that the society's leaders were arrested and placed in prison.
Wikipedia article:
FINISHED MYSTERY was advertised by the Watch Tower Society as his posthumous work. It was received with great skepticism by many Bible Students who felt that the tone and spirit of the book was overly harsh, as well as contrary to the spirit in which Russell had wrote during his ministry.
We find that Franz was not personally charismatic. He gleaned many strategies from the early writings of 2nd Adventists and Miller himself and reconstructed them in the guise of JEHOVAH'S SPIRIT operating through a Governing Body. This put others in awe of him.
Franz was a sort of Prime Minister in residence. The power behind the throne.
Franz proved enormously helpful as a resource as a scholar in residence.
For Knorr, Franz was a solid foundational asset as the Oracle and translator of the NWT.
As Knorr was about to fade, Freddy turned up the wattage on the "light" and concocted the 1975 BLAZE of GLORY that extinguished his "distinguished" career as resident "prophet."
THE ENTIRE PUSH toward 1975 brilliantly illustrates that Fred Franz and the entire Watchtower religion KNEW THEY WERE LYING.
How?
Freddy, with his Editorial skills, had knowingly RECYCLED an earlier FAILED teaching! He added a century (and accounted for absence of year zero).
Why?
Why? Why?
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Just as a newspaper will publish fradulent and misleading stories of LIFE ON THE MOON to stimulate circulation...
Just as astronomers and explorers can exaggerate wild theories to make a celebrated name for themselves....
Just as Puritan zealots can lead a life exploiting the naive and uneducated true believers for fame and prestige....
Just as a candidate for Rhodes Scholarship can watch a rabid usurper tear apart a bible students association and co-opt a religious magazine....
ANYBODY RAISED TO BELIEVE IN ABSOLUTES can have a collapse of rational thinking into fundamental error and fantasy of belief in nonsense!
It is the blowback from generations of PURITANS thinking in black and white and imagining they can CHANGE THE WORLD simply by insisting
what they believe is TRUE and absolute. Facts be damned. Disconfirmation is ignored!
THEY ARE RIGHT and you are WRONG!
But the truth about the Truth is this: the only thing pure about these latter day Puritans is the pure bullshit they produce.
