Times articles about JW's

by zound 11 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • zound
    zound

    I found a bunch of old Time articles about Rutherford, Fred Franz, shunning etc. Only problem is you need to be a Time's subscriber to download the full articles. Anyone on here that subscribes could you download them and share?

    There are opening snippets to each...

    "The End is Near
    July 11th 1977

    His plain, ninth-floor Brooklyn office is painted in institutional green and has no air conditioning to reduce the summer heat. He gets a free one-room apartment and meals in the huge dining hall downstairs, plus the same $20 monthly stipend that the janitors get. He has been his religion's most important theologian for decades, but no one is allowed to know just which books or articles he has worked on. Though few people know his name, he has acquired more-than-papal power over 2.2 million souls around the world.

    He is Frederick Franz, a short and spry 83, who on June 22..."

    "California Cults
    March 31st 1930

    Big, blue-eyed Judge Joseph Frederick Rutherford, 60, lives in a ten-room Spanish mansion, No. 4440 Braeburn Road. San Diego, Calif. Last week he deeded No. 4440 Braeburn Road, an adjacent two-car garage and a pair of automobiles to King David, Gedeon, Barak, Samson. Jephthae, Samuel and sundry other mighties of ancient Palestine. Positive is he that they are shortly to reappear on earth. Said he: "I have purposely landscaped the place with palm and olive trees so these princes of the universe will feel at home when they come to offer man..."

    "Witness under persecuation
    Feb 22nd 1982

    For 40 years Raymond Franz devoted his whole being to the Jehovah's Witnesses. The religion responded by raising him to the very top, as a member of its worldwide Governing Body. But it was a difficult period for the leadership. In 1975 the sect faced a debacle: the present world did not vanish as Witness publications had all but guaranteed. In a faith in which doubt is not tolerated, questions inevitably arose in the minds of some believers. Gradually Franz began to question other teachings,..."

    A lot of other interesting looking articles about the witnesses - if anyone has a subscription please do download them and share.

  • smiddy
    smiddy

    zound : These articles could be very interesting , I hope someone can oblige.

    smiddy

  • zound
    zound

    Found one of them in its entirety. Underlined a few interesting parts.

    Mar. 31, 1930
    Big, blue-eyed Judge Joseph Frederick Rutherford, 60, lives in a ten-room Spanish mansion, No. 4440 Braeburn Road. San Diego, Calif. Last week he deeded No. 4440 Braeburn Road, an adjacent two-car garage and a pair of automobiles to King David, Gedeon, Barak, Samson. Jephthae, Samuel and sundry other mighties of ancient Palestine. Positive is he that they are shortly to reappear on earth. Said he: "I have purposely landscaped the place with palm and olive trees so these princes of the universe will feel at home when they come to offer man the chance to become perfect."

    Judge Rutherford's deed can scarcely be considered eccentric, for his conviction that the sunny boulevards of San Diego are soon to be trod by men with the light of ages in their eyes is presumably shared by the 1,000,000 members of the International Bible Students Association and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of both of which Judge Rutherford is President. In 34 nations these members have read his declarations as editor of both the Watch Tower and Golden Age magazines.

    Judge Rutherford was born on a Missouri farm, practiced law at Boonville, acquired a circuit judgeship, continued practice in St. Louis, Kansas City. He accompanied the late William Jennings Bryan on his first Presidential campaign tour, announcing him as "appointed by God to straighten out the problems of the world." Mr. Bryan's example inspired Judge Rutherford to wear habitually a black bow tie. In 1916 he succeeded the late Charles Taze Russell of Brooklyn, founder-president of the International Bible Students Association.

    Members of this organization designate themselves as Bible Students. Their creed holds that Biblical prophecies govern all earthly events. By careful scrutiny of Holy Writ, the Bible Students have discerned that three periods of time, termed "cosmos," prevail in human affairs. Cosmos I began with Adam, ended with the Flood. Cosmos II began with the Flood, ended with the World War. Cosmos III, begun in 1914, will end in 2874, when "The Kingdom of God" will fill the whole world. An erroneous prophecy that the year 1928 would provide a cataclysm-- ''Nations will battle; the dead will be dung on the earth"--upset considerably the Bible Students' calculations, but the major tenets of their belief are as yet unshaken.

    Newsmen last week asked Judge Rutherford whether he would not be troubled by bogus Davids applying for admission to consecrated No. 4440 Braeburn Road. Said he: "I realized the possibility of some old codger turning up bright and early some morning and declaring he was David. The men whom I have designated to test the identity of these men are officers of my societies. . . . They will be divinely authorized to know impostors from the real Princes."

    First I've heard of 2874.

  • Bangalore
    Bangalore

    Bangalore

  • The Quiet One
  • zound
    zound

    The search function on the Times website. There's quite a few. The Fred Franz one sounds quite interesting. Just checked your link - I'm refering to Times magazine not newspaper.

    http://www.time.com/time/magazine

    From 1987

    "Like certain Amish and Mennonite groups, Jehovah's Witnesses practice shunning: believers are required to treat as pariahs those who have been ousted from the sect. Since 1981 those who leave voluntarily have also been ostracized, even by close relatives. Janice Paul of Anchorage, a former Witness who was shunned by her close friends in the sect after she defected, decided to strike back. She sued the Governing Body of the Jehovah's Witnesses for unspecified damages, citing her emotional distress. An appeals court in San Francisco, upholding a previous ruling by a federal district court, has turned away Paul's suit. The Constitution's..."

  • mindnumbed
    mindnumbed

    2874 = the end of the 1,000 year reign as Russell taught that Jesus returned invisibly in 1874

  • eby
    eby

    Bookmark

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    BTT!!

  • tiki
    tiki

    the rutherford thing.....oh my word.............what a lunatic!

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