**MARCH 1, 2021
More than 60 percent of our full-time translation teams work, not at branch offices, but at remote translation offices (RTO). Why is this arrangement beneficial? What equipment do translators need in order to work effectively at an RTO? And how does the location of a translation team affect the quality of their translation?
An RTO allows translators to live where many people speak their language.
ARE WE READY TO “GO”?
A brief history of preparation for End Times
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In 1866, The Times of London wrote:
“For all practical purposes, Welsh is a dead language.”
You may well exclaim: “So what? Why should I care?”
Fair enough, let’s get to it…by fast-forwarding half a century!
So, let us pose this question.
If you were a religious organization, would you be motivated to buy a $ 1,425,400 property for the purpose of setting up a Welsh language translation center?
Ah - but what if …
What if it looked like this?
This looks like a pleasant location, doesn’t it?
Or
Most fortunate location for. . .translating religious writing into WELSH.
The Watchtower Organization made this purchase for $ 1,425,400.00
The real estate sales brochure description below…
Cast iron multi fuel burner on a raised slate hearth, six wall light points, television aerial point, engineered oak flooring, radiator, vaulted ceiling, double glazed patio doors, and double glazed windows to the rear and side from which there are views across the extensive rear garden and Menai Straits to the Isle of Anglesey.
Property description
Superbly positioned above The Menai Strait with direct water access, the property comprises of entrance hallway, reception hallway, impressive open plan 'live in kitchen/family room', lounge, sitting room, games room, 2 studies, utility, cloakroom, shower room, 5 double bedrooms, four en-suites, and a family bathroom. The property benefits from having gas central heating, double glazing, a garage, and established landscaped gardens with decked areas and a pond. The property enjoys a fantastic sea view of The Menai Strait, The Menai Suspension Bridge, and across to Anglesey.
(See Menai Suspension Bridge below)
Surely this fine location does represent value for the people whose contributions paid for it.
Finding PR or news release information has, so far, proved difficult. Watchtower corporation in Wales is listed as a charitable organization.
**At JW.org this general statement is given:
MARCH 1, 2021
“More than 60 percent of our full-time translation teams work, not at branch offices, but at remote translation offices (RTO). Why is this arrangement beneficial? What equipment do translators need in order to work effectively at an RTO? And how does the location of a translation team affect the quality of their translation?
An RTO allows translators to live where many people speak their language.”
Watchtower has also been closing buildings in other parts of the world, cutting loose long-established workers near retirement age, and at the same time investing in exclusive communities, establishing media facilities, and property such as viewed above for “translation” purposes.
In 2016, three properties valued at an estimated $850 million to $1 billion—including the headquarters building—were put up for sale. The WatchTower Society reached a deal to sell the headquarters at Columbia Heights alone for $700 million.
A spokesperson reported that after reportedly high overheads, a ‘cash crunch’ has necessitated the sale of some of the religious order’s more valuable real estate around the world, which is now set to include the majority of its UK property portfolio by selling off the properties and centralizing its organization in the town of Warwick,
in upstate New York. The Daily Mail reported that the sale should generate around $1 billion for the Witnesses.
Now a similar story is happening in London, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses registered charity that deals with UK property, personnel management, and magazine distribution, the International Bible Students Association, or IBSA, is asking for expressions of interest for 29 properties around Mill Hill in northwest London.
Accounts value the entire portfolio at £73 million, but the actual sales are expected to bring in funds well in excess of that.
Winding down to the last days of the last days definitely requires lots of cash as well as more secure surroundings. Naturally, the witness's word of warning includes others and will require translating the message into all languages.
If you want to give your children a useful tool for the modern world then have them speak English, Spanish, maybe French, or even Chinese. Speaking the all-but-dead Welsh language is not seen as a wasted opportunity better spent on other more useful things.
This property is for Watchtower executives, translators for visiting Governing Body members (to wait out the Great Tribulation?) while the rank and file are in their Bunkers, with their Go-bags eating nutritious rations.
PREPPER WORK is a strategy going way back in Watchtower history reminding us of another previous Watchtower venture from 1929, better known as the House of Princes.
This was built in 1929 to house the newly resurrected “Ancient Worthies” such as Abraham, David, and other Old Testament men of faith which were supposed to have been already resurrected in the year 1925, as repeatedly predicted by the Faithful Slave from 1917 in the book THE FINISHED MYSTERY and in public lectures. (Note: it didn’t happen. The resurrection - didn’t - but the house did happen.)
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WatchTower President, "Judge" Joseph F. Rutherford was enjoying the paradise-like conditions of San Diego at Beth-Sarim, a secret property was also purchased near Beth-Sarim in 1939 with similar expectations although not discussed in WatchTower literature.
This secret 75-acre prime real estate property was also expected to house the resurrected Moses and other heroes of the faith. The added benefit was since they were expected to return shortly, just prior to Armageddon and worldwide wars, they would have 2 hidden underground bomb shelters protected with 3 feet of concrete overhead and storage provisions for months.
They would be totally self-sufficient at Beth-shan with their own 425-foot well and 10,000-gallon storage tank. Electricity would be provided by a state-of-the-art diesel-powered generator and a 4,000-gallon underground tank for diesel fuel. Water was piped to the house and 2 fire hydrants would protect them from fires. The real beauty of such a secure compound is there was plenty of room for the safety of the WatchTower leadership as well. Perhaps they could bring Abraham and his friends up to speed on the marvels of the 20th century and assist in the preparation of the Kingdom of God.
Beth-Shan is mentioned only ONCE by name in the Watch Tower publication, Consolation, predecessor to the "Awake!" magazine. The context is an article concerning the requested cemetery plot for Judge Rutherford since the original burial request at Beth-Sarim was denied by local officials.
"The judge decided to continue the case so that the new site could be brought before the Planning Commission... the second plot was a proper place for burial... The Planning Commission, which deliberated for more than two weeks, investigating the site, was haled before the court and denied the second application for a cemetery.... The new location for internment was almost in the center of the property known as Beth-Shan, which is roughly 75 acres of canyon and mesa land, adjoining Beth-Sarim but separated by a half-mile width of the canyon."(May 27, 1942 Consolation, p. 9)
The immediate personal use of this home and facilities in mild weather in San Diego would be immediately available to Rutherford. However, the deed to the property was for the noble reason of providing a haven for the arrival of faithful men and women of old as Abraham, Moses, Rahab, and Sarah.
A portion of the deed of trust reads as follows:
“NOW THEREFORE this trust is created and the said trustee shall hold the title to said property in trust for the use and benefit of the following named persons, whose names appear in the Bible in the Book of Hebrews, chapter eleven, verses one to forty, to wit: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David, Samuel. Until such time as the aforementioned persons return and identify themselves to the legal representatives of the said WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY and by the consent of said Society take possession and control of said premises, the President of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY shall have the right and be duty-bound to direct the management and use of said premises…"
Unlike Beth-Sarim, this facility would be far more secure from the predicted coming of Armageddon. 2 bomb shelters, a diesel-powered generator with a 4,000-gallon underground tank for diesel fuel, and 10,000 gallons of water storage with 2 fire hydrants.
It wasn't long before rumors among witnesses began to be spread about this haven of security, which apparently prompted an indirect response from the WatchTower leadership:
"Some unreliable person is responsible for the circulation of a report that Beth-Sarim is being enlarged as a place of security and that this is being built by the Society.
There is absolutely not one word of truth in the report. Those who are interested in the Theocracy would better be circulating the kingdom message rather than false imaginations of others."(The Watchtower, June 1, 1940, p. 162)
Perhaps the leaders felt justified in stating "Beth-Sarim" was not being enlarged as a place of security, but the fact is the nearby Watch Tower property Beth-shan certainly was.
No doubt Rutherford believed his New Light prediction about the nearness of Armageddon and was preparing this haven of safety from the soon to be experienced explosions and poison he predicted years earlier:
“… the next war will be…an annihilation! There will be poison and explosion everywhere, beneath the whole canopy of the heavens…” (Golden Age, June 2, 1926, p. 55)
An interview with Fred Eason was an eyewitness to the goat barn bomb shelter.
Fred Eason said he saw the underground shelter shortly after it's sale in 1945.
He described the underground shelter with its secret entrance as a:
"...building that was called the 'goat barn' which was used to stable their goats. To enter the shelter one would go to the small bathroom area at the rear of the building, open the medicine cabinet, and pull a concealed lever inside.
A section of the wall would swing open, revealing a stairway down into what can only be identified as a bomb shelter--a room about 30 feet x 15 feet, with a 10-foot high ceiling. The walls were lined with storage shelves.
The cement ceiling of the room was 3 feet thick!"
The building at upper right is the main Beth-Shan residence. The arrow points to the “goat barn” which had a secret bomb shelter (as did the main residence). Photo was taken after the sale of Beth-shan 1945.
1963 Aerial photo of Beth-Shan. Extensive grading on the property
revealed the hidden “goat barn” bomb shelter (arrow).
Not only did the princes NOT return to claim the estate at Beth Sarim as prophesied by Rutherford, but the Society simply ignored the promised trust to the princes and quietly sold the property soon after Rutherford's death in 1942.
1945 black and white photo of Beth-Shan (now hand-colored):
Beth-Shan house was built in 1939, ten years after Beth-Sarim on adjacent property. Beth-Shan, which means "House of Security" in Hebrew, was literally a house of security -(compound)*-
it was accessed by a single dirt road that was guarded and gated. It also had two secret bomb shelters to protect the Beth-shan/Beth-Sarim residents (such as the Society's second president, J.F. Rutherford).
The Society apparently kept the residence secret and did not publicize its very existence. The Society only mentioned Beth-shan once in its literature: May 27, 1942 Consolation magazine (now called Awake!)
The Society began building a burial crypt for Rutherford just below Beth-Sarim shortly before his death. After this site was denied by local authorities, the Society proposed a second site which was located on the Beth-shan property which was adjacent to Beth-Sarim. This second burial spot was also denied.
An aerial photo was taken in 1945:
(Note: the airstrip at the left was built shortly after the sale of this property in 1945)
The long building to the left of the cul-de-sac is the "goat barn" which had a secret bomb shelter (as did the main residence).
The remote inaccessibility is better seen from the following angle:
The deed to the Beth-shan house and property were, like Beth-Sarim, made out to Abraham, David, and the other Old Testament "princes." In reading the deed to Beth-Shan, one could get the impression that it is simply Beth-Sarim, part II --the two deeds are very similar. Both of the residences and property were held in "trust" by the Watchtower Society's leaders for the Old Testament "princes" awaiting their return.
According to Fred Eason, who was later to purchase some of the Beth-shan property and residence (discussed below), the dirt road which was accessible through a gate, was also guarded by JWs, so unauthorized individuals couldn't enter. He first stumbled onto the Society's building of the Beth-shan residence while he was looking for "Young's Cave," a series of manmade caves or tunnels in the area. He was "rebuffed" by "several men on horseback" and watched the building of Beth-shan from a different side of the mesa canyon.
Telephone interviews with Fred Eason, Dec. 3, 1996, and a letter dated Dec. 12, 1996, from Eason for publication, p. 70.Monuments, p. 70.
Another building, a "goat barn" had a secret bomb shelter as well. It was a long building apparently used to house goats. At the rear of the building was a bathroom. Fred Eason bought 30 acres of the Beth-shan property including the goat barn. In a letter to Ed Gruss he wrote of its bomb shelter:
To enter the shelter one would go to the small bathroom area at the rear of the building, open the medicine cabinet, and pull a concealed lever inside. A section of the wall would spring open, revealing a stairway down into what can only be identified as a bomb shelter--a room about 30 feet x 15 feet, with a ten-foot-high ceiling. The walls were lined with storage shelves. The cement ceiling of the room was 3 feet thick!"
Monuments book:
“A person could go into the bathroom and would never know that the shelter was there. When a house was built on the property in 1967 it was placed on the lot so as to keep the shelter intact, and it still exists today.”
ARMAGEDDON PREPPERS!
Watchtower Society in the 1920s and 1930s taught that the "next war" would lead to Armageddon and result in the Theocracy or Kingdom of God on Earth. That teaching detailed that there would be a war fought primarily or exclusively in the air with poison gas and bacterial (germ) bombs which would obliterate most life on earth. For example, they said:
*... the next war will be a completion [of the First World War] and therewith an annihilation! There will be poison and explosion everywhere, beneath the whole canopy of the heavens.... Poison will be mechanically wafted forward and backward by unmanned airplanes, going up into the atmosphere and descending to the earth.”
The compact, thickly-populated, highly -industrialized centers of civilization will be drenched with gases, bathed in a liquid fire, and sown with bacteria. Unquenchable conflagrations will overspread the sky with a blanket of smoke... Perhaps some previous preparation will have been made of elaborate subterranean tunnels and chambers in anticipation of this awful time.
When the totalitarian Catholic combine gains control of the British Isles, which it is certain to do, then all the liberties of the people will be at an end... What will be the condition when all nations become totalitarian?.... The totalitarian combine is going to get control of England and America. You cannot prevent it. Do not try.
Rutherford, J.F., Face the Facts, 1938, pp. 20, 21, p. 27.
Watchtower Society did its own preparation for this future calamity in building Beth-shan (House of Security) with two bomb shelters. Perhaps "Young's Cave" with its series of underground tunnels on the property was an appealing feature in their decision to buy the property!
The reason for the storage shelves in the bomb shelters is they believed that great famines would soon occur worldwide, including in the United States. This was also brought out in the "Demon Rule Ending" articles:
A great famine is certain to afflict the many nations of the earth in the very near future. The United States is also in line for much suffering.... the United States is faced with a world disaster now impending and about to fall...
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