Who the JW's governing body USED to be! 😂😂😂😂

BoogerMan

w50 1/1 pp. 10-11 par. 2 - The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, the governing body of Jehovah’s witnesses,...

w50 8/15 p. 251 par. 8 - The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, with main offices in Brooklyn, New York, acts advisorily as the governing body and servant of Jehovah’s witnesses in all lands.

w52 9/15 p. 567 par. 7 - After being fed and directed through the faithful legal governing body, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society,

w55 6/1 p. 333 Part 11 - ...and that ‘THE SOCIETY’ is the visible representative of the Lord on earth...

w56 11/15 p. 692 par. 12 - ....and working together under the direction and authority of the governing body of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

w57 4/15 pp. 251-252 - We shall be very pleased to have representatives of our governing body, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, discuss this matter further with you

w57 4/15 p. 254 - As the governing body for Jehovah’s witnesses world-wide.....Submitted by the Directors, WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

blondie

Note that "governing body" is not capitalized. I don't think that happened until the big change in the WT organization, end of board of directors, now GB. Around 1970.1971

And even for years after the official change, ones who had been in for a while continued to only refer to the "The Society", which always sounded like some shady in the shadows group like the Masons to me, in my youth, I would say "Illuminati" now perhaps, but hadn't heard of them then.

Mum

Actually, they used to be Nobodies! Their list of "achievements" is pretty lame. I'm sure they take pride in this fact, showing that they lack "worldly wisdom" but still have the "wisdom" to shun, prompt suicides, and protect child molestors.

Vidiot

They used to be mysterious figures.

Now they’re televangelists.

smiddy3

Aren`t the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society , the Governing body ,the governing Body of Jehovah`s Witnesses ,,Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania , The Society , the "Truth" ,all one and the same thing ?

In the eyes and ears of JW`s ?

Who woulda thought they would ever become tele-evangelists ?

The mind boggles how things change in JW land

fulano

In my youth it was “the society”, that covered it all, besides the CO’s.

TonusOH

Same here. We understood that the governing body was the faithful and discreet slave and all of that, but "the society" was the catch-all phrase. Everyone knew what was meant when someone said that "the society says this/that."

Journeyman

Everyone knew what was meant when someone said that "the society says this/that."

Yes, you can tell the relative age of a publisher by whether they still say "the society says this/that" or they say today's phrase "the organisation says this/that", or worse, "Jehovah's organisation says this/that" when talking about instructions coming down from higher levels, whether in talks, publications or letters.

The modern-day org have been very successful among the R&F at directly linking God's name to "the organisation" in individual's minds. I can't recall the previous JWs using phrases that linked the two so closely.

There is also the phrase "Jehovah's people" which was used a lot and still is sometimes, but that was usually broader, meaning anyone who was a JW, not just the senior hierarchy.

St George of England

"A Governing Body as Different from a Legal Corporation (Watchtower December 15,1971)

ON Friday morning, October 1, 1971, the legal corporation known as Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania held its annual corporation meeting, this time in the Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses at Buckingham, Pennsylvania. All seven members of the Board of Directors of said Society attended and had a part in the program presented. The membership of this Society is limited to five hundred at the most, there being at present four hundred and fifty such members throughout the earth. Many of these members attended this annual corporation meeting in person, still more by means of proxy. All together, 2,076 attended this corporation meeting, doubtless all of them being interested Christian witnesses of Jehovah.

At this meeting a question came up and was discussed from the platform. It was as to what the relationship is between the Board of Directors of the Society as a legal corporation and the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. Are they the same, identical, or are they different? Such questions were due to the fact that it has been published in print that the Governing Body of Jehovah’s witnesses at headquarters is associated with the Board of Directors of the said Society. How did this come about, and does this make the Board of Directors the same as the Governing Body of Jehovah’s witnesses all the earth around?"

The entire article is worth reading. It took until 2000 for Milton Henschel to resign his position as President and hand over to a non-anointed one. They have spent the last 23 years clawing back all control.

George