What if Fred Franz had never existed? (page 2)

Finkelstein

The foundation footing of the WTS was set by C Russell and his doctrines such as "The End Times " " Christ has Returned " etc. so it wasn't so hard to exploit and manipulate those doctrines to appeal to the continuing literature proliferation, Rutherford was a guy who knew that himself.

Lostandfound

How did F Franz convince Knorr to go along with his seemingly drug inspired drivel? What was F Franz doing in WT when Rutherford died?

Magnum

Good point, Finkelstein, and good questions, Lostandfound; I'd like to know the answers to those, too.

Introvert 2

Good post Magnum PI, think I'll be ordering the book "Four Presidents of the Watchtower". Must be some answers in there..

Barrold Bonds

It's pretty interesting to think that the vast majority of Franz' stuff isn't even considered JW doctrine anymore. Ooops. I guess God wasn't using him lol.

scratchme1010

But what would it have been like if Franz had never existed? What would the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s have been like? What would the literature have been like? Would there have ever been a New World Translation? What about doctrine? I assume there would not have been a 1975 debacle. Would JWdom have had the momentum that it did in that period if Franz hadn’t been in the picture? What would have been the look and feel without him?

So many possibilities. I tend not to indulge myself in this hypothetical scenarios as they are, well unreal and pure speculation, but in this case I'll speculate that we just don't know. As Finkelstein points out, Franz was just one of the many BS-ers around. There's no way to know is things will be different, the same, better or worse.

sparky1

Fred Franz got in on the ground floor at the 'writing department' right from the start. "When Franz came to headquarters in 1920, Rutherford saw at once that he was a young man of literary ability and possibilities, so he put him to work as an editorial assistant." - FAITH ON THE MARCH pg. 181. As to his rising up through the ranks and attaining his high and lofty position, he along with Knorr and Covington received their 'anointing and appointments' to run the 'Society' directly from Rutherford on his deathbed.

Finkelstein

If Franz didn't spin up the doctrinal fear mongering bullshit as he did the JWS would possibly have not survived, in reflection that in the late 1960's and 70's the WTS had its greatest growth percentage in its entire history.

Time was progressing on since 1914 so the compelling something has to happen pretty soon was starting to lose some grip of validity.

Guess what today's GB have to deal with ? .......false commercialized doctrines

Village Idiot

In 1974 I went to a special talk at the Inglewood Public Forum (Sothern California) to listen to a talk about 1975 from none other than Frederick Franz. He was then vice-president of the Watchtower.

He specifically said that the end would occur anywhere from a few months to a few years after September of 1975. He specifically excluded the possibility that it would be decades after 1975. Using the logic of the "Adam and Eve gap" he said that if it were to take decades than that would mean that Adam would have been without a mate for that long and that would tempt Adam into bestiality!!!

His statement, in his sing song voice, was: "Would Jehovah let Adam to be tempted into bestiality? Noooo brothers and sisters, Jehovah would not allow that."

So what would happen if Freddie the beast never existed? The JWs would have been a little more dull but, like Outlaw said, they would simply have somebody else upstairs.

Village Idiot

Magnum,
JWdom attracted some really smart, stable people. I was there; I saw it. I remember the deep, exciting poolside discussions after district convention sessions. The look and feel of JWdom were just so different back then.

I too remember having those deep discussions with two brothers ("fleshly"). One had an IQ of 170. We talked about representative Christology" an Arian, JW type of understanding of Jesus and his role in relation to Jehovah. He ordered a special Bible with annotations in the text.

The closest he came to criticizing the Watchtower was to say that they dumbed things down. Mind you, this was in the 1970s. "Simplification to the point of falsification" was his view of the Watchtower articles.

I wonder if he's still in there.

What if Fred Franz had never existed?

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