Rolf Furuli has broken with the GB (page 5)

dropoffyourkeylee

Thanks SBF, for the summary. Sounds like he has put a lot of thought into his position. I wonder what it was that finally put him over the edge.

Vanderhoven7

Thanks SBF for the detailed summation.

I trust he holds the possibility of salvation outside of the organization...because that's where he will be in short order.

Finkelstein

More and more people are getting wise to the WTS/JWorg.

It would be honest to say the WTS's doctrines were corrupt or weakly supported by virtue of the persistence drive for literature proliferation by the people who were making these doctrines.

That ideological connection was always there going right back to C T Russell.

careful

Well, this thread is really taking off. SBF has listed 21 points of agreement Furuli has with the GB vs. 82 of disagreement. Hmm, how will the 8 "holy ones" of Warwick feel about that?

Vanderhoven, thanks for the Youtube link. Almost 3000 views in just nine hours---that speaks volumes, esp. since the visual is filler stuff. It should just be billed as a podcast.

Loved the earlier comments too on taking bets as to how long it will be until his appeal committee rubber stamps the original committee carrying out the GB's orders to DF the guy.

Jeffro

careful:

Jeffro, you're right. Someone privately send me the info and addy, but it's hardly secret stuff now. The reddit thread has drawn far more comments than this JWD post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/gpncxn/rolf_furuli_phd_probably_norways_most_respected/
Furuli used to have a website for his own publishing house awatu, but he took it down some time back. I do not know why.
From comments at reddit, Lloyd Evans/John Cedars has now gotten hold of this, so it will be broadcast heavily soon, naturally with the book addy provided. Give it a few more days and it should show up on a google search.

Thanks. I imagine that some JWs will be more reluctant to cite Furuli's work in the future if he's deemed an 'apostate'. Though others may go the other way and claim that if Furuli is "no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses", then that means he's an 'independent scholar' who 'supports' 607.

Furuli seems pretty entrenched in superstitious thinking, but with distance from the Watch Tower Society, it's possible that he'll eventually let go of their end-times nonsense altogether. Either that or he'll go uber-crazy and start is own sect.

slimboyfat

I think some of my points of disagreement are repetitious because I was flagging toward the end—so 82 disagreements may be overstated.

My summary itself could do with being summarised.

Basically Furuli agrees with all the core teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses except the “faithful and discreet slave” teaching, the biblical basis for a Governing Body, the scope but not the principle of disfellowshipping, and the recent disavowal of antitypical interpretations of scripture. Other minor differences include whether Yahweh is a possible form of the divine name, whether the divine name derives from the verb “to be”, the enforced precise definition of primary components of blood, and whether the Jews of Jesus’ day understood the prophecy of the seventy weeks.

Furuli says that Watchtower was not autocratic in 1972 but has become increasingly dictatorial under the Governing Body and now resembles the Catholic hierarchy. He quotes a JW lawyer recently as saying the Watchtower hierarchical structure is the same as the Catholic Church. Furuli argues that this is a departure from early Watchtower practice. (Has Furuli never read the testimony of Franz and Covington in the Walsh trial in the 1950s?)

Furuli rejects accusations that JWs have covered up abuse. He also defends Watchtower chronology on 1914, two hopes, and the literal 144,000. He even defends some of the most outlandish features of JW interpretations of Daniel, traditional JW antitypes, and even the outdated 49,000 year Watchtower jubilees chronology. Furuli briefly references the “generation” teaching but frustratingly does not engage with it in any meaningful way except to say that it shows the end of the system is near. Does he accept the current “generation” teaching, or how does it show Armageddon is near? This is a big omission in the book. (Unless I overlooked something)

What caused Furuli to speak out now? He seems offended by the 2013 revision of the NWT on which he was apparently not consulted. He also objects to the GB confiscating congregation funds and Kingdom Halls. The recent hardline against higher education was particularly objectionable to Furuli. He also complains about the dumbing down of Watchtower writing and exclusion of prophetical understanding of scripture in favour of moral tale-style readings. Furuli has written repeatedly to the GB about his concerns and received no reply. He says JWs are the true religion and he and his wife have no hard feelings or any bad experiences. He says they have many JW friends throughout Norway. It remains to be seen whether the GB can tolerate this new book and its criticisms, and how many JWs will remain friends as a result.

Jeffro

slimboyfat:

What caused Furuli to speak out now?

It seems like something he has been hanging on to for a while - writing a book of several hundreds pages probably isn't something he did over a weekend. Maybe the 2013 NWT was a catalyst. Or perhaps he got sick of the governing body not crediting him as their (likely) source as the 'researcher' who agreed with their assessment of VAT 4956 supposedly 'supporting' 607. Or perhaps a close friend or relative of his was disfellowshipped.

LongHairGal

CAREFUL:

I had seen this guy’s name before but never bothered until now that I’m reading this thread to know what he was about.

Quite honestly, it makes me positively ill to read about anybody who was such a JW diehard. 🤮 I never ever related to anybody like this...But, I’m glad he finally sees the GB for what they are and I do agree about their ‘hierarchy resembling the Catholic church’.

Master_Bob

Thank you for the summaries, I've just purchased the book, didn't yet havetime to read.

What is striking for me is the level of naivity of Furuli, considering his scholarly titles and level within the org.

He's complaining about the dicatorial ruling of GB and I wonder on which planet was he living till now?

GB never denied that their ruleship is not democtratic (at least from the times when the arrangement of elders being elected locally was abandoned and that was before Furuli was born). They always said that they were leading in a "theocratic" way, meaning hierarchically: Jehovah->Jesus->GB->Branch commetee->CO->elders->publishers, which ofc means GB are the absolute and unquestionable leaders = dictators. JW never tought sth different from that, at least after Russel's times.

An other important point that Furuli misses to see is the how the teachings are evolving.

New Light besed on some shaky Scriptural reasoning -> it becomes massively adopted throw repetition -> new teaching gets transformed into JW tradition.

Once a teaching becomes JW tradition initial Scriptural reasoning becomes irrelevant and can be dropped over time. (e.g: disfellowshiping - chech the series of '8sh WT articles, not even mentioned in new ks book, blood, and now the type - antitype pattern).

Probably Furuli will have the opportunity to study deeper some teachings and flows in the org after engaging in constructive conversation with the community. I'm sure he hasn't published the book just to sit in the corner and not to talk to anybody about it. Especially after he gets dfed very very soon.

Room 215

Actually I'm surprised that so many failed to recognize the naked power-grab of 2013 (in July?), i.e., demoting all of the anointed to equal status with the Other Sheep as "domestics" and appointing themselves as the Governing Body. This went down without hardly a whimper from the rank-and-file.

Rolf Furuli has broken with the GB

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