Where it all went wrong for the WT - JF Rutherford

by LoveUniHateExams 68 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  LoveUniHateExams

  I was thinking a bit about this the other day. CT Russell, from what I remember about him, kinda seemed like a genuine, nice(ish) guy, although he had a few eccentric but harmless ideas.

  During the Russell era JWs (actually Bible Students) could still celebrate Christmas, worship in other churches if there was no Kingdom Hall available, and accept blood transfusions.

  Then after Russell died, along came Rutherford - a major league a-hole, for sure.

  Rutherford had plenty of eccentric ideas but at least some of them weren't/aren't harmless.

  Some have been long forgotten about - Jesus depicted without a beard, the plan to rename the names of the week because names such as Thursday (Thor's day) is pagan, the articles about the 'dangers' of aluminium, etc.

  One key contribution of Rutherford which does a lot of harm is no blood transfusions, even in life-threatening situations.

  Another is shunning, something which never occurred under Russell, or at least was much milder.

  Rutherford has a lot to answer for, I reckon ...
• 

  Sanchy

  Fred Franz shares a lot of the blame as well
• 

  Hellothere

  Rutherford to me was like the evil slave that came in and ruined things. Gathering and let Bible verses interpret things was removed. Everything was decided by the leaders. He stopped singing before meetings. After what I have read about him he didn't think working on personality was important. That God would accept a person service anyways. Under him the only thing important was to preach. Agape seem not too be that important. Doing many hours was the most important. Think it was Rutherford that decided to put God's biblical name on the org. Yeah he is behind many evil decision.
• 

  punkofnice

  I dunno. Old Chuck seemed a bit of a money grabber. Miracle wheat? You know, start a cult and get the dosh. Probably capitalising on the 'current thing' of the day.

  Boozerford carried on the grift with bullying. I imagine he wasn't breast fed or something. He doesn't stand out as a loving shepherd. More a fraud that lived at Beth Sarim.
  

  Both a pair of grifters.
• 

  Anna Marina

  Where it all went wrong?

  Start with the pyramids and keep going backwards. Here' one of Charles Piazzi Smyth's.

  Pyramid Tombstone in Sharow Churchyard - geograph.org.uk - 327872 - Charles Piazzi Smyth - Wikipedia

  Science fiction predates Hollywood movies and the printing press.
  
  
• 

  enoughisenough

  I am thinking Beth Serim...if I spelled that correctly...what a bill of goods that got sold so Rutherford could go and live there with a woman who was there to "massage"...call me a sceptic! We were instructed to look at origins when it came to holidays, etc...If people applied the same counsel to the beginnings of WT, they wise up. I can't believe how gullible I was for 50 years.
• 

  slimboyfat

  LUHE I don’t want to be picky 😇 but a few things:

  There were no Kingdom Halls in Russell’s time. The first Kingdom Hall was named in Hawaii in the 1930s.

  I don’t know that Bible Students attended other churches. Is there a source for that?

  Blood transfusions were not widely practiced in Russell’s lifetime. I don’t know that Bible Students ever faced the issue or that Russell addressed it, but I’d be interested in any references.

  Rutherford didn’t come up with the idea to rename the calendar, that was Clayton Woodworth, the editor of The Golden Age. Rutherford thought it was a stupid idea and made fun of Woodworth in front of the bethel family.

  Also the aluminium thing wasn’t Rutherford’s idea.

  Blood transfusions were not banned until 1945, three years after Rutherford died, in the presidency of Nathan Knorr.

  Current disfellowshipping practice didn’t start until 1952, again years after Rutherford’s death.

  I agree that Russell seems to have been well liked in comparison with Rutherford. When Russell died there was widespread mourning across the country. Many hundreds came to his funeral, eulogies went on for hours, from many different speakers, his ex wife laid a flower on his coffin, and the movement was sent into complete disarray.

  When Rutherford died there was a brief announcement and bethelites got back to work. There were three or four at Rutherford’s graveside, not including his wife or son. The organisation immediately sprang into action under the new leadership of Knorr/Franz and, within a few years, they had established a missionary school, restructured meetings and ministry, produced their own translation of the Bible, and presided over unprecedented expansion.
• 

  Anna Marina

  Enoughisenough - I could not have checked the teachings more carefully when I had my Bible study. I cannot enter the minds of people who are so corrupt to deceive people in the way WT does. What they do is unimaginable.

  All sorts of people fall for con tricks because the confidence trickster aims to catch the person's confidence, not their intelligence. They study you carefully to work out how to fool you. In the end a person's intelligence would be crushed by them.

  Also if you go up to those still in and tell them all you know - they probably wont listen to you. Because they don't trust you.

  I think those of us who are out and have not had our faith destroyed, are out by the grace of God.
• 

  enoughisenough

  Anna Marina " out by the grace of God" it must be so...why do I see things now that others refused to see...I wasn't looking for anything. I wasn't viewing apostate sites. I always told myself if ever I could really pin point something I knew was wrong I would leave ( and once I pinpointed it, I was making excuses --looking for reasons to not leave-but once you see it, you can't unsee it.)
• 

  Phizzy

  From JF Facts Site " It was not until the 1950's that the Watchtower specifically outlined its censorship of blood transfusions , over 80 years after the commencement of the Watchtower Society. If the doctrine on blood is such a critical doctrine, one must wonder why God would wait so many decades before revealing it as such through the Watchtower."

  Rutherford laid the foundation for this murderous, unscriptural Doctrine to develop, by stating that the Law to Noah on Blood was binding on all humans. Franz. F. was the mover behind the 1950's finalisation of a death sentence for many J.W's ,including children.