By show of hands? Who thinks it was a cross? Who thinks it was a "stake" ?!
Da cross....hee hee
by emmamess22 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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SixofNine
If it happened at all, the best bet (by far), based on what evidence we have, is cross.
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Kenneson
The Roman instrument of crucifixion was a cross. Even Charles Taze Russell, the originator of the Watchtower Society believed that Christ died on a cross. Too bad his successors have deviated from what he taught on this matter.
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emmamess22
Wow, i was unaware that Russell thought it was a cross....why would they teach otherwise? I know that they believed that the variation of the word stauros was to mean a stake and not a cross, but everything that I've read historically says that even stakes (stauroo) had cross pieces a lot of the time. If they were trying to make an example out of Jesus, they would have used the cross to make it last longer. A stake would kill someone in as little as ten minutes until not much more than an hour due to inability to lift upper body to fill lungs. It seems so obvious to me that the fact people were passing him and taunting him and that his cross neighboors were talking to him that it was something that took a little time. It's right there! Oy.
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Greenpalmtreestillmine
I believe Jesus died on a cross.
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emmamess22
So is wearing a cross necklace etc... a form of idolatry?
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blondie
Yes, the cross was used by the the WTS on the cover of the WT until 1931.
It wasn't until 1936 that Rutherford brought out that it was not a 2-beamed cross.
So from 1919 to 1936 the WTS was not as pure as they would like you to think. They also celebrated birthdays and Christmas.
Blondie
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Double Edge
Someone posted this earlier:
Cross or Stake?
According to the 1975 Yearbook the doctrine did not result from careful biblical analysis, but rather from Judge Rutherford's dislike of the cross symbol. Originally, the Bible Students under Charles T. Russell accepted the cross as a valid Christian emblem. In fact, Russell incorporated it in his symbol of the Millennial Kingdom ? a cross placed inside a crown. This "cross and crown" symbol appeared on Watchtower covers since 1891, and was represented on a plaque hanging in Russell's personal study.1 The Bible Students even wore a pin of this shape. Carey W. Barber, now a member of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses, described it: "It was a badge really, with a wreath of laurel leaves as the border and within the wreath was a crown with a cross running through it on an angle. It looked quite attractive and was our idea of what it meant to take up our ?cross? and follow Christ Jesus in order to be able to wear the crown of victory in due time."2
Rutherford however did not think it was so "attractive." He perceived the cross as nothing more than a pagan symbol, as a long-time Witness recalled: "This to Brother Rutherford's mind was Babylonish and should be discontinued. He told us that when we went to the people's homes and began to talk, that was the witness in itself."3
It took Rutherford eight years to purge the Bible Students of the cross. His first move against it occurred in 1928, when he instructed his followers at a Detroit convention to discard the "objectionable" and "unnecessary" jewelry.4 Then in 1931 the emblem was removed from the Watchtower covers. At that point the cross symbol became non-biblical, non-Christian, and ungodly ? and was relegated to the forbidden trappings of Satan's organization. The Witnesses however still believed that Jesus was executed on a traditional cross. This contradiction no doubt vexed Rutherford, and he saw the need to revise his assumptions about the Passion. Therefore, without much fanfare, he presented his new view in the book Riches. On page 27, he wrote: "Jesus was crucified, not on a cross of wood, such as exhibited in many images and pictures, and which images are made and exhibited by men; Jesus was crucified by nailing his body to a tree."5 It seems that Rutherford saw nothing wrong (as does the Society today) with using the word "crucify" to denote impalement.
Therefore, according to the Society's own account, scholarship really had no-thing to do with its adoption of the "torture stake" doct rine.
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emmamess22
wow, and now I feel like a jerk for all the times I've told people their crosses were vanity filled and idols as Jesus never even died on one etc, etc. I just watched the Passion a few minutes ago which I had not watched for fear it was "wrong" to watch it and I can't believe the denial of something like that.
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Flash
I just watched the Passion a few minutes ago which I had not watched for fear it was "wrong" to watch it
That was a GREAT movie...intense!