JW split in Romania (page 3)

OldSoul

But it's easy to spot a lie. It's not always easy to admit that's what it is. Whatever isn't a lie, or false, is true. The CCoJW (formerly, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society) takes reams of lies, strings 'em together, and sticks the label truth on them.

blondie

From 1929 to 1962, the WTS taught that the superior authorities were God and Jesus. Living under a Communist regime like Romania, I can see why they believed that such governments had no authority over God's people. Finding that the WTS had flip-flopped on that doctrine, would have made Romanian JWs who had been exile, suspicious.

Also, the concept that the WTS was not a religion comes into play.

Bible Students in the US have made contacts with these true JWs who are not part of a religious organization. Some have become Bible Students finding their doctrine more in line with their own.

Flip-flopping backfired on the WTS in this case.

Blondie

The Evil Servant who stays in the "church" at Brooklyn, did the same, used the name Watchtower (thing that will not remain unpunished) and, under this name, he made changes in Romans 13:1-4, saying that they do not refer to Jehovah and Jesus Christ but to the earthly powers. How do we know that the Evil Servant was present? They boast of their no. of four millions, in the entire world.

Leolaia

This is pretty amazing stuff!

Hey, does anyone have handy the statistics for Romania for the years following 1988? It would be interesting to see if there is a sudden drop or if the numbers are extremely small per capita (having rejected the Rutherfordians).

Wonder if the Society will ever do a feature article on Romania for their Yearbook?

OldSoul

I can read it now:

"Sad to say, in the intervening years of isolation from God's organization many fell far behind the chariot. When finally they were able to begin partaking of the bounty of new spiritual food available to them, it became apparent that many had grown so accustomed to the spiritual food they were used to that they decided to separate from God's people rather than acquire a taste for the wonderful things Jehovah had prepared for them."

Tsk, tsk. So wasteful.

OldSoul

TheOldHippie

It seems you, and some others, have got it a bit wrong as to WHEN this split took place. It happened in the 1960s, when the secret police in many East European countries took on the new strategy that they in stead of arresting the JWs, managed to send spies into the groups, establish competing groups, they had meetings with the members of the branch etc., and did a lot of things to create splits. Hence, when the iron curtain fell, there were different groups existing in Poland, Hungary and Roumania. But if you look at the Yearbook figures, there was a steady and rapid growth in these countries for the first 10-12 years, until theyt became "Westernized" and are more like "us" in the respect that growth is between 0 and 1-2 %. So the split is not NEW, it is from BEFORE the fall of the Iron Curtain.

....and I wonder what is so great about being a Rutherfordian ..... ;-)

googlemagoogle

splits/schisms/heresies like this still are very interesting. as JWs claim to be the only ones who have the "truth", many can't understand how someone would actually sincerely reject it and not believe it anymore. this is mostly based on disfellowshipped folks who now lead a "worldly" lifestyle but still believe the whole dogma. the rest is demonized scum.

the early split of the bible students is the "evil slave", or so an old brother told me. i've never heard of later splits though. this indeed is very interesting. because it supports the fact that if russel, rutherford, knorr, even franz maybe, if they'd be resurrected now, they'd be disfellowshipped for apostasy right away and vice versa.

isn't it ironic? don't you think?

PopeOfEruke

Old Hippy

thats interesting too. Though I heard about a big fight and split in 1991/1992, I was living in Germany and we heard it on the grapevine. It may even have been officially announced, I can't remember now.

It definitely had to do with a fight over policies once the iron curtain fell.

Maybe there were 2 splits? Maybe a plethora of splits?

And isn't Split really in Jugoslavia?

Pope

TheOldHippie

Split in Yugoslavia ? No way ! You must be thinking of some republics on the Balcan what earlier formed some sort of a union that was known as Yugoslavia - but Split must be in Croatia - or Serbia - or Slovenia - or Macedonia - or Montenegro - or Kosovo - or somewhere.

I remember hearing that after the curtain fell, there were some problems in hungary, because they had been without contact with brooklyn for a long time, but it was said that after "councelling", they understood who was who and what was what, and were reunited. And I guess if things like that happened in hungary, it would indeed so have been the fact in Roumania. But again, that was trying to repair an earlier split.

A friend of mine spent some years in Hungary and told they stuck to their old, "secret" way of witnessing, visiting one flat in an area, then one flat in another area etc. - they thought my friend was mad, as he offered the magazine son the street openly, or visited many flats in a row. They could not get accustomed to "freedom".

steve2

To be fair, I've heard that a lot of mainstream Christian churches have also ended up splintering in the former Soviet Union. These people seem, after years of totalitarianism, to be an independent breed. The interesting thing is that most of the splitting from the Brooklyn-based Watchtower Society appears not to have been over the authoritarian tactics of the Watchtower, but the number of seemingly arbitrary changes it has introduced over the years. These were the stumbling blocks.

On a related note, many years ago I had read in one of the Watchtower yearbooks about a tribal leader in an African country who became a JW and after some time, he developed his own brand of teachings in which he drowned some new members when he baptised them into his new Watchtower religion.

ozziepost

he developed his own brand of teachings in which he drowned some new members when he baptised them into his new Watchtower religion

full immersion, eh?

JW split in Romania

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