Just to clarify, Russell despite his odd ideas and involvement in occultism, free masonry and zionism was quite democratic and against hierarchy and organised forms of religion. It was Rutherford the scoundrel, the wolf who was also involved in occultism that turned the JWs into a centralised cult to satisfy his own desires and ambitions while Knorr, Franz and then the Governing Body followed in his spirit. Eg Rutherford inaugurated the anti world policy that alienates and cuts off JWs from the great energies society and causes them to lose enormous potentials and profit. Why? Because they say all worldly people are unprofitable in all things and dangerous yet this is obviously not the case since the world is not homogeneous but contains all sorts of people from ruthless criminals to altruistic saints and anyway one cannot associate but with a few persons which s/he can of course choose out of the many.
greendawn
JoinedPosts by greendawn
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More details of the bible students blending into Rutherford's empire
by Terry incharlie taze russell had money, good looks, privately tutored education and a lot of personal charisma.
from his devout mother he got a healthy dose of hellfire and come to jesus instruction.
the family was presbyterian in a time when central authority was viewed with deep suspicion.
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More details of the bible students blending into Rutherford's empire
by Terry incharlie taze russell had money, good looks, privately tutored education and a lot of personal charisma.
from his devout mother he got a healthy dose of hellfire and come to jesus instruction.
the family was presbyterian in a time when central authority was viewed with deep suspicion.
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greendawn
Band on the Run: there are several books around dealing with the way leadership developed and operated in the Watchtower org but one I read and found very enlightening is the "Four presidents of the watchtower society" by Edmond Gruss, it really brings out the character and personality of these leaders showing it to be petty minded and that what they really cared about was power and had no real love for their flock. I hear that "Apocalypse delayed" by James Penton is also very good and there are no doubt other good ones.
It is interesting to note that this org up to the 1970's was run by one individual who acted like an absolutist monarch and decided everything regarding dogma and morals as was the case with Rutherford and then Knorr though Knorr was basically sharing power with Franz who was his close buddy since the 1920's. Knorr the president focused on the business side and Franz the vice president (got the position after throwing out Covington on trivial reasons) on the spiritual side. That is about 60 years of monarchical one man rule until the governing body which is different from the board of directors got into power and as said above they proved themselves to be even more ruthlessly authoritarian than the previous monarchs. Things got clearly worse and worse over time with the JW leadership. The idea about a collective faithful and discreet servant (FDS) consisting of thousands of elite JWs feeding the flock with spiritual food is very obviously a myth. The FDS was for a long time just one or two persons and then 10 or 20, not thousands. The rest were non entities, just space fillers.
The traits that characterised the JW leadership at least since Rutherford have been egotism, authoritarianism, cruelty and a ruthless inclination to deceive. What they revolve around is power lust and control, not love.
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It is time to thank some important people
by Terry inthank you randy for creating out of thin air the freeminds ministy reaching out to people damned and damaged by the watchtower.. you've been at it indefatigably and with little money for---what?
thirty+ years?
bravo!.
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greendawn
I always found Randy's website very inspiring and informative and I am thankful to him for revealing what was going on behind the scenes with the governing body and the way they treated Ray Franz, Dunlop etc showing them to be just pettty minded, power lusting men with nothing really spiritual in them. Also many persons who were/are posting here Farkel, Narkissos, Alan F, Leolaia, Blondie, Terry himself. Their posts have depth and substance and involved a lot of careful background work and research.
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More details of the bible students blending into Rutherford's empire
by Terry incharlie taze russell had money, good looks, privately tutored education and a lot of personal charisma.
from his devout mother he got a healthy dose of hellfire and come to jesus instruction.
the family was presbyterian in a time when central authority was viewed with deep suspicion.
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greendawn
Very enlightening article Terry, it gives the gist of the JW history. The presidents of this cult had total power until the 1970's when Knorr and Franz very reluctantly shared power with the newly created governing body. They were both very bitter and devastated by this development but apparently they had no choice especially Knorr who was dying of cancer at the time. The GB proved to be worse than than their predecessors especially after the 1980 events at HQ when they showed their true colours with Dunlop, Ray Franz etc
In all Rutherford was the archetypal spiritual whore as were all those that followed him in the leadership and they are no different in this respect to all the religious leaders whom the accuse of the same. Their focus is by and large on their own petty personal world.
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greendawn
He was hiding in a garrison city with the military all around him so I am surprised they didn't know he was somewhere close by, the Americans wouldn't get anywhere if they had to really on the Pakistanis. They must have got him since they have announced it so affirmatively but I don't think they have already ditched his dead body into the sea.
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How did that MYSTERIOUS transition from Russell to Rutherford happen?
by Terry in"judge" josephh rutherford helped pastor russell draft his last will and testament.
as legal advisor this was fitting.
russell never stated that they were to only publish his writings.
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greendawn
It is obvious that Rutherford kicked out the inheritors and grabbed their inheritence. That's the kind of man that lead the Watchtower society, self seeking and ruthless and his successors continued in the same spirit. Subsequently Rutherford made it clear why he grabbed the leadership as he was enjoying a life of ease and luxury while he was sending out the poor R&F to preach an unjustifiably belligerant and provocative message and as a result often suffered physical abuse by outraged citizens. The man was the classical example of the power lusting narcissist and once he took over this organisation it was doomed to become an authoritarian cult.
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Charles Russell's Last Days
by lovelylil inthis link contains a play by play of russell's last days including why and how he was found dead in a toga made from sheets.
thought some may find it interesting.. http://www.gtft.org/biblestudents/pastorrussellslastdays.html.
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greendawn
True Moshe though Rutherford being such a religious charlatan hated medical science as demonic and didn't want the JWs to have anything to do with it not even inocculations against infectious diseases.
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Video - Jehovah's Witnesses and Their Unseen Adversaries
by sabastious inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9uyw-l3ii8.
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greendawn
The book of Enoch is not a canonical book of the Bible it is one of the apocryphal books. The apostle Paul mentions that the fallen angels have much influence over the world but this influence is exercised through telepathic means, the demons cannot materialise and operate directly upon this world or operate eg by moving objects around or physically assaulting people. Those who say they saw or experienced this happen were hallucinating. So what is the fear about demons all about? The worst the demons can do is cause severe mental disturbances or even insanity to those that willingly invite them in.
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Video - Jehovah's Witnesses and Their Unseen Adversaries
by sabastious inhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9uyw-l3ii8.
-sab.
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greendawn
The fear of demons is just another ploy to manipulate emotions, I believe that a lot of these so called demon attacks are panic attacks also experienced by people that were never involved in religion and are quite well known to science. Mainstream christianity also believes that demons have a lot of influence over mankind but not to the point of drastically and frightfully taking over a person's mind unless s/he invites them by consciously deciding to get involved in satanism, invoke and associate with the demons. As some people do make contracts with satan signed with their blood to worship and serve him in exchange for power and wealth. The interesting thing is that the Watchtower society did dabble in the occult at least until the death of Rutherford and even printed a whole book with the sayings of a demon as revealed to a woman spirit medium. Only time will show whether they also have a secret contract with the demons running to this day for receiving power and protection from them something not impossible given their openly occultic past practices.
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Charles Russell's Last Days
by lovelylil inthis link contains a play by play of russell's last days including why and how he was found dead in a toga made from sheets.
thought some may find it interesting.. http://www.gtft.org/biblestudents/pastorrussellslastdays.html.
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greendawn
Moshe wrote:
"A shot of pennicillin would have cured the old man six months earlier"
Penicillin or other antibiotics were unknown until the 1930's, that's why previously many people died of infections which with antibiotics could easily have been treated and cured.