Thanks Nathan, I wasn't expecting anyone to respond to such an old thread. I'll go check out the info!
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God Bless Ebay!---- about Pastor Russell
by dungbeetle inwas running around on ebay, and through a series of links wound up here.
never heard of this before today.
any thoughts anyone?.
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How did Rutherford do it?
by NanaR inback at the time that rutherford revealed the "new light" regarding the great multitude as an earthly rather than heavenly class, how did he manage to convince people to stop partaking of the emblems?.
i have wondered about this for years.
my grandmother was born around the "turn" of the 19th century to the 20th century.
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You're welcome, Nana. Perhaps your grandmother changed her belief with such apparent ease because she never really believed herself to be anointed in the first place. Or maybe she really did believe and just pretended she didn't after Rutherford changed the rules.
Why would anyone believe themselves to be of the anointed? Well, in the Watchtower it's easy because no one can prove you wrong and there's no precedent for determining who qualifies. Actually, it's not really about God or religion at all. These people are very isolated from the world, most of them never went to college, and they have very low paying jobs. This is the only way they can feel important, the only place where they really have power. For people which such fragile self esteem, they just want to belong somewhere, and if they can call themselves "anointed," than all the better for them.
Some were obviously very angry at not being anointed. They probably never stopped believing no matter what Rutherford said. The ones who did, like your grandmother, might have spent the rest of their lives in resentment of the Watchtower but could not disagree for fear of being disfellowshipped, especially since armageddon was "right around the corner." Of course, I mean no disrespect to your grandmother, and I don't presume to know what she was thinking. I am just speculating on the group as a whole.
What does it mean to be anointed anyway? What would your family and friends think if you started going around saying "I am of the heavenly class?" Maybe they gave it up because it sounded so crazy and self-righteous. Jesus taught his followers to be humble and not boast about their beliefs. The Watchtower philosophy (or lack thereof) teaches the exact opposite. It's all about appearances and your faith is dependent on what others think of you.
I hope that helps.
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How did Rutherford do it?
by NanaR inback at the time that rutherford revealed the "new light" regarding the great multitude as an earthly rather than heavenly class, how did he manage to convince people to stop partaking of the emblems?.
i have wondered about this for years.
my grandmother was born around the "turn" of the 19th century to the 20th century.
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I heard it had something to do with the 144,000 "chosen ones." Rutherford wanted to expand his power by saying only a select few could get into heaven. Up until then, an individual decided for him/herself if they were part of the annointed class. As more and more people became aware of this rule, more started jumping on the bandwagon since there was no one to argue with you if you said you were annointed.
Then Rutherford created the cut-off point for those going to heaven, and that was 1935. I could be wrong about this, so hopefully someone else can explain it better.
It was all about giving himself more power. When he started to lose it, the Society left him alone in Beth Sarim to drink himself to death.
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Spoke with a dub on ever changing doctrine...
by stocwach ini asked him how could it be the true religion with all the numerous doctrinal changes.
this is how he replied to me in an email:.
" another thing mentioned was the apostles (known as the governing body).
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They are not finding "new truths" they just lie about the old ones.
They go from new light to old light and back again. They should just turn the light off once and for all.
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Wacky WT beliefs
by butalbee inwhat's the big deal about woman not wearing a skirt at the hall?
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it really pisses the elders off big time to walk in pants.. this is just one question on my endless list of wacky wt beliefs...
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My mom says she can't go before the king of the universe wearing pants. As if God cares what you wear.
Looking at the watchtower society you might think the Civil Rights Act never happened, that's how backward they are!
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Silliest thing that Witnesses told you was wrong?
by gilwarrior inthere are two things.
in the early and mid 80s there were witnesses saying that the cartoon characters the smurfs were not acceptable for witnesses.
i had two smurf cartoon books and my mother made me throw them away.
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My mom didn't allow wind chimes! Crazy!
Also, one witness friend of hers went on vacation to Florida and came back with Florida and Disney land buttons on his hat and she told him to take them off because it resembled "patriotism."
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God Bless Ebay!---- about Pastor Russell
by dungbeetle inwas running around on ebay, and through a series of links wound up here.
never heard of this before today.
any thoughts anyone?.
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Was this before or after Rutherford?
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"WT & Awake" Song
by patio34 ini received this song by randy baker via jan groenveld and would ike to post it here for the benefit of ones who have missed it.. the 2nd and 4th line of ea stanza have an implied rhyme, indicated by the ( ), that goes with the last word on the 1st and 3rd lines.. watchtower and awke (sing to the tune of 'sweet violets'--let me know if you know that tune!).
there once was an elder who stood at my door,.
he said i was wicked, my wife was a-( ).
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Thank you that was hilarious!
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I post here too!
Even though I'm over five years late...
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What state are you from?
by Junction-Guy inthis is for the us crowd, what state do you live in?
or from?----i live in tennessee, but from ohio and kentucky.
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I'm from New York, just west of Albany