Pure Language Pure BilgeNorman Hovland
As we can see "religious error and false worship" have no place in the "pure language". Everyone must learn this language in order to save their lives:
What will happen to those who do not know this "language"?
It is of course as always very urgent to "conform", the "end" is as always, near:
Not very surprising the Watchtower tells us that the only ones who speak this "language" today are Jehovah's Witnesses. This was made clear already in 1879, according to the Watchtower:
As "documentation" for this astonishing claim it was pointed out that the first Watchtower magazine was published in July 1879. As "proof" that God was behind the publishing, the magazine states:
As the Watchtower informed us, "it was made clear" apparently from God that C. T. Russell and his associates were speaking the "pure language". It is consequently very natural to go back to that time and investigate the literature which was published by Russell and his associates. To see for ourselves what this "pure language" was all about in those days. While we do this we must of course keep in mind what the Watchtower stated above, that the "pure language" "does away with religious error and false worship." First we will concentrate on a special angle of Russell's and the Watchtower's "pure language". There is one particular issue that has been of the outmost interest of the Watchtower Society from 1879 and until today, namely the question about where we are "in the stream of time", or more precisely when is the "end" due. The Watchtower has never been modest when it expresses itself about how much they KNOW about this. They know so much more than anyone else:
As documented in the beginning of this article, the "pure language" according to the Watchtower consists of "the truth of God". This obviously makes it necessary to make the demand for an extremely high standard of quality from the message that was brought forward by Russell and his associates from 1879. It goes without saying that the "pure language" would have to be completely free from mistakes and falseness! As we can see the Watchtower categorically claims that they are not "bewildered about where they are in the stream of time", and that "They know Jehovah's purposes and his seasons." This makes it especially interesting for us to investigate what those who spoke the "pure language" in those days said about this particular subject. C. T. Russell's interest for "God's chronology" was awakened when he chanced to read the Adventist Nelson Barbour's timetable in a publication with the title, "The Herald of The Morning", which Barbour published. He arranged a meeting with Barbour in 1876. During this meeting, Russell became convinced that Barbour's chronology was correct:
In this way Russell started to spread the "pure language" message that Jesus had been "invisibly present" since 1874 as a truth. This was then of course part of the "pure language" that the Watchtower magazine published from July 1879. But it wasn't just this year that Russell got from Barbour. The year 1874 was only a link in a "prophetic" timetable, which the Watchtower called "Bible Chronology". According to this chronology the time of the end started in 1799, Jesus' invisible presence started in 1874, he was "crowned" and put on his throne in the heavens in 1878. Then 40 years would pass until 1914 when all the nations would be crushed and the "Kingdom of God" would be established on earth. Let us look at some examples of this "pure language":
All this was as we can see presented as "Bible evidence", and in 1991 the Watchtower magazine still claimed that those who presented it as such were used by God:
Our investigation has shown some very illuminating examples of the "pure language" as presented by God's chosen, C. T. Russell and his associates. But as the alert reader will understand, this presents us with quite a problem. As documented above the Watchtower has defined the "pure language" as "the truth of God" and in particular, "the truth regarding God's Kingdom". And this brings us right to the core of the problem, because according to the above book, The Time Is At Hand, written by Russell:
As we all very well know, this didn't at all happen in 1914, it was simply NOT TRUE! It wasn't "the truth about the kingdom of God" that this kingdom should be "established" on earth in 1914, and that this does not at all meet the requirements that have to be demanded from the "pure language". This was of course well known by those who wrote the May 1, 1991, article in the Watchtower. In spite of this they still go ahead and make such a claim. But let us continue the investigation and look at the Watchtower Society's claim that they know so much about "Jehovah's purposes and his seasons". The man that "God" used to make known the "pure language" from 1879, died in 1916. His associates took over the ruins of his failed "chronology". After an internal power struggle one of his associates took over as President in 1917. His name was Joseph F. Rutherford. He took over at a difficult time; everybody was disappointed and disillusioned after the 1914 fiasco. Something had to be done and quick to save the credibility of the "chronology" and a total disintegration of the organization. In record time Rutherford published the book The Finished Mystery in 1917. In this book everything that did not happen in 1914 was moved forward to the years 1918 and 1920:
Again we can read some excellent examples of the "pure language" presented by the Watchtower Society back in 1917. As we can see "Christianity" was to be destroyed "wholesale" in 1918. The problem is, absolutely nothing of this happened! The only thing this shows us is the fact that the Watchtower Society from its first issue in July 1879, until 1920 didn't have a clue about, "Jehovah's purposes and his seasons". With this fact in our mind it is again time to remind the reader about the above quote:
Anybody who has read the Finished Mystery book from 1917 would of course be hard pressed to find a better example of complete and utter bewilderment about the "stream of time". If what is presented in that publication and many other of the Watchtower Society's publications at the time isn't bewilderment one wonders how things work in Brooklyn when they are really bewildered? But let's take a look at the period after 1917. Rutherford was still in such haste that he didn't even stop to consider the failure of the 1918 and 1920 dates. He kept on the offensive and already in 1918 he launched a new date for the "time of the end": 1925! This date was to become the Watchtower Society's main message in the years to come. In 1920 a huge campaign was started with the catching slogan, "Millions now living will never die". Even today the Watchtower publications are almost bursting with pride when they remind their readers about this glorious campaign:
Up until the publishing of the Proclaimers book in 1993 it was almost impossible to find any references to what was the actual message of the "Millions" campaign. One had to go back to the original publications to find out what it was; something that the vast majority of Jehovah's Witnesses wouldn't bother to do. But let us take a look at the excellent examples of "pure language" from the twenties:
But there were more quite sensational things that were supposed to happen that year:
There was absolutely no limit to how certain this date 1925 was really "firmly established" in the "scriptures". The Lord had placed the "stamp of his seal upon" 1925, it wasn't the chronology of man but of God:
All the time up to 1925 the Watchtower continued to publish this "pure language" that the end would come in 1925. But like in 1914 this proved to be false. Again the Watchtower Society had demonstrated its complete lack of knowledge about "Jehovah's purposes and his seasons". This would of course not be such a serious matter if the Watchtower Society had shown themselves to be open and honest about their mistakes but unfortunately they do just the opposite. They prefer to gloss over, hide and rewrite their history:
These quotes from 1987, is a typical example of how the Watchtower Society writes their history. They portray the totally hopeless literature from their earlier days as fantastic messages of truth. Well aware of their readers' total lack of knowledge about this literature. It is really quite bold to call a book which message was that millions wouldn't die because the end would come in 1925, as having "a liberating influence on millions". A blatant lie and a false prophecy can't be very much liberating for anyone! Dishonesty and hypocrisy really reaches a new peak here. To call such nonsense a "pure language" is of course preposterous. It is pure bilge. But this is unfortunately the methods such people use, when they try to fool gullible people into believing their line about a "pure language". As have been documented the literature published by Russell and his associates really qualifies as "pure bilge" more than anything else But let us investigate further into Russell's alleged "pure language". A very central element in his "chronology" which was given much space in his book, Thy Kingdom Come is the mystic role the great pyramid play in "God's Plan":
The man whom God used to spread the "pure language" from 1879 really had great confidence in the pyramids. After Russell died, the Watchtower continued to push the pyramid connection and in 1922 the Watchtower printed another article about how secure its measurements made the "chronology": So how did the "pure language" fare after Russell's death? Well, we have seen some examples of how Rutherford approached it and we can safely say it didn't get any better, in fact it got worse, as we have seen from the Finished Mystery, which was supposed to be a "verse for verse" explanation of the Revelation and Ezekiel, and is as such a fount of "pure bilge". Yes, even in today's Jehovah's Witnesses eyes what is printed in that book must be pure bilge. But to illustrate we can show you some examples of the pure bilge from 1917 and compare it to the pure bilge of today Pure bilge from 1917:
Pure bilge from 1992:
Pure bilge from 1917:
Pure bilge from 1988:
Pure bilge from 1917:
Pure bilge from 1988:
As we can see, no arguments, no matter how far fetched and ridiculous is spared in 1917, to "prove" that Revelation was fulfilled on Russell and the Watchtower organization from the 1870. Absolutely all "rules" for a somewhat sober and sane interpretation of scripture were completely overlooked. The whole book can hardly be called anything but a collection of nonsense and tripe, and will of course not even remotely qualify as anything even resembling "pure language"! The "explanations" have of course changed since 1917, time itself has made it necessary to do so. The needs of the Watchtower Society has changed so in 1988, the Bible texts have to mean the opposite of what they meant in 1917, or they have to mean something else. Those men which the Watchtower magazine claims that Jehovah used to publish the "truth" of the "pure language" in 1917, claimed that Abaddon, was Satan the Devil. In 1988, they claim that Abaddon is Jesus Christ. In both cases, the claim is presented in the same dogmatic and cocksure manner. Both are excellent examples of the kind of "pure language" the Watchtower Society produces. Investigating the Watchtower Society history is an excellent example of the truth in the saying that when you have started out lying, you have no choice but to continue. The literature published by the Watchtower Society is primarily a long seemingly never-ending exercise in producing nonsense, rubbish and rot, totally hopeless drivel and tripe, all under nicely wrapped and stamped with the libel "pure language". All the time from Russell's death in 1916 the leaders of the Watchtower Society have known full well the truth about what they have been doing. Take a look at the following. In 1922, the Watchtower magazine wrote: (OBS. I only have the Danish issue and the following is a translation from that language to English.)
This issue of the Watch Tower printed something which is extremely rare, it spoke the truth. If their so-called Chronology were wrong with as little as one year, their whole foundation would totally collapse. There would be no "real Basis for Believing in the Lords Presence, Pastor Russell's position and work, the End of the Age, the Harvest work and the literature that is published by the Society." Already in the end of 1925 the facts demonstrated that this very Chronology had completely failed, and thus the whole Watchtower Society "theology" collapsed completely. This has been crystal clear at least since 1925. We can therefore establish once and for all that the leadership of the Watchtower Society has been fully aware of what they have been doing since 1925. They know that what they do is fraud. If the leaders of the Watchtower Society had been honest and truthful people they would of course have taken the full consequences of what they wrote in that Watch Tower issue, that their teachings were without any basis. What does history show us? Did they choose to be honest? The answer is NO! They chose to continue with the fraud, the manipulation of dates and exploitation of people's fear of the "end". It continued, and still continues to this day. One may ask how long this self appointed FDS, presently consisting of a bunch of frail old men, can continue this fraud? How long will they be able to maintain the illusion of their "God given authority" and their claimed position of being "God's channel of communication", without ever having been able to produce a single rational argument for their extraordinary claims? As demonstrated, it was crystal clear already in 1925 that there was absolutely no basis whatsoever for their bold claims, all they had published before and after that date has been sheer fantasy without any basis either in Biblical, historical or scientific realities. The problem for the Watchtower Society was pointed out in an excellent way in the above quoted Watchtower. If the Chronology were off even as little as one year, their whole foundation would collapse. The Chronology was the whole basis for their existence. They erected their whole religious "building" or structure on it. When the foundation was removed, their whole structure fell. But continuing and perpetuating their illusions wasn't enough for the Watchtower Society. They had to condemn those who refused to buy their lies and fairytales; they persisted in printing and preach the "gospel" of eternal death to those who would not listen to their deluded ranting. They had to create a monster organization that became more important than everything. More important than your family. Your father, mother, sister and brother. Yes more important than life itself. An organization which white painted facade has to be kept "clean" no matter how much filth and abominations it contains. What a monument the Watchtower Society is of someone who has absolutely no idea, no clues as to what a "pure language" is, absolutely no clue about the very concept of purity.
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Copyright © 1998 Norman Hovland ·
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