We Stood Firm — Sure!

Posted by N.H. [Pravo] on January 27, 2001 at 16:16:31

In Reply to: We stood firm -- sure! posted by Kent on January 27, 2001 at 15:32:56

"When it had been learned that the government objected to the book, Brother Rutherford had immediately sent a telegram to the printer to stop producing it, and at the same time, a representative of the Society had been dispatched to the intelligence section of the U.S. Army to find out what their objection was. When it was learned that because of the war then in progress, pages 247-53 of the book were viewed as objectionable, the Society directed that those pages be cut out of all copies of the book before they were offered to the public." [Jehovah's Witnesses -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), p. 652]

Wow! Talk about showing an uncompromising stand, Rutherford sure knew how to handle "Satan's representatives", of the abominable "Anglo American" world power in this case. He was extremely quick to rip out the offending pages from his pride and joy, the Finished Mystery book:

"In 1917, Jehovah's people published an explanation of Revelation in the book The Finished Mystery. It fearlessly exposed Christendom's religious and political leaders, but many of its explanations were borrowed from various sources. Still, The Finished Mystery served to test the Bible Students' loyalty to the visible channel Jehovah was using." [The Watchtower, May 15, 1995, p. 21]

As we can see Rutherford failed miserably in this test, he did not show a very "uncompromising spirit" when he came in conflict with "modern Caesars":

"Although Paul had to contend with a twofold government, the Jewish polity of Palestine and the Roman world empire, he at no time compromised but continued to fight to defend and legally establish the good news, even appealing to Caesar. Do we show the same uncompromising spirit when we come in conflict with modern Caesars? -- Acts 25:11; Phil. 1:7." [The Watchtower, April 1, 1959, p. 211]

Rutherford was as we can see more than willing to comply with the demands of "Caesar":

"Because of their uncompromising stand, some of the officials of the Watch Tower Society were wrongly imprisoned." [The Watchtower, August 1, 1987, p. 23]

"So in every country throughout the world Jehovah's servants have taken an uncompromising stand for true worship regardless of the opposition they encounter. They stand firm for pure worship even to death." [The Watchtower, September 1, 1959, p. 526]

According to the Proclaimers book, Rutherford was quite clearly not at all willing to do this "regardless of the opposition" he encountered.

It is always amusing to watch what a vast gulf there is between the pompous bluster of the Watchtower Society and reality.