(HARVEST SIFTINGS was written by Joseph Franklin Rutherfor...)
HARVEST SIFTINGS was written by Joseph Franklin Rutherford in 1917. This book was authored by J.F. Rutherford during the period of fractional infighting following Russell?s death. Opposed by a majority of the Society?s board of directors, Rutherford spared no weapon in his struggle for control of the organization. As a lawyer he skillfully unseated the directors Russell had appointed for life, and as a communicator he destroyed them in the eyes of his readers. This is a fascinating piece of Watchtower history.
(Excerpt from Talking With the Dead?
Presents negative s...)
Excerpt from Talking With the Dead?
Presents negative side Of the proposition - Declares that the argument stands or falls with the doctrine of the Inherent Immortality of man's soul - Cites Scriptures to prove his position - What is the soul - Death the penalty for sin Satan's great, deception in Eden - Origin of evil spirits or demons - Meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection - Satan's seed and their work - The Mystery Of Iniquity - Demons in Babylon.
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(The Harp of God is presented here in a high quality paper...)
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(Shortly before Charles Russell died, the Watchtower Bible...)
Shortly before Charles Russell died, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was caught up in a web of criticism regarding both his personal life and his professional one as a spiritual leader. He turned to his friend and attorney, Joseph Rutherford to assist him in refuting these allegations. Among the accusations were that Pastor Russell was using the money donated to the organization for his personal use, of being a divorced man, of not paying his wife alimony, of charging his followers huge rates for what was termed Miracle Wheat. The newspapers also accused him of being a pedophile with regards to a young orphan girl that came into the care of he and his wife, as well as a myriad of other charges. Rutherford realized that in order to protect the organization and to assure its future growth he would have to defend Pastor Russell's reputation against these charges and in this book, he does so in an admirable way.
Millions Now Living Will Never Die! - Scholar's Choice Edition
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Joseph Franklin Rutherford was an American lawyer. He was the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Background
Joseph Franklin Rutherford was born in Morgan County, Mo. , near the town of Boonville, the son of James Calvin and Leonora (Strickland) Rutherford. Although little information is available about his personal life, it is known that his parents were Baptists and farmers.
Education
Showing early an interest in law, Rutherford won parent's consent to the necessary study by contributing to the wages of a hired hand to replace him on the farm. Rutherford received his education at the local academy.
Career
While a student, he worked as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman and court stenographer. After two years of tutoring by a local judge, he was admitted to the Missouri bar at the age of twenty-two and started practice with a Boonville law firm.
Later he was for four years a public prosecutor and for a time a special judge. Rutherford's first introduction to the teachings of Charles Taze Russell, founder of the religious group that became known as Jehovah's Witnesses, is said to have come when a member of the group visited his office in 1894; he first met "Pastor" Russell around the turn of the century. He apparently joined the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (then the group's official name) in 1906 and was soon sharing the public platform with Russell. At a time when both the society and Russell himself were becoming involved in litigation, Rutherford proved invaluable as perhaps the only lawyer in the society and a skilled courtroom defender.
In 1909 he negotiated the move of the group's headquarters from Pittsburgh, Pa. , to Brooklyn, N. Y. Although its legal center remained the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Rutherford at the time of the move incorporated the society in New York under the name "People's Pulpit Association" (later, "Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. ")--a complicated move that helped him gain full control of the organization after Russell's death in 1916.
In January 1917 Rutherford was elected president of the society by the three directors (of whom he was one) and, with virtual unanimity, by the members. The new president faced a difficult situation. America was entering a period of wartime hysteria, yet according to the thought of the Russellites (as the group was then generally known), the millennial rule of Christ had begun in 1914 and war was unchristian. "Neutralists" rather than pacifists, they saw Satan as the ruler of nations, and thus believed that to fight for any nation was equivalent to warring for Satan against God. Publications expounding this belief were judged seditious, and on June 21, 1918, Rutherford and seven other Russellites were convicted of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to twenty years in the federal penitentiary at Atlanta.
In prison, Rutherford organized Bible study classes among the inmates and began writing weekly letters to his followers. These later became a journal, at first called the Golden Age, which eventually evolved into Awake. In March 1919 the defendants were admitted to bail, the case having been appealed. A new trial was ordered in May, but by then the war hysteria had died down and the government dropped the case.
Now regarded as a martyr, Rutherford commanded even greater loyalty from the society, and his influence increased. Having refused the title "Pastor" in preference to that of "Counselor" when he succeeded Russell, Rutherford focused on matters of organization and warned against any tendency to a cult of personality. In his writings he stressed the central and all-sufficient importance of the Bible. An expert organizer, "Judge" Rutherford (as he was called by his followers) led the group to use modern methods of advertising, beginning in 1921; the billboard slogan "Millions now living will never die" proved especially effective.
He produced large quantities of literature himself, writing a score of books and many pamphlets. He gave talks over the society's radio station, WBBR (begun in 1924), and made imaginative use of the phonograph; in 1937 the group's house-to-house visitors began carrying portable phonographs which played four-minute sermons recorded by Rutherford. He emphasized the importance of making each individual Witness a minister--a move that made every member an active carrier of the group's message and at the same time attempted to solve the problem of military service in time of war, since members could then claim clerical exemption. Rutherford also settled on an official title for the group.
At the Columbus, Ohio, convention of 1931, he explicitly chose the name "Jehovah's Witnesses"--based on Isaiah 43:9 among other biblical citations. (Officially, the name is spelled with a small "w, " a reflection of the group's belief that all institutionalized religions are agents of the devil. ) Of the litigations in which Jehovah's Witnesses have been involved, most of the major Supreme Court decisions were handed down after Rutherford's death; but it was he who set the pattern of court appeal which led officials of the American Civil Liberties Union to state that no group had done more to advance the cause of civil liberties than the Witnesses.
Under Rutherford's leadership the membership of the organization grew, despite some defections. From less than 1, 000 in the United States and some 3, 000 abroad in 1918, it had increased to 30, 000 American Witnesses and a worldwide membership of more than 50, 000 by the time of his death (cf. Cole, pp. 220-28); this growth has continued. Dignified and self-confident in appearance, Rutherford in his prime looked "more like a Senator than most Senators. " Perhaps sensing that he lacked the personal warmth of Russell, he made few public appearances.
During the last twelve years of his life he remained increasingly aloof from his followers, spending long periods of time at Beth-Sarim ("House of the Princes"), a mansion in San Diego, Calif. , which the society had built in 1929 for the purpose of housing Abraham and the prophets upon their return to earth, which was believed imminent. Rutherford died of uremia at Beth-Sarim at the age of seventy-two, a few weeks after an operation for cancer. Burial there, which had been his wish, was not permitted under local ordinances, and five months later he was interred in Rossville, Staten Island, N. Y.