THE STORY of
BETH SARIM
THE HOUSE of
PRINCES
(Investigator 95, 2004
March)
From: Salvation 1939,
p. 312
DOOMED
RELIGIONISTS
GNASHED THEIR TEETH
The Jehovah's
Witness (JW)
book The New
World (1942) stated:
The most
recent facts
show that religionists
of this doomed world are gnashing their teeth because of the testimony
which that ‘House of Princes' bears to the new world.
(The New
World, 1942,
p. 104)
What was the
testimony
of the "House
of Princes" over which religionists of this doomed world gnashed their
teeth?
Time
magazine
reported:
Big, blue-eyed
Judge
Joseph Frederick Rutherford,
60, lives in a ten-room Spanish mansion, No 4440 Braeburn Road, San
Diego,
Calif. Last week he deeded No. 4440 Braeburn Road, an adjacent two-car
garage and a pair of automobiles to King David, Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthae, Samuel and sundry other mighties of ancient Palestine.
Positive
is he that they are shortly to reappear on earth. Said he, "I have
purposely
landscaped the place with palm and olive trees so these princes of the
universe will feel at home when they come…
Judge
Rutherford…in 1916
succeeded the late
Charles Taze Russell of Brooklyn, founder-president of the
International
Bible Students Association.
Members of the
organization designate themselves
as Bible students. Their creed holds that Biblical prophecies govern
all
earthly events… An erroneous prophecy that the year 1928 would provide
a cataclysm – "Nations will battle; the dead will be dung on earth" –
upset
considerably the Bible Students' calculations… (1930, March 31
The San Diego
Sun
(1930 March 15 and
1931 January 9) stated the mansion had "all modern improvements", was
worth
$75,000, and the adjacent garage had a 16-cylinder Cadillac for
Rutherford's
exclusive use. The car would have cost about twelve times the $600 for
a 1931 Ford!
The JW book, Salvation
(1939) says:
At San Diego,
California, there is a small
piece of land, on which, in the year 1929, there was built a house,
which
is called and known as Beth Sarim. The Hebrew words Beth Sarim
mean
"House of the Princes"; and the purposes of acquiring that property and
building the house was that there might be some tangible proof that
there
are those on earth today who fully believe God and Christ Jesus and in
His kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon be
resurrected by the Lord, be back on the earth, and take charge of the
visible
affairs of earth. The title Beth-Sarim is vested in the Watch Tower
Bible
& Tract Society in trust, to be used by the president of the
Society
and his assistants for the present, and thereafter to be for ever at
the
disposal of the aforementioned princes on the earth… (p. 311)
MILLIONS NOW
LIVING
WILL NEVER DIE
In 1919 Judge
Rutherford
and his "Bible Students"
promoted the public sermon Millions Now Living Will Never Die.
The
sermon was published as a book in 1920.
The "Millions"
message was
that the ancient
Bible heroes would be resurrected to live on Earth in 1925. They would
take over and rule the world. Everyone who supported them would get
eternal
life and prosperity and never be sick again:
Therefore we
may
confidently expect that
1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful
prophets
of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter
eleven,
to the condition of human perfection.
(Australian
edition p.
93)
Based upon
the argument
heretofore set forth,
then, that the old order of things, the old world is ending and is
therefore
passing away, and that the new order is coming in, and that 1925 shall
mark the resurrection of the faithful worthies of old and the beginning
of reconstruction, it is reasonable to conclude that millions of people
now on the earth will be still on earth in 1925. Then, based upon the
promises
set forth in the divine Word, we must reach the positive conclusion
that
millions now living will never die. (p. 101)
BIBLE STUDENT
EXODUS
The "Millions"
message was
nonsense. It was
WTS rubbish. It wasn't even in the Bible!
In 1926 the
"Bible
Students" increasingly
deserted the cult:
The book
Millions…had
been widely used
in the French field since 1921, and on the basis of its contents, much
was expected of 1925. But when 1925 came and went without the
anticipated
happening coming to pass, those on the outside who had read the book
made
fun of the brothers…
Worse still,
the faith
of some of the brothers
themselves was shaken. Some expected to go to heaven that year…
Unjustified
hopes
brought about great testings.
Many gave up. (Yearbook of JWs 1980 p. 62)
Rutherford's
much-criticized drinking problem
began at this time, his us-versus-them anti-religion propaganda became
more provocative, and his demands for loyalty and unity more vigorous.
Rutherford put
the
prophecies for 1925 off
to 1926 and 1928 – both dates by implication rather than direct
statements.
This initially slowed the decline. Then in 1928 the outward flow became
a torrent.
The world
attendance
figures for the annual
Memorial or Lord's Supper demonstrate the exodus:
The early
yearbooks of
JWs listed the names
of their so-called "ordained ministers". Of the 256 names for 1926 some
45 were missing in 1927. Thus the most-committed followers decreased
18%
in one year! At the rank-and-file level the turnover must have been
tremendous!
Rutherford
halted the
disintegration by advertising
for new recruits via radio and by telling remaining followers their
salvation
depended on them publicly distributing WTS tracts, booklets and books.
Also the Beth
Sarim
property was purchased
in 1926 and the house built in 1929.
Rutherford
presented Beth
Sarim to his cult
as evidence the princes were still coming and that eternal life without
sickness or poverty still lay just ahead.
BETH SARIM
AND THE
RESURRECTED PRINCES
Beth Sarim
included 100
acres of land. The
deed, published in the cult's magazine The Golden Age, said in
part:
Both the
grantor and the
grantee are fully
persuaded from the Bible testimony which is the word of Jehovah God and
from extraneous evidence that God's Kingdom is now in the course of
establishment
and that it will result beneficially for the peoples of earth; that the
governing power and authority will be invisible to men but that the
kingdom
of God will have visible representatives on the earth who will have
charge
of the affairs of the nations under supervision of the invisible ruler,
Christ. That among those who will be thus the faithful representatives
and visible governors of the world will be David, who was once King
over
Israel; and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jepthai, and Joseph,
formerly
ruler of Egypt, and Samuel the prophet and other faithful men named
with
approval in the Bible at Hebrews 11th. chapter.
…the said Watch
Tower
Bible and Tract Society
shall hold the title perpetually in trust for…the men above named.
(The Golden
Age 1930,
March 19)
OFFICIAL
EXPLANATION
FOR BETH SARIM
The Messenger,
a JW
newspaper, stated:
Dr. A.G.
Eckols [a
follower of Rutherford],
of San Diego, urged him to make the city his permanent home; and in the
latter part of 1929 some brethren, out of their own personal funds,
arranged
for the erection of Beth-Sarim…
Before Judge
Rutherford
would accept and
use the home, he insisted upon writing the deed that it shall forever
be
held in trust by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society for the use
of the Lord's work in the earth, with the expectation that in due time
Abraham, Melchisedec, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah or some
others
of the patriarchs or prophets of olden times will appear and will be
glad
to use this home which has been prepared for one or more of them… (July
25, 1931, pp 6 & 8)
The current
official JW
history book says:
Brother
Rutherford had a
severe case of
pneumonia after his release from unjust imprisonment in 1919.
Thereafter,
he had only one good lung. In the 1920's, under a doctor's treatment,
he
went to San Diego, California, and the doctor urged him to spend as
much
time as possible there. From 1929 on, Brother Rutherford spent the
winters
working at a San Diego residence he had named Beth-Sarim. Beth-Sarim
was
built with funds that were a direct contribution for that purpose. The
deed, which was published in full in "The Golden Age" of March 19,
1930,
conveyed this property to J. F. Rutherford and thereafter to the Watch
Tower Society.
(JWs –
Proclaimers of
God's Kingdom, 1993,
p. 76)
Edward Gruss
in Jehovah's
Witnesses
Their Monuments To False Prophecy cites inside sources that Beth
Sarim
was also built, "to get the drunken and declining Rutherford out of
Brooklyn."
OFFICE
CHILDREN
In 1931 the
arrival of the
princes was so
near that infants would still be children when they arrived:
Brother and
sister Balko
are in charge
of Beth-Sarim… They have two children, a little girl now nearly two
years
old, and a little boy about six months. Beth-Sarim being "the house of
the princes," and, as we confidently expect, to be occupied and used by
some of the princes in the earth, it seemed quite appropriate that
these
children who are growing up there should be named in harmony with these
scriptures.
Hence the little
girl is
named Princess Bonnie
Balko, and the little boy Prince Joseph Barak Balko. We know from the
scriptures
that both Joseph and Barak will be among the princes, and since there
are
some women also mentioned amongst these faithful ones it is hoped that
these two little ones may grow up at Beth-Sarim to be with the rulers
of
the earth and live forever to the glory of Jehovah's name... It might
be
that this little prince and princess would be stenographers or office
children or clerks about the place, or perform some other duty that
will be necessary in the Kingdom.
(The
Messenger, 1931,
July 30, p. 2)
The claim
that the two
infants would
still be "children" when the princes arrived was not inadvertent error.
Four years later, in 1935, Rutherford wrote that "universal war", i.e.
Armageddon, was only "months" away:
During the
past fifteen
years Jehovah's
witnesses have been giving this testimony to the nations… The
Scriptural
evidence and the physical facts strongly indicate that such witness
work
is now almost done…
During the
few
remaining months until the
breaking of that universal cataclysm the powers that rule the nations
of
the earth will continue to make treaties…
(Universal
War Near,
1935, pp 26 & 27)
THE BIBLE
HEROES DIDN'T
COME
The princes did
not return
and the WTS sold
Beth Sarim in 1948.
In 1954 Federick
W Franz,
then vice president
of the WTS, was cross-examined in a Scottish court about Beth Sarim:
DOCTRINE
CHANGED –
FOLLOWERS CHEATED
In 1925
Rutherford had
written:
It does not
seem
unreasonable, therefore,
to think that twenty five years, possibly more, will pass before the
awakening
of the dead shall begin. (The Watch Tower 1925, February 15, p. 58)
When
Rutherford wrote
this, the emphasis
was still on the realization of prophecy in the 1920s. A standard WTS
procedure,
however, is to promote several dates simultaneously so that when one
date
fails there's another "carrot on the stick".
"Twenty five
years"
terminated in 1950.
The JW leaders
often give
their failed dates
alternative importance – they pretend the date was right but the
precise
expectation wrong. That's what they also did in 1950 regarding the
princes.
F W Franz
addressed 82,600
JWs at their 1950
convention in New York. The official WTS assembly report says:
Brother Franz
aroused
and quickened the
interest of his audience by asking: "Would this international assembly
be interested to know that HERE, TONIGHT, in our midst, there are a
number
of prospective PRINCES OF THE NEW EARTH?"
A tremendous and
sustained
clapping of hands
and shouting for joy assured the speaker that nothing at the moment
interested
them more.
Franz then
outlined a
new interpretation.
The "princes" are Jehovah's Witness overseers the guys in charge
of individual
congregations. Some of these overseers would survive Armageddon and
help
to rule the post-Armageddon "new world". The Bible heroes would still
be
resurrected but after Armageddon.
A 16-year-old JW
in the
audience re-called
the occasion years later:
…Yankee
Stadium in
August, 1950, where
the Witnesses were reminded of the old belief that God's faithful –
Abraham,
Joseph, David – would rise from the dead before the end of the world.
This
aroused tremendous expectations, which were heightened by the speaker,
F. W. Franz, when he suggested that among those gathered together were
the "Princes of the New Earth."
The spectators
were roused
to tears by the
prevailing excitement, expecting to see these biblical figures. Some
stood
up; others rushed to the entrance near the speakers' stand, where they
would have a better view. The speaker quieted the crowd and … assured
them
that they were the new princes, those who had turned their backs on a
world
slated for doom and who must persevere in going forward to build the
New
Jerusalem.
Forward, indeed.
This was,
in fact, a denial
of a previously cherished and defended belief, couched so as to make
conventioneers
feel that something had been added unto, not taken away from, them.
David
didn't pop out of the dugout, and Solomon didn't surface on the
speaking
stand; but Franz had thrilled his audience nonetheless. (I myself was
irritated – though I applauded as fervently as anyone else; I had a
distinct sense
of having been had, and I felt guilt as a consequence. And I wondered
how
many coronaries Franz had occasioned by his initial provocative
remarks.
And from some of the mutterings I heard as I left the Stadium that
night,
I deduced that others were irritated as well…)
(B G Harrison, 1978,
Visions of Glory, chapter
8)
MORE
FALSEHOODS
The
post-Armageddon New
World failed to arrive
many times after 1950. Failed dates include 1975, the 1970s, "within
our
twentieth century", and for the period called "this generation".
The princes – by
the
pre-1950 definition – are still awaited by JWs.
Every time
Armageddon
doesn't come the arrival
of the princes fails again and lots of other stuff fails too.
THE "ONE
RIGHT RELIGION"
In 1942 JWs
believed:
…those
faithful men of
old may be expected
back from the dead any day now. The Scriptures give good reason to
believe
that it shall be shortly before Armageddon breaks. (The New World,
1942,
p. 104)
The ancient
Bible
heroes didn't come,
nor did Armageddon. Although the WTS held the title of Beth Sarim
"perpetually
in trust" it was a trust betrayed in 1948 when the place was sold.
Rutherford had
wanted to
be buried at Beth
Sarim. The San Diego County Planning Commission refused. The JW leaders
claimed:
…this…discloses
the
depth of meanness resorted
to by religionists to satisfy their vindictiveness even on lifeless
bones.
It furnishes a perfect example of those ensnared by religion. They have
foolishly thrown away all worthiness of life merely for the brief
satisfaction
of spite. (Consolation 1942, May 27, p. 5)
Had the
authorities
allowed a cemetery
at Beth Sarim it might have been difficult to sell the property. But JW
leaders weren't grateful and didn't apologize for the above outburst.
Indeed JW
leaders never
apologize – not for
their false predictions, not for the false "Millions" message, not for
anything. Theirs is the one right religion and to apologize is
inconsistent
with being right. An article of theirs titled Only One Right
Religion
says:
That remaining
one right
religion is that
of Jehovah's witnesses. It is not conceited for us to say that.
(The
Watchtower 1955,
February 15, p.124)
(BS)
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