|
(Investigator 90, 2003 May)
Charles T Russell, the founder of the Watchtower Society (WTS) and of the sect called Millennial Dawn which became Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs), engaged in public debates and had some success. By 1913
Russell
discouraged further public
debate on the grounds that: 1.
Talent makes more impression
than truth; He also
said:
"If
we stop to kick at every dog that barks
at our heels, we would be a long time reaching our destination."
(Convention
Report 1913, 59)
The most likely reason for the change in policy was that public debates would result in false WTS prophecies being advertised by the opposition. Hundreds of prophecies like the following in The Time Is At Hand (1889) are embarrassing and refute the claim that all WTS teachings are Bible-based and supplied by God: …we
consider it an
established truth that
the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the full establishment
of the Kingdom of God, will be accomplished neat the end of A.D. 1915.
(p. 99)
…the "battle of the great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14.), which will end in A.D. 1915, with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced. (p. 101) But not until the great day of trouble is about closing – not until the Gentile kingdoms are ground to powder and utterly removed, no place being found for them (A.D. 1915, as shown in the preceding chapter) – not until great Babylon is utterly overthown and her influence over the world broken – will the great mass of mankind come to realize the true state of the case. (p. 140) The harvest work will occupy forty years for its full accomplishment, ending with A.D. 1914. (p. 150) The "Gentile
Times"
prove
that the present
governments must all be overturned about the close of A.D. 1915… (p.
242)
In addition to the problem of undesired publicity for false prophecies the cult's best debater and natural choice to represent it, aside from Russell, was lawyer Joseph F Rutherford. Russell, however, probably did not want extra prestige for Rutherford because Rutherford was not Russell's choice as a potential successor. For example,
in his Will
and Testament C
T Russell named a five-man Editorial Committee to determine the content
of The Watch Tower after his death. The Will and Testament
excluded
Rutherford from the Committee.
After Russell died, however, two Committee members were replaced with two others one of whom was Rutherford. (Watch Tower Reprints1916, December 1, pp. 5997, 5999) EDITORIAL
COMMITTEE 1916
The second
reason,
therefore, for Russell's
policy of discontinuing public debate was probably to keep Rutherford
in
check – an aim that failed when Rutherford became the next WTS
president!
Rutherford,
however,
would
have seen public
debate differently. To him – if he could represent Russell – it would
be an
effective way to gain extra prestige and popularity within the cult.
This
indeed happened in 1915, April 21-24, in Los Angeles, California.
The Los
Angeles
Express
(April 22)
reported:
An immense
crowd of
men,
women and children
packed the big Trinity Auditorium to the doors last night to hear J. F.
Rutherford, representing the International Bible Students' association
and Rev. John H. Troy, representing the so-called orthodox
churches…engage
in a lively, witty and, at all times, eloquent debate on the State of
the
Dead. Fully 2500 persons were turned away.
Reverend John H
Troy of the
First Baptist Church
of Glendale was a popular and gifted minister and was endorsed by fifty
other ministers. The four topics of debate on four evenings did not
include
WTS prophecies. Troy did, however, remark that Russell's prophecies
were
at that very time undergoing failure! The full debate, 48 pages of
small
type, is in Souvenir Report Bible Students Conventions 1915.
In the 1920s
Rutherford
phased out public
debates. A debate with Dr B H Shadduck, an anti-Rutherford writer and
editor
of The Sunday School Times, failed to take place because
Rutherford's
people insisted on "impossible conditions":
That B. H.
Shadduck
furnish a bond of $500
as guarantee that he will not…refer to any quotation contained in any
periodical
or book published by the International Bible Students Association, and
if
B. H. Shadduck shall…refer to any quotation or book published by the International Bible Students Association he shall at once pay the sum of $500 to his opponent in this debate. (p. 3) One
talking-point of the
"witnesses" is the
boast that the clergy are afraid to debate with Mr. Rutherford. The
answer
is two-fold.
1. Not one
clergyman in
500 has read the
books of Mr. Russell and not one in 5000 has contrasted the early and
late
editions. 2. If one
who is
informed accepts the challenge,
they impose impossible conditions. I have repeatedly offered to debate.
My last experience was with a gentleman in the mid-West. He demanded
that
I come
to his town, bear my own expense, debate with him twice a day for twenty days, discuss the questions he proposed and no other, and be silenced by the chairman if I introduced other matters. Not one question, under this rule, would permit me to discuss doctrines peculiar to this cult. I offered to submit the matter to arbitration and this was refused. (The Seven
Thunders
of
Millennial Dawn,
B H Shadduck, 1928, pp. 3 &31)
In the 1930s Rutherford issued challenges for debate to the Pope, which were ignored. The next
presidents of
the
WTS, N H Knorr
and F W Franz, also banned JWs from public debating. They claimed
debates
settle nothing, are influenced by the speaking ability of the debater,
and often get off the topic by criticising the opponent personally.
A WTS letter
to a Mike
Frederickson said: When
individuals
sincerely want to know
about our Bible-based beliefs, we gladly take the time to help them.
But,
we also recognize that when someone merely wishes to argue a point of
view,
it is not often that anything constructive is accomplished in such a
debate.
Becoming sidetracked with such debates, we believe, would mean losing
valuable
time, time that might otherwise have been used beneficially to help
sincere
persons to learn about God's will and purposes respecting mankind. For
good reasons, therefore, we choose not to engage in debates. The "losing
valuable time"
comment ignores the
billions of hours JWs spend distributing publications containing
doctrines
later changed – which changes sometimes lose the sect multitudes of
members.
The debacle when Armageddon failed to occur in the mid-1970s, for
example,
lost the sect an estimated 500,000 members!
Debate with an
honest
intent to find out
who's right would have sorted out many false prophecies of the WTS
before
they were preached and so saved the time of millions of people! When
the
above letter speaks of "Bible-based beliefs" and "learn about God's
will",
it implies the unsubstantiated claim that any potential opponent in
debate
is wrong and nothing can be learned from him.
The real reason JWs won't debate is that informed opponents will likely bring up failed prophecies of the WTS and that would be bad publicity. People would find out what Reverend Troy stated in 1915:
Of all the
rot, of all
the evaporated nonsense
that I ever worried my brains to get to the bottom of, this Millennial
Dawn stuff takes the prize.
The truth about Jehovah's Witnesses: https://investigatormagazine.net |