THE
FINISHED MYSTERY
B S
(Investigator 85, 2002
July)
CLOSE
TO INFALLIBLE
The Finished
Mystery
(1917) was a
608-page book published by the Russellites –
the cult that developed
into
Jehovah's Witnesses. About 850,000 copies were printed.
The book was
allegedly:
"of the
Lord – prepared
under his guidance." (p. 126) It gave a verse by verse interpretation
of
Revelation and Ezekiel. An ad for the book in The Watch Tower
called
it: "the true interpretation." (1917, p. 334)
"This book may
properly
be said to be a
posthumous publication of Pastor Russell." (The Finished Mystery,
Preface,
p. 5)
We're
informed:
"Pastor
Russell
was…strong, humble,
wise,
loving, gentle, just, merciful, faithful, self-sacrificing… As a
logician
and theologian he is doubtless without a peer today. In his research
for
Biblical Truth and harmony he is without a parallel in this age.
Without
a blemish in his character…he towers like a giant unmatched."
(The
Finished Mystery,
p. 125)
Of the Bible
we're
told: "the Bible is
an infallible teacher of the Divine purposes" (p. 66).
The Finished
Mystery
applies the
word
"truth", or synonyms thereof such as "Divine light", to Russell's
teachings
over 100 times. It also has many insults of Christian ministers such as
"yelpings of little men – of the D.D.s of Christendom." (p. 383)
D.D.s
stands for Dumb Dogs.
People who
rejected
Russellism the book
calls
"enemies of truth" (p. 362) and "clerical foes of truth" (p. 383). It
says,
"the Bible has been perverted" (p. 384) and "the clergy tried to stem
the
tide of truth" (p. 390).
With the Bible
infallible,
Russell
without
theological peer or parallel, and with opposers worthy of insult we'd
expect
The Finished Mystery itself to be close to infallible. Let's
investigate
this:
I selected
35 pages from The
Finished
Mystery using the Random Number key of a Scientific Calculator and
counted the number of statements that disagree with present-day JW
interpretations.
The results were:
| PAGE
|
NUMBER
STATEMENTS NOW
REJECTED
|
PAGE
|
NUMBER
STATEMENTS
NOW
REJECTED
|
|
220
|
1
|
327
|
2
|
|
66
|
1
|
524
|
0
|
|
519
|
3
|
61
|
3
|
|
152
|
1
|
412
|
2
|
|
502
|
0
|
479
|
1
|
|
564
|
5
|
29
|
1
|
|
388
|
0
|
501
|
2?
|
|
262
|
2
|
535
|
0
|
|
46
|
5
|
318
|
0
|
|
75
|
0
|
302
|
0
|
|
18
|
3
|
424
|
3?
|
|
436
|
0
|
52
|
0
|
|
30
|
2
|
198
|
3
|
|
157
|
7
|
563
|
5
|
|
410
|
0
|
505
|
2
|
|
440
|
0
|
106
|
11
|
|
134
|
14
|
|
|
|
83
|
0
|
|
Total
79
|
|
425
|
0
|
|
Average
2.26
|
Two
further
pages, 258 and 398,
are reproduced with this article to illustrate the style of writing in The
Finished Mystery.
With an
average of 2.26
discarded
interpretations
per page the best single estimate for the whole book is 2.26 x 608
pages
= 1,372.
This estimates
the
number of points
that
an informed JW would recognize as false. Christians and non-Christians
would find thousands more falsehoods.
Consider, for
example:
"the true
church…have
since 1878 been withdrawing from ecclesiasticism and close to God." (p.
407)
A present-day
JW would probably agree with this sentence. A
more-thoughtful
person would disagree because he would doubt that hundreds of mistakes
in theology and prophecy could be part of "the true church…close to
God."
And if we examine how 1878 was obtained and what the date signified
that
too would be seen as error. This one sentence, therefore, could be
regarded
as having one, two, three or zero errors depending on whose viewpoint
we
take. In this case I would count "one" because I'm counting changed
or discarded interpretations and the significance of 1878 is now
discarded
by JWs.
Furthermore The
Finished Mystery
has
several hundred negative descriptions of Christian denominations
calling
them or their leaders, for example, "enemies of truth", while calling
its
own theology "light", "truth", etc. Every such statement would be
viewed
as erroneous by other denominations but my count does not include them
since, again, I'm estimating the number of changed/discarded
interpretations
and not the number of errors.
SUBSEQUENT
COMMENT
AND CONSEQUENCES
The
Finished Mystery
was
supposedly
"the final witness of the church". (p. 256) This, however, can't be
true
because the cult has published about 200 further books since 1917 plus
magazines, booklets, brochures and tracts besides preaching door to
door
and on radio.
What did
writers of the subsequent publications say about The Finished
Mystery?
Until the
1920s The
Watch Tower
published
occasional lists of corrections to Russell's books. The Watch Tower
of 1920 p. 170, for example, listed corrections to about 40 pages of The
Finished Mystery. As new interpretations multiplied Russell's books
were repeatedly revised and later – when changes reached
thousands – ignored.
Russellism is
so
different to
present-day
JW theology that JWs can be regarded as a breakaway sect from
Russellism.
The leadership won't admit this, however, because it would refute their
claim that the movement was initiated and directed all-along by God.
This
leaves JW leaders who write the books the option of telling lies.
The 1979
Yearbook of
JWs (pp.
110-113)
calls people who in 1918 distributed The Finished Mystery
"faithful
Christians" who "dared as did Jesus, to speak God's Word without fear,
exposing the hypocrisy of the clergy" with "true faith and courage".
Persons
who refused to peddle the book had "the spirit of rebellion".
Such
language – including the implicating of Jesus – is hardly appropriate
for a book
with 1,300 false interpretations!
Here are some
more
quotes:
"It does not
contain
any erroneous
doctrines." (The
Watch Tower 1920
4/1 103)
"The Finished
Mystery is
the first and
only
book that has ever made clear the prophecies of Revelation and
Ezekiel." (Millions
Now Living
Will Never Die, 1920,
Australian edition, p. 111)
"the clergy
have kept
the people from
the
truth and led them into darkness.... Now the mask is torn off, and
nothing
ever published so exposes the nefarious course of this instrument of
Satan
as does The Finished Mystery." (The
Watch Tower 1921 March 15 pp. 93-94)
"a stinging
exposure of
the clergy." (Qualified
to be Ministers, 1955, p. 314)
"a stinging
exposure of
these false
shepherds." (Jehovah's
Witnesses in
the Divine
Purpose,
1959, p. 73)
"sweet to the
spiritual
taste". (Then
is
Finished the Mystery of God,
1969,
p. 258)
"a stinging
exposure of
Christendom's
clergy
class." (Awake!
1984
12/8 10)
"a powerful
commentary
on Revelation
and
Ezekiel". (Revelation
Its Grand
Climax Near At Hand,
1988, p. 165)
The Finished
Mystery
split
Russellism
into many cults. In PEOPLES PAPER, a magazine by an Australian
continuation
of Russellism, a New South Wales doctor wrote of the book:
"Its
vindictive and
slanderous
aspersions
of other religious thought, and its scurrilous cartoons, in no way
indicating
the spirit of Christ, made me throw it aside…" (1918 September 1)
About 1/3 of
Russellites
deserted the main
branch
of the cult from 1917 to 1920. Some recovery followed. Then from 1926
to
1930 about 80% dropped out.
The JW leaders
call
other groups
derived
from Russellism the "evil slave class". They say:
"…this book
crystallized the
opposition
of the 'evil slave' class." (Qualified to be Ministers, 1955,
p. 314)
"This
volume…was the
focal point around
which
the opposition party arose within the society."
(Convention Report,
1950,
Day 3)
"Actually they
had no
cause for
contention
at all…" (Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose,
1959, p. 70)
If over 1,300
misuses of
Scripture are "no
cause
for contention" why do JWs continuously make alleged theological errors
in other religions a "cause for contention"?
SELF
GLORIFICATION
The JW book REVELATION
ITS GRAND
CLIMAX
NEAR AT HAND (1988) refers back to the period 1870- 1919 and applies
the following descriptions to the early JWs:
anointed
Christians
abandoned
false
doctrines
boldly
used the
Bible
restoration
of
true worship
faithful
Christians
the John
class
God's
people
Christ's
anointed
brothers
faithful
and
discreet
the
Master
appointed them
Pure
worship was
reestablished (p. 209)
All
this is on only one
page and much of
the
book is similar!
This is the
denial,
indoctrination and
self-glorification
that JW leaders promote year after year.
The
origin of this
approach is
the humiliation of the Russellites when they were proved false in
thousands
of points including the book they believed almost infallible – The
Finished
Mystery.
Two pages
retyped
from The
Finished
Mystery.
Underlining
is added
to show points [interpretations] now
rejected by the sect
258
The Finished
Mystery
REV. 16
To
give unto her the cup of the wine of the
fierceness
of [His] THE wrath.–The wine of the vine of the earth.–Rev.
14:17-20;
Jer. 8:14; Isa. 51:17-20; Jer. 25:26.;28: Rev. 18:6.
16:20. And every island fled away.–Even
the
republics will disappear in the fall of 1920.
And the mountains were not found.–Every kingdom of earth
will
pass away, be swallowed up in anarchy.
16:21. And there fell upon men.–Greek "The
Men,"
the worshipers of the beast and his image, i.e., the clergy.
A great hail out of heaven.–Truth, compacted,
coming
with crushing force. A concluding statement of how the seventh
volume
of Scripture Studies appears to the worshipers of the beast
and his image.–Rev. 11:19; Isa. 28:17; 30:30; Ezek. 13:11; Joshua
10:11.
Every stone about the weight of a talent.–113
lbs.
(Mal. 3.10.) Another view of the seventh volume of Scripture
Studies, as it appears to the worshipers of the beast and his
image,
is found in the last of the Egyptian plagues, the death of the
first-born,
Exodus 11th. and 12th. chapters. As soon as this plague came the
Egyptians,
from Pharaoh down, were anxious to speed the parting guest, and willing
to give up all the jewels of silver (the Great Company) and the
jewels of gold (the Little Flock). In connection with the statement
that "there was not a house where there was not one dead," it is
admitted
that if any sects were overlooked in the lists cited in comments on
Rev.
8th and 9th chapters the omission was unintentional and will be
corrected
in later editions. The three days in which Pharaoh's host pursued the
Israelites
into the wilderness represent the three years from 1917 to 1920 at
which
time all of Pharaoh's messengers will be swallowed up in the sea of
anarchy.
The wheels will come off their chariots–organizations.
And men blasphemed God because of the plague of
the
hail.–Apparently, the book will be unpopular for a time.
"As soon as Divine restraints upon Satan were released, he moved the
Sabeans
to steal Job's cattle and to kill his servants; he caused fire to come
down from heaven, which not only killed but burned up Job's flocks of
sheep;
he sent the Chaldeans who stole Job's camels, and finally produced a
cyclone
which smote the house in which Job's children were feasting together,
and
destroyed the house and killed its occupants; and he attacked Job's
person
with disease as soon as granted permission. (Job. 1:9-2:7.)"–S80.
For the plague thereof was exceeding great.–Quite
a shower.
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|
EZEKIEL 5
THE SEVERED HAIR
CALAMITIES
5:1.
And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp
knife,
take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and
upon
thy beard: then take thee balances to weigh, and divide the hair.–This
is located "after the days of the siege" of Jerusalem or in antitype
after Romanism's
and Protestantism's siege is ended in 1918. It had a literal
fulfillment
in 606 B. C. and is to have a literal and a symbolic fulfillment in and
after 1918. It depicts the several kinds of troubles upon Christendom,
and the causes provoking them. The shaving of the head represents the
affliction
of Christendom. (Isa. 3:17; 20; 16:12; Jer. 7:29.) The shaving of the
beard
was part of the ceremonial treatment of a leper (Lev. 14:8, 9), and
signifies
that after 1918 Christendom will be treated by outraged Justice as
a
moral leper, unclean with incurable iniquity, the perverseness,
which,
in the face of continual preaching of the Gospel, led up to the recent
wars.
Ezek. 5:2, 12, 16, 17, relate to features of the
destruction
of literal Jerusalem in 606 B. C. and 70-73 A. D. and of
Christendom
in 1914 to 1918 A. D. Since in verse 12 a third part of the persons
were to suffer death or affliction. the hair in verses 1, 2 and 3
signify
the people in Jerusalem–Christendom. In Samson's case the hair
represented
big strength; and here the hair cut off signifies that the people
who
are the strength of Christendom shall be cut off in the brief but
terribly
eventful period beginning in 1918 A. D. A third part are
"burned
with fire in the midst of the city." Fire symbolizes destruction. One
large
part of the adherents of ecclesiasticism will die from pestilence and
famine.
(Deut 32:24.) In 5:16, 17 the shafts of hunger are represented as the
evil
arrows of famine. The staff is that upon which one leans; the staff of
bread is the food supply of Christendom. In 1916 there was already a 26
per cent crop shortage throughout the world, presaging worse conditions
to come. In verse 18 the evil beasts sent upon Christendom are the
savage
"Christian" governments of the world (Deut. 32:24), which, by
unheard-of
barbarity in war, are bereaving the people by millions and causing
bloodshed
unparalleled in history.
398
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