The foundation is now laid. There will be additions and subtractions and variations and expansions, even contractions, but there it is, the organization formed by man, 1800 plus years after Jesus began His church, claiming like the Mormons and the Muslins and all the rest, to be the very voice of God in the world.

The Presidents that follow will now try to maintain that voice. So far, they have done it.

Nathan Homer Knorr. 1942-1977

What Mr. Knorr lacked in new insights and teachings, he more than made up for in intensity of control. He was from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and joined the “Bible Students” at age 16. He left his Reformed Church and was baptized into the Society in 1923. He then worked his way up in the organization, and was eventually appointed President in 1942, at Rutherford’s demise.

His tenure in office, which ended in 1977, saw the expansion of the Watch Tower from 25 to 97 branch offices. The headquarters was likewise enlarged. As was the printing production. People were coming, people were joining. In 1958, a quarter of a million people came to two huge events, during which 7,000 were baptized.

It was a great time for the Witnesses. Onward, upward.

Most of the doctrinal pieces of the Witness fabric were in place, but Knorr did introduce the opposition to blood transfusions that has made the organization stink a bit more in the eyes of many.

Knorr suggested some other changes, such as the cessation, for the most part, of setting dates for this and that.

One of Knorr’s strongest claims to a legacy was in the area of organization. It was his idea to have a plurality of elders in the various branches. Also during his reign, the entire leadership function of the Society was vested in a “Governing Body”. Knorr and future leaders would not have the sovereign power of a Russell or a Rutherford. Their tasks would become more and more administrative.

Knorr wanted the Witnesses to hold on to the truth they had, and began to restructure the local assembly in such a way that their truths would be guarded. Dis-fellowshipping became the new scourge of the Society. Feared perhaps as the Inquisition of Rome, it was based on a list of rules, some loosely based on Scripture, some not.

The rules created by the leadership, when broken, would bring the poor breaker of the ordinance before a judicial committee formed within the Kingdom Hall. After a trial of sorts, guilty and unrepentant list-breakers were totally banned from the assembly. Also totally banned was any friendship or fellowship being offered to them by any member of that branch. No hello, no goodbye. No welcome. Family members were included in this awful scene. Those who fellowshipped the dis-fellowshipped would be un-fellowshipped as well!

In his later years, Mr. Knorr eased up a bit on this regulation. But his successor reinstated the harshness. Evidently it worked too well for it to be surrendered.

A new Bible

That for which Mr. Knorr may well be remembered with the most animosity of heart by the Christian is far worse than this fellowshipping policy. It was his actual re-making of the Word of God into the Society’s image.

It was clear that the Bible available up until this time provided an easy refutation of all the Witnesses stood for. So a panel of “scholars” was chosen. They are anonymous to this day, though it is probable that the next President, Frederick Franz, was on that committee. Why? He knew some Greek, and some (even less) Hebrew.

Through some twisting and shoving and perverting, the Witnesses were able to take those “hard passages”, the ones that disagreed with their stand, and make them fit Witness doctrine. Thus was born the New World Translation. Beware this book! I have a copy of it. It’s nearly perfect in most of its translation. But where it is imperfect, it is blasphemously imperfect.

I’ve noticed it is turning up in hotel rooms and other places. But that’s another story. We’ll take a very close look at this “translation” as we study the Scriptures later. Most of what we will discuss will be from the New Testament, so let me give you just a sampling of an Old Testament perversion here:

Look at Zechariah 12:10. God is speaking. The Father, right? Let’s just say “God.” Surely Jesus the Son cannot be talking in the book of Zechariah, can He? The words are “They will look on Me Whom they have pierced.” Check every translation you can find. These are the words God spoke. God the Son! In the Old Testament!

Can’t have this!

So one translation, after 1900 years of all of us walking in darkness, gets it right, right? (guess which one?) And that one says, “They will look to the One pierced.”

Get the idea? Gotta change those embarrassing passages! Thank you Mr. Knorr and your anonymous friends, but no thank you.

1975. The world ends again

1960-1966 saw a slow-down of the growth rate of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It looks like they needed some attention. They got it in the form of a new date being set. Now I said earlier that generally this practice was abandoned. But someone was “studying” and found that 1975 was to be the beginning of the seventh period of human history. Biblically, one could have said that meant “Millennium” and therefore those same people would be thinking “Armageddon.” Sure enough, many Witnesses sold their homes to get ready for 1975, the sure-enough end of the world. Again.

Well, Mr. Knorr, what actually happened in 1975? Let’s see. The Vietnam War ended. An Apollo and a Soyuz (Russian) spacecraft linked up in space. Margaret Thatcher became the first woman elected to lead Britain’s Conservative Party. Egypt re-opened the Suez Canal after eight years… Hmmm. No Armageddon there. Looks like a pretty peaceful time, actually.

Zounds! Missed it again?

Many Witnesses had witnessed enough of this falseness. They opened their eyes, and left.

In 1977, Mr. Knorr breathed his last, and his position was taken by Frederick William Franz.