Joseph Franklin Rutherford Quotes
God created the first man, whom he called Adam. Then God created a woman, whom ho named Eve; and this man and woman were given the power from Jehovah God to reproduce their kind, that is to say, to cause conception and birth of children.
Rutherford, Joseph Franklin. Creation. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1927.
In the middle of the 19th century, there was an Anglican English Bishop by the name of Usher who was the first person to perform this “Biblical” analysis. Even then the absurdity of this claim was demonstrated over and over again with the science of the time. Most religious fundamentalists believe that the word “day” was really an unspecified period of time which might have been billions of years. Other religious theologians argue that the entire Genesis story was a metaphor and not meant to be taken literally. Today we know that our universe is over 18 billion years old, and the overwhelming proportions of the different animals and other life forms that have existed are long since extinct, while a few, like horseshoe crabs, are many millions of years old. New species are being created constantly. Even man, one of the more recent life forms, was well developed, had communities, and had spread over the world more than 6,000 years ago. We have archeological evidence of human life that goes back 10s of thousands of years. None-the-less, there are a number of American citizens who actually believe the 6,000 year claim, and they are entitled to their opinion regardless of how absurd it may seem to others. That is the great strength of a liberal democracy. Absurd seeming beliefs must be protected and respected. However, views that are so variant from known scientific reality may not be allowed to interfere with the teaching and public education to advocate a particular theological view and especially under the rubric of science.
Amen ho tep IV. This Pharaoh adopted a monotheistic religion and imposed it upon Egypt where he could. However, as soon as he died, he was painted as a criminal for the heretical view of monotheism. It is not known whether he came upon the monotheistic concept independently or was influenced by the Jews who had first promulgated the idea. Some argue that Akhenaton was not a strict monotheist because for required the worship of the one God, Aten, but did not ban the worship of the other Egyptian gods though he personally, and his wife Nefertiti, were monotheistic.
Joseph Franklin Rutherford, also known as Judge Rutherford, was the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. He played a primary role in the organization and doctrinal development of Jehovah's Witnesses, which emerged from the Bible Student movement established by Charles Taze Russell.
