Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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63 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Book for Every Witness to Read, December 29, 2001
By A Customer
Jehovah's Witnesses by Professor Edmond Gruss is one of the best documented and most devastating critiques of the Watchtower ever written. It contains thousands of quotes from official Watchtower sources that prove the Watchtower over and over has made scores of totally false predictions. Professor Gruss, an ex-Witness himself, has done his homework (he has been at work for 40 years on this topic, ever since he completed his graduate thesis on the Watchtower). He has produced the most definitive work ever published on the Watchtower's many false predictions. It proves the Watchtower cannot be trusted in the least. This book is 358 large (8.5 x 11.5 inches) sized pages with hundreds of footnotes documenting the text. I too have research this topic for many years, but Professor Gruss has gone far beyond me. From my research, I can vouch for the accuracy of his conclusions. I have most of the Watchtower publications back to 1879, so was able to check many of his references. How someone can remain a Witness after reading this book is beyond me.The Watchtower's own words condom them (no wonder they discourage Witnesses from reading the older publications!) Also, as a lover of fine books, I was surprised at the high quality of this book (the printing was excellent as was the cover). I buy a lot of books and the quality of many disappoint me. This one didn't! It will most certainly become the classic text in this area and will cause thousands of Witness to seriously question the credibility of their "mother organization."
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The evidence will be hard to refute, June 22, 2005
Although it is not an extremely readable book--this is because there are a lot of quotes since it is meant to be a general resource more than just a book you sit down and read--I know of nothing more valuable that so clearly depicts the JW's prophetic record. And it doesn't look good for the folks in Brooklyn. I believe that any thinking Witness who was to consider the false prophetic claims as produced by Watchtower leaders and shown in this book would have their world shaken apart, so caution on their part must be taken before picking this up to read. But truth is something that is worthwhile to find and grasp, and in this case, I highly recommend the Witness go through the well-documented records as put together by Gruss and determine this: If the Governing Body could be so wrong about so many things in its entire history, what else could they be wrong on? (i.e. view of God, view of Jesus, view of authority, view of salvation, etc.) For these are not just men claiming to be fallible leaders, but rather, their very words are examined and studied by the 7 million JWS located around the world as being equal in authority with anything the Bible says. And these kind folks are coming to our doors, urgently trying to share their faith. I believe a book like this would be valuable on the shelf of every Christian who realizes that, when a Witness knocks on their door, it's time to go to work and share our faith--and we don't even have to take our bedroom slippers off!) The amount of work that went into this book is incredible--my hat's off to Ed Gruss, a great researcher on the religion of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of quotes, well organized - naturally not uplifting , May 9, 2005
The Watchtower organisation has made some rather strong claims about themselves. They are, so they say, the only ones that understand the Bible properly and in order to be a Christian you need to submit to their authority. Edmond Gruss has collected a large amount of quotes from the Watchtower literature, that shows (over and over again) that the Watchtower organisation cannot be trusted. Failed predictions and changes in interpretation, sometimes from one position to another and then back to the first again, are not at all unusual in their history.
A lot of Gruss' material concerns the predictions about Armageddon and the end of the World order. The 19th century background in Adventist calculations that the end would be in 1844 and then postponed 30 years to 1874, the latter which Russell came to accept; the 1914 date, which is still central; and the failures of 1925 and 1975 are all dealt with.
Because of its importance, quite a lot of space (pp.74-149) is devoted to different aspects of the 1914 date. According to the Watchtower, Christ was installed in heaven in 1914, and in the following years he inspected the churches, and then appointed the Watchtower "over his domestics" in 1919. In other words, the Watchtower draw their authority from what they allege happened in 1914. Gruss discusses what Russell in fact did predict for the year 1914; none of the seven specific predictions came true. The interpretation of the Bible that led to the date is shown to be very questionable in many regards, and the claim that the signs that we are living in the last days are present since 1914 (earthquakes, wars and so on) is examined and found to be baseless. The thorough discussion of the 1914 date is quite welcome, since it's so important for the Watchtower's identity and claims.
The quotes about 1925 and 1975 shows a movement that is a bit more careful not to be as specific in their predictions. Still, claims that it's not about years but months or weeks cannot reasonably be called anything but failed predictions. The time from the 1920:s and onward for decades shows a movement that constantly expected the end to be around the corner, and the Watchtower advised it's people to use what little time that was left to witness and to wait with getting married until the new system had come, after Armageddon. The events concerning 1975 are quite sad. Before 1975, Witnesses were commended for selling their homes and devoted the little time that was left until Armageddon to witnessing. After 1975 the very same Watchtower criticized the Witnesses that had not planned their economy to last past a certain date. They also blamed the ordinary Witnesses for the 1975 expectations, while the expectations had been produced by the Watchtower. Not only did they fail to take responsibility for their mistakes, but they let the people they were supposed to lead take the blame for their own mistakes.
In the first chapter, Gruss discusses the claims of the Watchtower organisation. The relationship between the organisation and the ordinary Witness seems to be rather odd. A Jehovah's Witness is expected to believe everything that the Watchtower teaches them, while at the same time the Watchtower claims not to be infallible. This means that the organisation goes free from responsibility, while their people are to follow them blindly. The consequences were made clear to me when the 1975 date was dealt with, but there are examples throughout the book of this kind of spineless leadership.
Gruss' book is not very uplifting, but it gives a good picture of the Watchtower's false claims, and with the huge amount of quotes one gets a feel of the Watchtower thinking. Gruss' own commentaries are quite sparse. He usually seems to prefer to quote others (e.g. Carl Olof Jonsson or Raymond Franz) when giving a more extensive critique than a line or two. This book is definitely not necessary to read if you want to be able to talk to a Jehovah's Witness, but it is very helpful if you want a deeper look at the dark side (is there a light side?) of the Watchtower history.
Also note the format of this book. It's 11.0 x 8.2 inches, which is about twice of the normal ~6 x ~8 inches. In other words, it would make about 700 pages with the normal format.
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