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BETH SHAN— (Investigator 61, 1998 July)
Jehovah’s Witnesses prepared TWO mansions in California to house Bible heroes like Abraham and Moses in the resurrection. Beth-Sarim or "House of Princes", which they owned from 1929-1947, is common knowledge. (Investigator 45) Recently the J
W
Research Journal
carried information about another, secret, property – called Beth
Shan
meaning "House of Security" – which the Watchtower Society (WTS) owned
from
1939 to 1945.
Beth Shan was
a 75 acre
property – located
next to Beth Sarim – with a bigger mansion than Beth Sarim. It had
several
out houses, a 4,000 gallon tank of diesel, 7 acres of cultivated land,
a well plus a 10,000 gallon water-storage tank, and two secret
underground
bomb shelters with storage shelves and 3-foot thick concrete ceilings.
Access to Beth Shan was by a ½ mile dirt track and a gate guarded by WTS personnel. The Beth Shan deed said in part: NOW THEREFORE this trust is created and said trustee shall hold the title to said property in trust for the use and benefit of the following named persons, whose names appear in the Bible at the book of Hebrews, chapter eleven, verses one to forty, to wit: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, Samuel. Beth Shan was so
secret it
was mentioned in
WTS literature only once – in the magazine Consolation 1942 May
27
p. 9. The context was a dispute about burying "Judge" Rutherford, the
deceased
WTS president. The authorities had turned down a WTS request for a
one-grave
cemetery at Beth Sarim. Therefore the WTS next tried for a grave
site at Beth Shan – which was also turned down.
Why did the
WTS buy and
develop Beth Shan?
According to
the deed Beth Shan was intended to accommodate the
resurrected
Bible heroes and meanwhile be a retreat for the WTS president.
But there seems to be another reason. In 1926 the WTS magazine The Golden Age predicted: … the next war will be…an annihilation! There will be poison and explosion everywhere, beneath the whole canopy of the heavens... (June 2 p. 55)In 1935 the WTS booklet Universal War Near referred to: ...the few remaining months until the breaking of that universal cataclysm... (p. 27) By 1938 the WTS
taught that
the totalitarian
governments would rule the world just prior to Armageddon. For example
in the booklet Face The Facts (1938) it says:
The totalitarian combine is going to get control of England and America. (pp. 20, 21, 27) Face The Facts
also
taught that Armageddon
was too close for marriage and child rearing (pp. 46-50). This
message
was further drummed via the books Salvation (1939 pp. 318-331)
and Children (1941). The latter is about two JW juveniles who
discuss WTS doctrine and decide to forego marriage for "a few years" so
as to preach full time until Armageddon comes. (pp. 328, 274-281)
The storage shelves in the Beth Shan bomb shelters are explained by: In passing, the opinion is here expressed for the information of those who have hearing ears, that a great famine is certain to afflict the many nations of the earth in the very near future. The United States is also in line for much suffering... (The Watchtower 1941 November 15 p. 343) In 1941 The
Watchtower
again had the
expression "the remaining months before Armageddon". (September
15
p. 288)
From all this
it appears
that the purpose
for buying and developing Beth Shan was to protect the WTS leaders from
war, famine and other trials during those "remaining months before
Armageddon"!
Many well-researched articles
about Jehovah's Witnessess:
https://ed5015.tripod.com/ https://investigatormagazine.net Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at: https://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/ |