Joseph Franklin Rutherford Quotes
The Bible is the only credible guide either as to the real relationship between man and the earth and the great Creator of both or concerning the purpose of the creation of both.
Rutherford, Joseph Franklin. Creation. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1927.
This quotation illustrates that in the late 19th Century, there were still very prominent American scientists who were Biblical Literalists as well—a virtual intellectual impossibility. Dana was a Yale professor, and yet he rejected Evolution and had the age of the rocks he studied all wrong. At the time, America had only 1 great world class scientist (Physicist Albert A. Michelson) and American Science really became great in the 20th century. Dana was not a total incompetent however. He had amassed vast descriptive knowledge of California and other areas and was at the time considered America’s preeminent Geologist despite his lack of understanding of many fundamental aspects of his own science which was understood by many English and European scientists.
Priests at the time were mostly uneducated. They would tend to make up their own Biblical stories that the people would prefer rather than the official church versions. The bishops wanted this practice stopped.
Some Christians believe that man is corrupted by original sin. Therefore no man or group of men, even in a democracy, can reach proper moral judgments. For them, The Bible is the only trustworthy source of morality.
“Qur’an” is another way of spelling “Koran”. The belief in the perfection of the Koran is fairly common in Islamic nations. If Sharia is the civil law, as many Muslims insist that it is or should be, then there is no system of amendment and nothing that has occurred or has been learned since 800 AD that is any reason to improve or modify the law. Modern Islamic nations cope with this problem in one of three ways. The Fundamentalists take the Koran literally in all things and nothing is ever amended or modernized. Modernists will treat the Koran and Sharia as metaphorical and interpret it in the light of the modern world. More secular nations (like Turkey and Indonesia) reject Sharia as a civil legal system or as a source of inspiration of civil law.
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.
