HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED... WHY DO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CALL THEIR MEETING PLACE A KINGDOM HALL RATHER THAN A CHURCH? ?⛪️?

[Bible Speaks]

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED... 
WHY DO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES  CALL THEIR MEETING PLACE A KINGDOM HALL RATHER THAN A CHURCH? 

The bible answers.... 
In the Bible, the Greek term that is sometimes translated “church” refers to a group of worshippers, not to the building they meet in.

Note this example: When the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, he sent greetings to a couple named Aquila and Priscilla and added: “Greet the church that meets in their home.” (Romans 16:5, Contemporary English Version) Paul didn’t intend for his greetings to be conveyed to a building. Rather, he was sending his greetings to people—the congregation that met in that home. 

So instead of calling our place of worship a church, we use the term “Kingdom Hall.”

Why “Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses”?

This term is fitting for a number of reasons:

> The building is a hall, or meeting place.

> We meet to worship Jehovah, the God of the Bible, and to witness, or testify, about him.—Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 43:12.

> We also meet to learn about God’s Kingdom, of which Jesus often spoke.—Matthew 6:9, 10; 24:14; Luke 4:43.

You are welcome to visit a Kingdom Hall near you and see for yourself how JehovahÂ’s Witnesses conduct their meetings.

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/jehovahs-witnesses-church-kingdom-hall/

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

WOW!

When the people who know die out, the only thing left will be the Snowflake puff pieces, with no one to contradict them.

People will forget that Caleb and Sophia were once only cartoons invented by TPT, when they are elevated to Saints.

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED... WHY DO JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CALL THEIR MEETING PLACE A KINGDOM HALL RATHER THAN A CHURCH?

There are two ways to look at that question, some of it already addressed ... but about 40 years ago I went to Hawaii, and here is what the story I heard was .... Once upon a time all Kingdom Halls were called something else, perhaps meeting places, I do not know. 

 

Then, one congregation in Hawaii in the early 1930's started calling their meeting places "Kingdom Hall", and later, about 1935 "Judge" Rutherford visited Hawaii and saw that, and when he went back to Brooklyn or San Diego directed that all meeting places be called "Kingdom Halls".

I wish I had been paying more attention when this was being told to me by some older brothers, all now dead (their entire generation having passed away by now) , but it was just a piece of trivia, to me, until about 11 to 15 years ago when the annual Watchtower Calendar came out and showed a picture of a Hawaiian Kingdom Hall, that credited Bro. Rutherford with INVENTING the idea, and the first place that was instituted was in Hawaii.

I pointed this out to my then wife and children, as we had that calendar

hanging in our kitchen and the caption stated what directly contradicted what I thought I knew.

So now we have two completely different stories .... close .... but no banana.

NOW.. I think I will try to have Mr. Google find out for me.

It's just like the Big Bang!I do not have Polaroids, and I wasn't there.

But without more evidence, I believe the Hawaiian Brothers ... NOT the calendar.

Oh, and the software is screwing up my formatting, etc.

 I suspect JWI would have a better answer.

 

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I found the address of the first KH ... That little house of worship at 1228 Pensacola Street, which has since been expanded and renovated three times, holds the noteworthy distinction of being the first to be named Kingdom Hall.

I would assume that is in Honolulu

[JW Insider]

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Then, one congregation in Hawaii in the early 1930's started calling their meeting places "Kingdom Hall", and later, about 1935 "Judge" Rutherford visited Hawaii and saw that, and when he went back to Brooklyn or San Diego directed that all meeting places be called "Kingdom Halls". . . . I suspect JWI would have a better answer.

I don't have a better answer, but I can give a longer one.  I've haven't heard what you heard, although it's quite possibly a truer version, of course. Looking at all the probabilities from my perspective, fwiw, I'd say it could go either way, but makes a little bit more sense that the Hawaiian brothers had already been using the term Kingdom Hall, but it still needed the stamp of approval from Rutherford if it were to remain, or catch on for other places. Rutherford probably gave it his approval either during or shortly after his visit to Honolulu in April 1935. I think it was more than just "tacit" approval based on the earliest mention.

It's typical in Watchtower publications that the wording of any specific experience gets tweaked so often before it reaches print that even an "exact quote" might not look anything like the original "exact quote." You can see this if you compare the first version of MacMillan's "Faith on the March" to the one that was finally published and distributed to Kingdom Halls. You can see that the announcement that Russell supposedly made on October 1st, 1914 (later changed to October 4th, then later changed to October 2nd) was never mentioned anywhere until the 1920's. I've witnessed the changing of exact quotes in experiences given to the Bethel family, changing PR lines that I was to give in answer to questions when giving special tours at Betherl to non-JWs who might question recent news items. On a more local level, I know that it's not just me, but several of us who have been involved in giving our experiences at conventions have probably been surprised to hear our own "exact quotes" changed for public consumption.

For the reasons just mentioned, I would have some doubt about the exact quote that Rutherford was supposed to have said. Early versions of the story never included anything like an exact quote from Rutherford which is included in the official story in the "Proclaimers" Book:

*** jv chap. 20 p. 319 Building Together on a Global Scale ***

• Before World War II, there were a few congregations that built meeting places specially designed for their use. Even as early as 1890, a group of Bible Students in the United States at Mount Lookout, West Virginia, built their own meeting place.*

  [*footnote: It was known as the “New Light” Church because those who associated there felt that as a result of reading Watch Tower publications, they had new light on the Bible.]

  Widespread building of Kingdom Halls, however, did not get under way until the 1950’s. The name Kingdom Hall was suggested in 1935 by J. F. Rutherford, who was then president of the Watch Tower Society. In connection with the Society’s branch facilities in Honolulu, Hawaii, he arranged for the brothers to construct a hall where meetings could be held. When James Harrub asked what Brother Rutherford was going to call the building, he replied: “Don’t you think we should call it ‘Kingdom Hall,’ since that is what we are doing, preaching the good news of the Kingdom?” Thereafter, where possible, halls regularly being used by the Witnesses gradually began to be identified by signs that said “Kingdom Hall.” Thus, when the London Tabernacle was renovated in 1937-38, it was renamed Kingdom Hall. In time, the principal local meeting place of congregations worldwide came to be known as the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

That was in 1993, and it might have been the first time, I think, that anyone came up with a quote for Rutherford to have said in this context.

Almost 10 years earlier, September 1983, research was being recompiled for the celebration of the 100 YEAR anniversary of the birth of of Watch Tower's corporate charter. (I know this for a fact because I had a small research project for this pamphlet, which I called the "Birthday Brochure" because its code was "br") I'll quote a longer excerpt from it here because it helps answer the question about what "Kingdom Halls" were called prior to 1935.

3 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

Once upon a time all Kingdom Halls were called something else, perhaps meeting places, I do not know. 

*** br84 pp. 14-15 Watch Tower Society and Congregation Meetings ***

• The Bible Students in Pittsburgh established the pattern of meeting together two and eventually three times a week. Meetings on Sunday were public lectures held in a rented hall, such as the Curry Institute Hall on the corner of Penn Avenue and 6th Street in Pittsburgh. Apart from the lectures on Sundays, meetings were held in private homes—in the beginning at the home of the father of Charles Russell, J. L. Russell, 80 Cedar Avenue, Allegheny City. These came to be called cottage meetings. Group meetings in private homes on Wednesdays consisted of Prayer, Praise and Testimony Meetings, which have developed into our Service Meetings of today. Later they also arranged “Dawn Circles” on Friday evenings where they studied from the early books of the Society called Millennial Dawn series. . . . As groups increased in size various meeting halls were rented, sometimes even available church buildings being used. . . . Sometimes suitable buildings were purchased by the Bible Students locally. . . . Various names were given to these, such as a local designation followed by the word “Tabernacle,” for example “Brooklyn Tabernacle,” “London Tabernacle.”    However, the Watch Tower Society introduced a unifying feature with regard to meeting halls of JehovahÂ’s people. In 1935 arrangements were made to construct a meeting hall in connection with the new branch building being erected in Honolulu, Hawaii. The president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford, was visiting there, and it had been decided to call the meeting hall “Kingdom Hall” so as to keep GodÂ’s Kingdom to the fore. From that time on JehovahÂ’s Witnesses the world over have called their congregational meeting centers Kingdom Halls.

Saying "it had been decided" didn't give the credit to specifically to Rutherford. This was slightly reworded for the February 1, 1984 Watchtower where Rutherford was given the credit, although still without a "story" that showed he was only "suggesting" it:

*** w84 2/1 p. 25 par. 14 ‘Oneness of Spirit’ in a Rapidly Growing Flock ***

• In the same year that the “great crowd” was properly identified as an earthly class, J. F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, gave the name Kingdom Hall to a meeting place of JehovahÂ’s Witnesses in Hawaii. From that time on, this name has regularly been used by JehovahÂ’s Witnesses for their meeting halls.

*** w55 8/15 p. 491 Part 16—Publishing Under a New Name, Theocratically ***

• Among other developments to note was that resulting from the visit of the SocietyÂ’s president to the Hawaiian Islands in 1935. Then a branch office was established in Honolulu and arrangements were made for construction of an assembly hall in connection with the new branch building there being erected. At the dedication this hall was appropriately designated “Kingdom Hall,” thus commencing the practice of JehovahÂ’s witnesses the world over of calling their congregational meeting centers Kingdom Halls. In the fall of 1937 what had formerly been known as the “London Tabernacle” was now redecorated and renamed “Kingdom Hall.”

U.S. Newspapers, as far as I can tell never included the term Kingdom Hall with reference to Witnesses until 1938, and even then mostly in Michigan.

Even in the 1937 Yearbook, p. 170 the only mention of a Kingdom Hall is still in regard to the building in Hawaii:

• By means of shortwave, however, and the sound car, the lecture was heard well in Kingdom hall to a good-size audience there assembled.

The story of Hawaii first appeared in the 1936 Yearbook, p. 145. It's interesting to note that the title Kingdom Hall was used in a different way than it is today in English. This post is long so I'll post it right below.

 

[JW Insider]

The 1936 Year Book said:

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
The Society's branch office established in Honolulu,
Hawaiian Islands, is making progress. Only a small
number of workers are there, the publishers numbering
12 in all. During the year property was purchased
and a suitable hall and living quarters were erected.
This building fronts on a boulevard and also abuts on
a side street. Signs are placed on the building, advertising
the hall and the books. These are illuminated
by electricity, so that everyone passing must see the
signs. The work has progressed there during the year,
and the total number of books and booklets placed is,
to wit, 19,170. From the local director's report the
following is taken :
The real high point of the year's witness, Brother Rutherford,
was the public address delivered by you here in Honolulu at
McKinley auditorium last April, and which was carried by
radio to the other islands. . . .  In Jehovah's providence it
arrived in time for use on June 2, for the world-wide broadcast.
And Jehovah's blessing has been very manifestly upon
its use ever since.
And then came to us Kingdom Hall, for use in honoring his
name at transcription lectures and study meetings, also as a
headquarters for Jehovah's literature and publishers at this
place. In addition to the meetings held in it, Kingdom Hall,
with its signs and books on display, brings the name and word
of Jehovah prominently before the people. . . . The Lord
has done so much for his work that the publishers here feel
an additional weight of responsibility to faithfully carry out
the work the Lord has given them. Meetings in Kingdom Hall
are held in English, Spanish and Japanese.
During the construction of Kingdom Hall many things occurred
which demonstrated clearly the providences of Jehovah.
It has been the means of greater co-operation amongst Jehovah's
witnesses at this place.

----end of excerpt quoted from 1936 Year Book, p.145-146.

[Queen Esther]

WOW....  what  perfect,  detailed  answers  you're  able,  always  giving  @JW Insider    Of  sure  you  can  help  by  my  simple  Bible scripture  question  for  you,  in  Bible  Discussions?  Thank  you  so  much !

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

 

To my mind, the following three things determine the "real answer", in the absence of the elderly brothers who were there, who have all since died, and we cannot sit at their knees and hear how it REALLY happened.

1.) The story I was told in Honolulu Hawaii, when I was on vacation, about 40 years ago, when I visited a random Kingdom Hall there, and had before never thought about how the name  happened,  did not know any better,  nor did I care at all ... it was only a piece of remembered conversational trivia to me at the time,  and

2.) JWI's astute comment that the term used at the time was kingdom hall, not Kingdom Hall ... in the manner that a "car wash" is a functional name, and "BOB'S HONOLULU CAR WASH" might be a brand name, or identifying label of WHICH car wash, of many. 

There could be many public meeting halls in Honolulu, Hawaii ... but only one kingdom hall (at the time...) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

I can see that from the Society's own quote, it was called a kingdom hall while it was under construction.  and so when the electrified sign was put up, I can visualize the Brothers saying, in effect "What shall we call our new kingdom hall? 

DUH!  .... It's a kingdom hall ... let's call it a Kingdom Hall !", and

3.) The Society has a LONG HISTORY, of rewriting the past both in oral presentations, rewriting the bound volumes of the Watchtower, and rewriting electronic copies of older publications to make it many years later APPEAR they were right, when they were flat wrong. 

The PERFECT example of this is the "Overlapping Generations" insult, to us and to God.

This is the exact same job Winston Smith had, when he worked in the "Ministry of Truth" in the George Orwell book "1984".

In order to have a self-appointed Governing Body today, there has to in the realm of PR "Public Relations" spin that shows the wisdom of PAST leaders.

The easiest way to do this, is to change history, which JWI directly pointed out, and which I also have seen and do see happening incrementally.

It's blatantly, and to use a word that shows up in the 2013 New World Translation that previously never showed up in any Bible, anywhere in the world, THREE TIMES, including Benjamin Wilson's Emphatic Diaglott, nor the Kingdom Interlinear Translation, nor the previous New World Translations (!) of the Holy Scriptures ... BRAZEN ...  intellectual dishonesty.   

Brazen intellectual dishonesty ... because they think we are ALL too stupid or uneducated, or both,  to know and understand what that is.

It tries to be invisible, but not everybody who knows the difference has died off ..... YET.

As soon as those who know the difference die off .... as soon as those who remember die off ... revised Watchtower history will be the ONLY history the Brotherhood will know, and control will be complete, and like Pavlov's dogs ... when the dinner bell rings ....  automatic salivation begins.

The motto of the BOOK "1984"''s  "Ministry of Truth",  was "HE WHO CONTROLS THE PAST CONTROLS THE FUTURE".

It was a WARNING ... and was not supposed to be adopted as a SCRIPT!

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

I betcha Bible Speaks regrets having opened THIS Pandora's Box.

[Brenda K Kniffin]

Mr. Rock, I am still trying to Figure you out after reading some of your comments over the past year are you a devout Jehovah’s Witness are you a apostate are you in the middle or are you something else? Perhaps you to are trying to figure that out.

[Srecko Sostar]

2 hours ago, Brenda K Kniffin said:

I am still trying to Figure you out

hehe Brenda, do not worry about JTR. More important is to have own introspective and testing yourself. Because, as you can see, WT medal is double sided. Double face, one for public, other for those who search for the accurate truth about WT history.  

[JW Insider]

5 hours ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

JWI's astute comment that the term used at the time was kingdom hall, not Kingdom Hall ... in the manner that a "car wash" is a functional name

I don't think that's quite what I was trying to say, nor what the Watchtower's resources implied. For one thing, the "K" in Kingdom was always capitalized; it was only the "H" in Hall that was made "lower case," but this was in a 1937 Year Book (written in late 1936). In 1935, when the term first comes up, it's not only a capitalized title, it's a word that seems intended as a replacement for the way many people used "Church" or "Temple," as in, "Today I'm going to church" or "Today I'm going to Kingdom Hall." There is a different sense if you say "Today, I am going to "a" Kingdom Hall, or "the" Kingdom Hall." It's a little like you are going to "Royal Albert Hall" or "Tammany Hall," recognizing that there is just one of these that can go by that name. Similar to a time when going to "Bethel" meant just one particular building that "Reverend" Henry Ward Beecher had named "Bethel" in Brooklyn and which was later also applied to the dormitory attached to Beecher's old house at 124 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn.

Even in the 1938 Year Book (written in late 1937) there was still only one place where "Kingdom Hall" was mentioned, and it was still only with reference to Hawaii:

----quoting 1938 Year Book, page 163 ----

The company at Honolulu has been very active and faithful,
and the totals of their witnessing are:
Books 1,264 Average Number Publishers 6
. . . [either down from 12, or not including 6 pioneers?] . . .
The crowning blessing of the year was the sending down
of the two main convention addresses from Columbus, September
18 and 19. This was indeed a great boon from the Lord,
and the listeners at Kingdom Hall were profoundly stirred to
greater activity in the Lord's service. It was a wonderful testimony
to Jehovah's name, and against his enemies. . . .
. . . Many shortwave receiving sets
enabled a great number to hear, in addition to audience at
Kingdom Hall. . . . This report is submitted with many thanks
to Jehovah, and with much love and best wishes
to you, Brother Rutherford.

---- end of quote ---

In the 1939 Year Book, there are now TWO different passages where the term "Kingdom Hall" is used, and it is still used without an "a" or "the" in front of it. This time it includes the use of it in London, where the JW London Tabernacle had just been renamed "Kingdom Hall" along with a few other smaller meeting places around London. Note:

---------quotes from 1939 Year Book ---------

The greater London company, which now has more than 1,000
company field publishers, has been divided into nine units. The
general headquarters is maintained at Kingdom Hall (formerly
known as the Tabernacle). During the year the company
doubled its placement of bound books and booklets in the
greater city. . . . During recent months additional Kingdom
halls have been arranged for, so that there are now six Kingdom
halls in addition to the one at Craven Terrace to serve the
increasing numbers in the various large sections of the city. (page 90)

....

The people of the Hawaiian Islands are receiving
the Kingdom message through the efforts put forth by
the Society's local representative and company workers,
which work is directed from Kingdom Hall, in
Honolulu. (p. 164)

----end of quotes from 1939 Year Book ---

It shouldn't be overlooked that Watchtower writing often makes use of obvious "parallel" phrases that could have also been at work in choosing the name "Kingdom Hall" in Hawaii and London. You can find dozens of examples of such parallel phrases, especially in assembly talks. It's not uncommon in London and Hawaii to see the term "Royal" and "Kingdom" due to it being a Kingdom (Kingdom of Great Britain, etc). The word Kingdom was also common in Hawaii, due to it's being long known as "The Kingdom of Hawaii" -- and it was not a U.S. state until 1959.

Note the following examples which might be unrelated from a 1951 Watchtower:

*** w51 12/1 p. 707 International “Clean Worship” Assembly in London ***

• WEMBLEY Stadium, site of the 1948 Olympic Games, has seen many famous athletes strip for action to win a coveted prize. But August 1-5, 1951, this same stadium in London, England, saw tens of thousands of persons from forty different lands and nations strip themselves of the hindering things of this world for a greater contest. Not to compete with one another, but to work together as one international team to win the race for the prize of eternal life in the approaching new world of righteousness. . . . You did not notice where this orchestra was? . . .  at the top of the North Stand of the stadium, over the Royal Box, and so commanding a full view of the arena. . . . An afternoon symposium presented three brothers who talked on “Met together in my name (a) At the same place, (b) Conduct in GodÂ’s household, (c) Kindness to strangers”. This emphasized how the local Kingdom Hall of each company is a royal place, the most important building in the community.

This would seem trivial, if it didn't happen so often. The stadium had had "strippers" who raced -- well we have "strippers" in a race too. The stadium has a "Royal Box" where the most important persons can see the entire stadium. Well, we have local "royal places" which are the most important buildings in the community.

And speaking of races, "Kingdom Hall" had also been the name of a popular race horse that was well-known in 1919 and 1920 back in Russell's old stomping grounds.

 

 

[TrueTomHarley]

All these explanations are wrong. It becomes tiresome. 

Luckily Fortunately for everyone here, I will elucidate. The answer is found in our family folklore.

I invited my profane great uncle to a meeting long ago. He attended only one. He sputtered and groused throughout the talk and Watchtower study, just like some on this forum. Afterwards in the parking lot he grumbled to a brother, who turned out to be hard of hearing: "What is this nonsense about a Kingdom? Hell, I don't believe a word of it!"

The brother mistook his remark as appreciation. He thought it would make a really cool name for something that had, up to that time, been called a "place."

The term caught on. Brother Rutherford heard about it one day and said: 'Yeah. I can live with that."