Beth-Sarim - "House of Princes"

[Jack Ryan]

Despite failures in predicting the outcomes of 1914 and 1925, Rutherford continued insisting that the earthly resurrection was about to happen. In 1929, he pushed for the purchase of Beth-Sarim, a house for Abraham, Daniel and other resurrected Biblical Princes to live in once resurrected.

Concerning Beth-Sarim, the book Salvation explains:

"At San Diego, California, there is a small piece of land, on which, in the year 1929, there was built a house, which is called and known as Beth-Sarim. The Hebrew words Beth Sarim mean "House of the Princes"; and the purpose of acquiring that property and building the house was that there might be some tangible proof that there are those on earth today who fully believe God and Christ Jesus and in His kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon be resurrected by the Lord, be back on earth, and take charge of the visible affairs of earth. The title to Beth-Sarim is vested in the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society in trust, to be used by the president of the Society and his assistants for the present, and thereafter to be forever at the disposal of the aforementioned princes on earth. . . . while the unbelievers have mocked concerning it and spoken contemptuously of it, yet it stands there as a testimony to Jehovah's name; and if and when the princes do return and some of them occupy the property, such will be a confirmation of the faith and hope that induced the building of Beth-Sarim." Salvation (1939) p.311

The Golden Age 1930 included a copy of the Beth-Sarim deed, showing who was expected to take possession of it.

"Both the grantor and the grantee are fully persuaded from the Bible testimony which is the word of Jehovah God and from extraneous evidence that God's Kingdom is now in the course of establishment and that it will result beneficially for the peoples of earth; that the governing power and authority will be invisible to men but that the kingdom of God will have visible representatives on the earth who will have charge of the affairs of the nations under supervision of the invisible ruler, Christ. That among those who will be thus the faithful representatives and visible governors of the world will be David, who was once King over Israel; and Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jepthai, and Joseph, formerly ruler of Egypt, and Samuel the prophet and other faithful men named with approval in the Bible at Hebrews 11th. chapter. The WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY shall hold said title perpetually in trust for the use of any or all of the men above named as representatives of God's kingdom on earth and that such men shall have possession and use of said property hereinabove described as they may deem for the best interest for the work in which they are engaged. Any persons appearing to take possession of said premises shall first prove and identify themselves to the proper officers of said Society as the person or persons described in Hebrews chapter eleven and in this deed." Golden Age 1930 Mar 19 pp.400,401

 

Rutherford's imagination that Jehovah was going to resurrect the Princes to live in California shared the American centric views of similar religions such as the Mormons. The Messenger explains that San Diego was chosen, (instead of the Brooklyn headquarters), for its climate.

"The climate is the same as that of Palestine. The place is planted with date and palm trees, such as would be familiar and pleasing sights to these men." Messenger 1931

In 1942 the 'House of Princes' was sold, proving false the statement that it would be "perpetually" and "forever at the disposal of the aforementioned princes." Why did the Watchtower board of directors decide to sell Beth-Sarim? The Watchtower 1947 December 15 explained:

"It had fully served its purpose and was now only serving as a monument quite expensive to keep; our faith in the return of the men of old time whom the King Christ Jesus will make princes in ALL the earth (not merely in California) is based, not upon that house Beth-Sarim, but upon God's Word of promise."

There is very little mention of Beth-Sarim since 1950. In a 1992 Watchtower article, it is referred to in the life story of Sandra Cowan. She relates;

"Often we preached near Beth-Sarim, which was where the ailing president of the Watch Tower Society, Brother Rutherford, had spent the winters before his death in 1942. We visited regularly and had dinner with the full-time servants there." Watchtower 1992 Mar 1 p.27

Beth-Shan

A second property - Beth-Shan - was purchased next to Beth-Sarim on February 3rd 1939. The only time Watchtower literature ever mentioned it was in the Consolation 1942 May 27 p.3

"The judge decided to continue the case so that the new site could be brought before the Planning Commission... the second plot was a proper place for burial.... The Planning Commission, who deliberated for more than two weeks, investigating the site, was haled before the court, and denied the second application for a cemetery.... New location for interment was almost in the center of the property known as Beth-Shan, which is roughly 75 acres of canyon and mesa land, adjoining Beth-Sarim but separated by a half-mile width of canyon. This property, also belonging to WATCHTOWER, has one small and one large dwelling on it and a few outhouses, and consists of some fruit trees and other cultivated patches in aggregate about seven acres, and about 65 acres of unreclaimed brush, either too steep, or rocky, or inaccessible for development.... Judge Rutherford, in a discussion before his death, had said that as a second choice he wished to be buried somewhere on these wild acres. In order that all the objections made in regard to the first site near to Kensington Heights might be removed to this new site, it was requested that only a ten-foot-square cemetery be granted. The spot was also inaccessible except by a private road a half mile long and closed by a gate."

Though the Consolation discusses Beth-Sarim in regards to Rutherford's desire to be buried there, the property deed read similar to that of Beth-Sarim;

"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, Sampson, Jephthae, David, Samuel."

It appears that Beth-Shan had a threefold purpose; to house the princes, to be a burial place for Rutherford and to provide protection during Armageddon. Word spread that a bomb shelter was built at Beth-Shan. This was adamantly denied in a 1940 Watchtower.

"Some unreliable person is responsible for the circulation of a report that Beth-Sarim is being enlarged as a place of security and that this is being built by the Society. There is absolutely not one word of truth in the report. Those who are interested in the Theocracy would better be circulating the kingdom message rather than false imaginations of others." Watchtower 1940 Jun 1 p.162

The reliability of the Watchtower report is questionable, as it claimed the rumor was about Beth-Sarim, not Beth-Shan, hence avoiding answering whether or not Beth-Shan contained a bomb shelter.

Watchtower's history book, Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, briefly discusses Beth-Sarim, where it is also made to appear to have been purchased predominantly for the health of Rutherford.

""House of the Princes"
Brother Rutherford had a severe case of pneumonia after his release from unjust imprisonment in 1919. Thereafter, he had only one good lung. In the 1920's, under a doctor's treatment, he went to San Diego, California, and the doctor urged him to spend as much time as possible there. From 1929 on, Brother Rutherford spent the winters working at a San Diego residence he had named Beth-Sarim. Beth-Sarim was built with funds that were a direct contribution for that purpose. The deed, which was published in full in "The Golden Age" of March 19, 1930, conveyed this property to J. F. Rutherford and thereafter to the Watch Tower Society." Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p.76

These descriptions may not be far from the truth. Rutherford summered in Europe and wintered at Beth-Sarim. During the Great Depression he owned two luxury Cadillac's. Whilst it is possible Rutherford believed his own teaching that the end was going to arrive in his life time, the purchase of Beth-Sarim was as much for his own benefit as that of the resurrected princes.

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, Jack Ryan said:

other resurrected Biblical Princes to live

Thank you for this, Jack.

Doubtless the Prince that most music fans would be eager to see resurrected is Prince Nelson, who actually went by the stage name Prince. At the wedding reception of a non-JW nephew, I mentioned to some that I was a Witness and the first thing that came from their mouths was appreciation for the most famous Witness of all in their eyes, Brother Nelson.

Chapter 1 of ‘Tom Irregardless and Me’ consists entirely of Prince’s JW experiences as found online.

I beat CBS to the punch by two years in what they said about the Oxycotin pharma fraud. It is in the Prince chapter, there because Prince died a victim of that fraud. Since the Prince chapter is the first chapter, it is even in the free preview section. See how I am saving you money, Jack?

In the flurry of reports about the supposedly unaddictive painkillers that turned out to be extremely addictive, my book quotes a Dr Johnson, who is

“forced to paint an unflattering picture of the industry that I have been a part of for the last 15 years. I wish I could tell you that this epidemic was due to an honest mistake. That the science was unclear or had mixed results that only later became evident. But I can’t. I also wish I could tell you that the only reason the problem persists is a ‘lack of physician awareness.’ But I won’t. The reason this opioid problem started and the reason it continues is sadly for the most American reason there is - business.”

At one time, Dr. Johnson points out, American doctors prescribed opioids as did doctors everywhere: for pain relief from cancer or acute injury. He then tells of a drug company [Perdue], introducing a new opioid product in 1996, that swung for the fences. It didn’t want to target just cancer patients. It wanted to target everyone experiencing everyday pain—joint pain and back pain, for example:

“To do this, they recruited and paid experts in the field of pain medicine to spread the message that these medicines were not as addictive as previously thought...As a physician in training, I remember being told that the risk of addiction for patients taking opioids for pain was ‘less than one percent.’ What I was not told was that there was no good science to suggest rates of addiction were really that low. That ‘less than one percent’ statistic came from a five-sentence paragraph in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. It has come to be known as the Porter and Jick study. However, it was not really a study. It was a letter to the editor; more like a tweet. You can read the whole thing in 90 seconds.”

The book doesn’t go into further detail on opioids because Prince was the topic, not the drug that killed him. However, from a blog post I wrote two years later:

“In fact, not only was the drug far more addictive than doctors and reps were led to believe, but the pain relief it delivered only lasted a few hours, not the 12 that was advertised. Yet, when complaints of such were received, the company would not permit reps to advise patients take it more often, since that exposed the fact that the much more expensive drug was no better than what was already being used for pain. Instead, the advice was to increase the dosage, and that obviously served to intensify the addictive quality. Prince and millions like him got hooked on a drug that the doctor prescribed, and when doctors started to get squirrelly, withholding supply for fear of what they were unleashing, these ones were driven to the black market to find substitutes.”

Find the experiences in Chapter 1, Prince, which, to my knowledge, is the most complete, and perhaps only, published collection of the artist's JW experiences and interactions. And it is in the free section. Be a sport Jack. Download and read it. You don’t want to piss away your whole life digging 90 years back in efforts to diss your former faith. Stay up to date with the contemporary Prince.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/686882

 

 

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

In line with the pertinence of what TTH added to the thread, I might mention that my Grandfather, Sinclair Rook, who lived in San Diego, provided security for both Beth Sarim, and Beth Shan, near San Diego ... and provided the design for Rutherford's  bomb shelter that was built at Beth Shan, outside of the main building, as well as the kennels and guard dogs that kept both residences secure from Japanese incursion, Mexican riff-raff, and albino assassin Catholic agents of the Jesuits.

Color film was invented about that time, and fortunately, we have contemporary pictures  of Rutherford's Bomb Shelter, and an old color photo of the  rented guard dogs.

 

[TrueTomHarley]

Seeing that dog fingering the trigger gives me paws

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Based on data from the Snow Chickens of America, I thought Penguins had flippers.

 

[Srecko Sostar]

Seems to me how the only Prince who lived in that house was Rutherford.....and servants.

3 hours ago, Jack Ryan said:

The Hebrew words Beth Sarim mean "House of the Princes"; and the purpose of acquiring that property and building the house was that there might be some tangible proof that there are those on earth today who fully believe God and Christ Jesus and in His kingdom, and who believe that the faithful men of old will soon be resurrected by the Lord, be back on earth, and take charge of the visible affairs of earth. The title to Beth-Sarim is vested in the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society in trust, to be used by the president of the Society and his assistants for the present, and thereafter to be forever at the disposal of the aforementioned princes on earth. . . . while the unbelievers have mocked concerning it and spoken contemptuously of it, yet it stands there as a testimony to Jehovah's name; and if and when the princes do return and some of them occupy the property, such will be a confirmation of the faith and hope that induced the building of Beth-Sarim." Salvation (1939) p.311

Proof of vain, futile faith.

Also, Rutherford believed differently than JW's now. King and Priests not need to be in the Heaven to be Kingdom's rulers over, above the Earth, in the Sky. But here on land of California. 

Present use is for President and assistants. Of course, he need that because of health issue. Some other ill bro/sis have to wait for future blessings with hope. And thereafter to be forever at disposal of ..... 

It stands as testimony......of good money investments. Confirmation of faith and hope will be no more because they sold building.