Beth Shan -House of Security
March 6th, 2003 | Posted in: , Doctrine & Changes | Keywords: Jehovah, Investigator Magazine articles, Watchtower Society | 10 Comments(From: Investigator No. 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 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.
Until such time as the aforementioned persons
return and identify themselves to the legal representatives
of the said WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY and the consent
of said Society take possession and control of said premises,
the President of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY shall
have the right and be duty bounded to direct the management
and use of said premises hereby conveyed and to determine who
shall be in possession and have the active management thereof.
(J W Research Journal Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 1997 p. 4)
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”!
By 1945 events proved WTS leaders wrong regarding
world rule by the Nazis/ Fascists and Armageddon being only “months”
away. Beth Shan was therefore no longer needed to protect
them and was sold.
