JF Rutherford’s Satanic Boat

2016 Year Book https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/302016005

INDONESIA

Early Preaching Methods

IN 1933, the brothers arranged for a radio station in Jakarta to broadcast English recordings
of Brother Rutherford’s radio lectures. Additional lectures in Dutch were read over the
airwaves by a man who was interested in the truth. The broadcasts aroused a great deal of
interest and helped the brothers to place more literature in the field.

When the radio station aired Brother Rutherford’s forceful lecture “Effect of Holy Year on
Peace and Prosperity,” the Catholic clergy had had enough.* Working through their minions,
they had Brother De Schumaker, who had supplied the recording, charged with “slander,
ridicule, and animosity.” Brother De Schumaker vigorously defended the charges but was
fined 25 guilders* and court costs. Three major newspapers reported on the trial, resulting in
an even greater witness being given.

The Lightbearer
On July 15, 1935, the Watch Tower Society’s 52-foot (16 m) ketch Lightbearer arrived in
Jakarta after a six-month voyage from Sydney, Australia. Aboard were seven zealous
pioneers who were determined to spread the good news throughout Indonesia, Singapore,
and Malaysia.

For more than two years, the pioneers on the Lightbearer visited large and small ports
throughout Indonesia, distributing vast quantities of Bible literature. As the vessel entered
each small port, “the crew would turn on the transcription machine and play one of the
lectures of J. F. Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society,” related Jean
Deschamp. “Imagine the surprise of isolated Malay villagers on seeing a large yacht arriving
in their port and hearing such a loud, powerful voice coming through the air. A flying saucer
could hardly have aroused more interest.”

Enraged by the brothers’ bold witnessing, the clergy eventually pressured the authorities to
ban the Lightbearer from entering many Indonesian ports. In December 1937, the
Lightbearer returned to Australia, leaving behind an outstanding record of missionary
activity in Indonesia.

Crew members on the Lightbearer

Brother Rutherford’s lecture exposed the corrupt spiritual, political, and commercial dealings
of the Roman Catholic Church. The equivalent of about $300 (U.S.) today.
 Lucifer: Light Bearer and Morning Star
The term Lucifer is attributed to Satan as a name. The term has become personalised
and has taken on a negative sense. Similarly, the term Morning Star has been attributed
to Christ in a personalised fashion. When the Bible appears to refer to Satan as Day
Star or Morning Star and to Christ as the Light-bearer, which is the sense of Lucifer,
people apply the names in this personalised way and come to the wrong conclusion.
Some have even gone to the extent of confusing Christ with Satan.

The Jews do not fully understand what is happening with the texts in the Old Testament
because they reject Messiah as Morning Star.

The Soncino renders Isaiah 14:12 as:

How thou art fallen from heaven O day-star, son of the morning!

How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst cast lots over the nations.

The Soncino interprets the phrases as follows.

12: day-star [Or, 'Lucifer' (light-bearer). The morning-star (son of the morning) under the
name of Istar was worshipped by the Babylonians, and Nebuchadnezzar's days of power and
glory are well represented by their comparison with the shining star.] Arbarbanel points out
that this star, namely Venus, is the heavenly prince of Babylon.

cast lots. To determine the day on which the respective nations shall render service (Rashi).
Others render, 'thou didst slay the nation’ (Targum, Ibn Ezra, Kimchi).

The LXX renders the text:

How has Lucifer that rose in the morning fallen from heaven.

Here it is personified by the use of the term Lucifer in the English from the KJV
application. The term ho 'Eosphoros ho proianatellon is rendered as Lucifer that rose
in the morning.

This translated the Hebrew words meaning How (SHD 349) you have fallen (SHD
5307) from the heavens (SHD 8064) o shining star (SHD 1966) son of the morning
(SHD 1121 and 7837) (see Green’s Interlinear). SHD 1966 (hyll) is the word heylel.
It means the morning star or the day star from the sense of brightness in SHD 1984
halal meaning clear and hence to shine with clarity. It has positive and negative
applications in that it can mean to boast or to glorify, to glory, to give light. It can mean
to feign madness in the negative application. In the sense that it is used in a positive
sense and applied in the form as it develops in SHD 1966 heylel, it is as Morning star
or Day star.

This terminology goes back also into ancient mythology and represents a function of
rulership. With the Babylonians, it was attributed to the Ishtar system in the evening
as the Evening Star representing sexual love and the Morning Star represented Ishtar
as goddess of war. This was reflected in the triune system as employed by Babylon
(see the paper The Golden Calf).

The theology is thus representative of the cosmology of the heavens and concerns
rulership.

In the Greek New Testament, the term rendered day star in English is actually
phosphoros (in 2Pet. 1:19) in relation to Christ in the KJV but rendered as morning
star in the RSV. Both versions avoid the real sense which is light bringer as
Phosphoros. Lucifer is the Latin translation of this word.

The Light-bringer and the Morning Star or Day Star are ranks and not names. Therein
lies the key to the confusion.

In Revelation 2:28 the rank is extended to the elect in the form of astera ton proinon
rendered morning star. This form is again found in Revelation 22:16 as the aster ho
[l]ampros ho proinos referring to Christ explicitly and as morning (SGD 4407 proinos)
star (SGD 792 aster).

Lampros (SHD 2986) means bright; hence: the bright and the morning star.

The names have the same derivation and yet they refer to two distinct beings. Thus,
we are speaking of a rank and function which is held by Satan and which is to be
assumed by Christ at the Advent.

This rank or function can be further demonstrated by its application in the Hebrew
from Job 38:4-7.

The words are SHD 1242 and 3556. The words are rendered the stars of the morning.
There were at least two of these beings and seemingly more.

Thus, we are dealing with Christ, Satan and other members of the Host. It is, hence,
obviously a rank or function shared by a number of individuals.

The words are SHD 3566 kokawb meaning a star as round or blazing and, hence
figuratively, a prince, and also SHD 1242 boquer meaning the morning or break of
day.

SHD 3566 is derived also from the sense of 3522 rolling derived from the unused root
meaning to heap up; or 3554 kavah in the sense of blazing or burning.

These beings performed a function which was derived linguistically from the sense of
blazing as a star in the morning or morning star which was the brightest of the stars,
namely Venus. The Babylonians also applied this to their deity as we see above. The
words in verse 7 are rendered in the LXX as translated by Brenton as: When the stars
were made, all my angels praised me with a loud voice.

The words are derived from the Greek (here Romanised): Ote egenephesan astra,
enesan me phone megale pantes aggeloi mou.
The term in the Hebrew means morning stars, it is structured in the MT as follows:

when sang (SHD 7442) together (SHD 3162) the stars of (SHD 3556) the morning (SHD
1242) and shouted for joy (SHD 7321) all (SHD 3605) the sons of God (SHD 1121 and 430).

The LXX translated all the sons of God (kowl bene Elohim) as all the angels of God.
The word kol or kowl (pr. kole) is the derivation of the word whole and its use here
means literally the whole of the sons of God. Thus, here, there were multiple entities
understood as being sons of God.

The rendering of the text when sang together the stars of the morning in the LXX as
when the stars were made is understood as being the creation of these stars after the
creation of the sons of God. Thus, the ranks were created after the entities and these
positions were symbolised by the stars themselves which formed part of their
dominion.

This is also the sense of the transfer of the power of the position of morning star from
Satan to Christ and then its distribution to the church as co-rulers or co-heirs.

The explanations that seek to make Christ and Satan one or to deny both are morning
stars strikes at the understanding of this transfer of power and the role of the elect at
the Advent.