Q: I read your “discussion” of the Rolf book. Like John Lennon said in Hey Bulldog, do you know any more?

Yes. There are always to be found those who are excruciatingly specific with Bible verses—especially if from Revelation. One of them tied the “trumpet blasts” of Revelation 11 to Trump. He was not one of our ex’s—if there is one guiding light to Witness biblical commentary, it is that prophesy will never be connected with specific individuals, but with historical trends—often broad ones. Sometimes they are narrowed down, but never to the point of where Oscar Oxgoad’s ancient father stares at the president on TV and says, “He’s the one!” He has said that of every president since Truman.

We have our ex’s who go equally batty, though. To throw some red meat to them: Dennis Christensen, the first Witness imprisoned for his faith in Russia—his very name points to the one he follows, and even his carpentry profession is the same. If they are going to twiddle their thumbs on that one at Watchtower HQ, where they don’t do anti-types anymore, and attach equal significance to the second Witness detained, Mahonihen Muvibodidilyvich, then the type/anti-type is open for one of our outliers to establish.

Do you think that there is only one such curiosity to exploit? How about the pattern that Rolf Furuli has just revealed? Do you think that it is just ‘one of those things’ that both TOD (Trashers of Doctrine) in our age present with the initials R.F—Ray being the first? I tell you—we are on to something here.

Apostasy (if Rolf is an example of it—I don’t know that he is, though he clearly does not write an ‘attaboy’) usually occurs at the divine/human interface. It was even true with Judas. He and God were tight! There were no problems there! But that “imposter” claiming to be the messiah was just not at all what Judas was expecting—and those “uneducated” followers that he was attracting—don’t even go there. My offhand impression, not having read the book (I did get my free copy—hee, hee, hee, which I will pay Rolf for if I read it—though I shouldn’t have to since I have written 3 1/2 books on the faith myself) is that he has acquired himself some ‘education’ and is disturbed that the Message is not better received among his new contemporaries, and he feels that it might be if his old contemporaries weren’t so ‘dumb.’ It is classism at work, imo.

The challenge here with Rulf is the divine/human interface—he reaffirms everything else. Bear in mind that most of those who discuss it on the internet will not share the same concept of what that interface ought be. Some are atheistic, and contend that there ought be no such interface because the ‘divine’ does not exist for them. A few contend that they themselves are the divine/human interface, or at least part of it, and they are miffed about being ‘cut off’ from the rightful role. And others think that the divine/human interface should be that of Santa Claus giving gifts to children, each gift perfectly wrapped without ambiguity, with no need to do anything other than play with your new toys all Christmas Day.

Is it a revolution—as online opposers assume, rubbing their hands together in glee? I’m not so sure. People think the Beatles song Revolution advocates revolution. Does it?

You say you want a revolution, Well, you know, We all want to change the world...But when you talk about destruction, Don't you know that you can count me out, Don't you know it's gonna be, All right....

You say you got a real solution, Well, you know, We'd all love to see the plan...You say you'll change the constitution, Well, you know, We all want to change your head. You tell me it's the institution, Well, you know, You better free you mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Ray, You ain't going to make it with anyone anyway, Don't you know it's gonna be , All right, all right, all right

Got a real solution? Show the plan. But if someone brings his plan to the altar and it is not acted on, what then? Does one become one of those who pushes ahead? Or does one free his mind instead and not make a grab for the wheel of the bus? As to getting myself a free copy...I had emailed him. Unfortunately, every malcontent in the world probably did, too—some to laud him and some to express dismay that their own pet peeve has been ignored. He may not want to hear from any of them—since he says that the core doctrines are all true, words that most of them will choke on—most of them want “destruction.”

I may write a lot, have a way with words, and craft them uniquely, but it would be a stretch to call myself a scholar, so I do not do so. “One scholar to another—I’ll drink to that,” said George Patton—or did he say ‘sonuvabitch’? No pretensions here. Maybe some other scholar can get me in good with him. Maybe I will read my copy and pay up. Or maybe I’ll just wait to referee the brouhaha that results as others devour it. 

What will be the upshot? Much has changed since the time of Chairman Ray, which was early for me and I’ve never read his book, either—I barely have to since so many have told me what’s in it. As mentioned before, what is the tone of Rolf’s book? Is it a call for “revolution” or does he say to those opposers who want destruction, “count me out.”? Everything has to be judged in its own historical context, and much has changed in forty years.

He wouldn’t appear on that smug webhost’s site because he was a (self-described) apostate—surely that’s a good sign—just as I would not appear on Lloyd’s podcast, though he all but begged me to and was nice as pie until he realized I had no intention of doing so, after which he was horrible. Rolf’s neighbor fellow Norwegian, self-described apostate, oozes with contempt that CO’s usually start as “window cleaners”—the same way that Celsus ridiculed the second century Christians for being “shoemakers, laborers, and the most clownish of men,” completely forgetting how God is partial toward those people and doesn’t look down upon them at all.

I think there is a scene in Superman in which a battle of titans looms and one of the regular citizen-mortals says, “This is going to be good!” That’s what the opposers are saying on the internet now. (And, yes—I know it doesn’t really fit with “Chairman Ray,” who was hardly a revolutionary, but who can resist the rhyming? Besides, he is dead.)