Ministry
From 1870 through 1875 the Russell family, and others, participated in an analytical study of both the Bible and the origins of Christian doctrine, creed, and tradition. Millerite Adventist ministers George Storrs, and George Stetson, were also closely involved. Russell’s group believed they had found significant errors in common Christian belief. As a result of such study, the Russell family believed they had gained a clearer understanding of true Christianity, and were re-baptized in 1874.
In the Spring of 1876, while on business in Philadelphia, Russell found a copy of Herald of the Morning, published out of Rochester, New York by Nelson H. Barbour. Russell contacted Barbour to set up a meeting in Philadelphia to compare notes. Barbour introduced him to some new views that convinced Russell, amongst other things, the Rapture would occur in April 1878. Russell was moved to devote his life to what he believed were now the last two years before the return of Christ. He sold his five clothing stores for approximately $300,000 dollars (the buying power of $5.3 million in the year 2006 ). Through Russells’ encouragement and financial backing, Barbour wrote an outline of their current views, in the book Three Worlds or Plan of Redemption published in 1877. A text Russell had written in 1874, entitled The Object and Manner of our Lord’s Return, was published the same year. Russell’s desire to lead a Christian revival was evidenced by his calling two separate meetings of every Christian leader in Pittsburgh. Russell’s ideas, and stressing of the Rapture’s imminence, was rejected both times.
Split with Barbour
In April 1878, the Rapture did not occur as Russell, Barbour, and their associates had anticipated. According to the book Faith on the March, written by one of Russell’s associates, A.H. Macmillan, “While talking with Russell about the events of 1878, I told him that Pittsburgh papers had reported he was on the Sixth Street bridge dressed in a white robe on the night of the Memorial of Christ’s death, expecting to be taken to heaven together with many others. I asked him, “Is that correct?” Russell laughed heartily and said: “I was in bed that night between 10:30 and 11:00 P.M. However, some of the more radical ones might have been there, but I was not. Neither did I expect to be taken to heaven at that time, for I felt there was much work to be done preaching the Kingdom message to the peoples of the earth before the church would be taken away.””
Confused by what was perceived to be an error in calculation, Russell re-examined the doctrine to see if he could determine whether it had Biblical origins or was simply Christian tradition. His conclusion that it is tradition led him to begin teaching, through the pages of the Herald, what he believed to have discovered on the subject. Barbour, however, highly embarrassed by the failure of their expectations, rejected Russell’s explanation, and a debate ensued in each monthly issue of the journal from the Spring of 1878 through to the Summer of 1879. In a matter of months Barbour’s embarrassment led to a recanting of some of the views he and Russell had previously shared, including any reliance upon prophetic chronology. As their disagreements turned into a debate over Christ’s ransom, a split between them resulted. Russell removed his financial support, and started his own journal, entitled Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, with the first issue July, 1879, while Barbour formed The Church of the Strangers that same year, continuing to publish the Herald of the Morning. Continue Reading
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You mention above that the JW’s share the “Armenian” view of salvation. Uhhhh, that should be Arminian. Armenia is a country.
Woops, a little typo there. Thanks for the correction.
Good read; lot’s of historical detail. Having outgrown a J.W. upbringing, this my musings as to the eclectic mix of beliefs and propagated by the Watchtower Society. Good luck getting them to fess up to chronology of Armageddon false alarms.
Russell has a beard.Today wearing a beard is frowned on among the JW’s.
True. But, I’m not exactly sure what your point is.
Russell cribbed much of his theology from a then popular religion called the Millerites, who used to stand on oppose sides of the isle and argue “Great Taste!” “Less Filling!” “Great Taste!” “Less Filling!”
While most cults venerate their founders, Jehovah’s Witnesses virtually ignore theirs. Most JWs are completely ignorant of their own history. They’ve never heard of Miracle Wheat. They’re unaware that Rutherford bought a mansion to house the bible prophets who were supposed to be resurrected in 1925. (When they didn’t show up he graciously continued living there himself.) They’re unaware of how many times their organization set dates for Armageddon. Mention any of these facts to Witnesses who show up on your doorstep and you’ll be rewarded with a “dog on the freeway” expression.
What I meant was that the JW religion of today is far removed from what Russell founded even when it came to trivial stuff like beards let alone other teachings.
I don’t understand why not one member of the congress ever did some serious research concerning the governing body of the JWs. If you read all their cheating:
>false prophesies (1799, 1874, 1914, 1915, 1918,1925, 1941, 1975…) with thereby joined the advise to sell their houses, no children, stop working and pioneering, no higher education
> sympathizing for the political views of Hitler an their anti-Semitism
> involvement for ten years in the UNO: their worst enemy
> Malawi versus Mexico
> manipulating and falsify scientific medical proofs concerning germs and surgical treatment from p.ex; appendicitis
> hiding pedophilia
> prohibition from vaccinations
> prohibition from transplantations,
>murdering blood policy and their falsifying from medical issues concerning the migration from primary blood fractions from fetus to mother and vice versa
> falsifying and misleading teachings concerning the dangers of blood transfusions
> prohibition to give blood and the permission of secondary blood fractions
>the endless list of “deaths” ; the unacceptable killing of premature, baby’s, children, adults
>prohibition of independent thinking
>disfellowship and shunning
>…..
Accusation: GENOCIDE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MURDER
The solution: “International Court of Justice”
Proof: thousands of evidences in their literature and thousands of “witnesses” fighting against their acts of inhumanity
So should the Jehovah’s Witnesses, like the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, be considered an Abrahamic religion of its own rather than a Christian sect?