by Mad 19 Replies latest jw friends
"All through his life Russell told his followers NOT to revere him; He
taught them this so well that the publishing house he founded has never
published a biography of "Pastor Russell"...
The December 1st 1916 issue of The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence contains Russell's biography. Evidently this minister didn't do his homework....guess I won't be buying HIS book.
Hi Mad. Thank you for posting this biography of Pastor Russell from a Presbyterian minister. It clearly shows how mainstream Christians are more fair-minded in their appraisal of religious leaders than the Watchtower Society ever would or could be of them. The Society condemns to death all other "believers," as you know.
It's crucial to examine all sides of a bio before reaching any conclusions on the life and goals of a person we have never met, but we can discern much through Russell's writings and actions when he was yet living. Russell probably was a wunder-boy running his dad's business interests. He parlayed that experience (with great financial reserves) into a ministry that stands today no different than any startup preacher we see on the American airwaves. He was a product of his time and family and geography like everyone else. He most certainly was swept up with popular occultic fads, even kow-towing to Masonic types to gain their fraternal support for his emphatic ministry-cum-business venture. Nothing a multi-level marketer wouldn't employ today; it's all about networking, getting the word out, and attracting life-long customers who will bring others into the scheme.
"There is nothing new under the sun," a wise man once said.
Russell's pyramidology would be excusable if it were not so tragic that it mislead many, even up to our time, with failed prophecies and dates such as 1914. Rutherford grabbed the ball and ran with it to serve his own maniacal, narcissistic whims. What we're left with is a total corruption of Jesus' Gospel wherein 6 million people earthwide live under a death-threat from a rather insignificant cabal of elderlies in Brooklyn. That clearly was never Russell's intent, but the history of the Watchtower as it has unfolded over 130+ years bears out the lies and coverups that keep people enslaved to a corrupt corporate entity, rather than free in Christ.
I have no qualms with today's Bible Students who cling to Russell's teachings — to each his own; they seem like very sincere followers and I'd break bread with them anytime. The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society as it stands today is a false government in direct opposition to its very founder. With hindsight being 20/20, we must appraise for ourselves how Jesus chose this group above all others when even its founder's claims have been warped, rehashed and for the most part, discarded.
Please consider: If Russell were resurrected in the flesh this very day, would he even recognize Jehovah's Witnesses, or the organization that bears the name?
Mad, I wish you the very best on your journey of discovery, and I admire your pluck. Keep on keeping us on our toes, as it's healthy to reconsider the history of our beliefs (or lack thereof) from time to time.
~Sue
Mad..Your right,no JW today thinks of Russell as a phrophet.They don`t think of him at all.....He did`nt question religious dogma,he repeated it.What does that mean?Do your research!..Do you know anything about William Millar?.....Did you bother to research anything before you wrote this idiot thread?.....Jehovah`s Witness`s wouldn`t even exsist if British Soldiers had been better shots during the American Revolution.What does that mean?Do your research!.....Jehovah`s Witness`s wouldn`t have a name for thier religion,if not for the Catholic`s.What does that mean?Do your research!.....Before you come on this board to teach us all something.Learn something first!..Do your research!.....LOL!!...OUTLAW
I think I admire C.T.Russell more than a little on one level. His intelligence and kindly temperment comes through in his writing clearly. He has a large intellect and an ambition for things religious which is prodigious.
He fell into the same trap so many men before and after him have suffered; he took the bible seriously and tried to make intelligent sense of it!
Like William Miller before him, he thought he really discovered something special and spent his life chasing it down a rabbit hole. Unfortunately for most of us, he had the money to turn his crackpot whizbang scheme into something that resembled sensible and straitforward fact.
Not too long ago I sat down and read Studies in the Scriptures cover to cover. It is astounding! But, the Great Pyramid nonsense brings it all crashing down.
I admire and pity the man. I think he succumbed to hero worship eventually and realized at some point his goose was cooked. Then, at that unhappy juncture, he just started covering his own ass. Pity that.
How the guy played the elitist with a literal 144,000 claim (so vain, he lost
me already), with propaganda about Christendom (meant in a derogatory way) to
compensate for Christianity not being destroyed in 1910-1914 as he predicted,
and affect elitism, and gets a reputation as warm other than in self-regard or
for the little group that agreed with about anything he said, I dunno.
The distinctive rules are added to define the elitism, but the Catch 22 is
the faker has to bend the truth of history and related refernce material and
reason out of shape to make such distinctive rules seem sure-fire.
1904 "We have every reason to believe that the definite, fixed number of the
elect is that several times stated in Revelation (7:4; 14:1); namely, 144,000
'redeemed from amongst men.'" ("The New Creation," Russell, 1904, p.179)
http://www.ctrussell.us/ctrussell/ctrussell.nsf/22284ee7f683acc9862566bd000b278c/6b8d21c4f146365e8625645200830d01?OpenDocument
An example meant to define the rarified righteousness or insight:
1906 "Moreover, the very words 'Father' and 'Son' imply a difference, and
contradict the thoughts of the Trinity and oneness of person...."
"How strange that any should attempt to misuse and pervert these our Lord's
words, to make them support the unreasonable and unscriptural doctrine of a
Trinity,--three Gods in ONE PERSON." ("The Atonement Between God and Man--Stud-
ies in the Scriptures, Vol.5," 1906, pp.60,75)
Charles Russell's story has it he left the Presbyterian church of his parents.
We don't know if it was by his own force.... My point here doesn't have to be
which of the two views of Jesus, etc., you have--God's sole channel should know
what the two views are and tell the truth. I'm not compromising on that point.
An example on the issue: "Such should conclude, too, that since we read that
God cannot be tempted of any, it was only a farce when Jesus was tempted of
Satan." "Watchtower Reprints," Aug.15, 1915, p.5749)
This occurs at the start of Jesus' ministry, and the least the Devil needs to
know about Jesus for this scene to happen are some of the basics of Jesus' mis-
sion--not everything about his identity. As a fallen angel, the Devil wouldn't
be in God's inside circle to know everything God planned. Even Jesus' apostles
took several years, till near the end of Jesus' ministry on Earth, to figure
that out. Part of the Devil testing Jesus is meant as a way of determining who
he is and what he could get him to do: "If you are the Christ...." The passage
works for either side of the created or eternal Jesus issue. You need something
else to decide it with.
Rutherford organized it more and became stricter about fellowship. It was
stronger in damnation of others (the anti-Semitic lines joining the Christian
bashing come to mind), but it was an extension of the same prophet-playing
144,000 elitism. It was the same elitism, though, not a whole different thing.
The distinctive rules are meant to affect the elitism, but the Catch 22 is
they have to bend the truth of history and related reference material and reason
out of shape to make such distinctive rules seem sure-fire. Do a little re-
search about it, and there's no hope for the claim of such exclusivity among the
saved.
It's always been accompanied with expanded ideas of what "worldly" means be-
yond disbelef in God and ethics--what's bad is given as what's beyond such
144,000 exclusiveness. The exclusiveness makes for additional, non-scriptural
terms of salvation. It's led to added yet required views about human government
and blood, which are partly and importantly responsible for followers and their
children dying in Germany and Malawi and hospitals, let alone unnecessary divi-
sions betweens friends and family. To maintain such a pretension aware that
these things can result is cynical, not admirably warm and good.
This is why Russell's routine would cause Mosaic law followers to make him
dodge rocks. Such divisions and dangers come with the pretension, nevermind the
perpetrator using some friendliness to lure in customers.
It was a successful but skeptical businessman of 18 that he stepped into a dingy basement to see if a handful who met there had anything more sensible than the creeds of the churches.
Sounds like a quote from Watchtower or Proclaimers book.
*** w73 7/1 p. 394 par. 5 Organized to Praise God ***(as seemingly written by Russel himself without quote reference......)
Seemingly by accident, one evening I dropped into a dusty, dingy hall in Allegheny, Pa., where I had heard that religious services were held, to see if the handful who met there had anything more sensible to offer than the creeds of the great churches. There, for the first time, I heard something of the views of Second Adventism, by Jonas Wendell . .
And
Zion’s watchtower, July 15, 1906, p. 230.
Gradually I was led to see that though each of the creeds contained some elements of truth, they were, on the whole, misleading and contradictory of God’s Word. Among other theories, I stumbled upon Adventism. Seemingly by accident, one evening I dropped into a dusty, dingy hall, where I had heard religious services were held, to see if the handful who met there had anything more sensible to offer than the creeds of the great churches. There, for the first time, I heard something of the views of Second Adventists, the preacher being Mr. Jonas Wendell, long since deceased. Thus, I confess indebtedness to Adventists as well as to other denominations. Though his Scripture exposition was not entirely clear, and though it was far from what we now rejoice in, it was sufficient, under God, to re-establish my wavering faith in the divine inspiration of the Bible, and to show that the records of the apostles and prophets are indissolubly linked. What I heard sent me to my Bible to study with more zeal and care than ever before, and I shall ever thank the Lord for that leading; for though Adventism helped me to no single truth, it did help me greatly in the unlearning of errors, and thus prepared me for the Truth.
Therefore not quite a source from outside
Cheers
Borgia
Even a cursory reading of the selected quotation reveals that this is neither objective nor truthful - by sin of omission. (Isn't this some sort of Pittsburgh booster's history of the city - such that it is just the usual promotional drivel?)
It is obviously heavily edited to leave out any controversial and unflattering facts about ol' CT, while instead the author fairly 'swoons':
Russell was nearly 6 feet tall, well built, with piercing gray eyes.
>His manner was always CALM, stressing argument rather then emotion,
>sometimes adding a touch of humor. In later life he was snowy haired,
>white bearded, and saintly in appearance..
And there is a glaring lack of connection in the summary, like the author was coming to the bottom of his tri-fold:
In 1914 he completed work on the first epic motion picture: "The Photo
>Drama of Creation" 15 years before any other sound pictures were produced.
>It ran for eight hours and was viewed by some eight million people!
>
> "Late in life he set up his entire fortune, by now amounting to well
>over a million dollars, into a trust fund for the W.T.B.& T Society, the
>business organization for Jehovah's Witnesses...
Quite a leap! There is no explanation of who or what "the W.T.B.& T Society" is, or CT's relationship to it.
Sorry, Brother Mad, but as far as illuminating, objective info about C.T. Russell, I give this a failing grade.
This Presbyterian minister claimed about CT Russell, "
In 1914 he completed work on the first epic motion picture: "The Photo-Drama of Creation" 15 years before any other sound pictures were produced." On page 51 of the publication,"Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose",published by the WTS,this comment is made, "Then Pastor Russell conceived a daring and elaborate educational venturefar ahead of the times.Motion pictures were just becoming popular,so,recognizing in this medium an effective means of reaching masses of people in a comparatively short time,Russell began the preparation of the "Photo-Drama of Creation.....So,the Society was really pioneering in the field of sound film and embarked on the project with full confidence of its success.The results of their pioneering efforts in this medium manifested God's spirit on this undertaking."
This Presbyterian minister sounds like he was getting his information straight out of a WTS publication!And the obvious inference is that the Photo-Drama was a revolutionary invention,quote,"far ahead of the times" that was achieved only through Jehovah's direction.
What was so revolutionary about the Photo-Drama of Creation? According to the same WTS publication,pg.51,"The entire project included picture slides as well asmoving pictures to be synchronizedwith phonograph records in the form of recorded talks and music"
However,was the WTS really the first to develop this method of adding sound to an existing moving picture?
http://hem.passagen.se/filmljud/talkies2.htm
The level of sophistication achieved by these pioneers was startling. The following description by inventor Léon Gaumont of the Chronophonograph of 1902 clearly illustrates this capability.
"Several methods of connecting the apparatus were patented by our organization. One uses two small shunt dc motors of almost the same power and supplied by the same current source. The armatures of these motors contained the same number of sections, and each section of one armature was connected with a corresponding section of the other armature and in the same order. Consequently the first armature turned at the same angular displacement as the second. The first armature controlled the phonograph and the second the projector. Synchronization was obtained by adjusting the speed of unwinding of the motion picture film to the speed of the disk recording...Synchronization of sound and image was perfect, provided the simple precaution was taken of placing the first image in the projector picture gate and at the same time the needle at the extreme start of the disk." 4
Since 1902, Léon Gaumont had been demonstrating promising prototypes in France. He showed himself to be one of the individuals most committed to the idea that talking films would succeed. His persistent efforts to profit from popular, sound film entertainment culminated in the commercial premiere of the Chronophonograph in 1907 at the London Hippodrome.5 The Motion Picture Patents Company, with its vise-grip monopoly on the American film industry, took the Chronophonograph seriously enough to license it exclusively for the United States. Within a year, Gaumont was supplying film shorts containing opera, monologues and dramatic scenes.
Norton, Whitman and Fitch: The Cameraphone
Another major player in this game was E.E. Norton. He was formerly the mechanical engineer for the American Graphophone Company (known to us by the name of Columbia Phonograph Company, a venerable firm currently owned by the Sony Corporation). Norton invented the Cameraphone, and with James A. Whitman and attorney Francis Fitch founded the Cameraphone Company. They began leasing equipment to exhibitors by the Summer of 1908.7
The Cinephone
Will Barker's Cinephone was first brought here from England in March of 1909. It was one of the simplest and cheapest systemsavailable. It too was a lip-sync playback mechanism. There was no link between the sound and picture equipment. Barker placed the playback gramophone in the corner of the shot with a speed indicator clearly in view while the players mouthed to the playing record. Later, when the film was shown to an audience, an identical gramophone, also with an indicator, was placed on the stage. The projectionist had a control dial for the gramophone and all he had to do was ride herd on matching the two indicators. With the aid of a quick starting double spring projector, he could have the show in sync during the head leader and before the first image.
So,the inference that CT Russell was far ahead of his time with his Photo-Drama of Creation does not appear to be supported by the actual facts! Frankly,I fail to see what was so revolutionary about the PD of C being able to synchronize moving pictures with phonograph records in the form of recorded talks and music , when similar technology had already been invented earlier.
Morning Glory
None of us JWs look at him as a prophet
None of the current JW's look to him as a prophet. Why? Because the current Governing Body
told you to say that you don't look to him as a prophet.
They also tell you to not look at them as prophets. At the same time, they say that anything they
print should be viewed as absolute truth from God, but not prophecy (in case anybody asks).
Is what they say infallible? NO, but believe it until it changes.
Thanks, MAD, for todays laugh.
Mad...all of your words, thoughts, and actions are dictated by the WTS. You sit there and pat yourself on the back for not viewing Russell as a prophet, yet you accept anything the Governing Body says. If the GB told you to look at Russell as a prophet, then you would. If they told you to jump in the lake, you would. You know it, I know it, we all know it. There is absolutley nothing remarkable about letting the WTS control your words, thoughts and actions.
wrong they are thoughts and actions encouraged by the bible.
