Most Jehovah's Witnesses are aware there once lived a man named Russell and he had something to do with the early years of their religion.
But, generally, interest in the early days is almost non-existent. After all, nobody was running around calling themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, so what difference does any of that really make?
Russell and the origins of JW doctrines are, as a result of this total black out of curiousity, HIDDEN and permanently OBSCURED.
iN FACT, the only time Charles Taze Russell is discussed is because some expose' by an Apostate has raised a stink.
Admitedly, most anti-JW books seek to dredge up scandals, lawsuits, accusations and failed predictions swirling around Russell's ministry.
In my own opinion, none of that is half as interesting as the missing part of the equation: WHERE from did Pastor Russell get his TRUTH?
If you answer this one question you uncover the foundation corner stone of all subsequent Jehovah's Witness doctrine and belief no matter how
often they've mutated and modified it over the century following Russell's death.
Charlie Russell came from an upper middle class Pennsylvania family of Scottish Presbyterians.
He was truly upset by his church's teaching on hellfire. It got under his skin in a huge way!
Why? Because his own mother had died when he was 9 years old and he became terrified she may somehow
have suffered the fires of hell. It was simply unconscionable that God would inflict such tortures on his beloved mother.
By the time he was 16 he had abandoned the bible and any formal beliefs as he turned to skepticism.
For two years between the age of 16 and 18 he struggled with one problem above all others. He needed somebody to help him find a way
to make hellfire disappear so that he could embrace God as a loving father and restore his belief that the bible was true.
He flirted with the very loose Congregational church awhile with their horror of centralized governance but left unsatisfied.
His quest and doctrine shopping ended in 1869. Sitting in a 2nd Adventist Church pew, the 18 year old Russell listened to Jonas Wendall solve his doctrinal problem!
You can mark this meeting on your calendar as the day the seed of Adventist religious doctrine sprouted in C.T.Russell's mind.
By the time Wendall got through meeting with Russell and feeding his religous curiousity by answering questions, a partnership developed.
From that time forward, almost every belief, teaching and doctrine Russell promoted in his writings stemmed from the work of Adventism and the writings
of its proponents, prophets and visionaries.
Wendall introduced Russell to mainstream Adventist writers responsible for the apocalyptic Adventist ideas about the coming of Christ.
For instance, Nelson Barbour taught that Gentile times would end in 1914, forty years after the return of Christ in 1874. Barbour's book, The times of the Gentiles, laid it all out. The end of 6,000 years of human existence would lead to the Armageddon of scripture.
Russell preached, published and taught this until his death in 1916 with only minor backtracks and modification.
Jehovah's Witnesses would use the "end of 6,000 years of human existence" twice in their doctrinal speculation. The last time in 1975.
The Adventists associating with and influencing the young Russell had a boldness in their predictions that bespoke great certainty and confidence.
Barbour had said at the end of his book:
"These are some of the events this generation are to witness.... I am not willing to admit that this calculation is even one year out."
Ten years of indoctrination by the Adventists shaped Russell's deepest understanding of how the bible was to be used to squeeze and tease definite dates of prediction, description and certainty for himself. By the age of 29 he was ready to commence his own religious magazine, Zion's Watchtower in July of 1879.
Russell had become a complete apostate to Presbyterian teachings and doctrine by this time.
Russell's teachings on the ransom doctrine, paradise earth, restitution, soul sleep, celebrating the Memorial meal on Nissan 14 all exactly match
the Adventist teaching of George Stoors and Nelson Barbour.
Pastor Russell had only just begun his research into the ideas of other men, however. He soon turned to the writings of Scottish evangelist, writer and lecturer, Henry Drummond. Drummond proposed in his 1828 book, a two part coming of Christ in which, for awhile, Jesus ruled invisibly.
This absorbed into his, The Object and Manner of the Lord's Return booklet.
Additionally, Russell was totally taken by his introduction to the works of Luthern Minister Joseph Seiss who had written A Miracle in Stone, revealing a new obsession, PYRAMIDOLOGY.
Not only was Pastor Russell excited to include this amazing revelation of the prophetic measurements in Giza, but, beside himself at the correspondence with the year 1914 that Barbour had uncovered!
Russell's family fortune became the means by which he financed any agreeable Adventist publication as well as his own series of books.
We have only to call to mind that since the age of 16 Russell had been skeptical about the bible as a source of true teaching. When it served his preconceived ideas about what could be fair or true, Russell sought corroboration in bible verses, otherwise he preferred external foundation such as the Great Pyramid and charts of Dispensation popular among 2nd Adventists.
Russell was open to any disproofs of standard Christian doctrine and evidence of error in Bible transmission as well as exposing fraud in translation.
Zion's Watch Tower, September 1881, Watch Tower Reprints page 278 As Retrieved 2009-09-23, page 132, "As to the motives and errors which may have led to these unwarranted interpolations of the [Bible] text, we may be able to offer a suggestion, viz., the last mentioned (1 John 5:7,8) was probably intended to give authority and sanction to the doctrine of the "Trinity."
One by one he replaced standard classic doctrines with substitued doctrine by alternate heretical writers.
So, the brief survey raises the question of how original to Russell these absorbed beliefs really were.
Is is, at we mentioned at the outset, of very little concern to today's Jehovah's Witnessness because they view THE TRUTH as a result of
a series of "booster shots" of New Light along the way creating an immunity to false teaching.
In fact, what exactly IS this accurate knowledge of the Watchtower believer which motivates a declaration of "the ONLY TRUE" religion?
Two central foundation stones remain from the Russell era which are most troublesome!
1.The actual invisible presence doctrine centering on 1914 and the establishment of Christ's arrival to rule over his enemies.
2. The FDS or doctrine of the "mouthpiece of God" first applied to C.T. Russell and later co-opted disengenuously by Rutherford as:
A. "class" of annointed remnant channeling God's Truth.
B. Rutherford himself without consultation with board members
Neither of the above foundational beliefs can be corroborated in any sane way. This gave impulse to support the shaky insubstantiality with
a long series of failed "ideas" taught for awhile and thoroughly discredited in time.
1. Millions Now Living Will Never Die (connected to an outright prediction of the resurrection of the dead in 1925)
2.Generations teaching (Endlessly used as a "carrot" of proof that Armageddon was closer and closer) finally re-defined into meaningless ness.
3.The wresting away of the Governing Body from the President of the WT in 1972 dissolving summary authority and diluting it into mere votes.
Conclusion
An objective examination of the religion from start to present time reveals some interesting conclusions.
1. The rise of Adventism in America gained prominence under the GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT of William Miller's chronology.
2. Straggler believers held on to notions of predicting the 2nd Coming of Christ
3.Leaders in Adventism won wealthy C.T.Russell over to their charts, doctrines and proofs of an invisible Jesus arrival in 1874
4.Russell threw his money into publishing his "warning" that 1914 would be the end of the world.
5.Rutherford nursed support from Russell's true followers until he consolidated his own power
6.Rutherford and subsequent President Knorr milked the chronology and "mouthpiece" doctrines to manipulate millions of true believers.
7.The JW's have discredited themselves as prophets to the point they imploded into a mind control cult fighting paranoia.