Questions from Readers ... In light of the new understanding of the Faithful and Discreet Slave, is it appropriate to refer to C.T. Russell as Brother Russell?

by mindnumbed 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  mindnumbed

  In light of the new understanding of the Faithful and Discreet Slave, is it appropriate to refer to C.T. Russell as Brother Russell?

  In the past, some well meaning ones took it upon themselves to refer to C.T. Russell as Brother Russell, however, this was never endorsed by the Faithful and Discreet Slave. While it is true that C.T. Russell used his unrighteous riches in founding The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, one must keep in mind that prior to 1919, there was no organization approved by God and no Faithful and Discreet Slave. In 1919, well after Russell was dead, Jesus inspected all men of faith claiming to be Christian, and, after completing that inspection, found that only the responsible ones directing the Watch Tower Organization had the proper heart condition to serve as his Faithful and Discreet Slave. It was at this moment that Jesus began a cleansing of the Organization of its Babylonish ways. Keep in mind, it wasn't what was being taught that mattered to Jesus, it was the attitude of those in control, and Jesus apparently liked what he saw.

  Since C.T. Russell died before the selection of the Faithful and Discreet Slave, and taught some really crazy stuff in the first six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures as well as his posthumous seventh volume, all of which Jesus did away with rather quickly, he was just as much a part of Babylon the Great as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, just as one of Jehovah's Witnesses wouldn't refer to John Wycliffe as brother Wycliffe or Martin Luther as brother Luther, it wouldn't be appropriate to refer to C.T. Russell as brother Russell as he never was one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
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  Julia Orwell

  Yep, they can't claim that guy as their founder anymore because people can do a quick Google search to find out he had some nutty ideas and dubious obsessions with the occult.

  Eventually they'll probably drop Rutherford too, just as Krushchev dropped Stalin.
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  alanv

  Yes the recent 'new light' has helped them in several ways, and getting rid of Russell was an obvious ploy. Its funny, for many years witnesses have been defending him and now they don't need to as the society have dropped him and now say he was just an ordinary bible student who got some things right and a lot of things wrong. lol
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  NewYork44M

  Oldtimers still call him Pastor Russell.
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  itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat

  Issue, page and paragraph?
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  Witness My Fury

  I would think it's satire ....
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  itsibitsybrainbutbigenoughtosmellarat

  Sorry...not read close enough. my badd
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  Londo111

  If Russell and company performed the work of John the Baptist, making him an Elijah figure, he would still have some important to the Organization…when convenient. Of course, if he is John the Baptist would makes things ready for the Lord…what does that make the Governing Body?
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  cha ching

  A few months ago, because I read some ofthe crazy beep stuff CT wrote in his books:

  *pyramidology, *dates for Christ's invisible presence *the prophetic interpretation of how the Hoboken terminal figures into proving these books of theirs were guided by Russell from heaven...... (I cried when I read the “Hoboken terminal” explanation, I saw how numbers were just manipulated and squished, and arranged, and used as a matter of convenience. Read for yourself…..)

  The Finished Mystery, page 230 (While explaining the meaning/ interpretation/ “expectation” re: what the “winepress” in Rev 14:20 meant) “By the space of a thousand and {six} TWO hundred furlongs – This can not be interpreted to refer to the 2100 mile battle line of the world war. A furlong, or stadium, is not a mile and this is without the city whereas the battle line is within the city. See Rotherham’s translation. A stadium is 606 ¾ English ft.; 1200 stadii are …….. mi., 137.9 The mileage from the Scranton to Hoboken Terminal is shown in time tables as 143.8 and this is the mileage charged to passengers, but in 1911, at an expense of $12,000,000 the Lackawanna Railroad completed it’s famous cut-off, saving11miles of the distance. From the day the cut-off was completed, the trainmen have been allowed 11 miles less than the time table shows, or a net distance of ….. 132.8 Hoboken Ferry to Barclay StreetFerry, New York is ………..….2.0 Barclay Street Ferry to Fulton Ferry, NY is 4,800 feet or…... 0.9 Fulton Ferry, NY to Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn, is 2,000 feet …..0.4 Fulton Ferry, Brooklyn to Bethel is 1,485 feet or, ……………....0.3 Shortest distance where the winepress was trodden by the Feet Members of the Lord, Whose guidance and help alone made this volume possible (John 6:60, 61; Matt 20:11) … . Miles…. 137.9”

  I told my sister they were going to have to get rid of "Russell" and would change their history AGAIN...

  She was shocked! upset! How could I say such a thing!

  Was I a prophet? No, I simply saw a pattern.

  If something doesn’t fit, doesn’t work, and now contradicts, then ….. just shuffle the numbers…. Shuffle the info….. shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, then ask everyone to clap.

  Witnesses clap whenever they are asked to. Say “Jump,”…. They ask “How high?”

  Psalm 146:3) 3 Do not put YOUR trust in nobles, Nor in the son of earthling man, to whom no salvation belongs.

  These people, in the 1900’s, put their trust in the “faithful slave……” Witnesses today are asked to do the same.

  Where are they? What does the Bible say?

  (Psalm 146:4) . . .His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; In that day his thoughts do perish.

  Do…. Not…. Put…. Your…. Trust…. In…. Men……
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  Apognophos

  Wow, I never saw that train station business before. Russell was out of his Hoboken mind.

  Back to the larger topic, though, Witnesses weren't really that attached to Russell anymore anyway -- he goes back to our great-grandparents' generation, after all -- so this doesn't make a big difference to them in sentimental terms. It does help in cleaning up a lot of untidy business in the history of the religion that shows that they were just another group of people making wild guesses. But I wonder how Witnesses of the future will describe the beginning of their religion, when asked:

  "Well, it started with Jesus."

  "Um, sure, I knew that all of Christianity started with Jesus, but when did your movement start?"

  "Well, uh... I guess the early 1900s, 1930s is when we got our name."

  "Who founded it?"

  "Well, uh... the governing... body???"

  "They just materialized into place as the leaders, just like that?"

  "Um... yes?"