William Redding

by Bobcat 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OrphanCrow

  Bobcat, here is another book written by William Redding.

  Our Near Future - a Message to all the Governments and People of the Earth 1896

  He certainly agreed with Russell on several points (except for who Israel is/was - Redding was convinced that America was Israel).

  In this book, published in 1894, The Millennial Kingdom A Book Of Surprises Containing Unusual Statements Supported By Positive Testimony, Redding does not name 1914/15 as a significant date.

  However, Russell did use the date 1914 (around 1894? not sure when he actually named 1914) and later books by Redding, published in 1896, also name this date - Redding says "about 1915" rather than point directly to 1914 in his book Our Near Future. Redding also uses the date of "about 1915" in his book Mysteries Unveiled - The Hoary Past Comes Forward with Astonishing Messages for the Prophetic Future, published also in 1896. Redding believed the new millennium would begin about 1915.

  At the back of Mysteries Unveiled, I found a list of books that Redding published with descriptions

  
  

  
  

  

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  It appears like Russell and Redding shared more than a interest in pyramidology and bible prophecy. They shared beliefs about doctors, medicine and vaccinations.

  Redding was writing about the evils of vaccinations long before the Golden Age magazine took a similar stand.
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  vienne

  Barbour adopted the 1914 date in the 1870s. The first mention of the 1914 date as the end of The Times of the Gentiles is in the September 1875 issue of The Herald of the Morning. In passing Barbour remarked, “The time of the Gentiles,” viz. Their seven prophetic times of 2520 years ... which began when God gave all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, in 606 B. C; do not end until 1914."

  Russell accepted that. From Separate Identity [pages 216-217]:

  
  

  Russell wrote an article entitled “Gentile Times: When Do They End?” for The Bible Examiner while still in Philadelphia. It was published in the October 1876 issue. Though his position on Gentile Times was the same as that held by Barbour, he didn’t mention Barbour or the Herald of the Morning, and Barbour discounted this as an open association with him.[1] Russell pointed to 1914, the date Barbour borrowed from Elliott’s Horae, and stated his belief that the ‘taking of the Bride’ was the first act to expect from the Christ:

  "At the commencement of our Christian era, 606 years of this time had passed, (70 years captivity, and 536 from Cyrus to Christ) which deducted from 2520, would show that the seven times will end in A.D. 1914; when Jerusalem shall be delivered forever, and the Jew say of the Deliverer, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him and He will save us.” When Gentile Governments shall have been dashed to pieces; when God shall have poured out of his fury upon the nation, and they acknowledge, him King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

  But, some one will say, “If the Lord intended that we should know, He would have told us plainly and distinctly how long.” But, no, brethren, He never does so. The Bible is to be a light to God’s children; – to the world, foolishness. Many of its writings are solely for our edification upon whom the ends of the world are come. As well say that God should have put the gold on top instead of in the bowels of the earth it would be too common; it would lose much of its value. So with truth; but, “to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom.

  We will ask, but not now answer, another question: If the Gentile Times end in 1914, (and there are many other and clearer evidences pointing to the same time) and we are told that it shall be with fury poured out; a time of trouble such as never was before, nor ever shall be; a day of wrath, etc., how long before does the church escape? As Jesus says, 'watch, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape those things coming upon the world.'"

  Brethren, the taking by Christ of His Bride, is evidently, one of the first acts in the Judgment; for judgment must begin at the house of God.

  [1] C. T. Russell: Gentile Times: When Do They End? Bible Examiner, October 1876. The article is signed from “W. Philadelphia.”
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  vienne

  The anti-Doctor, anti-vaccination stance arose under Rutherford, not under Russell.
  
• 

  OrphanCrow

  In the publications, yes, Rutherford was in power when their vaccination views became known. That is only because the Golden Age magazine started in 1919. It doesn't mean that those ideas came out of the blue.

  The fellas who were writing for the Golden Age were around long before Russell died. They would have had those views all along, long before Rutherford took power.

  It appears like Redding would have had no problem rubbing elbows with those early Bible Students prior to Russell dying.

  I was not making the claim that Russell got his ideas from Redding about 1914. I said they shared that notion and that Redding likely got it from Russell.
• 

  vienne

  Russell was addicted to medical books published for the public. These included suggestions on home treatment some of which are banned today, or just silly. He was not anti-medicine. In fact a number of his prominent followers were physicians.

  The anti- and quack- medicine views came from the Golden Age's editor who read among other authors Bernar McFadden. Russell did not share those views. This is a product of the 1920s. In Russell's day medical practice in the USA was divided into several strands: Ecclectic, Homeopathic, Allopathic [today's MDs, the term is now considered pejorative], and Herbal. Barbour was an 'electric physician.' This was seen as valid medical treatment in that era; several of Barbour's advertisements for his medical practice exist. Russell was attracted to advice from all of these. Russell considered manufacturing and selling a common remedy [Compound Oxygen] for the benefit of the brotherhood but decided against it. This was prompted by John Corbin Sunderlin's claim of relief from chronic pain, the result of Civil War wounds. A letter from Sunderlin to the maker of Compound Oxygen was used as an endorsement by the company.
  

  Yes, Redding got it from Russell. An Advent Christian writer also pointed to 1914, but seems to have gotten it from Elliott's Horae. Others included things Russell wrote in their own writing without being Russellites. This wasn't as uncommon as one might think. In the late 19th and early 20th Century it was not exceptional for religious people to think they were God's mouthpiece. But each of them borrowed ideas from others. In Russell's case some call him a plagiarist. He does not, in my opinion, reach that level. But he was influenced by others. And this includes his views of medicine.

  In the Russell v. Russell transcript he talks about treating members of the Bethel staff with remedies. These were derived from physician-authored books such as R. V. Pierce's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English; or Medicine Simplified. These were printed by the hundreds and advice from them appeared in almanacs. Russell did not reject medical practice.
  
• 

  OrphanCrow

  In Russell's day medical practice in the USA was divided into several strands: Ecclectic, Homeopathic, Allopathic [today's MDs, the term is now considered pejorative], and Herbal. Barbour was an 'electric physician.' This was seen as valid medical treatment in that era; several of Barbour's advertisements for his medical practice exist. Russell was attracted to advice from all of these.

  In Russell's day, the allopathic doctors were the ones who were supported by the American Medical Association. Doctors that were osteopaths, chiropractors, herbal, eccletic, etc, were not considered legitimate medical practitioners by the AMA.

  Russell was attracted to "alternative" medical practitioners. He had many followers who were chiropractors and osteopaths. At that time in history, the AMA did not recognize them as "doctors" per se, in spite of them having "dr" in front of their names. They were not licensed by the AMA. It would take many decades and lots of legal battles before chiros and osteopaths were recognized as legitimate medical practitioners - I believe it was well into the 70s before osteopaths could be licensed in California, for example.

  I guess I should have said this in my earlier post: Russell was anti-AMA, along with many of his followers. They sought out alternative medical treatment. They were in opposition to the American Medical Association.

  In the Russell v. Russell transcript he talks about treating members of the Bethel staff with remedies. These were derived from physician-authored books such as R. V. Pierce's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English; or Medicine Simplified. These were printed by the hundreds and advice from them appeared in almanacs. Russell did not reject medical practice.

  R.V.Pierce. Quack doctor. Russell did not reject medical practice - he embraced quack medicine.

  Dr Ray Vaughn Pierce (pictured, courtesy of Project Gutenberg) was an über-quack whose laboratory in Buffalo, NY, produced millions of dollars worth of patent remedies. As well as the Pleasant Pellets shown below, there were Dr Pierce’s Anuric Tablets, Dr Pierce’s Favorite Prescription, Dr Pierce’s Vaginal Tablets, Dr Pierce’s Extract of Smart-Weed and Dr Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery – a licorice-flavoured tonic that reportedly contained quinine, opium and alcohol and was advertised as giving men “an appetite like a cow-boy’s and the digestion of an ostrich.”
  Pierce ran an opulent hotel for invalids, the first incarnation of which burnt down in 1881. The rebuilt hotel is said to have included among its guests the Sundance Kid and Etta Place in 1901.
  His company, the World’s Dispensary Medical Association, gave away freebies such as calendars and notebooks to advertise the products, and Pierce’s own book, The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English, was a vehicle for recommending his own medicines. As well as the laboratory in Buffalo, the company had a British branch at Great Russell Street, London.
  Dr Pierce was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1878 and served one term. After his death in 1914 his son, Dr Valentine Mott Pierce, continued the business and Pierce products were still available as late as the 1970s.

  
  

  https://thequackdoctor.com/index.php/dr-pierces-pleasant-pellets/
  

  and more about the so-called 'doctor' (physician??):

  https://www.csicop.org/sb/show/dr._pierce_medicine_for_weak_women

  The man who became one of the greatest sellers of nostrums in America was Buffalo’s Ray Vaughn Pierce (1840–1914).
  Pierce parlayed an off-beat medical degree into a quackery empire that included an Invalids’ Hotel. His World’s Dispensary Medical Association endlessly dispensed Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery and a host of other elixirs, copies of his medical tome (The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser [1888]), and a profusion of advertising giveaways. (See the Nickell Collection of Dr. R.V. Pierce Medical Artifacts, part of the New York state digital repository initiative, posted by CFI Libraries Director Tim Binga.1)