PASTOR CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL AND THE WTB&TS. THE BIBLE STUDENTS & JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.

Pastor Charles Taze Russell (1852 - 1916)

2010-10-16T02:53:01.366-06:00

“The following history is given not merely because I have been urged to give a review of God’s leadings in the path of light, but specially because I believe it to be needful that the truth be modestly told, that misapprehensions and prejudicial misstatements may be disarmed, and that our readers may see how hitherto the Lord has helped and guided.” - The Watch Tower, July 15, 1906, p. 229. Following those words Charles Taze Russell proceeded to outline the developments that led to his publishing Millennial Dawn (later called Studies in the Scriptures) and Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence (now known as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom). This history is of special interest to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Why? Because their present understanding of Bible truths and their activities can be traced back to the 1870’s and the work of C. T. Russell and his associates, and from there to the Bible and early Christianity. - Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Young Man in Search of God

While still in his late teens, Russell started a weekly Bible study group with other young men. They began to analyze the Bible’s teachings on other subjects, such as immortality of the soul as well as Christ’s ransom sacrifice and his second coming. In 1877, at the age of 25, Russell sold his share in his father’s prospering business and began a full-time preaching career.

In 1878 Russell had a major disagreement with one of his collaborators, who had rejected the teaching that Christ’s death could be an atonement for sinners. In his rebuttal Russell wrote: “Christ accomplished various good things for us in his death and resurrection. He was our substitute in death; he died the just for the unjust—all were unjust. Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man. . . . He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” He continued: “To redeem is to buy back. What did Christ buy back for all men? Life. We lost it by the disobedience of the first Adam. The second Adam [Christ] bought it back with his own life.”—Mark 10:45; Romans 5:7, 8; 1 John 2:2; 4:9, 10.

Always a staunch advocate of the ransom doctrine, Russell severed all ties with this former collaborator. In July 1879, Russell started to publish Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, known worldwide today as The Watchtower—Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. In 1881 he, in association with other dedicated Christians, established a nonprofit Bible society. It was called Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, known today as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the legal agency that acts in behalf of Jehovah’s Witnesses. From the very beginning, Russell insisted that there would be no collections taken at congregation meetings nor contributions solicited through the Watch Tower publications. The people who joined Russell in deep Bible study became known simply as the Bible Students.

A Return to Bible Truth

As a result of their Bible study, Russell and his associates came to reject Christendom’s teachings of a mysterious “Most Holy Trinity,” an inherently immortal human soul, and eternal torment in hellfire. They also rejected the need for a separate seminary-trained clergy class. They wanted to return to the humble origins of Christianity, with spiritually qualified elders to lead the congregations without thought of a salary or remuneration.—1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9.

In their investigation of God’s Word, those Bible Students were keenly interested in the prophecies of the Christian Greek Scriptures related to “the end of the world” and to Christ’s “coming.” (Matthew 24:3, KJ) By turning to the Greek text, they discovered that Christ’s “coming” was, in fact, a “pa‧rou‧si′a,” or invisible presence. Therefore, Christ had given his disciples information about the evidence of his invisible presence in the time of the end, not a future visible coming. Along with this study, those Bible students had a keen desire to understand the Bible’s chronology in relation to Christ’s presence. Without understanding all the details, Russell and his associates realized that 1914 would be a crucial date in human history.—Matthew 24:3-22; Luke 21:7-33, Int.

Russell knew that a great preaching work had to be done. He was conscious of the words of Jesus recorded by Matthew: “And this good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14; Mark 13:10) There was a sense of urgency to the activity of those Bible Students prior to 1914. They believed that their preaching activity would culminate in that year, and therefore they felt they should expend every effort to help others to know “this good news of the kingdom.” Eventually, C. T. Russell’s Bible sermons were being published in thousands of newspapers around the world.

- Mankind’s Search for God - 1990,WTB&TS
_____________________________________________________________________________________

AFTER THESE SUPPLEMENTAL COMMENTS, CLICK ON THE PHOTOS IN THE SECOND SECTION OF THIS BLOG. MOST OF THE UPDATES WILL BE WITHIN EACH OF THE INDIVIDUAL POSTS. charlestrussell1914@msn.com

This web site is not affiliated with or sanctioned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. http://www.watchtower.org/ Additional reading: http://www.jw.org/index.html Also see: http://www.jw-media.org/index.html. The Official Web Sites of Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower Society should be recognized as the authoritative source about the beliefs, teachings, and activities of Jehovah's Witnesses. This blog is not affiliated with any other blog, web site, Youtube, Myspace, or Facebook page. If I have not provided a link or a reference to the original source for any articles on this blog, please let me know so that I can rectify the situation. I want all deserving parties to receive the full credit for any items on this site. The majority of the information has come from Watchtower publications, additional data has come from other Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bible Student publications, Adventist publications, Google, Wikipedia, and other sources. All of the photos have been added to the posts by me, I will also link directly to other sites. The information on this blog was researched and completed by others. All credit goes to them for the data, I have simply placed it on one site for easy reading. If you come across any dead links please let me know so that I can fix them, thank you for your help. charlestrussell1914@msn.com
____________________________________________________________________________________

No, dear friends, I claim nothing of superiority, nor supernatural power, dignity or authority; nor do I aspire to exalt myself in the estimation of my brethren of the household of faith, except in the sense that the Master urged it, saying, "Let him who would be great among you be your servant." (Matt. 20:27.) And my position among men of the world and of the nominal church is certainly far from exalted, being "everywhere spoken against." I am fully contented, however, to wait for exaltation until the Lord's due time. (I Pet. 5:6.) In the Apostle's words I therefore answer, "Why look ye upon us, as though by our own power we had done these things? We also are men of like passions with yourselves"--of like infirmities and frailties, earnestly striving, by overcoming many besetments, discouragements, etc., to press along the line toward the mark of the prize of our high calling, and claiming only, as a faithful student of the Word of God, to be an index finger, as I have previously expressed it, to help you to trace for yourselves, on the sacred page, the wonderful plan of God--no less wonderful to me, I assure you, than to you, dearly beloved sharers of my faith and joy. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/07/pastor-russell.html

Next, he invited J. H. Paton, the other assistant editor of the Herald, to write an article in support of faith in the blood of Christ as the basis for atonement for sin. Paton did write the article, and it was published in the December issue. After repeated unsuccessful efforts to reason on the matter with Barbour from the Scriptures, Russell broke off association with him and withdrew support from his magazine. In July 1879, Russell began to publish a new magazine—Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence—which was from the start a special advocate of the ransom. But that was not the end of it. The principal theological voice in the first issues of Zion’s Watch Tower was that of John H. Paton. His pen produced their first book, Day Dawn, or Gospel in Type and Prophecy, and the bulk of the articles appearing in their magazine. He wrote and published three books which upheld this position (among other topics), Day Dawn, Moses and Christ, and The Perfect Day, and published a magazine called The World’s Hope, which emphasized his views on human destiny. He also traveled as an evangelist and teacher of “The Larger Hope.” http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/04/john-h-paton.html

George Storrs, was publisher of the magazine Bible Examiner, in Brooklyn, New York. Storrs, who was born on December 13, 1796, was initially stimulated to examine what the Bible says about the condition of the dead as a result of reading something published (though at the time anonymously) by a careful student of the Bible, Henry Grew, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Storrs became a zealous advocate of what was called conditional immortality—the teaching that the soul is mortal and that immortality is a gift to be attained by faithful Christians. He also reasoned that since the wicked do not have immortality, there is no eternal torment. Storrs traveled extensively, lecturing on the subject of no immortality for the wicked. Among his published works was the Six Sermons, which eventually attained a distribution of 200,000 copies. Without a doubt, Storrs’ strong Bible-based views on the mortality of the soul as well as the atonement and restitution (restoration of what was lost due to Adamic sin; Acts 3:21) had a strong, positive influence on young Charles T. Russell. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/george-storrs.html

Russell referred quite openly to the assistance in Bible study he had received from others. Not only did he acknowledge his indebtedness to Second Adventist Jonas Wendell but he also spoke with affection about two other individuals who had aided him in Bible study. Russell said of these two men: “The study of the Word of God with these dear brethren led, step by step, into greener pastures.” One, George W. Stetson, was an earnest student of the Bible and pastor of the Advent Christian Church in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. For ten months during 1872 Stetson pastored the church in Pittsburgh where he met a young Charles Taze Russell. Then he led the Edinboro, Pennsylvania, congregation for six years until his death. His dying request was that Pastor Russell give his funeral sermon (Reprints, p. 46) where over twelve hundred attended and heard the good news of the kingdom of God. He was not only a minister, but also a school teacher, and physician. As a member of the Advent Christian Church he and Wendell worked together in several churches throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio in the early 1870s. They also wrote for George Storrs’ magazine The Herald of Life and the Coming Kingdom, and for other magazines such as The World’s Crisis. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/george-stetson.html

Anxious to learn, from any quarter, whatever God had to teach, I at once wrote to Mr. Barbour, informing him of my harmony on other points and desiring to know particularly why, and upon what Scriptural evidences, he held that Christ's presence and the harvesting of the Gospel age dated from the Autumn of 1874. The answer showed that my surmise had been correct, viz.: that the time arguments, chronology, etc., were the same as used by Second Adventists in 1873, and explained how Mr. Barbour and Mr. J. H. Paton, of Michigan, a co-worker with him, had been regular Second Adventists up to that time; and that when the date 1874 had passed without the world being burned, and without their seeing Christ in the flesh, they were for a time dumb-founded. They had examined the time-prophecies that had seemingly passed unfulfilled, and had been unable to find any flaw, and had begun to wonder whether the time was right and their expectations wrong,--whether the views of restitution and blessing to the world, which myself and others were teaching, might not be the things to look for. It seems that not long after their 1874 disappointment, a reader of the Herald of the Morning, who had a copy of the Diaglott, noticed something in it which he thought peculiar,--that in `Matt. 24:27,37,39`, the word which in our common version is rendered coming is translated presence. This was the clue; and, following it, they had been led through prophetic time toward proper views regarding the object and manner of the Lord's return. I, on the contrary, was led first to proper views of the object and manner of our Lord's return and then to the examination of the time for these things, indicated in God's Word. Thus God leads his children often from different starting points of truth; but where the heart is earnest and trustful, the result must be to draw all such together.http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/04/nelson-n-barbour-and-1873.html

The writings of Henry Grew influenced George Storrs, and later, Charles Taze Russell. Henry Grew and George Storrs are both mentioned in the October 15, 2000 issue of the The Watchtower magazine, published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of the Jehovah's Witnesses. About 1835, Grew penned an important pamphlet that exposed the teachings of the immortality of the soul and hellfire as unscriptural. He felt that these doctrines blasphemed God. This pamphlet was to have far-reaching effects. In 1837, 40-year-old George Storrs found a copy on a train. A list of Henry Grew's religious writings includes: Cristian Loyalty: A Sermon on Matthew XXII:21, Designed to Illustrate the Authority of Caesar and Jesus Christ (1810), An Examination of the Divine Testimony Concerning the Character of the Son of God (1824), A Tribute to the Memory of the Apostles, and an Exhibition of the First Christian Churches (1836), The Practices of the Early Christians Considered (1838), A Review of Phelps' Argument for the Perpetuity of the Sabbath (1844), The Intermediate State (1849), The Sabbath (1850), An Examination of the Divine Testimony on the Nature and Character of the Son of God (1855), An Appeal to Pious Trinitarians (1857), The Atonement (1859), Divine Dispensations, Past, Present and Future (1861). http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/appeal-to-pious-trinitarians.html

In course of time there came other stirrings among those Christians who professed to be of the “chaste virgin” class, particularly that in connection with a man born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the year 1781. This man was William Miller, who became the founder of the so-called Millerites or Adventists. Says M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume 6, page 271: About 1833, when a resident of Low Hampton, N.Y., he began his career as an apostle of the new doctrine, which taught that the world was coming to an end in 1843. The main argument on which his belief rested was that relative to the termination of the 2300 days in Daniel 8:14, which he regarded as years. Then considering the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24, as the key to the date of the 2300 days of the preceding chapter, and dating the periods B.C. 457, when Artaxerxes, king of Persia, sent up Ezra from his captivity, to restore the Jewish polity at Jerusalem (Ezra 7), and ending the seventy weeks, as commentators generally do, in A.D. 33, with the crucifixion of Christ, he found the remainder of the 2300 days, which was 1810, would end in 1843. For ten years he held forth to this purport, and succeeded in gathering a large number of followers, which is said to have reached fifty thousand, who awaited, with credulous expectation, the appointed day. The result, however, turning out contrary to the teaching of their apostle, the Adventists, as they are sometimes termed, gradually forsook Miller. He died at Low Hampton, Washington County, N.Y., December 20, 1849. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2008/12/william-miller-herald-of-second-advent.html

Other than Miller, the man who likely contributed most to the success of the Millerite movement was Joshua V. Himes. Pastor of the Second Christian Church of Boston when the advent message came to him in 1839, Himes soon threw all of his many talents and energies into the task of propagating the advent message. Himes was a powerful preacher, and a man of deep spirituality and perfect integrity. His personality was attractive and he had a gift for popular, appealing presentation of his message. His ability in the pulpit was outshone only by his unusual gifts as an editor and an organizer. Soon some of the best publishing facilities in the country were enlisted for the publication of the numerous papers, tracts, books, pamphlets, songbooks, charts, broadsides, and handbills issued under his direction. When an evangelistic series was conducted in New York City, Himes started a daily newspaper, the Midnight Cry, to publicize the advent teachings. For a time ten thousand copies a day were sold or given away on the streets. It was Joshua Himes who was responsible for drawing Miller out of the small towns and villages into the large cities, and his promotional ability provided more openings for sermons than could be filled. Tens of thousands of persons attended the camp meetings Himes organized and managed, and more thousands were added as the movement spread beyond his personal supervision. “In approximately 130 camp meetings held in 1843 and 1844 between 500,000 and 1,000,000 were estimated to have attended—and the total population of the States was only 17,0000,000.” http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/joshua-vaughan-himes-18051895.html

Thirty years after the Millerite “Great Disappointment” of October 22, 1844, Isaac C. Wellcome published the first general history of the movement that had promoted the belief that the Second Advent of Jesus would take place on that date. By 1874 the Adventists had developed into several separate groups, among them the Evangelical Adventists, the Advent Christians, the Church of God, and the Seventh-day Adventists. Each group claimed to be the legitimate heir of William Miller and his teachings. Wellcome belonged to the Advent Christian branch and wrote his work not only to maintain memory of the Millerite movement, but also to demonstrate that the Advent Christians continued the original Millerite faith while, among competing groups, the Seventh-day Adventists had their origins in fanaticism and existed outside the recognized boundaries of Adventism. Part history and part apologetics, Wellcome’s History of the Second Advent Message nonetheless has become recognized as an important source of information about early Adventism that also gives insight into the movement’s selfunderstanding as it sought to define and preserve itself in the wake of bitter disappointment. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/12/isaac-c-wellcome.html

Among the younger men who supported William Miller in his preaching of the advent of Christ was Charles Fitch. Born in December, 1805, he was only thirty-three years old when he first heard Miller in 1838. After his education at Brown University he had been a pastor much beloved in the several churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts where he had served. It was while he was pastor of the Marlboro Chapel, a Congregational church, that he heard Miller lecture and later sent for copies of his sermon. By 1843 Fitch was one of the most prominent of the Millerite leaders. In January of that year he began to edit a weekly journal called the Second Advent of Christ. In this he printed (July 26, 1843) his sermon (from Rev. 14 and 18) on the mighty angel who cried, “Babylon the great is fallen,” and who was followed by the warning voice, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” In this Fitch contended that the term Babylon was no longer limited to the Roman Catholic Church, but now included also the great body of Protestant Christendom. He maintained that both branches of Christendom had, by their rejection of the light on the Advent, fallen from the high estate of pure Christianity. He contended that Protestantism was either cold to the doctrine of the Second Advent or had spiritualized it away. This address was put into pamphlet form and later reprinted in various Millerite papers. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/07/charles-fitch-1805-1844.html

The Birth of Zion's Watch Tower

2010-10-09T23:44:00.082-06:00

YOUR VOTE WANTED
HERALD OF THE MORNING
February 1879 - Vol. 8 - No. 2, page 40

I have a question to propound to every subscriber and reader of the Herald of the Morning, viz. how many of you, want a paper like the Herald twice a month instead of once. Many of those who love the Herald and the truths taught therein, have suggested that it be issued semi-monthly saying, they get hungry between bites.

For various reasons we have not deemed it proper to comply with this request: one of these the price would necessarily be double, as well as the paper. True at one dollar a year it would be cheaper than most religious papers; but many of our subscribers would find it difficult enough to raise even that small amount, for not many rich, but the poor of this world, rich in faith, are the ones who relish these rich bounties and dainties of God’s word of promise.

I now propose—if there are many of you who would like to have and read it--: to publish at Pittsburgh, Pa. Another paper with another name and other matter; but of the same general character, size and price (50 cts a year) as the Herald, which would be its auxiliary; the Herald issued on the 1st, and the new paper on the 15th of each month. This would enable all who desire a paper oftener to have it.

While I should continue one of the publishers of the Herald, I should probably be unable to render any assistance to its editing. The two papers would be one in spirit and subject, but separate and distinct in management, and finances.

I presume brothers Paton, Keith, Adams and others could do more writing than they have been doing for the Herald; and though I have no assurance of the kind from them, I think we may safely take for granted they will be glad to write more to you, about the sparkling jewels of our casket.

Now I want a vote from each of you. Those who want another paper, who are anxious for it: write at once; saying; I subscribe for the new paper. Let those who receive the Herald free (unable to pay), as well as those who do pay,--write. For the new paper, like the Herald, would be just as free as the air you breathe, to all the Lord’s poor: trusting the giver of all mercies, to provide the means for its support, if he desires it to live.

Do not put off until tomorrow, what you can do now. Take a postal card (send no money until we decide whether the paper is wanted), this moment, and let me know if you want it. All who do not write will be accounted as voting, No. My directions are C.T. Russell, Pittsburgh, PA.
_____________________

THE NEW PAPER
HERALD OF THE MORNING
March 1879 - Vol. 8 - No. 3, page 42

Those sending in a vote for the new paper, will be desirous of knowing the results. Those not sending a postal card, being counted as voting, NO; shows that another paper is not generally desired: and to your decision we acquiesce.

We have no desire to entail on ourself the labor and expense of publishing another paper, if you do not want it, and feel very anxious for it. Those from whom we have heard were evidently pleased with the prospect, and hopeful that it would start, but as compared with the whole number, they are a minority. You may therefore consider the matter as abandoned for the present, unless I hear from a great many more during the next few days: C. T. Russell

_________________________

SUPPLEMENT TO
Zion's Watch Tower,
And "Herald of Christ's Presence."

PITTSBURGH, PA., JULY 1, 1879.

To the readers of the "HERALD OF THE MORNING,"

DEAR FRIENDS: My connection with the "Herald" having been terminated rather suddenly, and under circumstances which must seem rather remarkable and peculiar to you, I feel it to be a duty both to you and to myself to offer an explanation of the manner of withdrawal and my reasons for so doing. Quite a number who were personally acquainted with me thought there must be more of the story to tell, and I have received a number of letters asking an explanation. To these inquiries and to many unexpressed of similar character, let me offer the following statement:

Read the rest of the story: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/09/to-readers-of-herald-of-morning.html

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/zions-watch-tower-1879_11.html

Pastor Russell's view of William Miller

2010-09-27T15:03:00.048-06:00

All know something of the failure of Brother Miller’s expectations. The Lord did not come in 1844, and the world was not burned up with fire, as he had expected and taught others to expect; and this was a great disappointment to those “holy people” who had so confidently looked for Christ (“Michael”) then to appear and to exalt them with him in power and glory. But, notwithstanding the disappointment, the movement had its designed effects—of awakening an interest in the subject of the Lord’s coming, and of casting reproach upon the subject by reason of mistaken expectations. We say designed effects because without a doubt the hand of the Lord was in it. It not only did a work corresponding to that of the first advent movement, when our Lord was born, when the wise men came from the East and when “all men were in expectation of him” (Matt. 2:1,2; Luke 3:15), but it corresponded with it in time also, being just thirty years before the anointing of our Lord, at thirty years of age, at the beginning of his work as Messiah. That “Miller movement,” as it is slightingly called, brought also an individual blessing to the “holy people” who participated in it: it led to a careful searching of the Scriptures, and to confidence in God’s Word above the traditions of men; and it warmed and fed and united the hearts of God’s children in unsectarian fellowship; for those interested were of all denominations, though principally Baptists. It is since that movement ended, that some of these have organized and bound themselves as new sects, thus blinding themselves to some of the blessings due in the “harvest.” Read the full story: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/04/pastor-russells-view-of-william-miller_10.html

The Problem with "False Prophecy" Polemics

2010-08-29T14:27:00.053-06:00

A polemic is a form of dispute, wherein the main efforts of the disputing parties are aimed at establishing the superiority of their own points of view regarding an issue. Along with debate, polemic is one of the more common forms of dispute. Similar to debate, it is constrained by a definite thesis which serves as the subject of controversy. However, unlike debate, which may seek common ground between two parties, a polemic is intended to establish the supremacy of a single point of view by refuting an opposing point of view. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - August 29, 2010
__________________________

Suppose I had access to everything you had done or said since you were a little child, stored on a computer. It would be a simple matter for me to pick out a hundred or two hundred of the worst things you’d said and done over the course of your life, to write them up in a list with dates, times and places and then to proclaim, in the same way as a correspondent did in one of his emails to me: “The question is not what you have got wrong, but whether you got anything right.” On the other hand, by a similar process of selecting the 100-200 kindest, most generous, loving things you’d done, I could equally make you look like a saint. Both pictures would be true in a sense, but neither would be the whole truth. Why is this important?

In the last 125 years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have published literally millions of words in publications such as The Watchtower. This includes powerful arguments against atheism and the theory of evolution, eloquent defences of the Bible as the inspired word of God, articles upholding the Bible’s stance on moral issues such as abortion, fornication, adultery and homosexual lifestyles. Watchtower publications have long exhorted their readers to display Christian qualities and imitate Jesus. They have shown how applying the Bible’s counsel can benefit family life. Through The Watchtower, millions of people have been comforted by the Bible’s message of hope.

You might expect that evangelical Christian organizations would happily applaud most of the above. After all, evangelical Christians believe in God and reject evolution, consider the Bible to be God’s inspired word, oppose sexual sins and abortion. They, too, speak of the need to imitate Jesus and display Christlike qualities. You would expect, then, that evangelical Christian groups could find a lot of positive things to say about The Watchtower. You’d think they’d congratulate Jehovah’s Witnesses for energetically spreading the above-mentioned views throughout the world and in literally hundreds of languages. But you would be wildly wrong.

An analysis of quotations from The Watchtower and other Jehovah’s Witness publications made by evangelical Christian writers - particularly on the Internet, but also in print - reveals that, far from commending Witness literature for all the positive material they publish, these writers consistently attack Jehovah’s Witnesses and actively seek anything that could possibly be used to discredit them - including many things published more than 100 years ago!

You could compare their attitude with that of a man who visits one of the world’s most beautiful cities - say Vienna. Instead of touring the most attractive parts of the city, though, this man visits the Municipal Garbage Dump and photographs the rubbish there. Then he goes to the industrial area and photographs the factories. Everywhere he goes he looks for the ugliest, most sordid parts of the city. Making copious use of close-ups to highlight the least attractive parts and using the most unflattering camera angles, he ensures his pictures give the worst possible impression. Then, on his return home, he shows the photographs to his friends, to convince them that Vienna is the most awful city in the world.

In resorting to similar tactics, critics of Witness publications immediately reveal their bias. The Watchtower Society is their ideological opponent, to be defeated at all costs. They comb through old Watchtowers, going back as far as 130 years. They take whatever suits their purpose and ignore the rest. They rip quotes out of their context, attempting to make it look as though they say much more than they actually meant. Why do they do it? They do it because it is their job to do it! In short, they are far from being an objective source of information.

Frankly, few Jehovah's Witnesses are likely to be taken in by such chicanery. It is easy to detect an agenda behind this type of mudslinging. Just about anyone who wanted to believe it has already done so. And as for the rest of us, what hasn't killed us has made us stronger.

But we should not reject a person’s criticism simply because we feel it is wrongly motivated. Prejudiced and hate-filled people can sometimes be at least partially right. As Christians, we should be discerning, remembering the admonition of the proverb, “anyone inexperienced puts faith in every word.” (Proverbs 14:15) With that in mind, let us examine the assertions commonly made in anti-Witness literature concerning the Witnesses’ alleged “false prophecies”.

Read the full story at: http://jehovah.to/xlation/fp.html

Additional Reading: http://www.jehovah.to/exe/general/prophetic.htm

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/05/why-so-many-false-alarms.html

Old Theology Quarterly

2010-08-14T01:48:00.023-06:00

"Pastor Russell's writings are said to have greater newspaper circulation every week than those of any other living man; a greater, doubtless, than the combined circulation of the writings of all the priests and preachers in North America; greater even than the work of Arthur Brisbane, Norman Hapgood, George Horace Lorimer, Dr. Frank Crane, Frederick Haskins, and a dozen other of the best known editors and syndicate writers put together." --The Continent.

CHARLES Taze Russell, known the world over as Pastor Russell, author, lecturer and minister of the Gospel, was born at Pittsburg, Pa., February 16, 1852; died October 31, 1916. He was a son of Joseph L. and Eliza Birnie Russell, both of Scotch-Irish descent. He was educated in the common schools and under private tutors. He was married in 1879 to Maria Frances Ackley. No children blessed this union. Eighteen years later a disagreement arose about the management of his journal, and a separation followed. Pastor Russell was the author of the following publications:

Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return; Food for Thinking Christians; Tabernacle Shadows; The Divine Plan of the Ages; The Time is at Hand; Thy Kingdom Come; The Battle of Armageddon; The Atonement Between God and Man; The New Creation; What Say the Scriptures About Hell; What Say the Scriptures About Spiritualism; Old Theology Tracts; The Photo-Drama of Creation; Etc., Etc. - OVERLAND MONTHLY, The Late Pastor Russell--by J. F. Rutherford
______________________

During 1880 Russell and his helpers were further busy in writing several tracts, each being numbered. After 1891 this tract series first regularly marked “Bible Students Tracts” also were called Old Theology Quarterly. They were provided free for general public distribution by Watch Tower readers to expose fallacies of church doctrines. Soon it was recognized that there was need for organizing a definite society to guide and direct the growing publishing work. So early in 1881 ZION’S WATCH TOWER TRACT SOCIETY was established as an unincorporated administrative agency with Russell as its manager. Russell and others liberally contributed $35,000 to get this tract-publishing organization going. They then moved from their 1879 headquarters located at 101 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, to new and larger premises in the 40 Federal Street building from where he had formerly directed his early chain-store enterprise. Through this new arrangement began to flow millions of Bible tracts and the printing of additional Watch Tower issues put out as pamphlets. By 1881 Russell had completed writing the large pamphlets entitled Tabernacle Teachings and Food for Thinking Christians, the latter being a 162-page booklet which was printed and distributed as a special edition of the Watch Tower for September, 1881. - January 15, 1955 Watchtower, WTB&TS
________________________

In 1879 and 1880 C. T. Russell and his associates founded some thirty congregations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, Ohio and Michigan. Russell himself arranged personal visits to each congregation. His program called for one or several Bible meetings with each group.

Those early congregations were called “ecclesias” (from the Greek ek·kle·si′a, meaning “congregation”) and at times were spoken of as “classes.” All congregation members voted congregationally on certain matters and also elected a board of elders, responsible for directing congregational matters. The ecclesias were linked together by accepting the pattern of activity of the congregation in Pittsburgh, where C. T. Russell and other Watch Tower writers were elders.

Jesus Christ ‘preached release to imprisoned captives.’ (Luke 4:16-21; Isa. 61:1, 2) If honest-hearted ones of the nineteenth century were to gain God-given freedom, religious error had to be exposed. Zion’s Watch Tower was serving that purpose. Yet, something else helped to fill the need—“Bible Students’ Tracts” (also called “Old Theology Quarterly”), written in 1880 and thereafter by Russell and his colleagues. These tracts were provided free for distribution by Watch Tower readers.

C. T. Russell and his associates believed they were in the time of harvest, and they were few in number—only about one hundred strong in 1881. But people needed liberating truth, and by God’s undeserved kindness they were going to receive it. “Wanted 1,000 Preachers” was the striking title of an article in Zion’s Watch Tower of April 1881. To those able to give one half or more of their time exclusively to the Lord’s work, it was suggested: “That you go forth into large or small cities, according to your ability, as Colporteurs or Evangelists, seek to find in every place the earnest Christians, many of whom you will find possessed of a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; to these seek to make known the riches of Our Father’s grace, and the beauties of His word, giving them tracts.” Among other things, these colporteurs (forerunners of today’s pioneer publishers) were to obtain Watch Tower subscriptions. Of course, not all Watch Tower readers could be full-time preachers. Yet, those who could not devote full time were not left out, for they were told: “If you have a half hour, or an hour, or two, or three, you can use it and it will be acceptable with the Lord of the harvest. Who can tell the blessings which may flow from one hour’s service under God’s direction.” - 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS
_____________________________

During those early years, the Watch Tower Society had what it called the Tower Tract Fund. What was that? The following interesting details were set out on the back of stationery sometimes used by Brother Russell: “This fund consists of the free-will offerings of those who have been fed and strengthened by the ‘meat in due season’ which the above publications [made available by the Watch Tower Society], as God’s instrumentalities, are now laying before the consecrated saints, the world over.

“This fund is constantly employed in sending out, gratis, thousands of copies of ZION’S WATCH TOWER and OLD THEOLOGY TRACTS most suitable to new readers. It also assists in the spread of the paper-bound editions of the DAWN series, by aiding those disposed to circulate them—colporteurs and others. It also provides a ‘poor fund’ by which any of the Lord’s children who, through age, or sickness, or from other cause, are unable to subscribe for the WATCH TOWER are supplied free, upon condition of their sending a letter or card at the beginning of each year, stating their desire and inability.

“No one is ever asked to contribute to this fund: all donations must be voluntary. We remind our readers of the Apostle’s words (1 Cor. 16:1, 2) and corroborate them by saying that those who can give and do give to spread the truth are sure to be repaid in spiritual favors.”

The global activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom continues to be supported by voluntary donations. In addition to the Witnesses themselves, many appreciative interested persons count it a privilege to support this Christian work with their voluntary contributions. - Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTB&TS
_________________________

To inform others of this timely information Russell and his associates published, in 1873, the booklet The Object and Manner of the Lord’s Return. Four years later a book was published entitled Three Worlds or Plan of Redemption. In 1879 Russell, along with fellow contributors, began publishing the Watchtower magazine under the title Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.

This magazine was published to keep to the fore the doctrine of the ransom and also the blessings to come to mankind as a result of it. The printing of the first issue was 6,000. Russell pledged that, in connection with the publishing of this magazine, they would not beg for money but depend entirely on voluntary contributions. This principle was also applied to all meetings, which were advertised with the slogan “Seats Free—No Collections.”

Further nondenominational Bible research resulted in the publishing of many tracts and pamphlets, some being called Bible Student’s Tracts, Old Theology Quarterly, Tabernacle Teachings, and Food for Thinking Christians. More than a million copies of the last-mentioned pamphlet were distributed.

In the beginning, messenger boys were sometimes hired to distribute literature, but quite early the principle was applied that the message be distributed by the unpaid, voluntary efforts of those who believed, servants of the Lord. Already in 1881 a call was made in Zion’s Watch Tower for volunteers, preachers.

- Centennial of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1884-1984, WTB&TS

Zion's Watch Tower (1879)

2010-08-11T13:46:00.028-06:00

Acting upon this leading of the Lord, I gave up traveling, and in July, 1879, the first number of ZION'S WATCH TOWER and Herald of Christ's Presence made its appearance. From the first, it has been a special advocate of the "ransom for all," and by the grace of God we hope this it will ever be. - Charlest Taze Russell, - July 15, 1906
__________________

Let us look back 133 years—back to 1877 C.E. By that time the religious sects and denominations of the realm of Christendom had multiplied greatly. However, at that time there was a small congregation of dedicated Bible students in Allegheny (now a part of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, U.S.A. This congregation was completely divorced from the religious systems of Christendom, which was then under attack by the evolution theory, the so-called Higher Criticism and materialism. Within that small congregation in Allegheny unsectarian study of God’s inspired Word aroused a driving sense of urgency. An elder of that congregation saw the need of publishing a new magazine that would champion the basic, underlying doctrines of the Holy Bible. His material wealth he decided to use in this behalf. So in July of 1879 he founded the desired magazine with himself as editor and publisher. This magazine was due to pose a problem for the world system of things, particularly for Christendom. It was entitled “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” Its editor and publisher was the self-sacrificing Bible student Charles Taze Russell.

This editor and fellow contributors to the new magazine and the congregation that backed it up stepped upon the world stage in the name of the God of Jeremiah, who served as priest at ancient Zion. The Bible speaks repeatedly of the Zion of Jeremiah’s time as being the residence of Jeremiah’s God. (Ps. 74:2; 48:1, 2) The magazine’s designation “Watch Tower” had to do with the Bible text quoted on the title page: “Watchman, what of the night?” “The morning cometh.” (Isa. 21:11, 12, Authorized Version) This suggested the purpose that the magazine was going to serve with regard to the fulfillment of Bible prophecies. But on page 2 of the second issue of the magazine (Volume 1, Number 2), at the top of the first column there appeared the heading: “Do You Want ‘Zion’s Watch Tower’?” Under this heading, paragraph three said:

“Do not suppose these remarks to be an appeal for money. No. ‘Zion’s Watch Tower’ has, we believe, JEHOVAH for its backer, and while this is the case it will never beg nor petition men for support. When He who says: ‘All the gold and silver of the mountains are mine,’ fails to provide necessary funds, we will understand it to be time to suspend the publication.”

GOING FORWARD IN THE DIVINE NAME

There is no room for debating the point. The publisher of Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence stepped into the world arena of religious activity in the name of JEHOVAH, just as the prophet Jeremiah of old did. So, then, did Jehovah fail to provide the necessary funds for the continued publication of this magazine? The answer to this question is obvious from the fact that never, since July of 1879 till now, did this magazine, in spite of being banned at various times in various lands, suspend publication or miss even a single issue! http://www.jw.org/
_________________

This is the first number of the first volume of "ZION'S WATCH TOWER," and it may not be amiss to state the object of its publication.

That we are living "in the last days"--"The day of the Lord"-- "the end" of the Gospel age, and consequently, in the dawn of the "new" age, are facts not only discernable by the close student of the Word, led by the spirit, but the outward signs recognizable by the world hear the same testimony, and we are desirous that the "household of faith" be fully awake to the fact, that--

"We are living, we are dwelling

In a grand and awful time;

In an age on ages telling

To be living is sublime."

And not alone to help awaken, but to assist them to "put on the whole armor of God, that they may be able to stand in the evil day;" and, besides all this, that giving all diligence, they add to their faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, self control, [temperance,] brotherly kindness, charity; when, as a result of these indwelling and flourishing graces, they shall be God-like [godly].

But, recognizing the beauty and necessity of these adornments of the spiritual man, they fail not to recognize that the merit toward God lies not in these moral virtues, but in Christ's perfect sacrifice, and though adorned by all these gems of character, we could not be recognized as God's children now, nor permitted ever to enter His presence without the robe of Christ's righteousness, the "wedding garment" necessary to our participation in "the marriage of the Lamb."

"Let us wear the white robe here,

E'en on earth our Father dear,

Holding fast they hand, and so

Through the world unspotted go."

Christians to whom an apology would be needed for directing attention to these things, should blush and be ashamed. Everything desirable, hopeful and precious stands closely and ever connected with them. They embrace nearly all the great motives to faith, watchfulness, obedience, holiness.

If God has given us a revelation, and tells us that it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work, where do so many Christians who profess to accept that Word of God as their rule and guide, get liberty to ignore more than one-half of it, thereby virtually saying it is unprofitable? When God has given us "a sure word of prophecy whereunto we do well to take heed," and when "the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done," shall those servants feel under no obligation to seek to understand those heavenly messages?

Should they heed worldly men and a worldly church who deem it pious and wise not to bother with these things, who would have us put them aside as empty fables and curious stories, and strange imagery, which could only unsettle our minds and interfere with Christian work; or shall we heed God who declares "these saying faithful and true" and says: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep the things that are written therein?" Surely He knows what is best calculated to inspire "a zeal according to knowledge," and what is necessary that we "be not soon shaken in mind."

"To him that hath an ear to hear what the spirit saith unto the churches," ZION'S WATCH TOWER hopes to give assistance and encouragement. It is in bondage to no man, no party and to no creed but the Bible; yet in the bonds of love and sympathy to "all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in truth and sincerity." It aims to represent "the chaste virgins," the prospective "Bride of Christ," and with them acknowledges only one master and head--Christ Jesus.

As its name indicates, it aims to be the lookout from whence matters of interest and profit may be announced to the "little flock," and as the "Herald of Christ's Presence," to give the "meat in due season" to the "household of faith."

It issues monthly, and if you desire its visit to your home, address at once as per notice on this page. If you have a neighbor or friend whom you think would be interested in or benefited by its instructions, you might call it to their attention; thus preaching the Word and doing good unto all men as you have opportunity.

The terms, fifty cents a year, (postage paid,) are moderate; but to all interested and desirous of having it, who cannot afford to pay, we will gladly send it free, but you must ask that ye may receive.

July 1879, ZION'S Watch Tower AND HERALD OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE

(Each Issue: 6,000 in English)

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/05/watchman-what-of-night.html
_____________________

AND TODAY:

THE WATCHTOWER

THE PURPOSE OF THIS MAGAZINE, The Watchtower, is to honor Jehovah God, the Supreme Ruler of the universe. Just as watchtowers in ancient times enabled a person to observe developments from afar, so this magazine shows us the significance of world events in the light of Bible prophecies. It comforts people with the good news that God’s Kingdom, which is a real government in heaven, will soon bring an end to all wickedness and transform the earth into a paradise. It promotes faith in Jesus Christ, who died so that we might gain everlasting life and who is now ruling as King of God’s Kingdom. This magazine has been published by Jehovah’s Witnesses continuously since 1879 and is nonpolitical. It adheres to the Bible as its authority. This publication is not for sale. It is provided as part of a worldwide Bible educational work supported by voluntary donations.

Each Issue: 42,162,000 in 188 Languages (per the April 1, 2011 Watchtower, WTB&TS) http://www.watchtower.org/

Don A. Adams (1925 - )

2010-08-11T13:19:00.112-06:00

Don Alden Adams is the current president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the oldest and most important of the corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses. - http://watchtower.org/

Born in about 1925 in Oak Park, Illinois, U.S., Adams grew up in a big family, which originally had connections to the Episcopal church. His mother showed interest in Jehovah's Witnesses and gradually the children also became interested. His father initially showed no interest, but involved himself in a legal case when one of Don's younger brothers was not exempted from military service; he eventually became a baptized Witness.

After serving as a full-time preacher, Adams was invited in late 1944 to serve at the world headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York, where he was secretary to Society president, Nathan H. Knorr. By the 1960s, Adams served directly under the Governing Body as a zone overseer, visiting various countries to audit branch offices and meet with Witness missionaries. Later, Adams directed world missionary activities, and served on the "Bethel Home Committee". In 2000, the New York Daily News described Adams as "a longtime insider...at the world headquarters in Brooklyn Heights". The Washington Post described Adams as "a 50-year veteran of the organization," which has been restated in subsequent publications.

Adams became president of the Watch Tower Society after Governing Body member Milton G. Henschel stepped down from the position in 2000. In that year, members of the Governing Body resigned from their executive positions of the corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses, although the periodical Christianity Today reported that the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses would continue its "oversight" role. Adams’ presidency is purely administrative, and he is not considered to have impacted the organization's ministry as have past Watch Tower Society presidents. - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 12/13/2010
_______________________________________________________________________

The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses has decided (Oct., 2000) that the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, etc. in the legal corporations (e.g., Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.,) do not have to be filled by anointed brothers. Therefore, all of the brothers that were currently holding these positions, all of whom were on the Governing Body, have resigned. Brothers of the other sheep have replaced them. Therefore, Brother Don A. Adams is now the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Quite a lengthy discussion was given as to the reason this was decided and why it's okay. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that this allows the Governing Body to step back and deal primarily with spiritual matters, while these brothers of the other sheep handle day-to-day business operations of the legal corporations. Brother Max H. Larson has been serving as the president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., for a number of years. He died on Sept., 24, 2011, and was replaced by Brother Leon Weaver Jr., as the new president of the New York corporation.

In addition, three new corporations have been formed: 1) Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, which will supervise matters of a religious and educational nature. This includes organizing the preaching work, holding conventions, etc. The directors and officers of this corporation are primarily brothers who work closely with the Service department in Patterson. Brother William Van de Wall is the president of this corporation. 2) Religious Order of Jehovah's Witnesses, which cares for matters pertaining to those in Special Full-Time service, including Bethelites, Special Pioneers, Traveling Overseers, etc. Brother Patrick LaFranca is the president of this corporation. 3) Kingdom Support Services, Inc., which handles design & engineering of buildings and holds titles to vehicles used by the Society.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Max Larson, president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, who helped to pioneer the printing operations and property acquisitions for Jehovah's Witnesses at their world headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, died on Saturday, Sept. 24, in Brooklyn at 96.

Larson was well-known and highly regarded around the world by both Witnesses and non-Witnesses, not only for his strong work ethic and publishing expertise, but especially for the gracious and dignified manner in which he dealt with others. He was baptized into the Jehovah's Witnesses on June 5, 1938, in Seattle, Washington. A few months later, he began his career as a member of the Witnesses' headquarters staff in Brooklyn, where he was assigned to operate a printing press.

In 1942, Larson was appointed as factory manager at the age of 26, supervising the global printing operations of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society for more than 60 years, making him the longest-serving factory manager in the history of the Witnesses' world headquarters.

Despite a severe shortage of raw materials during World War II, Larson was able to obtain paper and other supplies needed to meet the Witnesses' fast-growing publishing needs and sustain publication of The Watchtower, published continuously since 1879.

In addition to his responsibilities as factory manager, in 1949, Mr. Larson was appointed as construction supervisor and property manager for the Witnesses' world headquarters. This involved the acquisition of many properties used for the Witnesses' facilities in Brooklyn, including 25 Columbia Heights (the current world headquarters for Jehovah's Witnesses), 117 Adams St. (where commuters can still see the sign "Read God's Word the Bible Daily"), and the former shipping complex at 360 Furman St. (now One Brooklyn Bridge Park).

Max Harry Larson was born on April 29, 1915, in Tampico, Montana, the second of four children born to Harry and Sophia (née Madsen) Larson, immigrants from Denmark. The young couple moved their family to a rented farm in eastern Montana, where they raised Max along with his older brother Norman.

While working in Brooklyn, Mr. Larson met fellow headquarters staff member Helen Lapshanski. The two developed a friendship and were married on April 7, 1956.

Larson is survived by his cherished wife of 55 years, Helen; his sisters, Jean Mock of Brooklyn and Laverna Semprebon of Lugano, Switzerland; and a host of nieces and nephews.

- by Brooklyn Eagle, published online 10-11-2011 @ http://www.brooklyneagle.com/

______________________________

Leon Weaver Jr. is the current president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

Don Alden Adams is the current president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.

J. R. Brown, is the main spokesman in the Office of Public Information for the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.

Seven Times (2,520 years) 607 B.C.E. - 1914 C.E.

2010-08-02T22:56:00.040-06:00

Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses say that God’s Kingdom was established in 1914?

Two lines of evidence point to that year: (1) Bible chronology and (2) the events since 1914 in fulfillment of prophecy. Here we will consider the chronology. For fulfillment of prophecy, see the main heading “Last Days.”

Read Daniel 4:1-17. Verses 20-37 show that this prophecy had a fulfillment upon Nebuchadnezzar. But it also has a larger fulfillment. How do we know that? Verses 3 and 17 show that the dream that God gave to King Nebuchadnezzar deals with the Kingdom of God and God’s promise to give it “to the one whom he wants to . . . even the lowliest one of mankind.” The entire Bible shows that Jehovah’s purpose is for his own Son, Jesus Christ, to rule as His representative over mankind. (Ps. 2:1-8; Dan. 7:13, 14; 1 Cor. 15:23-25; Rev. 11:15; 12:10) The Bible’s description of Jesus shows that he was indeed “the lowliest one of mankind.” (Phil. 2:7, 8; Matt. 11:28-30) The prophetic dream, then, points to the time when Jehovah would give rulership over mankind to his own Son.

What was to happen in the meantime? Rulership over mankind, as represented by the tree and its rootstock, would have “the heart of a beast.” (Dan. 4:16) The history of mankind would be dominated by governments that displayed the characteristics of wild beasts. In modern times, the bear is commonly used to represent Russia; the eagle, the United States; the lion, Britain; the dragon, China. The Bible also uses wild beasts as symbols of world governments and of the entire global system of human rulership under the influence of Satan. (Dan. 7:2-8, 17, 23; 8:20-22; Rev. 13:1, 2) As Jesus showed in his prophecy pointing to the conclusion of the system of things, Jerusalem would be “trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations” were fulfilled. (Luke 21:24) “Jerusalem” represented the Kingdom of God because its kings were said to sit on “the throne of the kingship of Jehovah.” (1 Chron. 28:4, 5; Matt. 5:34, 35) So, the Gentile governments, represented by wild beasts, would ‘trample’ on the right of God’s Kingdom to direct human affairs and would themselves hold sway under Satan’s control.—Compare Luke 4:5, 6.

For how long would such governments be permitted to exercise this control before Jehovah gave the Kingdom to Jesus Christ? Daniel 4:16 says “seven times” (“seven years,” AT and Mo, also JB footnote on verse 13). The Bible shows that in calculating prophetic time, a day is counted as a year. (Ezek. 4:6; Num. 14:34) How many “days,” then, are involved? Revelation 11:2, 3 clearly states that 42 months (3 1/2 years) in that prophecy are counted as 1,260 days. Seven years would be twice that, or 2,520 days. Applying the “day for a year” rule would result in 2,520 years.

When did the counting of the “seven times” begin? After Zedekiah, the last king in the typical Kingdom of God, was removed from the throne in Jerusalem by the Babylonians. (Ezek. 21:25-27) Finally, by early October of 607 B.C.E. the last vestige of Jewish sovereignty was gone. By that time the Jewish governor, Gedaliah, who had been left in charge by the Babylonians, had been assassinated, and the remaining Jews had fled to Egypt. (Jeremiah, chapters 40-43) Reliable Bible chronology indicates that this took place 70 years before 537 B.C.E., the year in which the Jews returned from captivity; that is, it took place by early October of 607 B.C.E. (Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:2; for further details, see the book “Let Your Kingdom Come,” pages 186-189.)
http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/10/jerusalem-was-destroyed-in-607-bce.html

How, then, is the time calculated down to 1914? Counting 2,520 years from early October of 607 B.C.E. brings us to early October of 1914 C.E., as shown on the chart.

CALCULATING THE “SEVEN TIMES”
“Seven times” = 7 X 360 = 2,520 years
A Biblical “time,” or year = 12 X 30 days = 360. (Rev. 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14)
In the fulfillment of the “seven times” each day equals one year. (Ezek. 4:6; Num. 14:34)
Early October, 607 B.C.E., to December 31, 607 B.C.E.= 1/4 year
January 1, 606 B.C.E., to December 31, 1 B.C.E. = 606 years
January 1, 1 C.E., to December 31, 1913 = 1,913 years
January 1, 1914, to early October, 1914 = 3/4 year
Total: 2,520 years

- Reasoning From the Scriptures, published by the WTB&TS, in 1985
________________________

Why do Jehovah's Witnesses accept 607 B.C.E. as the date for Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians, instead of 587/6 B.C.E.?

Simply put, Jehovah’s Witnesses accept the detailed testimony of the Bible, the inspired Word of God, over the present understanding of secular history. “Christians who believe the Bible have time and again found that its words stand the test of much criticism and have been proved accurate and reliable. They recognize that as the inspired Word of God it can be used as a measuring rod in evaluating secular history and views.”—“Let Your Kingdom Come,” p. 187.

Concerning the date of Jerusalem’s destruction, many scholars claim to be concerned about harmonizing their views with the Bible, but in fact, are more concerned with not contradicting secular chronology. On the other hand, the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses have paid “more than the usual attention” to detail, and they have arrived at the only conclusion that they conscientiously can. (Hebrews 2:1) Their methodology involves adhering to the Bible in its entirety and not compromising on issues that might seem insignificant to secular historians. To do otherwise would make them guilty of distorting Jehovah’s intended message.

So, how do Jehovah’s Witnesses arrive at 607 B.C.E. as the year for Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians? http://onlytruegod.org/jwstrs/607BCE.htm

_____________________

This website has shown that 607BCE — not 587BCE — is indeed the year that Jerusalem was desolated according to irrefutable evidence in God’s word the Bible. Even some of those who have previously tried to discredit Jehovah’s Witnesses by saying 607BCE is incorrect, are now forced to admit that it may indeed be the right after all, because they have no clear answer for the Biblical evidence presented.

In light of this, not wanting to admit that Jehovah’s Witnesses indeed have the truth, they now have resorted to this view: 'So what. It doesn't matter if it was 607 or 587! This proves nothing about 1914. It is still an artfully contrived story with no basis in the Bible. There is no evidence that 607 began the Gentile Times and that 1914 was the end of those Gentile Times.'

So the question begs to be answered from a Biblical standpoint: did the 7 times begin in 607 and end in 1914? Did the 7 times begin when the ruler on Jehovah’s throne in Jerusalem, Zedekiah, was cut down in 607 and end in 1914 with the rightful ruler, Jesus, the twig of Jesse, becoming the King in God’s Kingdom in heaven? How Long Are the Seven Times?

Briefly, Revelation 12:6 tells us: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.” Later in verse 13 of the same chapter we read, “the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place; there is where she is fed for a time and times and half a time away from the face of the serpent.”

We can clearly see that 3.5 times = 1260 days. By doubling both figures we can easily conclude that 7 times = 2520 days. Then, by applying a-day-for-a-year, we deduct that 7 times = 2520 years. Amazing as it may seem, it is 2520 years from 607BCE to 1914CE. Are the seven times of Daniel chapter 4 to be applied in connection with the Gentile Times and God’s rulership? http://jehovahsjudgment.co.uk/607/default.html

_____________________

In the course of their Bible studies, these searching students took up a consideration of the “times of the Gentiles,” as spoken of by Jesus at Luke 21:24 (AV), and they associated those Gentile Times with the “seven times” mentioned four times in Daniel, chapter four, verses 16, 23, 25, 32। What did those Bible students determine to be the date for those “seven times” of Gentile domination of the earth to end legally before God? Well, at that time there was a monthly magazine being published in Brooklyn, New York, by one George Storrs, and it was called “Bible Examiner।” In the year 1876 the twenty-four-year-old Russell made a contribution on the subject to this magazine। It was published in Volume XXI, Number 1, which was the issue of October, 1876. On pages 27, 28 of that issue Russell’s article was published under the title “Gentile Times: When Do They End?” In that article (page 27) Russell said: “The seven times will end in A.D. 1914.” http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2008/06/seven-timesthe-times-of-gentiles-in.html

C. T. RUSSELL GREETS A YOUTH

2010-07-26T20:43:00.018-06:00

Next summer saw the turn of the century and I met Pastor Russell. It was at a convention in Philadelphia. June 17 was Bunker Hill day in Massachusetts and, of course, a holiday. There were special train rates to Philadelphia at that time because the Republican party was also holding a convention there. That year they nominated William McKinley as president and Theodore Roosevelt vice-president of the United States. So I took advantage of the holiday and special rates and went to the Bible students' convention sponsored by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. There, as I now recall, Russell talked to the public on the subject, "Salvation from what, to what?" The theme of his discourse was that men are not saved from eternal torment, which does not exist. They are saved from eternal death to everlasting life.

After the talk I was delighted to meet the speaker. He was an extremely kind man. I was just about the only young person there. All others present seemed mature in years. His willingness to talk to me impressed me greatly, because I knew of no man of his importance on the public platform who would talk face to face with young people from his audience after his lectures. I recall that in Boston Dwight L. Moody would leave the hall immediately after his sermons and go to his hotel nearby. Anyone who desired to ask questions would have to go to others of Moody's party. But C. T. Russell always made himself personally available to anyone who wished to talk to him.

INVITATION TO HEADQUARTERS

From that time I never missed any convention that was held in the East or the Middle West. In September, 1900 after returning from Philadelphia to Boston, I was baptized by total immersion in water, the service being conducted by Hayden Samson, a traveling representative of the Society. In July, 1901 I was ready to realize my ambition to become a missionary and entered the full-time ministry in Massachusetts.

In September of that year we had a convention in Cleveland and I attended. It was at this time that President McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, so there was much excitement throughout the country. The convention at Cleveland ended Sunday night and Russell invited me to make my home at the Watch Tower Society's headquarters in Allegheny, though I was not a member of the staff. When I went there to the Bible House (where the headquarters "family" lived and worked) I was in my early twenties. C. T. Russell was very kind to me. I had no home, both my parents having died; so he took me under his wing and made me feel at home with the headquarters family. He was thoughtful and considerate in every way, and as I would go out on a trip or special assignment he always would say, "Brother, the door is open for you when you return. This is your home."

In October, 1902, I attended a convention in Washington, D.C., where I was married. My wife and I then spent a year in California, returning in 1904 to Allegheny. In 1905 I made a nation-wide convention tour with Russell. It was on this trip that I met J. F. Rutherford, whom I baptized in 1906 and who became the second president of the Society.

In 1909, due to expansion of the organization world-wide, headquarters were moved from Allegheny to Brooklyn, New York. There, at 13-17 Hicks Street, a mission annex of the Plymouth Congregational Church, called "Plymouth Bethel" was purchased and new operating offices of the Society were installed and a large auditorium utilized for meetings. The building was called the "Brooklyn Tabernacle."

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/06/opening-at-brooklyn.html

At the same time the former residence of the Plymouth church's famous preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, was purchased. This was at 124 Columbia Heights. Here the headquarters family were housed and the structure was named "Bethel" supplanting the term "Bible House" used for the Society's building in Allegheny. International headquarters of the Society and the headquarters family are still at this address and, after all these years, I am still a happy member of that family.

DARKNESS LIGHTENING INTO DAY

As I consider the years that I have been associated with the organization of Jehovah's witnesses I can appreciate more and more the value of the path along which we have been led by Jehovah God. Until I first began to study I had never been able to find any religious teaching that answered all my questions. And yet the knowledge of God's Word that was available to us at that time was so limited (compared with what we now rejoice in) that it would be like coming out of the faint light of dawn into the brightness of high noon. But the gradual growth in knowledge, as well as in numbers of persons associating in the work, has strengthened and developed the organization and brought it to maturity.

C. T. Russell had no idea of building a strongly knit organization. At that time we saw no need for it. We expected 1914 would mark the end of this system of things on earth. Our big concern at that time was to preach as effectively and extensively as possible before that date arrived. In the meantime, we thought, we must prepare ourselves individually to be ready to go to heaven.

Exactly what would occur in 1914 we did not then know, but of one thing we were certain: The year 1914 would see the beginning of the worst time of trouble the earth had yet known; for so many Bible prophecies foretold that. Our faith was strong and our hopes were based on much more than mere human speculation. Yet 1914 and the years that immediately followed proved to be a time of severe testing for the developing New World society. Had we realized then the trials we were still to face or the years that were to elapse before our preaching commission was due to expire, perhaps we would have entered the year with far more agitation of mind.

- Faith on the March, by A. H. Macmillan, Prentice-Hall (1957)
______________________

To the reader:

A. H. Macmillan is known to Jehovah's witnesses all over the world. His long and prominent association with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and his faithful record of service as a Christian minister have endeared him to his many friends.

Toward the end of 1955 Mr. Macmillan asked permission to use the Society's files to write an account of his experiences in the ministry. Since he is a trusted member of the headquarters staff, he was granted permission. A few months ago he informed me the work was finished, and at his request I agreed to read the manuscript for technical accuracy. I soon found myself engrossed in the story which the account of his life and association with Jehovah's witnesses had produced.

This book is more than the story of one man's growing faith. I believe Mr. Macmillan has made a sincere effort to capture and portray the very essence of the religion that he acknowledges has given meaning to his life. He reveals Jehovah's witnesses as human. He admits their mistakes and explains why no human organization can be infallible. At the same time he reveals their hopes, and presents sound Scriptural reasons for the appeal of these hopes to all kinds of men.

The book is a straightforward and truthful account. It is unique only in the personal experiences of A. H. Macmillan. In many other respects it could be the story of any one of hundreds of Jehovah's witnesses whom I have known.

N. H. KNORR,
President, Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
Brooklyn, New York

Is Jesus God?

2010-07-26T20:18:00.008-06:00

MANY people view the Trinity as “the central doctrine of the Christian religion.” According to this teaching, the Father, Son, and holy spirit are three persons in one God. Cardinal John O’Connor stated about the Trinity: “We know that it is a very profound mystery, which we don’t begin to understand.” Why is the Trinity so difficult to understand?

The Illustrated Bible Dictionary gives one reason. Speaking of the Trinity, this publication admits: “It is not a biblical doctrine in the sense that any formulation of it can be found in the Bible.” Because the Trinity is “not a biblical doctrine,” Trinitarians have been desperately looking for Bible texts—even twisting them—to find support for their teaching.

A Text That Teaches the Trinity?

One example of a Bible verse that is often misused is John 1:1. In the King James Version , that verse reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [Greek, ton the·on′], and the Word was God [the·os′].” This verse contains two forms of the Greek noun the·os′ (god). The first is preceded by ton (the), a form of the Greek definite article, and in this case the word the·on′ refers to Almighty God. In the second instance, however, the·os′ has no definite article. Was the article mistakenly left out?

The Gospel of John was written in Koine, or common Greek, which has specific rules regarding the use of the definite article. Bible scholar A. T. Robertson recognizes that if both subject and predicate have articles, “both are definite, treated as identical, one and the same, and interchangeable.” Robertson considers as an example Matthew 13:38, which reads: “The field [Greek, ho a·gros′] is the world [Greek, ho ko′smos].” The grammar enables us to understand that the world is also the field.

What, though, if the subject has a definite article but the predicate does not, as in John 1:1? Citing that verse as an example, scholar James Allen Hewett emphasizes: “In such a construction the subject and predicate are not the same, equal, identical, or anything of the sort.”

To illustrate, Hewett uses 1 John 1:5, which says: “God is light.” In Greek, “God” is ho the·os′ and therefore has a definite article. But phos for “light” is not preceded by any article. Hewett points out: “One can always . . . say of God He is characterized by light; one cannot always say of light that it is God.” Similar examples are found at John 4:24, “God is a Spirit,” and at 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” In both of these verses, the subjects have definite articles but the predicates, “Spirit” and “love,” do not. So the subjects and predicates are not interchangeable. These verses cannot mean that “Spirit is God” or “love is God.”

Identity of “the Word”?

Many Greek scholars and Bible translators acknowledge that John 1:1 highlights, not the identity, but a quality of “the Word.” Says Bible translator William Barclay: “Because [the apostle John] has no definite article in front of theos it becomes a description . . . John is not here identifying the Word with God. To put it very simply, he does not say that Jesus was God.” Scholar Jason David BeDuhn likewise says: “In Greek, if you leave off the article from theos in a sentence like the one in John 1:1c, then your readers will assume you mean ‘a god.’ . . . Its absence makes theos quite different than the definite ho theos, as different as ‘a god’ is from ‘God’ in English.” BeDuhn adds: “In John 1:1, the Word is not the one-and-only God, but is a god, or divine being.” Or to put it in the words of Joseph Henry Thayer, a scholar who worked on the American Standard Version: “The Logos [or, Word] was divine, not the divine Being himself.”

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-word-was-divine.html

Does the identity of God have to be “a very profound mystery”? It did not seem so to Jesus. In his prayer to his Father, Jesus made a clear distinction between him and his Father when he said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) If we believe Jesus and understand the plain teaching of the Bible, we will respect him as the divine Son of God that he is. We will also worship Jehovah as “the only true God.”

- Appeared in The Watchtower, April 1, 2009, WTB&TS

Paul Johnson Disrupts the Work

2010-07-26T09:27:00.038-06:00

PERSONAL AMBITION DISRUPTS THE WORK

Russell gave me definite instructions before leaving on his last preaching tour. He suggested certain changes in the office force: some were to be assigned to different work. I at once made these changes. However, after Russell's death I was criticized for doing so.

Another instruction Russell gave me before leaving was to arrange to send one of our traveling representatives, P. S. L. Johnson, to England. He should try to preach the good news to the troops wherever possible. Talking to the soldiers about the Kingdom of God would comfort them as they prepared for action.

The executive committee, of which Rutherford was chairman, arranged to send Johnson to England according to Russell's wish as expressed to me. In addition to preaching to the troops, he was to make a tour of England and visit the congregations scattered all over that land, and comfort them in their war-time anxiety, encouraging them to continue steadfast in the work of preaching the Kingdom of God as the hope of mankind. In general he was to learn all he could about the progress of the work in England. He was to make a full report on conditions there and offer suggestions as to how things might be improved. This report was to be made to the Society, but Johnson was not to make any changes in the personnel at the British headquarters. If anything of that kind seemed necessary, the Society would consider it on the basis of his report.

When Johnson arrived in England in November, 1916, he was given a warm and hearty welcome by the friends. They were having many problems to solve after the death of Russell, and were glad to have a representative from headquarters with them. Johnson was welcomed everywhere he went. He could tell them many things about Russell's death, and the progress the work was making in America.

The attention heaped upon him began to warp his judgment and finally his reason, until he came to the ridiculous conclusion that he was the "steward" of Jesus' parable of the penny. He later thought he was the world's high priest. His conduct in England caused much confusion and deep concern about the work there. He tried to seize control of the Society's bank account in London and summarily dismissed some of the London headquarters' staff with no authority to do so. Rutherford, who in the meantime was elected president of the Society, saw that he must act promptly to save the work in England from disruption.

He cabled Johnson, canceling his appointment and recalling him to the United States. After many cables were sent by Johnson trying to show that he was much needed in England and that he should be given control of the British field, he finally heeded Rutherford's recall. After his return to America he tried to persuade Rutherford to return him to England to complete his work there, but, was unsuccessful. His failure to get back to England led him to think that Rutherford was not the right man to be president of the Society. He, Johnson, was the man with the ability necessary to be president.

The next step was to influence the board of directors to compel Rutherford to send him back to England. Seemingly he had little trouble gaining the support of four of them. He persuaded them to oppose the president in an effort to run the Society in their own way. They concluded that they were going to take a hand in the Johnson matter and show their authority. "It isn't good for Rutherford to control the management of the Society's affairs. We'll inform him that he can be the president; that is, he'll just be a figurehead. He will go out on the road under our direction to lecture but, as a board of directors, we will manage the Society, direct its policies and look after all its affairs. Van Amburgh will be our secretary-treasurer and we will have the whole thing in our own hands." This was in the spring of 1917. Rutherford knew that Johnson was counseling them in this matter, still he was extremely patient throughout the entire ordeal. In view of what Johnson had done to show his lack of real concern for the Society's welfare, Rutherford had every reason to dismiss him from the Bethel home. But he didn't. Neither did he take action to interfere with the rebellious plot being hatched to oppose him in his office as president. He did everything that he could to help his opposers see their mistake, holding a number of meetings with them, trying to reason with them and show them how contrary their course was to the Society's charter and to the entire program Russell had followed since the organization was formed. He even came to several of us and asked, "Shall I resign as president and let those opposing ones take charges" We all replied, "Brother, the Lord put you where you are, and to resign or quit would be disloyalty to the Lord." Furthermore, the office force threatened they would quit if these men got control.

Matters began to come to a head when, at an extended session of the 1917 annual meeting, these four directors endeavored to present a resolution to amend the by-laws of the Society to place administrative powers in the hands of the Board of Directors. This was not only contrary to the organizational arrangement practiced by Russell for the entire thirty-two years of his administration, but it was contrary to the expressed wish of the shareholders. Rutherford was forced to rule the motion out of order, and from then on the opposition grew stiffer and more determined.

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2008/08/savage-wolves-will-come-in-among-you.html

REBELLIOUS ACTION FORCES A SHOWDOWN

Faced with the certainty that these men would try to tie up the funds of the Society by court action (as Johnson had attempted in London), Rutherford decided he would have to act. The time for strategic action in the interest of all concerned had come.

He was preparing to go on a preaching trip to the West and was much concerned about what his opposers might do while he was gone. He said to me: "Brother, these men may try to start something while I'm away, but don't be fearful or worried about what they might try to do."

"If they try to take hold of things while you are gone what shall I do?" I asked.

"If they get too obstreperous and indicate they want to start action against the Society, call a policeman."

"What! A policeman?"

"Yes, if it becomes necessary, don't hesitate."

But I did not understand the operation of his legal mind. Well, sure enough, one day while Rutherford was away, I was in the office down on Hicks Street with our office manager, Robert J. Martin. These four dignitaries who thought they were directors marched down to Van Amburgh's desk in the rear of the office and said, "Brother Van Amburgh, we order you upstairs to the chapel." That was on the second floor right over the mice. "We want you up there to transact some business."

Van Amburgh knew what was coming and said, "Don't bother me, friends. Go about your business; I have my work to do."

"We want you up there. We need to have a quorum." where were four of them, which was a majority of the board. There were seven on the board, and to transact legal business a quorum of five was necessary. I was watching what was going on. The other workers were all looking on nervously and worrying about what was going to take place.

The four went upstairs and sat down and began talking about what they would do. I was worried too. I knew that if they could obtain a quorum to transact business they could railroad new bylaws through that would change the complete structure of the organization. I waited a little while and said, "Brother Martin, let's go up and see what those brothers are doing." When we got up there they ordered me out.

"We've had enough of you. You've been trying to run this place because Pastor Russell left you in charge of the work, but now we are in charge! You get out of here."

At that time I was vice-president of our New York corporation. Therefore in the absence of President Rutherford, I had control and responsibility for the property owned by the Society. I did not remind them of this point but told Martin to call a policeman.

He found an old Irishman, a typical old fellow, who came in twirling a long night stick around in his hand. He said, 'Well, gentlemen, what's the trouble here?"

I said, "Officer, these men have no business here. Their place is up at 124 Columbia Heights, and they are disturbing our work here. They refused to leave when we ordered them to. Now we just thought we would call upon the law."

They jumped up and began to argue. The policeman twirled his stick around and said:

"Gentlemen, it's after being serious for you now. Faith, and I know these two, Macmillan and Martin, but you fellows I don't know. Now you better be after going, for fear there'll be trouble."

They grabbed their hats and went down the steps two at a time, and hurried up to Borough Hall to get in touch with a lawyer. They were fighting mad. Rutherford told me afterward that is the very reason he had told me to bring the policeman in, to draw their fire. They had been sneaking around in an underhanded way trying to disturb the congregations and interfere with the work. He knew that, and calling the policeman brought the issue to a head. Now the matter must be settled in some way in order to restore unity to the organization.

Although thoroughly familiar with the legal organization of the Society, he took the matter to a prominent corporation lawyer in Philadelphia to determine the status of the board of directors. Through a written opinion he received, he discovered that these four men were not legally members of the board at all! Russell had elected them as directors for life but the law stipulated that directors must be elected by the vote of the shareholders each year. However, Rutherford, Pierson and Van Amburgh were directors because they had been elected to the office of president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer. The fact that they were elected as officials made them members of the board. Since the four opposers were not legally elected they had no legal authority to act for the Society; and since the attitude they had displayed showed they were not qualified, it was a simple procedure for Rutherford to appoint other directors for the existing vacancies until the next legal election.

The climax came in July of 1917 only six months after Rutherford had been elected president. He had arranged to produce the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures. Russell had written the first six. The seventh, called The Finished Mystery, was really a compilation of material from notes and writings of Russell and was issued as a posthumous work of Russell's. Since, according to the bylaws, the president of the Society was also manager of the Society's affairs, Rutherford had not consulted the board of directors and the four who thought they were members raised vehement objections. As a result, their opposition to the policy and work of the Society became so bitter that it was impossible to maintain unity at headquarters as long as they remained. They were asked to leave the Bethel home or get in line with the work. They chose to leave.

However, it was not Rutherford's wish to ignore them altogether. He gave them every opportunity to manifest a spirit of cooperation and even offered them the position of traveling representatives of the Society, but they refused. Finally, they completely withdrew themselves from association with the Society and started an organization of their own.

- Faith on the March, A. H. Macmillan, Prentice-Hall (1957)
_________________________

“THE THINGS THEY DID GO RIGHT WITH THEM”

Regular readers of The Watchtower will recall that just a few weeks ago, in the August 15 issue, they read an account entitled “Doing God’s Will Has Been My Delight,” as told by A. H. Macmillan. On August 26, in the late afternoon, Brother Macmillan finished his earthly life, at the age of 89. Since 1900 he had been active as a dedicated servant of Jehovah God, and for the past sixty-five years he devoted himself full time to Jehovah’s service. In 1918 he was one of the eight principal members of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society who were unjustly sentenced to long terms in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, only to be exonerated and released the following year. He was the last survivor of that group of eight. In later years, during World War II, he visited and spiritually upbuilt others who had been similarly imprisoned because of their stand as Christian neutrals. Funeral services for Brother Macmillan, held at 3 p.m. on August 29, were conducted by the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, and then the earthly remains of Brother Macmillan were interred at the private burial plot of the Brooklyn Bethel family on Woodrow Road, Staten Island, New York. Brother Macmillan had firm faith that credit for the faithful service of those anointed to the heavenly kingdom with Christ would “go right with them,” because they would continue right on in their Master’s service, but now in the heavenly realm. (Rev. 14:13) We rejoice with Brother Macmillan in his obtaining of that reward.

- October 1, 1966 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Pastor Russell's writings

2010-07-22T22:53:00.025-06:00

Realizing the necessity of keeping the Truth before the minds of those who had begun to investigate, in 1879 he began the publication of THE WATCH TOWER AND HERALD OF CHRIST'S PRESENCE, and was its sole Editor to the time of his death. This journal is issued semi-monthly; it never publishes advertisements, but is devoted exclusively to religious topics. Among the English speaking people in the United States, Canada and Great Britain, its semi-monthly circulation is 45,000 copies. It is also published in German, French, Swedish, Dano-Norwegian and Polish, reaching a large number of subscribers in America and Europe.

He was President of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY from its organization in 1884 until his death. He was also President of the PEOPLES PULPIT ASSOCIATION, organized in 1909, and the INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION, incorporated in London, in 1913, both of the latter corporations being adjuncts to the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY. Through these religious corporations, as well as by word of mouth, he promulgated the Gospel of Messiah's Kingdom. He was the author of the following publications, issued between the years 1881 and 1914, each having phenomenal circulation, as given below:

FOOD FOR THINKING CHRISTIANS 1,450,000
TABERNACLE SHADOWS 1,000,000
DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES 4,817,000
THE TIME IS AT HAND 1,657,000
THY KINGDOM COME 1,578,000
BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON 464,000
THE ATONEMENT 445,000
THE NEW CREATION 423,000
WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES ABOUT HELL 3,000,000

He was also the author of WHAT SAY THE SCRIPTURES ABOUT SPIRITISM, OLD THEOLOGY TRACTS, et cetera, et cetera. He was the author of the PHOTO-DRAMA OF CREATION, which had been exhibited prior to his death to more than nine million persons. He wrote and published the SCENARIO of the PHOTO-DRAMA OF CREATION, which has had a very wide circulation. His publications were translated into thirty-five different languages. At the same time he was Pastor of more than 1,200 congregations of Bible Students, in different parts of the world. These he visited and taught as often as possible.

He organized and conducted a Lecture Bureau which constantly employed seventy Bible lecturers, who traveled and delivered lectures on the Scriptures. He organized and managed an auxiliary lecture bureau of seven hundred men who gave a portion of their time to lecturing on Bible teachings. Each year he wrote practically all of the copy for the BIBLE STUDENTS MONTHLY, the annual distribution of which amounted to approximately fifty million copies.

His weekly sermons were handled by a newspaper syndicate. More than 2,000 newspapers, with a combined circulation of fifteen million readers, at one time published his discourses. All told, more than 4,000 newspapers published these sermons.

The Continent, a publication whose editor often opposed Pastor Russell, once published the following significant statement concerning him:

"His writings are said to have greater newspaper circulation every week than those of any other living man; a greater, doubtless, than the combined circulation of the writings of all the priests and preachers in North America; greater even than the work of Arthur Brisbane, Norman Hapgood, George Horace Lorimer, Dr. Frank Crane, Frederick Haskins, and a dozen other of the best known editors and syndicate writers put together."

- December 1, 1916 Watchtower, WTB&TS

- This WEB site is dedicated to the memory of Charles Taze Russell who dedicated all of his work in the following manner: http://www.ctrussell.us/

______________________

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/05/millennial-dawn-studies-in-scriptures.html

What was Pastor Russell's views regarding his writings: As we have been to some extent, by the grace of God, used in the ministry of the gospel, it may not be out of place to say here what we have frequently said in private, and previously in these columns,--namely, that while we appreciate the love, sympathy, confidence and fellowship of fellow-servants and of the entire household of faith, we want no homage, no reverence, for ourselves or our writings; nor do we wish to be called Reverend or Rabbi. Nor do we wish that any should be called by our name. The name of him who died for all--the name Christian--is quite sufficient to designate the spiritual sons of God, the true brethren of Christ; and whatsoever is more than this cometh of evil, of carnality, and tends toward more of the same.

Nor would we have our writings reverenced or regarded as infallible, or on a par with the holy Scriptures. The most we claim or have ever claimed for our teachings is, that they are what we believe to be harmonious interpretations of the divine Word, in harmony with the spirit of the truth. And we still urge, as in the past, that each reader study the subjects we present in the light of the Scriptures, proving all things by the Scriptures, accepting what they see to be thus approved, and rejecting all else. It is to this end, to enable the student to trace the subject in the divinely inspired Record, that we so freely intersperse both quotations and citations of the Scriptures upon which to build. - Charles Taze Russell, Dec. 15, 1896 Watchtower

New Administration Amid World War I

2010-07-11T01:14:00.010-06:00

THE new administration under Joseph F. Rutherford immediately set about in 1917 to reorganize the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters office at Brooklyn, New York, and also to effect changes in the field service, to arrest the downward trend in the Kingdom witness work. The “pilgrim” service was increased from 69 to 93 traveling representatives of the Society, to visit and strengthen the more than one thousand congregations of dedicated servants of Jehovah spiritually. The volunteer service whereby tracts were distributed on occasional Sundays in front of churches and regularly in house-to-house visits was stimulated, there being distributed in 1917 alone 28,665,000 free copies of new four-page numbers of The Bible Students Monthly. The so-called “pastoral work” was stepped up, which new activity started before Russell’s death as a sort of forerunner to our present back-call or “follow-up” work.

“The activities will in a general way consist of visiting the addresses mentioned [received at public meetings and at Creation Photo-Drama showings], ascertaining interest, removing prejudice, loaning [books]; and the culmination of the project is to interest as many as possible to the extent of gathering them into classes . . . and later to become regular Berean Classes.”

The colporteur (pioneer) service was expanded from 372 to 461, and in the early part of 1917 for the first time a Bulletin was issued giving periodic service instructions from headquarters to pioneers, this instrument being an ancestor of the present Informant. Furthermore, several regional conventions were held as part of this great rejuvenation campaign. Likewise the V.D.M. (Verbi Dei Minister or Minister of the Word of God) questionnaire arrangement was pressed to encourage the male associates to train themselves as better ministers of God’s Word, there being a written examination on twenty-two Bible questions that such were asked to answer in writing and submit to the Brooklyn headquarters to check on their qualifications as a V.D.M. All this resulted in increased field activities for the year 1917.

Not all were happy to follow the Watch Tower Society’s new administration in accelerating the witness work. From the beginning in 1917 there were several leaders who became ambitious for administrative control for themselves. They became unco-operative. One prominent speaker sent forth from the Brooklyn headquarters had to be recalled from his assignment in England because there he arrogantly assumed administrative powers never entrusted to him. Disruption among the British congregations of Jehovah’s people was being caused by him. Upon that one’s return to Brooklyn Bethel, he and four other prominent members of the family began to foment divisive issues. On July 17, 1917, at the Brooklyn Bethel home noon meal, Society’s president Rutherford announced the release of the long-awaited seventh volume in the series of Studies in the Scriptures, entitled “The Finished Mystery.” “Brother Russell often spoke about writing the Seventh Volume, and one of his last utterances about it was to this effect: ‘Whenever I find the key, I will write the Seventh Volume; and if the Lord gives the key to someone else, he can write it.’”

Months prior to this, two careful Bible scholars, Fisher and Woodworth, had worked busily in gathering together a commentary out of the Society’s previous publications on the Bible books of Ezekiel and Revelation. That compilation comprised the new book. Release of The Finished Mystery provoked a five-hour rebellious wrangle at the Bethel table, led by the five prominent ones above mentioned, and to whom others of the family chose to join themselves. Such disunity could not be tolerated by the far greater majority of faithful brothers; so the administration authorized the dismissal of not only the five ringleaders but also those who chose to join them in opposition.

This opposition clique, being dismissed, immediately began to publish letters and other material which they circulated among congregations associated with the Watch Tower Society in this country and abroad. Gradually opposition parties arose in some of those congregations where deceived ones were easily taken captive because of their growing spiritual drowsiness. Such refused to co-operate with the awakening loyal ones in conducting a revitalized work of preaching the Kingdom in that time of growing clergy hostility and persecution. Thus many congregations came to have a pro-Society group of zealous workers and an anti-Society group of “sick ones” who tried, for their private purposes, to wrest control of the local meetings. This proved to be a very trialsome time.

The ambitious opponents thereafter sought to gain control of the legal corporation, the Watch Tower Society, at the next annual corporation meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, due January, 1918. Because of the dispute as to the legal control of the Society the November 1, 1917, Watch Tower (page 330) suggested a referendum vote by each congregation. By December 15, 813 congregations had sent in their votes, which tallied to show that Rutherford was given 10,869 votes as president out of 11,421 cast; and all the other faithful members of the board of directors as reconstituted in July, 1917, were preferred over the five rebellious ones. This voting trend proved to be true, for at the corporation meeting held in Pittsburgh January 5, 1918, Rutherford and the others of the board were legally re-elected, and not one of the opponents succeeded in getting voted in.

The internal crisis came to its full with the occurrence of an outstanding Bible-predicted event, namely, the coming of Jehovah’s “messenger,” Christ Jesus, to Jehovah’s temple for judgment in the spring of 1918, to separate the “faithful and discreet slave” class from the “evil slave” group. (Mal. 3:1-3; Matt. 24:43-51, NW) The cleavage between the two groups became more evident after the opponents’ failure to gain their ends at the 1918 corporation meeting. After that January meeting the opposition leaders remained in Pittsburgh to form a separate organization headed by what they called a “Committee of seven.” By Memorial time, March 26, 1918, the separation had become irreconcilable, as the opposers chose to celebrate the death of Christ apart from the Society’s faithful congregations.

It had been the Society’s usual practice to publish a partial report of the Memorial attendance as sent to the Society by congregations in this land and abroad, but due to the 1918 disturbances, both internally and externally, the attendance figures were not gathered. However, in 1917 the partial report of the Memorial (April 5) showed 21,274 in attendance as associates of the Society. By 1919 Memorial time (April 13), according to partial report showing attendance of 17,961, it became evident that a minority of less than four thousand had ceased to walk with their faithful former associates. From this time of separation the “evil slave” group came into further internal disagreements and divisions among themselves. Eventually several other small dissentient groups tried to establish themselves but, after brief existence, disappeared.

In the latter half of 1917 the faithful forefront preachers of the “discreet slave” class energetically took up distribution of The Finished Mystery, for within seven months the Society’s outside printers were busy on the 850,000 edition. “The sale of the Seventh Volume is unparalleled by the sale of any other book known, in the same length of time, excepting the Bible.” Not only did this book crystallize the opposition of the “evil slave” class, as already indicated, but it also brought forth a most bitter reaction of the clergy in many parts of Christendom. Sunday, December 30, 1917, was the historic date for commencement of the mass distribution through the Sunday volunteer service of ten million copies of the fiery tract, the Bible Students Monthly issue entitled “The Fall of Babylon—Why Christendom Must Now Suffer—The Final Outcome.” That tabloid-size, four-page tract contained excerpts from The Finished Mystery and came to be a stinging exposure of the clergy. Accompanying this distribution, public lectures were widely given the same day on this same subject.

On February 12, 1918, the public press contained the following dispatch from Ottawa, Canada:

“The Secretary of State, under the press censorship regulations, has issued warrants forbidding the possession in Canada of a number of publications, amongst which is the book published by the International Bible Students Association, entitled Studies in the Scriptures—The Finished Mystery, generally known as the posthumous publication of Pastor Russell. The Bible Students Monthly, also published by this Association at its office in Brooklyn, New York, is also prohibited circulation in Canada. The possession of any prohibited books lays the possessor open to a fine not exceeding $5,000 and five years in prison.”

Later, the Winnipeg (Canada) Tribune, after mentioning the banning order above described, said:

“The banned publications are alleged to contain seditious and anti-war statements. Excerpts from one of the recent issues of The Bible Students Monthly were denounced from the pulpit a few weeks ago by Rev. Charles G. Patterson, Pastor of St. Stephen’s Church. Afterward Attorney General Johnson sent to Rev. Patterson for a copy of the publication. The censor’s order is believed to be the direct result.”

This set off a chain of clergy-inspired actions that were aimed to force the governments of the United States and Canada to destroy the Watch Tower Society and its co-workers.

- May 1, 1955 Watchtower, WTB&TS, Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/09/j-f-rutherford.html

Manner of the Lord’s Return

2010-07-09T22:14:00.022-06:00

In course of time there came other stirrings among those Christians who professed to be of the “chaste virgin” class, particularly that in connection with a man born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the year 1781. This man was William Miller, who became the founder of the so-called Millerites or Adventists. Says M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopædia, Volume 6, page 271:

About 1833, when a resident of Low Hampton, N.Y., he began his career as an apostle of the new doctrine, which taught that the world was coming to an end in 1843. The main argument on which his belief rested was that relative to the termination of the 2300 days in Daniel 8:14, which he regarded as years. Then considering the seventy weeks in Daniel 9:24, as the key to the date of the 2300 days of the preceding chapter, and dating the periods B.C. 457, when Artaxerxes, king of Persia, sent up Ezra from his captivity, to restore the Jewish polity at Jerusalem (Ezra 7), and ending the seventy weeks, as commentators generally do, in A.D. 33, with the crucifixion of Christ, he found the remainder of the 2300 days, which was 1810, would end in 1843. For ten years he held forth to this purport, and succeeded in gathering a large number of followers, which is said to have reached fifty thousand, who awaited, with credulous expectation, the appointed day. The result, however, turning out contrary to the teaching of their apostle, the Adventists, as they are sometimes termed, gradually forsook Miller. He died at Low Hampton, Washington County, N.Y., December 20, 1849.

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/miller-william-founder-of-sect-of.html

Evidently, then, the launching of the Millerite movement did not turn out to be the midnight cry, “Here is the bridegroom!” The heavenly Bridegroom did not appear in the flesh visibly to those Adventists and take them in a rapture to their desired heavenly home, in 1843. And yet Bible study continued on. Thirty years later found a small group of men, not associated with the Adventists or affiliated with any of the religious sects of Christendom, studying the Holy Scriptures at Pittsburgh (Allegheny), Pennsylvania, U.S.A. They studied independently so as to avoid looking at the Bible through sectarian spectacles. Among these men was one Charles Taze Russell, just entered into his twenties. They were, of course, intensely interested in the second coming of the heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. However, their Bible studies led to their discovery that Christ’s return would be an invisible one, not visibly in the flesh as a materialized man, but invisibly in the spirit, inasmuch as he was no longer flesh and blood. His arrival would therefore be unseen to men, and this arrival would begin an invisible presence or parousia on his part. But it would be made manifest by evidences.

- God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached, 1973, WTB&TS
______________________

It was in the mid-1870’s that Brother Russell and those who were diligently examining the Scriptures along with him discerned that when the Lord returned he would be invisible to human eyes.—John 14:3, 19.

Brother Russell later said: “We felt greatly grieved at the error of Second Adventists, who were expecting Christ in the flesh, and teaching that the world and all in it except Second Adventists would be burned up in 1873 or 1874, whose time-settings and disappointments and crude ideas generally as to the object and manner of his coming brought more or less reproach upon us and upon all who longed for and proclaimed his coming Kingdom. These wrong views so generally held of both the object and manner of the Lord’s return led me to write a pamphlet—‘The Object and Manner of Our Lord’s Return.’” This pamphlet was published in 1877. Brother Russell had some 50,000 copies of it printed and distributed.

In that pamphlet, he wrote: “We believe the scriptures to teach, that, at His coming and for a time after He has come, He will remain invisible; afterward manifesting or showing Himself in judgments and various forms, so that ‘every eye shall see Him.’” In support of this, he discussed such texts as Acts 1:11 (‘he will come in the same manner as you have beheld him go’—that is, unobserved by the world) and John 14:19 (“a little longer and the world will behold me no more”). Brother Russell also referred to the fact that The Emphatic Diaglott, which had first been published in complete form in 1864 with an interlinear word-for-word English translation, gave evidence that the Greek expression pa‧rou‧si′a meant “presence.” In analyzing the Bible’s use of that term, Russell explained in this pamphlet: “The Greek word generally used in referring to the second advent—Parousia, frequently translated coming—invariably signifies personal presence, as having come, arrived and never signifies to be on the way, as we use the word coming.”

When discussing the purpose of Christ’s presence, Russell made it clear that this was not something that would be accomplished in a single world-shattering moment. “The second advent, like the first,” he wrote, “covers a period of time, and is not the event of a moment.” During that time, he wrote, the “little flock” would be given their reward with the Lord as joint heirs in his Kingdom; others, perhaps billions, would be given opportunity for perfect life on an earth restored to Edenic beauty.—Luke 12:32.

Within just a few years, on the basis of further study of the Scriptures, Russell realized that Christ would not only return invisibly but also remain invisible, even when manifesting his presence by judgment upon the wicked.

In 1876, when Russell had first read a copy of Herald of the Morning, he had learned that there was another group who then believed that Christ’s return would be invisible and who associated that return with blessings for all families of the earth. From Mr. Barbour, editor of that publication, Russell also came to be persuaded that Christ’s invisible presence had begun in 1874. Attention was later drawn to this by the subtitle “Herald of Christ’s Presence,” which appeared on the cover of Zion’s Watch Tower.

Recognition of Christ’s presence as being invisible became an important foundation on which an understanding of many Bible prophecies would be built. Those early Bible Students realized that the presence of the Lord should be of primary concern to all true Christians. (Mark 13:33-37) They were keenly interested in the Master’s return and were alert to the fact that they had a responsibility to publicize it, but they did not yet clearly discern all the details. Yet, what God’s spirit did enable them to understand at a very early time was truly remarkable. One of these truths involved a highly significant date marked by Bible prophecy.

- Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTB&TS
_____________________

BIBLE EXAMINER -- MARCH, 1878

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/george-storrs.html

THE OBJECT AND MANNER OF OUR LORD'S RETURN

By C.T. RUSSELL, Pittsburgh, PA. Price ten cents.

Such is the title of a pamphlet of sixty four pages. The author is one of my very dear friends, and is a sincere lover of truth. I have not the slightest doubt of his stern integrity, and nothing but a full conviction that it is the truth he is promulgating which will lead him on in the work which he is engaged. His sacrifice of time and money shows his faith. Much that he has written is interesting. His belief that Christ "has come" -- "is present" -- in the Scripture sense of His "second time," I cannot for a moment admit; but as the time for its demonstration is in the next few weeks, I shall not enter into controversy on the subject.

BRO. CHAPLIN, Editor of THE RESTITUTION, in noticing the above named pamphlet, has expressed views of the "Second Advent" of our Lord which I heartily agree. He says:

"We think that the coming Messiah is the same Jesus that died, was buried, rose from the dead, and subsequently ascended from Mount Olivet into heaven; and we also think that He will change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. We look, for more tangibility in the resurrection than our brother seems to expect. We also think that Christ in the first stage of the advent will only descend to the aerial regions where He will be met by his raptured saints, with whom he will afterward descend to earth."

Such I regard as a true statement of the facts to be realized in that glorious return of our Lord "from heaven."

“THE FINISHED MYSTERY”

2010-07-09T10:22:00.036-06:00

Throughout his entire administration as the Society’s president, Brother Russell, along with the vice-president and secretary-treasurer, had made decisions about new publications. As a group, the board of directors had not been consulted. Rutherford followed the same policy. Hence, in the course of time the Society’s three officers made a far-reaching decision.

Charles Taze Russell had written six volumes of Millennial Dawn, or Studies in the Scriptures, but often spoke about writing a seventh volume. “Whenever I find the key,” said he, “I will write the Seventh Volume; and if the Lord gives the key to someone else, he can write it.” The Society’s officers arranged to have two Bible Students, Clayton J. Woodworth and George H. Fisher, compile a book consisting of commentaries on Revelation, The Song of Solomon and Ezekiel. The coeditors assembled material from Brother Russell’s writings and this was published under the title “The Finished Mystery” as the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures. Containing largely the thinking and comments of C. T. Russell, it was termed the “posthumous work of Pastor Russell.”

By about mid-1917 it was time to release the new book. That significant day was July 17. “I was on duty in the [Brooklyn Bethel] dining room when the phone rang,” says Martin O. Bowin. “We were getting ready for the noonday meal. I was the nearest one to the phone, so I answered it. Brother Rutherford was on the other end. ‘Who is there with you?’ he asked. I answered, ‘Louis.’ He said to come to his study quickly, and ‘Don’t bother to knock.’ A stack of books was handed to us, with orders to put one at each place setting and get it done before the family arrived for the noon meal.” Soon the dining room was filled with members of the Bethel family.

“As usual,” continues Brother Bowin, “thanks to God was given. Then it started!. . . Headed by . . . P. S. L. Johnson, . . . this demonstration against dear Brother Rutherford began. Hurling vicious charges loudly, they walked back and forth, stopping only at Brother Rutherford’s table to shake their fists at him and further denounce him. . . . All this lasted for about five hours. Then everyone got up from the table with all the dishes and a lot of untouched food still on the table, to be cleaned up by brothers with little energy with which to accomplish it.” http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2008/08/savage-wolves-will-come-in-among-you.html

This incident revealed that some members of the Bethel family sympathized with the opposers. If such opposition continued, eventually it would disrupt the entire operation of Bethel. So J. F. Rutherford acted to correct the situation. Though fully acquainted with the legal structure of the Society, Rutherford had consulted a prominent corporation lawyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, concerning the status of the Society’s board of directors. The written opinion received disclosed that the four dissidents were not legal members of the board. Why not?

C. T. Russell had appointed those men as directors, but the Society’s charter required that directors be elected by vote of the shareholders. Rutherford had told Russell that appointees had to be confirmed by vote at the following annual meeting, but Russell never took that step. So, only the officers who had been elected at the Pittsburgh annual meeting were duly constituted board members. The four appointees were not legal members of the board. Rutherford knew this throughout the period of trouble, but had not mentioned it, hoping that these board members would discontinue their opposition. However, their attitude showed that they were not qualified to be directors. Rightly Rutherford dismissed them and appointed four new board members whose appointment could be confirmed at the next general corporation meeting, early in 1918.

Brother Rutherford did not summarily dismiss the former directors from the Christian organization. Instead, he offered them positions as pilgrims. They refused, voluntarily left Bethel and began spreading their opposition by an extensive speaking and letter-writing campaign throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Consequently, after the summer of 1917, many congregations of Bible Students were composed of two parties—those loyal to Jehovah’s organization and others who had become spiritually drowsy and had fallen victim to the smooth talk of the opposers. The latter became uncooperative and would not engage in the work of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom.

- 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS
________________________

Not everyone was supportive of the new president. C. T. Russell and J. F. Rutherford were very different men. They had different personalities and came from different backgrounds. These differences were hard for some to accept. In their minds, no one could ‘fill Brother Russell’s shoes.’

A few, especially at headquarters, actually resented Brother Rutherford. The fact that the work was moving ahead and that he was making every effort to follow the arrangements that had been put in place by Russell did not seem to impress them. Opposition soon mounted. Four members of the board of directors of the Society went so far as to endeavor to wrest administrative control from Rutherford’s hands. The situation came to a head in the summer of 1917, with the release of The Finished Mystery, the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures.

Brother Russell had been unable to produce this volume during his lifetime, though he had hoped to do so. Following his death, the Executive Committee of the Society arranged for two associates, Clayton J. Woodworth and George H. Fisher, to prepare this book, which was a commentary on Revelation, The Song of Solomon, and Ezekiel. In part, it was based on what Russell had written about these Bible books, and other comments and explanations were added. The completed manuscript was approved for publication by officers of the Society and was released to the Bethel family at the dining table on Tuesday, July 17, 1917. On that same occasion, a startling announcement was made—the four opposing directors had been removed, and Brother Rutherford had appointed four others to fill the vacancies. What was the reaction?

It was as if a bombshell had exploded! The four ousted directors seized upon the occasion and stirred up a five-hour controversy before the Bethel family over the administration of the Society’s affairs. A number of the Bethel family sympathized with the opposers. The opposition continued for several weeks, with the disturbers threatening to “overthrow the existing tyranny,” as they put it. But Brother Rutherford had a sound basis for the action he had taken. How so?

It turned out that although the four opposing directors had been appointed by Brother Russell, these appointments had never been confirmed by vote of the corporation members at the annual meeting of the Society. Therefore, the four of them were not legal members of the board of directors at all! Rutherford had been aware of this but had not mentioned it at first. Why not? He had wanted to avoid giving the impression that he was going against Brother Russell’s wishes. However, when it became evident that they would not discontinue their opposition, Rutherford acted within his authority and responsibility as president to replace them with four others whose appointments were to be confirmed at the next annual meeting, to be held in January 1918.

On August 8, the disgruntled ex-directors and their supporters left the Bethel family; they had been asked to leave because of the disturbance they had been creating. They soon began spreading their opposition by an extensive speaking and letter-writing campaign throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. As a result, after the summer of 1917, a number of congregations of Bible Students were split into two groups—those loyal to the Society and those who were easy prey to the smooth talk of the opposers.

But might the ousted directors, in an effort to gain control of the organization, try to influence those attending the annual meeting? Anticipating such a reaction, Rutherford felt it advisable to take a survey of all the congregations. The results? According to the report published in The Watch Tower of December 15, 1917, those voting indicated their overwhelming support of J. F. Rutherford and the directors cooperating with him! This was confirmed at the annual meeting. The opposers’ efforts to gain control had failed!

What became of those opposers and their supporters? After the January 1918 annual meeting, the opposing ones splintered off, even choosing to celebrate the Memorial, on March 26, 1918, on their own. Any unity they enjoyed was short-lived, and before long they broke up into various sects. In most cases their numbers dwindled and their activity diminished or ceased entirely.

Clearly, following Brother Russell’s death, the Bible Students faced a real test of loyalty. As Tarissa P. Gott, who was baptized in 1915, put it: “Many of those who had seemed so strong, so devoted to the Lord, began to turn away. . . . All of this just did not seem right, yet it was happening and it upset us. But I said to myself: ‘Was not this organization the one that Jehovah used to free us from the bonds of false religion? Have we not tasted of his goodness? If we were to leave now, where would we go? Would we not wind up following some man?’ We could not see why we should go with the apostates, so we stayed.”—John 6:66-69; Heb. 6:4-6.

Some who withdrew from the organization later repented and associated with the Bible Students in worship once again. By far the majority, like Sister Gott, continued to cooperate with the Watch Tower Society and Brother Rutherford. The love and unity that bound them together had been built up through years of association together at meetings and conventions. They would allow nothing to break up that bond of union.—Col. 3:14.

- Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTB&TS
_______________________

Although thoroughly familiar with the legal organization of the Society, he took the matter to a prominent corporation lawyer in Philadelphia to determine the status of the board of directors. Through a written opinion he received, he discovered that these four men were not legally members of the board at all! Russell had elected them as directors for life but the law stipulated that directors must be elected by the vote of the shareholders each year. However, Rutherford, Pierson and Van Amburgh were directors because they had been elected to the office of president, vice-president and secretary-treasurer. The fact that they were elected as officials made them members of the board. Since the four opposers were not legally elected they had no legal authority to act for the Society; and since the attitude they had displayed showed they were not qualified, it was a simple procedure for Rutherford to appoint other directors for the existing vacancies until the next legal election.

The climax came in July of 1917 only six months after Rutherford had been elected president. He had arranged to produce the seventh volume of Studies in the Scriptures. Russell had written the first six. The seventh, called The Finished Mystery, was really a compilation of material from notes and writings of Russell and was issued as a posthumous work of Russell's. Since, according to the bylaws, the president of the Society was also manager of the Society's affairs, Rutherford had not consulted the board of directors and the four who thought they were members raised vehement objections. As a result, their opposition to the policy and work of the Society became so bitter that it was impossible to maintain unity at headquarters as long as they remained. They were asked to leave the Bethel home or get in line with the work. They chose to leave.

However, it was not Rutherford's wish to ignore them altogether. He gave them every opportunity to manifest a spirit of cooperation and even offered them the position of traveling representatives of the Society, but they refused. Finally, they completely withdrew themselves from association with the Society and started an organization of their own.

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/07/paul-johnson-disrupts-work.html

- Faith on the March, by A.H. Macmillan, 1957
_______________________

The Finished Mystery, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (9/22/2010)

In late 1916 two prominent Bible Students at the Brooklyn headquarters, Clayton J. Woodworth and George H. Fisher, sought approval from the Executive Committee to produce a book about the prophecies of the books of Revelation and Ezekiel based primarily on Russell's writings. Work on the book, The Finished Mystery, which was labeled as the posthumous seventh volume of Russell's Studies in the Scriptures, proceeded without the knowledge of the full Board of Directors and Editorial Committee and was released by Rutherford to headquarters staff on July 17, 1917, the day he announced the appointment of the four replacement directors.

Although denounced by Rutherford's opponents, the book was an immediate best-seller, and was translated into six languages and serialized in The Watch Tower. Expecting God's Kingdom to establish rule on earth and for the saints to be raised to heaven in 1918, Rutherford wrote in January of that year: "The Christian looks for the year to bring the full consummation of the church's hopes." He embarked on a vast advertising campaign to expose the "unrighteousness" of religions and their alliances with "beastly" governments, expanding on claims in The Finished Mystery that patriotism was a delusion and murder. The campaign attracted the attention of governments and on February 12, 1918 the book was banned by the Canadian government for what a Winnipeg newspaper described as "seditious and antiwar statements" On February 24 in Los Angeles Rutherford gave a talk entitled "The World Has Ended—Millions Now Living May Never Die" (subsequent talks in the series were renamed, "Millions Now Living Will Never Die") in which he attacked the clergy, declaring: "As a class, according to the Scriptures, the clergymen are the most reprehensible men on earth for the great war that is now afflicting mankind." Three days later the Army Intelligence Bureau seized the Society's Los Angeles offices and confiscated literature.

In early May 1918 US Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory condemned The Finished Mystery as "one of the most dangerous examples of ... propaganda ... a work written in extremely religious language and distributed in enormous numbers". Warrants were issued for the arrest of Rutherford and seven other Watch Tower directors and officers on charges of sedition under the Espionage Act. On June 21 seven of them, including Rutherford, were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Rutherford feared his opponents would gain control of the Society in his absence. On January 2, 1919 learned he had been re-elected president at the Pittsburgh convention the day before, convincing him that God wanted him in the position. In March 1919 the directors were released on bail after an appeals court ruled they had been wrongly convicted; in May 1920 the government announced that all charges had been dropped.
____________________

http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/finishedmystery/fmtitles.html

PUBLISHER'S PREFACE

SINCE the days of the Apostles, Christian people have been looking for the coming of our Lord Jesus in great power and glory; for He said that He would come again and receive His Church unto Himself. He further pointed out that for some time prior to the completion of the Church He would be present, gathering out from Babylon and from the world the truly consecrated, and that during His presence "the Mystery of God" would be finished.

Through St. John the Lord Jesus revealed the fact that the Church would be developed during seven distinct periods, or epochs; and that for each of these epochs Ho would have a special angel, or messenger, to serve the other members of the Body. It follows, then, that the messenger to the last, or Laodicean, epoch would declare the Presence of the Lord and the time of the Harvest of the Gospel Age. The great Master laid special emphasis on the importance of the messenger to the seventh, or Laodicean, period of the Church, saying that such an one would be "a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord would make ruler over all His Household, to give them meat in due season."

Those consecrated Christians who have read and fully appreciated the Truth as contained in the preceding six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES readily sea and agree that Charles Taze Russell was the messenger of the Church of Laodicea. In the mind of every one who believes the Bible the evidence set forth in this volume will establish that fact beyond the question of a doubt.

In the light of Divine Prophecy, now being daily fulfilled and made clear to "the watchers," the following from the pen of Pastor Russell is further proof that he was sent of God to this generation. Long years before the beginning of the trouble now upon the nations he wrote:

"The four exhibitions of the Lord, given to Elijah, represent, we believe, four manifestations in which the Lord is about to reveal Himself to mankind, the first three of which will prepare men for the final one, in which will come the desired blessing to all the families of the earth. These are:

"(1) The mighty winds rending the very rocks Blowing winds seem to be used in Scripture for wars. The wars, whose dark clouds have threatened the civilized world so ominously for the past thirty years, have been miraculously hindered to give opportunity for 'sealing' the Lord's consecrated people in their foreheads (intellectually) with the Present Truth. We are therefore to expect that when these winds of war shall be let loose, lt will mean a cataclysm of warfare which shall divide kingdoms (mountains) — prefigured by the mighty wind shown to Elijah (1 Kings 19:11), which rent the rocks. But God's Kingdom will not follow the epoch of war; the world will not thus be made ready for the Reign of Immanuel. No; a further lesson will be needed and will be given. It is represented in

"(2) An earthquake. Throughout the Scriptures an earthquake seems always to represent revolution; and lt is not unreasonable to expect that an era of general warfare would so arouse the lower classes of Europe and so discontent them with their lot (and especially with the conditions which would follow such a war) that revolution would be the next thing in order. (Rev. 16:18.) But, severe though those revolutionary experiences will be to the world, they are not sufficient to prepare men to hear the voice of God. It will require

"(3) The fire from heaven — an epoch of Divine judgments and chastisements upon a maddened but unconverted world, wild in anarchy, as other Scriptures show us. The results of their wars, revolutions and anarchy, in the failure of their schemes, will have a humbling effect, and will prepare mankind for God's revelation of Himself in

"(4) The still small voice. Yes; He who spoke to the winds and the waves of the Sea of Galilee will, in due time, 'speak peace to the peoples.' He will speak with authority, commanding the observance of His long neglected Law of Love. 'And whosoever will not hear that Prophet shall be cut off from among His people.' (Acts 3:23.)" — THE WATCH TOWER. July 1, 1898, p 208.

"Looking back to the prophetic testimony respecting the Times of the Gentiles, we perceive that our Lord's words, 'Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the Times of the Gentiles be filled full,' give the Intimation that the determined times, or years, in which the empire of earth would be in the hands of Gentile governments was a fixed one from the Divine standpoint. And if, as we believe the Scriptures to teach, Gentile domination was provided for up to October, 1914, it would seem but a reasonable interpretation that Divine power would not be exercised to their dethronement until after the time allotted for their reign had ended — October, 1914." — THE WATCH TOWER, July 1, 1904, p. 188.

In 1879 Charles Taze Russell began the publication of THE WATCH TOWER, of which he was the sole editor as long as he remained on earth. THE WATCH TOWER was, and is, the first and only journal declaring the presence of the Lord Jesus. Pastor Russell being the messenger to the Laodicean Church, and occupying the position of the Lord's special servant to give the Household of Faith meat in due season, it was to be expected that he would bring forth from the Lord's great "Storehouse" the needed spiritual food for the Church, in harmony with God's will. By the Lord's grace he wrote the six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES, which writings, aside from the Bible, have gladdened more hearts and thrilled Christians with greater hope and joyful expectation than have any other writings extant. These books have been properly designated "Keys to the Divine Plan of the Ages." These "keys" have been placed in the hands of thousands of Christian people throughout the world, and have enabled them to unlock the Lord's Treasure-house, the Bible, and there to see some of the "treasures of wisdom" and knowledge of God! Some have been able to use these "keys" more effectually than have others. "God hath set the members in the Body as it hath pleased Him."

Time and again Pastor Russell said that the Seventh Volume of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES would ba written; and it was expected that he would write it. The Scriptures show that the Seventh Volume must be published. Pastor Russell passed from the earth, and the Seventh Volume remained unpublished. In his last moments he said, "Some one else can write the Seventh Volume." For any one to arrogate to himself the authority to write and publish the Seventh Volume would, we believe, seem presumptuous before the Lord. Whom, then, would the Lord have to write it?

Pastor Russell was a man of unusual modesty. Great men usually are modest. The examination of the contents of this book will disclose the fact that it deals with Revelation and Ezekiel; that the Lord long ago caused to be recorded therein, in symbolic language, a history of the Church, particularly the closing earthly experiences thereof; that therein He set forth that He would uncover the frauds, deceptions and blasphemous teachings and practices of the church nominal — both Catholic and Protestant; that in the last days He would then make bare the unholy alliance between the unrighteous ecclesiastical systems and the corrupt political elements of the earth, which religious systems have prospered and grown fat in the name of Christ; that the Lord pronounces His indignation and wrath against all such Babylonish systems and marks their titter destruction in a Time of Trouble such as the world has never known and will never again know; and that the earthly creature made prominent therein above all others is the messenger of the Laodicean Church — "that wise and faithful servant" of the Lord — CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL. In view of the facts stated, is it at all surprising that the Lord spared him the publication of the Seventh Volume?

But the fact is, he did write it. This book may properly be said to be a posthumous publication of Pastor Russell. Why? Because to him the Lord gave the "key"; to him was given the privilege of making clear to the Church ln its last years the "Mystery of God"; to him was granted the privilege of bearing from the hands of the Lord to the Household of Faith "meat in due season" for the special development and sustenance of God's dear little ones. This service he has faithfully performed. This book is chiefly a compilation of things which he wrote and which have been brought together in harmonious style by properly applying the symbols which he explained to the Church.

By his last Will and Testament Pastor Russell designated George H. Fisher, of Scranton, Pa., as one whom he would approve as a member of the Editorial Staff of THE WATCH TOWER — the most important journal published on earth. For many years Brother Fisher has been consecrated to the Lord, a careful student of the Bible in the light of the Message brought from the Lord by the messenger to the Laodicean Church; and for some time he has made a careful and prayerful study of the Book of Ezekiel.

When Pastor Russell was with us he gave direction that the BIBLE STUDENTS MANUAL should be prepared by Clayton J. Woodworth, also of Scranton, Pa. This Manual was published by this Society, and has proven a great blessing to the Household of Faith. The preparation of that Manual required a critical examination of everything Pastor Russell had written; and thus Brother Woodworth was enabled to become more familiar, probably, than any one else with the explanation of the Scriptures which had been given by Brother Russell. In this manner the Lord seemed to have qualified him for some special work. With the "key" which Brother Russell, as the Lord's servant, had placed in his hands, Brother Woodworth, by the Lord's grace, has been enabled to bring together everything that Brother Russell wrote on Revelation, and to explain and harmonize the other parts of that book with the Divine Plan; also, to treat similarly, the Song of Solomon.

It seemed pleasing to the Lord that Brothers C. J. Wood-worth and George H. Fisher should prepare the Seventh Volume, under the direction of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY. While both residing in the same city, they have worked separate and apart from each other, not even comparing notes. The reader will be able to judge how fully the work of each harmonizes with that of the other and with the Divine Plan, thus giving further evidence of the Lord's direction in this matter.

Pastor Russell long ago said, in substance, that the Seventh Volume would not he for the development of the Church; that the preceding six volumes of STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES contain the necessary spiritual food tor that purpose. Asked why, then, it would be written, he replied, "It will probably be given to the Church in a time of direst need, for her comfort and encouragement."

Who amongst the consecrated this side the veil does not realize that the Church is now in that time of "dire need of comfort and encouragement"? The hour of fiery trial and great testings is upon God's people, and there is need for their comfort and encouragement. The Lord has promised "grace sufficient" and help for every time of need for those who love Him and come confidently unto Him. We believe that as the Lord's dear children throughout the earth read the contents of this book and see how wonderfully He has shielded them from the storms of human passion and from the snares of the great Adversary; and that when they see that the unrighteous, wicked systems of Babylon are now crumbling under the mighty hand of God — which bespeaks the early deliverance of the last members of the Body from this vale of tears into the glorious light and liberty of the saints — that then they will be greatly comforted; that then they will take new courage and "gird up the loins of their mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to come unto them quickly;" that with exceeding joy they will lift up their heads, because the hour of deliverance is at hand! To all the truly consecrated who read and appreciate this book we believe that the words of the Master, "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!" will sound in their ears like clarion notes upon the clear morning air, giving courage and strength to those who are growing weak in faith, and more courage to the stronger ones. We believe that every one who appreciates this volume will have a burning desire to grasp his weapon and go forth to the smiting of the Jordan, giving praise to the Lord for the privilege.

Some will murmur and find fault with this book; some will grow angry, and some will join the persecutors. But, we believe, every saint whose heart is filled with love for God and for His people will rejoice and give praise to the Lord for this further evidence of His blessed favor.

The publisher takes pleasure in presenting this, the Seventh Volume, to the remaining members of the Church, and to all who may read with profit to themselves and to the glory of the Lord Jesus and our Father. As the Lord has sent forth the other six volumes, His blessing has accompanied each. That His blessing may be upon this volume, to the comfort and encouragement of the dear saints in the hour of direst need, is our prayer!

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION, COPYRIGHT 1917

Charles Fitch (1805-1844)

2010-07-06T10:34:00.055-06:00

Sit back and listen to the story of Charles Fitch: http://www.whiteestate.org/pathways/v3/ppv3-5.wma

After studying at Brown University in Rhode Island, Charles Fitch began his ministry in the Congregational Church at Abington, Connecticut. In March of 1838 Fitch wrote William Miller stating that he had read Miller's Lectures and did not doubt the correctness of his views. For approximately three and a half years, he held back from preaching the Millerite message. Eventually, because he preached the doctrine of "holiness" and was exhorted not to do so, Fitch felt it necessary to separate from the established church. This separation caused him to be less influenced by the fear of man regarding the Millerite understanding of the advent.

Josiah Litch visited Fitch and told him he needed the doctrine of the second advent to add to his doctrine of holiness. Litch left him more literature to study and requested he correspond as to the result of his study. This study led to his accepting the advent doctrine.

Thereafter, Fitch traveled tirelessly, throwing himself unreservedly into proclaiming the need of preparation for the Second Coming of Christ. He moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio and held meetings and baptisms all over Ohio.

In 1842, feeling the need of an accurate chart, Fitch and Apollos Hale prepared the famous chart illustrating the fulfillment of the last-time prophecies of Daniel. This was used extensively by the Millerites. Fitch himself used this chart and also other visual aids including a replica of the Daniel 2 statue that could be separated into its various parts. Charles Fitch became seriously ill, probably with pneumonia, in the month of October, 1844. He had chilled while baptizing converts. He died on Monday, October 14th, in full faith that he should awake in a few days in the likeness of his Redeemer. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

William Miller had a strong religious background, but he became attached to the wrong "crowd". His friends set aside the Bible and had vague ideas about God and His personality. When Miller was thirty-four years of age he became dissatisfied with his views. The Holy Spirit impressed his heart, and he turned to the study of the Word of God. He found in Christ the answer to all his needs. His study led him to the great prophecies that pointed to the first and to the second advent of our Lord. The time prophecies interested him, particularly the prophecies of Daniel and The Revelation.

In the year 1818, as a result of his study of the prophecies of Daniel 8 and 9, he came to the conclusion that Christ would come some time in the year 1843 or 1844. He hesitated until 1831 before he began to announce his findings. From his first public service we may mark the beginnings of the Advent movement in North America. In the months and years that followed, roughly 100,000 persons came to believe in the imminence of Christ’s second coming.

Following the great disappointment of 1844, Miller lived for several years. He fell asleep in Christ in 1849. A small chapel stands near his home in Low Hampton, New York, built by Miller before he died. In spite of his misunderstanding of the event that was to transpire in 1844, God used him to awaken the world to the nearness of the end and to prepare sinners for the time of judgment.

- APL Gallery, Updated 27 June 2006
________________________

Charles Fitch (1805–1844) was an American preacher in the early 19th century, who rose to prominence for his work with the Millerite movement.

During his early years, in the 1830s, he had associated with famous evangelist Charles G. Finney, and worked with him on the causes of temperance and abolition. In 1838, he found some copies of William Miller's lectures, and accepted them at once. However, when he went to share them with local colleagues, he was rebuffed, and so he backed off.

Three years later, after meeting with Josiah Litch, he openly accepted the Millerite movement, and became one of its foremost preachers. While the core of the Millerite movement was in New England, Fitch focused his efforts on Ohio, Michigan, and Western New York.

Fitch's most notable contribution to Millerism came in the summer of 1843. At the time the public sentiment had begun to turn against the Millerites, and many preachers and believers were faced with expulsion from their churches. But up to this point, William Miller had advised his followers not to separate from their churches.

Charles Fitch then preached a powerful sermon based on Revelation 18: "Babylon the great has fallen... Come out of her, my people!" Up to this point, most Protestants had identified Babylon in the text as the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church. In this sermon, Fitch labeled all the Protestant churches that had not accepted the message of Jesus' Second Coming as Babylon. He then invited the Millerites to separate from their churches.

This cry was taken up by George Storrs, who cautioned the Millerites not to organize a new church, for "no church can be organized by man's invention but what it becomes Babylon the moment it is organized." Joseph Marsh, editor of the Voice of Truth, also supported this call to separate. The Millerite leaders themselves withheld from supporting this call, but neither did they do anything to prevent it.

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/11/george-storrs.html

After the first initial disappointment that occurred when Jesus did not come by the spring of 1844, Fitch then traveled east to continue evangelizing. In August 1844, Samuel S. Snow reinvigorated the Millerite movement by predicting that Jesus would come on October 22, 1844. Charles Fitch continued to preach and baptize, even into the colder autumn months, and in early October after baptizing three groups of believers in a brisk wind, he contracted a high fever and died on October 14, 1844, just eight days before he expected Jesus to come. He was 39 years old. - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, July 6, 2010
_________________________

Among the younger men who supported William Miller in his preaching of the advent of Christ was Charles Fitch. Born in December, 1805, he was only thirty-three years old when he first heard Miller in 1838. After his education at Brown University he had been a pastor much beloved in the several churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts where he had served. It was while he was pastor of the Marlboro Chapel, a Congregational church, that he heard Miller lecture and later sent for copies of his sermon.

Although Fitch did not accept the teaching concerning the second coming of Christ at that time, the preaching of Miller fired his zeal, and he left Boston, traveling widely, conducting evangelistic meetings in the churches of New England, New York, and even as far west as Lake Erie. He eventually returned to Haverhill, Massachusetts, his former home. In some unaccountable way he felt that his power of witnessing for Christ had deserted him. He fell into a period of deep discouragement.

It seemed the doors of the churches now were shut to him. Where should he go to tell the message of God's love and desire to make His people perfect in His love? He had fasted and prayed and wept before the Lord, but no way was open for him to continue. Then, as he sat there one cold December day, there came a knock at his door. When he opened it, there stepped within a stranger who said: "Brother Fitch, you do not know me, but I have known of you for four years, since you first inquired about the message of the Lord's coming. For in that year I also heard this faith, and believed it, and began to preach it. My name is Josiah Litch, of Philadelphia."

Then they talked together, and as Fitch told his new friend of his perplexities, Litch said to him, "Brother, you need the truth of Jesus' coming with the message you have been preaching."

Charles Fitch turned again to his Bible and studied the subject of Jesus' coming. And again he was convinced, and now he put his whole soul into it. He expected, as did others who accepted this faith, that he would lose his friends, some of whom in his ministry of love had become very dear to him. And, of course, there were some who turned against him, but there were others who rejoiced with him in the faith of Jesus' coming.

Now Charles Fitch found the ears of the people open to listen, and with Miller and Himes and Litch and others, he went forth to proclaim the soon coming of Jesus. It took him far away from his home most of the time. Traveling by foot and horse and stage and steamboat was hard; there was no certain pay; but there was gladness in his heart and voice as he went out to give the message.

Very soon, as he was lecturing on the visions of Daniel and John, there came to his mind a word from the prophet Habakkuk, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it," and he sat down and devised what are believed to be the first prophetic charts used by the Advent preachers of those days.

In the latter part of 1842 Charles Fitch started for the West to proclaim the message. In those times the United States was not so large as now, and the territory beyond the Appalachian Mountains and around the Great Lakes was very little settled. There were as yet no railroads out there, but the rivers and the Great Lakes were beginning to be used by steamboats; and two canals in the State of Ohio, which connected Lake Erie with the Ohio River, had helped greatly to develop the country. Cincinnati, then the largest city, had about forty thousand people, and Cleveland, on Lake Erie, had about six thousand.

Fitch went to Cleveland, where he soon moved his family, and where he lived for the next two years. From this place he, with Elon Galusha and other ministers, went out over the State to the new and growing cities and the little towns, where the country people would come in to listen to the message. Akron and Marietta, the oldest towns in the State, were cities where the message was gladly received, and indeed all through this Western country the preachers of the Advent message found a people more ready to believe in Jesus' coming than those in the older country of the East. These new settlers were deeply interested in education also, and they established schools such as Oberlin College, near Cleveland, where the students and some of the teachers largely supported themselves on the farm and in other industries, and where a true Christian education was in every way encouraged. At Oberlin there was great interest in the message Charles Fitch and his helpers brought, and many there turned to look for the coming of their Lord.

In Cleveland, Fitch found a Congregational church who were willing to let him use their building, fronting the public square, and from this church for perhaps a year the people of Cleveland in greater and greater numbers heard the message proclaimed. Finally the company of believers built a larger church, in which the work was continued. One who was then a young man living in Cleveland has told of hearing Charles Fitch preach. "He was a very winsome man," he said, "slender, but well built, and with a smile that would disarm an enemy and which truly spoke the kindliness of his nature. He was a very powerful speaker, and under his preaching many nights I have seen hundreds, deeply convicted, rise and go forward to ask for prayers and salvation in the kingdom. There was a solemnity about the meetings that none, even of the most flippant, could resist or change. Fitch always had command of his audiences.

"One night, I remember, when at the close of his sermon he called for repentant sinners to come forward, a great lubberly fellow, whom I well knew, with others rose in the gallery and started to come down the stairs that led to the pulpit. Part way down he stumbled and almost fell the rest of the way. A laugh started among the lighter-minded in the audience, but Mr. Fitch called out, 'Never mind, brother! It's better to stumble into heaven than to walk straight into hell.' And the laughing died as quickly as it had started."

In the summer of 1844 William Miller, to whom Charles Fitch was very dear, went on a tour of the cities and country where Fitch had been working. He came to Cleveland and preached there, and then went on to other cities and towns as far as Cincinnati. And everywhere he found the people in great crowds eager to hear.

Not only did Fitch preach, but he published in Cleveland a paper called the Second Advent of Christ, which for two years carried far out through the northwestern country the message that he could not everywhere carry in person. A great love of the truth of Jesus' near coming was thus planted in the hearts of the people; and, as will be noted, in later years the fruit of this sowing was reaped in the rapid progress of the message.

Charles Fitch, however, did not have long thereafter to labor. There appears a most interesting statement about his death and his coming reward in Early Writings, on page 17, 1945 edition. The cause of his death, in October, 1844, was a fever that was brought on in the following way. He had a large number of new believers who desired baptism, and others who had not yet made up their minds. The company who were ready went with him to the lake, and there were baptized. A cold wind was blowing as he, with them, started in his wet garments for home, and he was much chilled. But he had not gone far when he met another company from among those whom he had left behind, who now came desiring baptism. He went back with them to the lake and also immersed them. Then as they started home there came a third company whose conviction of sin and of Jesus' salvation and of His soon coming had brought them to the decision. At their request he turned again and baptized them also. The next day, though ill from the effects of his chill, he rode in the cold wind some miles to another appointment. This proved too hard on him, and he was stricken down, and after an illness of several weeks he died. His last clear words, in answer to some who asked him of his faith, were, "I believe in the promises of God."

Among all those in America who preached and taught the message of Jesus' coming, perhaps none was so widely and deeply loved as Charles Fitch. He had a depth of love that reached high to his Savior and low and far to his fellow men. Always courageous, hopeful, and helpful, he interpreted the love of God not only in word but in deed, and he bound firmly in friendship and perfect love thousands to whom he ministered and hundreds with whom he labored. He did a great work, and he left a mark of his labors both upon the country where he preached and upon the methods of his successors. He may well be remembered as the beloved apostle of the Advent message.

- Connecticut Valley Adventist Church, Pioneer Stories - compiled by Theodore Lucas, 1956
__________________________________________________________________________________

Congregational minister, later Presbyterian minister, Millerite leader, the designer of the “1843 chart.” Early in 1838 Fitch accepted Miller’s views, producing a sensation with his sermons. But his ministerial associates treated the new doctrine with such searing ridicule and contempt that for a time he lost confidence in it, and lapsed into his former views of the world’s conversion.

It was Josiah Litch, who had known of Fitch’s experience, who brought him again to the definite acceptance of the Adventist faith. From then on he was one of the most fearless, aggressive, and successful Millerite leaders. Fitch, assisted by Apollos Hale, designed the widely used “1843” prophetic chart, painted on cloth, which he presented to the Boston General Conference of May 1842.

In the latter part of 1842 Fitch was asked to go to Cleveland, Ohio, and vicinity. Despite opposition, a definite interest in the Advent message developed at Oberlin College, where Fitch was given opportunity to deliver a series of lectures on the Second Advent in September 1843.

By 1843 Fitch was one of the most prominent of the Millerite leaders. In January of that year he began to edit a weekly journal called the Second Advent of Christ. In this he printed (July 26, 1843) his sermon (from Rev. 14 and 18) on the mighty angel who cried, “Babylon the great is fallen,” and who was followed by the warning voice, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” In this Fitch contended that the term Babylon was no longer limited to the Roman Catholic Church, but now included also the great body of Protestant Christendom. He maintained that both branches of Christendom had, by their rejection of the light on the Advent, fallen from the high estate of pure Christianity. He contended that Protestantism was either cold to the doctrine of the Second Advent or had spiritualized it away. This address was put into pamphlet form and later reprinted in various Millerite papers.

Early in October 1844 Fitch accepted the “seventh month” concept, and looked to Oct. 22 as the time for the coming of Christ. He was ill in Buffalo at the time, and died on Oct. 14, shortly before the day of expectation, from pneumonia contracted after prolonged exposure while baptizing outdoors in cold weather. - IMS Media Online Library

______________________

Charles Fitch: herald of Christ's return

During the early 1800s, William Miller, a Baptist lay preacher, became convicted that the second coming of Jesus would soon occur. For several years, he resisted preaching about this conviction, but in 1832, he accepted an invitation to speak at a Baptist worship service in Dresden, New York. The people were so impressed by Miller’s exposition of Daniel and Revelation that they invited him to speak every evening that week.

Word spread quickly and Miller never lacked for a pulpit after that.

By late 1844, an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, including many ministers, had joined what has come to be known as the “Millerite movement.”

Two of those preachers were Charles Fitch and Josiah Litch.

Litch was the first to become a Millerite, and he became an ardent advocate of the Second Coming. Charles Fitch was one of his converts. In a letter to a friend, Fitch wrote, “When dear Brother Litch named the second advent, I went to the Lord; I read my Bible, and all the works that I could obtain. I possessed myself of all the evidences in the case that I could; and then with fasting and prayer I laid them and myself with my all before the Lord... . Light seemed breaking in upon my mind, ray after ray.”

Fitch and Finney

For a few years, Fitch was associated with Charles G Finney, who was the “Billy Graham” of his day. Finney, a young lawyer, became a Christian in 1821 and he eventually became a Presbyterian minister. By the 1830s, what had begun as village revivals, were impacting urban centres such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Rochester.

It’s been estimated some 500,000 people were converted as a result of Finney’s preaching.

When Finney opened his famous Broadway Tabernacle in New York City in 1836, he chose his friend Charles Fitch to preach the sermon and offer the benedictory prayer. Fitch often spoke of Finney as the “father of modern revivalism.” The two were close spiritual brothers. They were also linked as reformers in an age filled with reform. Both embraced social concerns such as antislavery and temperance.

Finney and Fitch also believed Jesus would return someday. However, a serious disagreement over that teaching put extreme strain on their relationship.

Finney believed Christ would come at the end of the 1000-year period called “the millennium,” while Fitch was equally certain the Second Coming would occur before the millennium. (Signs of the Times adopts Fitch’s view.)

Fitch and “the Advent near”

As a minister in Congregational and then Presbyterian parishes, Fitch gave years of close study to the biblical teaching about Christ’s second coming.

In March 1838, he read a paper about the Second Coming to his local ministerial association and in December 1841, a magazine called Signs of the Times (a forerunner of today’s Signs of the Times but a different magazine) reported that “dear brother” Fitch “has come into the full faith of the Second Advent.”

Next to William Miller himself, Fitch became one of the most prominent ministers in the Millerite movement. In January 1843, he launched his own Millerite periodical with the title, The Second Advent of Christ. This magazine helps us trace his experience as one of the hundreds of ministers in many denominations who focused on Miller’s message of Christ’s return. By March 1844, a Second Advent paper in New York City, The Midnight Cry, estimated that between 1500 and 2000 lecturers were proclaiming that “the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Methodist ministers—followed by Baptist, Congregational and Presbyterian clergy—were the most prominent heralds of the urgent message of the nearness of Christ’s return. Such preachers were not short of Bible verses to sustain their claim that Christ would return personally, visibly, audibly and gloriously. Didn’t Jesus liken His return to the brightness of lightning that shines from the east to the west? He also declared that “all the nations of the earth ... will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory”

(Matthew 24:26–30). These ministers cherished the apostle Paul’s reference to “the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–14).

Fitch’s spirituality

To study the writings of Charles Fitch is to journey with him into a deepening understanding of the Bible and its saving message. As Fitch wrestled with the significance of Christ’s glorious return, he started to see a fresh meaning in the texts that refer to the resurrection.

Jesus promised, “All that are in their graves will hear his voice.” He declared Himself to be “the resurrection and the life.” When the apostle Paul described the events that will occur at the Second Coming, he stated that “the dead in Christ will rise first” (see John 5:28; 11:25; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Fitch was especially enthusiastic about Miller’s preaching of the second advent of Christ. Like Fitch, for a number of weeks, Miller believed the Scriptures indicated an exact date on which Jesus would return—October 22, 1844. Miller was of course deeply disappointed when the great day of hope turned into a day of bitter disappointment.

Cured forever of date-setting, on November 10, 1844, Miller wrote a letter that was printed in The Midnight Cry the following month: “Brethren,” he wrote, “hold fast; let no man take your crown. I have fixed my mind upon another time, and here I mean to stand until God gives me more light— and that is Today, TODAY, TODAY, until He comes, and I see Him for whom my soul yearns.”

Unfortunately, several weeks before October 22, Fitch performed several baptisms outdoors in cold weather.

As a result, he contracted pneumonia, and he died on October 14, 1844, just eight days before the anticipated date of Christ’s return. Had he lived to read Miller’s letter, he would surely have heartily agreed. He might also have quoted what Jesus said, after describing the signs that warn us about the climax of history: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

In His greatest Advent sermon, Jesus speaks to all of us, saying, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42).

- By Arthur Patrick
Copyright © 2011 Signs of the Times & netAdventist

____________________________

Letter from Charles Fitch to William Miller

"Boston, March 5, 1838.

"MY DEAR BROTHER: - I am a stranger to you, but I trust that, through the free sovereign grace of God, I am not altogether a stranger to Jesus Christ, whom you serve. I am the pastor of an Orthodox Congregational church in this city. A few weeks since your lectures on the Second Coming of Christ were put into my hands. I sat down to read the work, knowing nothing of the views which it contained. I have studied it with an overwhelming interest, such as I never felt in any other book except the Bible. I have compared it with Scripture and history, and I find nothing on which to rest a single doubt respecting the correctness of your views. Though a miserable, guilty sinner, I trust that, through the Lord's abounding grace, I shall be among those that `love his appearing.' I preached to my people two discourses yesterday on the coming of our Lord, and I believe a deep and permanent interest will be awakened thereby in God's testimonies. My object in writing you, my dear sir, is twofold.

"1st. Will you have the kindness to inform me, by letter, in what history you find the fact stated that the last of the ten kings was baptized A. D. 508, and also that the decree of Justinian, giving the Bishop of Rome power to suppress the reading of the Scriptures, was issued in 538? All the other data which you have given I have found correct, and I know of no reason to doubt your correctness in these. But, as I have not yet been able to find a statement of those facts, you will do me a great favor by just informing me where I may find them; and I shall then feel prepared to defend the truth, and to point others to the right source of information.

"There is a meeting of our Ministerial Association to-morrow, and, as I am appointed to read an essay, I design to bring up this whole subject for discussion, and trust that I may thereby do something to spread the truth.

"2d. My second object in writing was to ask if you would put me in the way to obtain a dozen copies of your lectures. I know of none to be obtained here. I know of several individuals who are very desirous to obtain the work, and if you can tell me of any place where it can be obtained in this city, or in New York, you will greatly oblige me. If you can give me any information of importance on the subject, not contained in your book, I should greatly rejoice, because, as I stand a watchman on the walls, I wish to `give the trumpet a certain sound,' and to make that sound as full, and explicit, and convincing as possible.

"Yours in the faith of Jesus Christ,

"CHARLES FITCH."

They call me Trinity

2010-07-05T18:34:00.034-06:00

PEOPLE who believe the Trinity teaching say that God consists of three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of these three persons is said to be equal to the others, almighty, and without beginning. According to the Trinity doctrine, therefore, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there is only one God.

Many who believe the Trinity admit that they are not able to explain this teaching. Still, they may feel that it is taught in the Bible. It is worth noting that the word “Trinity” never occurs in the Bible. But is the idea of a Trinity found there? To answer this question, let us look at a scripture that supporters often cite to uphold the Trinity.

“THE WORD WAS GOD”

John 1:1 states: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (King James Version) Later in the same chapter, the apostle John clearly shows that “the Word” is Jesus. (John 1:14) Since the Word is called God, however, some conclude that the Son and the Father must be part of the same God.

Bear in mind that this part of the Bible was originally written in Greek. Later, translators rendered the Greek text into other languages. A number of Bible translators, though, did not use the phrase “the Word was God.” Why not? Based on their knowledge of Biblical Greek, those translators concluded that the phrase “the Word was God” should be translated differently. How? Here are a few examples: “The Logos [Word] was divine.” (A New Translation of the Bible) “The Word was a god.” (The New Testament in an Improved Version) “The Word was with God and shared his nature.” (The Translator’s New Testament) According to these translations, the Word is not God himself. Instead, because of his high position among Jehovah’s creatures, the Word is referred to as “a god.” Here the term “god” means “mighty one.” Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-word-was-divine.html

GET MORE FACTS

Most people do not know Biblical Greek. So how can you know what the apostle John really meant? Think of this example: A schoolteacher explains a subject to his students. Afterward, the students differ on how to understand the explanation. How can the students resolve the matter? They could ask the teacher for more information. No doubt, learning additional facts would help them to understand the subject better. Similarly, to grasp the meaning of John 1:1, you can look in the Gospel of John for more information on Jesus’ position. Learning additional facts on this subject will help you to draw the right conclusion.

For instance, consider what John further writes in chapter 1, verse 18: “No man has seen [Almighty] God at any time.” However, humans have seen Jesus, the Son, for John says: “The Word [Jesus] was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.” (John 1:14, KJ) How, then, could the Son be part of Almighty God? John also states that the Word was “with God.” But how can an individual be with someone and at the same time be that person? Moreover, as recorded at John 17:3, Jesus makes a clear distinction between himself and his heavenly Father. He calls his Father “the only true God.” And toward the end of his Gospel, John sums up matters by saying: “These have been written down that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.” (John 20:31) Notice that Jesus is called, not God, but the Son of God. This additional information provided in the Gospel of John shows how John 1:1 should be understood. Jesus, the Word, is “a god” in the sense that he has a high position but is not the same as Almighty God.

CONFIRM THE FACTS

Think again about the example of the schoolteacher and the students. Imagine that some still have doubts, even after listening to the teacher’s additional explanation. What could they do? They could turn to another teacher for further information on the same subject. If the second teacher confirms the explanation of the first one, the doubts of most students may be put to rest. Similarly, if you are not sure what the Bible writer John was really saying about the relationship between Jesus and Almighty God, you could turn to another Bible writer for further information. Consider what was written by Matthew, for example. Regarding the end of this system of things, he quotes Jesus as saying: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36) How do these words confirm that Jesus is not Almighty God?

Jesus says that the Father knows more than the Son does. If Jesus were part of Almighty God, however, he would know the same facts as his Father. So, then, the Son and the Father cannot be equal. Yet, some will say: ‘Jesus had two natures. Here he speaks as a man.’ But even if that were so, what about the holy spirit? If it is part of the same God as the Father, why does Jesus not say that it knows what the Father knows?

As you continue your Bible studies, you will become familiar with many more Bible passages that have a bearing on this subject. They confirm the truth about the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit.—Psalm 90:2; Acts 7:55; Colossians 1:15.

[Footnote]
For a further discussion of John 1:1, see pages 24-25 of the November 1, 2008, issue of The Watchtower, published by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

- What Does the Bible Really Teach?, published by the WTB&TS
_______________________________________________________________

THAT question has to be considered when Bible translators handle the first verse of the Gospel of John. In the New World Translation, the verse is rendered: “In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” (John 1:1) Some other translations render the last part of the verse to convey the thought that the Word was “divine,” or something similar. (A New Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt; The New English Bible) Many translations, however, render the last part of John 1:1: “And the Word was God.”—The Holy Bible—New International Version; The Jerusalem Bible.

Greek grammar and the context strongly indicate that the New World Translation rendering is correct and that “the Word” should not be identified as the “God” referred to earlier in the verse. Nevertheless, the fact that the Greek language of the first century did not have an indefinite article (“a” or “an”) leaves the matter open to question in some minds. It is for this reason that a Bible translation in a language that was spoken in the earliest centuries of our Common Era is very interesting.

The language is the Sahidic dialect of Coptic. The Coptic language was spoken in Egypt in the centuries immediately following Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the Sahidic dialect was an early literary form of the language. Regarding the earliest Coptic translations of the Bible, The Anchor Bible Dictionary says: “Since the [Septuagint] and the [Christian Greek Scriptures] were being translated into Coptic during the 3d century C.E., the Coptic version is based on [Greek manuscripts] which are significantly older than the vast majority of extant witnesses.”

The Sahidic Coptic text is especially interesting for two reasons. First, as indicated above, it reflects an understanding of Scripture dating from before the fourth century, which was when the Trinity became official doctrine. Second, Coptic grammar is relatively close to English grammar in one important aspect. The earliest translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures were into Syriac, Latin, and Coptic. Syriac and Latin, like the Greek of those days, do not have an indefinite article. Coptic, however, does. Moreover, scholar Thomas O. Lambdin, in his work Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, says: “The use of the Coptic articles, both definite and indefinite, corresponds closely to the use of the articles in English.” Also See http://nwtandcoptic.blogspot.com

Hence, the Coptic translation supplies interesting evidence as to how John 1:1 would have been understood back then. What do we find? The Sahidic Coptic translation uses an indefinite article with the word “god” in the final part of John 1:1. Thus, when rendered into modern English, the translation reads: “And the Word was a god.” Evidently, those ancient translators realized that John’s words recorded at John 1:1 did not mean that Jesus was to be identified as Almighty God. The Word was a god, not Almighty God.

-November 1, 2008 Watchtower, published by the WTB&TS

The Good News

2010-07-04T13:48:00.021-06:00

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Kingdom good news was first declared publicly by a dedicated man whose appearance and manner commanded much attention. That man was John the Baptizer, son of Jewish priest Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. John wore a garment of camel hair, with a leather girdle around his loins, in the manner of the prophet Elijah, who foreshadowed him. But it was his message that attracted the attention of many. “Repent,” he proclaimed, “for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.”—Matthew 3:1-6.

John’s listeners were Jews, who professed to be worshipers of the true God, Jehovah. As a nation, they had received the Law covenant through Moses about 1,500 years earlier. Still standing in Jerusalem was the magnificent temple, where sacrifices were offered in accord with the Law. The Jews felt sure that their worship was right in God’s eyes.

Listening to John, however, some people began to realize that their religion was not what they had thought it was. Greek culture and philosophy had infiltrated Jewish religious teachings. The law received from God through Moses was now adulterated, even invalidated, by man-made beliefs and traditions. (Matthew 15:6) Misguided by their hardhearted and merciless religious leaders, most no longer worshiped God acceptably. (James 1:27) They needed to repent of their sins against God and against the Law covenant.

At that time, many Jews were expecting the appearance of the promised Messiah, or Christ, and some were wondering about John: “May he perhaps be the Christ?” John, however, denied that he was and instead directed them to someone else, of whom he said: “The lace of [his] sandals I am not fit to untie.” (Luke 3:15, 16) Introducing Jesus to his disciples, John declared: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!”—John 1:29. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/04/christ-jesus-role-as-ransomer.html

That was indeed good news, for John was, in effect, pointing out to all people the way to life and happiness—Jesus, the one who “takes away the sin of the world.” As descendants of Adam and Eve, all humans are born under the tyranny of sin and death. Romans 5:19 explains: “Just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] many were constituted sinners, likewise also through the obedience of the one person [Jesus] many will be constituted righteous.” Jesus, like a sacrificial lamb, was to ‘take sin away’ and bring about a reversal of the sad state of human affairs. “The wages sin pays is death,” the Bible explains, “but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23.

As a perfect man—in fact, the greatest man who ever lived—Jesus took up preaching the good news. The Bible account at Mark 1:14, 15 tells us: “Now after John was put under arrest Jesus went into Galilee, preaching the good news of God and saying: ‘The appointed time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Be repentant, you people, and have faith in the good news.’”

Those who responded to Jesus’ message and exercised faith in the good news were highly blessed. John 1:12 says: “As many as did receive [Jesus], to them he gave authority to become God’s children, because they were exercising faith in his name.” Being children, or sons, of God, they were in line to receive the reward of everlasting life.—1 John 2:25.

But the privilege of receiving Kingdom blessings was not limited to people in the first century. As mentioned earlier, the good news of God’s Kingdom is being proclaimed and taught in all the inhabited earth today. So Kingdom blessings are still available. What must you do to receive such blessings? http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960201/article_02.htm

April 1, 2001 Watchtower, WTB&TS
________________________

WHEN Jesus was on earth, his disciples came to him and asked: “What will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?” He replied that there would be wars involving many nations, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, an increasing of lawlessness, false religious teachers misleading many, a hatred and persecution of his true followers, and a cooling off of the love of righteousness in many people. When these things would start to happen, it would indicate that Christ was invisibly present and that the heavenly Kingdom was at hand. This would be news—good news! So Jesus added these words as a part of the sign: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come.”—Matthew 24:3-14.

In themselves, recent world happenings are bad, but what they signify is good, namely, Christ’s presence. The conditions mentioned above started to be evident in that widely heralded year 1914! It marked the end of the Gentile Times and the beginning of the transition period from human rule to the Thousand Year (Millennial) Reign of Christ.

That there was to be a transition period is indicated by the 110th Psalm, verses 1 and 2, and Revelation 12:7-12. There it is shown that Christ would sit at God’s right hand in heaven until the time for his becoming King. Then war in heaven would result in Satan’s being cast to earth, bringing woe to the earth, and Christ would rule in the midst of his enemies. The complete end of wickedness would come by means of a “great tribulation,” culminating in the war at Har–Magedon and followed by Christ’s Thousand Year Reign of peace.—Matthew 24:21, 33, 34; Revelation 16:14-16.

“But know this,” the Bible says, “that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away.”—2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Some may argue that these things have happened before in human history, but the fact is that they have never occurred to the same extent. As the historians and commentators say, there has never been a time on earth like the one experienced from 1914 onward. (See page 7.) The woes have been far more extensive than ever before. Moreover, as to other features of Christ’s sign of the last days, these facts should be considered: The earth-wide proclamation of Christ’s presence and Kingdom has been of a magnitude unprecedented in history. Persecution for preaching has never equaled that visited upon Jehovah’s Witnesses. Many hundreds of them were executed in Nazi concentration camps. To this day Jehovah’s Witnesses are under ban in some places, and in others they are arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed. This is all part of the sign Jesus gave.

As foretold at Revelation 11:18, ‘the nations have become wrathful’ against Jehovah’s faithful Witnesses, and this indicates that Jehovah’s “own wrath” will be expressed against those nations. This same scripture says that God will “bring to ruin those ruining the earth.” Never before has there been a time in human history when the earth’s capacity for sustaining life has been threatened. However, now it is different! Many scientists have warned that if man continues to pollute the earth, it will become uninhabitable. But Jehovah “formed it even to be inhabited,” and he will get rid of the polluters before they complete their ruin of the earth.—Isaiah 45:18.

EARTHLY BLESSINGS UNDER THE KINGDOM

The thought of people living on earth as subjects of God’s Kingdom may seem strange to many Bible believers who think of all those saved as being in heaven. The Bible shows that only a limited number go to heaven and that those who will live forever on earth will be a great crowd of unlimited number. (Psalm 37:11, 29; Revelation 7:9; 14:1-5) That God’s Kingdom under Christ will fill the earth and reign over it is shown by a prophecy in the Bible book of Daniel.

Christ’s Kingdom is there represented as a stone cut from Jehovah’s mountainlike sovereignty. It strikes and destroys an image that represents powerful nations of the earth, and “the stone that struck the image . . . became a large mountain and filled the whole earth.” The prophecy continues: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”—Daniel 2:34, 35, 44. http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/04/appointed-times-of-nations.html

It is this Kingdom and the Scripturally supported hope of everlasting life on a cleansed and beautified earth that Jehovah’s Witnesses wish to tell you about. Millions now living and many, many millions now in their graves will have opportunity to dwell therein forever. Then, under the Thousand Year Reign of Christ Jesus, Jehovah’s original purpose for creating the earth and putting the first human pair on it will be realized. This earthly Paradise will never become boring. Just as Adam was assigned work in the garden of Eden, so humankind will have challenging projects in caring for the earth and the plant and animal life on it. They “shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”—Isaiah 65:22, Revised Standard Version; Genesis 2:15.

Many scriptures could be presented to show the conditions that will exist when the prayer that Jesus taught us is answered: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.” (Matthew 6:10) However, let this one suffice for now: “I heard a loud voice from the throne say: ‘Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. And God himself will be with them. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.’ And the One seated on the throne said: ‘Look! I am making all things new.’ Also, he says: ‘Write, because these words are faithful and true.’”—Revelation 21:3-5.

- Jehovah's Witnesses—Who Are They? What Do They Believe? - Published by the WTB&TS in 2000

Benjamin H. Barton (1874 - 1916)

2010-06-27T14:15:00.035-06:00

Brother Barton was trained as an architect but gave up his trade for the Lord’s work of building his own character and assisting others in attaining the full stature of Christ. In June of 1906 Brother Russell arranged for him to travel to the British Isles on a Pilgrim trip. After that he served continually in the Pilgrim ministry mostly in the United States and Canada until his death on June 24, 1916 in Portland, Oregon at the home of Bro. W. A. Baker.

The Portland Ecclesia considers it a fitting tribute to share the ministry of this noble brother whose earthly ended here more than seventy years ago. It is our wish that this work be considered as supplementary to the harvest message as presented through that "faithful and wise servant."

It is our belief that these "echoes" of a ten year ministry will only stir us to greater faithfulness in our journey toward the kingdom.

Brother Barton’s style of speaking and writing are not as polished as we are used to in the reading of Brother Russell’s writings. Except for a few cases of misspelling or typing errors we have left the grammar as we found it. Nevertheless you will see in his style, the heart and mind of a saint of God.

Brother Russell delivered Brother Barton’s funeral service in July 1916 (just five months before his own death), and we have included that service in this book. Some remarks by Brother Russell and Brother Baker’s report can be found in the Tower of July 15, 1916 (R5930). We have made an effort to assemble all of Brother Barton’s writings known to us. Some of his letters and articles were printed in the Towers, and we have not attempted to reprint these again as they are readily available to those wishing to read them there (R3644, R3818, R4101, R4141, R4450, R4695, R5865). A short synopsis of the source of each lesson is included with the table of contents, which we have arranged as much as possible in chronological order.

Brother Barton died before his father. His father found this consecration card among his effects:

Consecration Card

I disclaim all right to myself from henceforth to my soul, my body, my time, my health, my reputation, my talents, or anything that belongs to me. I confess myself to be property of my glorious Redeemer. I dedicate myself to Him, to serve, love and trust Him as my life and my salvation to my life’s end.

Signed, BENJAMIN H. BARTON May 19, 1895.

- Pilgrim Echoes, http://www.mostholyfaith.com/bible/Pilgrim_Echoes/Index.asp
____________________

On Sunday, June 18, the Philadelphia Friends were called to order at the close of the evening service and informed that our dear Brother Barton had suffered a complete breakdown. Prayer was offered in his behalf. On the Sunday following, the Friends were informed that our dear Brother was on his way to Portland, Ore., to take two weeks' treatment from a physician there, after which he was to make his way home by slow stages. On the next Sunday, the Friends were informed that Brother Barton had indeed arrived "home," having passed beyond the veil the day before, Saturday, June 24.

All that was mortal of our dear Brother arrived in Philadelphia in the latter part of the next week and arrangements were made to have the funeral on Monday, July 3. The body was on view during the evening of Sunday, July 2, and on Monday at 12:30 p.m. was taken to the hall at Fifteenth and Chestnut streets, where Brother Russell was to deliver the funeral address, where there was also an opportunity given the Friends for a last look at the tenement of clay our Brother had left behind him.

There were three large floral designs and many sprays of flowers. One of the designs, an open Bible, was the loving remembrance of the Philadelphia Ecclesia. Another design, a floral cross, was broken up at the cemetery, after the casket had been lowered into the grave, and each of those present presented with a flower. These were cast into the grave as the Friends passed by. The burial was described, by one of the Friends present, as the "cleanest" he had ever witnessed. The grave was lined with evergreen branches, and the earth that had been taken from it was covered in like manner.

All the members of the Philadelphia Ecclesia who could possibly arrange to do so were present during the funeral service at the old Y.M.C.A. hall, as well as a number of the Friends from classes in Camden, N.J.; Chester, Pa.; Norristown, Pa., and Willmington, Del. Brother Russell spoke for about forty minutes.

- Notes taken at Pilgrim Brother's service in Philadelphia by Brother J.W. Gilbert on Monday, July 3, 1916.
______________________

BROTHER BENJAMIN H. BARTON has been on the Pilgrim staff of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY for quite a good many years, and is widely and very favorably remembered by our readers. Although always apparently frail, Brother Barton had a strong voice, and by the Lord's grace was able to do very efficient service up to about June 1st. We then heard from him that he had not been very well and was obliged to cancel future appointments in Oregon. He was kindly entertained by the friends, and everything possible for his comfort was attended to, but he continued to grow weak and, without special pain or suffering of any kind, so far as we have learned, passed away on Saturday, June 24th. His remains were shipped to the residence of his parents in Philadelphia, where they were interred Monday, July 3d.

The Editor has most kindly remembrances of dear Brother Barton, not only as a faithful servant of the Lord, of the Truth, of the brethren, but also as a personal friend. The knowledge of the Truth, heart-abounding grace, the spirit of a sound mind, all contributed to the development in Brother Barton of a very noble character, highly esteemed amongst the friends in general, and especially amongst those who knew him best. We will miss him greatly; nevertheless we also greatly rejoice on his behalf, believing that he has passed beyond the veil, has experienced his resurrection change, and with the others of the faithful will henceforth be forever with the Lord. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." --Revelation 14:13.

As one by one the number beyond the veil increases and the members this side correspondingly decrease, the great privilege of being servants of God and being found faithful as such looms larger and larger before our mental vision. We know not which of us will next be called to enter into the joys of our Lord in full, but we trust that all of the truly consecrated are in the waiting attitude, expecting, hoping, longing for the resurrection change, which the Apostle assures us is necessary, because "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom," shortly to be established.--1 Cor. 15:50.

It is remarkable that as we near the consummation of this Age, and the completion of the Church, the opportunities for serving the Household of Faith seem to increase. And while old, active servants are passing beyond, new, loyal, zealous successors are being found by the Truth. Thus the work on this side the veil is going grandly on.

Well did the Apostle write that the Lord's true people, enlightened, encouraged and fortified by the promises in the Divine Word, "sorrow not as do others" in the presence of the great foe--DEATH.

BROTHER BAKER'S REPORT

This morning, June 24, at Portland, Ore., Brother Barton passed to his reward at 1:15. His end came suddenly, even though his low vitality and weakness gave evidence of his grave condition. Friday he appeared somewhat brighter than usual, sitting up for twenty minutes, after which he asked to lie down to sleep, as he felt tired. That evening he ate a hearty meal (for him), and talked hopefully of starting home soon. The Brother's mind was apparently clear until the last, but he could not articulate well, owing to trouble due to a slight stroke of paralysis about four weeks ago. As death approached the cares of his season of illness seemed to vanish and his features relaxed, and, with a smile on his lips, he passed into the Kingdom. Friday afternoon he expressed to Sister Baker his love for the brethren at the Bethel and particularly for dear Brother Russell, and that it was his hope to see them again. His only care has been his mother. The desire to see and comfort her again probably did much to retain the slight hold he had on life for some weeks.

The opportunity of serving the Brother has been a great blessing to all here, and while individual privileges of service were limited for obvious reasons, the privilege of serving his spiritual interests through prayer has greatly blessed all. His cheerful, patient endurance of his physical disability, his desire to please and his efforts to keep himself from being burdensome to those about, will prove a lasting lesson to all. Our loss has been his gain. How appropriate today's MANNA TEXT!

- July 15, 1916 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Pastor Russell and Henry Dunn (1801 - 1878)

2010-06-21T00:31:00.067-06:00

As regards “the time of the end,” Daniel foretold a very positive development. (Read Daniel 12:3, 4, 9, 10.) “At that time the righteous ones will shine as brightly as the sun,” said Jesus. (Matt. 13:43) How did the true knowledge become abundant in the time of the end? Consider some historical developments in the decades prior to 1914, the year when the time of the end began.

In the late 1800’s, a number of sincere individuals were searching for an understanding of “the pattern of healthful words.” (2 Tim. 1:13) One such person was Charles Taze Russell. In 1870 he and a few other truth-seekers formed a class for Bible study. In 1872 they examined the subject of restitution. Later, Russell wrote: “Up to that time we had failed to see clearly the great distinction between the reward of the church now on trial and the reward of the faithful of the world.” The reward of the latter will be “restoration to the perfection of human nature once enjoyed in Eden by their progenitor and head, Adam.” Russell acknowledged that he had been helped in his study of the Bible by others. Who were these?

Henry Dunn was one of them. He had written about the “restoration of all things of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of old time.” (Acts 3:21) Dunn knew that this restoration included the elevation of mankind to perfection on earth during the Thousand Year Reign of Christ. Dunn also examined a question that had puzzled many, Who will live forever on earth? He explained that millions will be resurrected, taught the truth, and have the opportunity to exercise faith in Christ.

In 1870, George Storrs also came to the conclusion that the unrighteous will be resurrected to an opportunity of everlasting life. He also discerned from the Scriptures that a resurrected one who fails to respond to this opportunity “will end in death, even if the ‘sinner be a hundred years old.’” (Isa. 65:20) Storrs lived in Brooklyn, New York, and edited a magazine called the Bible Examiner.

Russell discerned from the Bible that the time had come to make the good news widely known. So in 1879, he started publishing Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, now called The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. Previously, the truth about mankind’s hope was understood by very few people, but now groups of Bible Students in many countries were receiving and studying The Watchtower. The belief that only a few will go to heaven, whereas millions will be given perfect human life on earth, set the Bible Students apart from most of Christendom.

The foretold “time of the end” began in 1914. Did true knowledge about the hope of mankind become plentiful? (Dan. 12:4) By 1913, Russell’s sermons were printed in 2,000 newspapers with a combined readership of 15,000,000. By the end of 1914, over 9,000,000 people on three continents had seen the “Photo-Drama of Creation”—a program including motion pictures and slides that explained Christ’s Millennial Reign. From 1918 until 1925, the talk “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” which explained the hope of everlasting life on earth, was presented by Jehovah’s servants in over 30 languages worldwide. By 1934, Jehovah’s Witnesses realized that those hoping to live forever on earth should be baptized. This understanding filled them with renewed zeal for preaching the good news of the Kingdom. Today, the prospect of living forever on earth fills the hearts of millions with gratitude toward Jehovah.

- August 15, 2009 Watchtower, WTB&TS
_________________

Pastor Russell pointed to 1799 as the beginning of the “time of the end,” not 1914. For Russell 1914 was the end of the Gentile Times and the end of the time of trouble. "We see no reason for changing the figures - nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble." - The Watchtower Reprints, July 15, 1894, p. 1672. Also see: "THE “Time of the End,” a period of one hundred and fifteen (115) years, from A.D. 1799 to A.D. 1914, is particularly marked in the Scriptures. “The Day of His Preparation” is another name given to the same period, because in it a general increase of knowledge, resulting in discoveries, inventions, etc., paves the way to the coming Millennium of favor, making ready the mechanical devices which will economize labor, and provide the world in general with time and conveniences, which under Christ’s reign of righteousness will be a blessing to all and aid in filling the earth with the knowledge of the Lord. And it is a day or period of preparation in another sense also; for by the increase of knowledge among the masses, giving to all a taste of liberty and luxury, before Christ’s rule is established to rightly regulate the world, these blessings will gradually become agencies of class-power and will result in the uprising of the masses and the overthrow of corporative Trusts, etc., with which will fall also all the present dominions of earth, civil and ecclesiastical. And thus ::page 24:: the present is a day of preparation (through such an overthrow) for the establishment of the universal dominion of the Kingdom of God so long prayed for." - http://www.mostholyfaith.com/bible/volumes/C02.asp

The current Watchtower view holds that the Gentile Times ended and the "time of the end" began in 1914.
__________________

Four articles by Henry Dunn appear in Zion’s Watchtower (Reprints, pp. 644, 649, 653, and 796). All come from Dunn’s book, The Study of the Bible written in 1871. “Bros. George Storrs, Henry Dunn and others were preaching and writing of ‘the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets’ (Acts 3:21) and that ‘In the ages to come, God would show the exceeding riches of his grace.’ (Ephesians 2:7)”—Charles Taze Russell, Supplement to Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, July 1, 1879.

For many years Dunn was the secretary of the British and Foreign School Society and was identified with the history of public education in England. After retirement he went to Italy and joined the Protestant missions there, devoting his life to a study of the Scriptures and the writing of Christian literature. He published his own magazine, The Interpreter, in 1860-61 and was said to have been heard to “express his obligation to a remarkable book, never much known and now almost forgotten: Dunbar Isidore Heath’s Future Human Kingdom of Christ. It was this book that inspired Dunn’s Destiny of the Human Race that is credited by both George Storrs and Charles Russell as helpful in the thoughts on the doctrines of two salvations and times of restitution. Shortly before his death, Dunn wrote a series of articles for Storrs’ magazine, The Bible Examiner. Pastor Russell wrote that on these doctrines both Storrs and Dunn were influential in his thinking. Also See: http://www.archive.org/stream/destinyofhumanra00dunn#page/n5/mode/2up

- The Herald of Christ's Kingdom, published by the Pastoral Bible Institute

The Opening at Brooklyn

2010-06-16T08:33:00.026-06:00

THE friends at places where One-Day Conventions are held are pleased if they be reported in the WATCH TOWER, and we would be pleased to report them were it not that there is always such a sameness unavoidably connected with them. Almost without exception it could be said that the dear friends put forth strenuous efforts to bring the public service to the attention of the people, and that they succeed admirably, and that large and intelligent audiences are secured, and in many cases large numbers are unable to gain admittance. This sameness of the reports and our limited space alone hinder these reports. Nevertheless, if assured by many that they are appreciated and desired, we would take up the matter afresh.

The opening of the Brooklyn Tabernacle on January 31st and the subsequent work in that city, we are assured, would be of deep interest to the friends in general, and hence the present report.

The opening day, appointed a month in advance, found us none too well prepared. Our stationary chairs had not yet been placed and many of the finishing touches were lacking. However, we had a very enjoyable day.

The auditorium is on the second floor and has a seating capacity of over 800, but is conveniently arranged so that the curtains can be drawn, shutting off more than one-third of the seats. The Tabernacle is well lighted from the roof, and the side-walls are embellished with some of the gracious promises of our Father's Word in artistic workmanship and soft colors. The prevalent color of the walls, floor, etc., is olive green. The conditions altogether are very restful, and those who arrive before the meetings commence will find excellent food for quiet meditation.

The floor below this, the street floor, is being fitted up for our office purposes, and the basement floor for our stock and shipping departments.

The total number of the friends of the immediate vicinity, New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, etc., in attendance, numbered about 200; probably another 100 or more came from surrounding towns, and 27 from as far away as Boston. All seemed well pleased with the move which the Lord's providence seemed to direct, and pleased, also, with the building chosen and the repairs made.

The eleven o'clock praise and testimony service was participated in by about 350, and was very enjoyable; the testimonies to the Lord's grace, and goodness, and care caused our hearts to overflow with gratitude. The afternoon meeting had been advertised to the public, and the attendance was very good. Close attention was given and we have hoped that some interest was aroused. In the evening we had a Question Meeting, and the character of the questions indicated intelligence and studiousness on the part of the dear friends.

The following Sunday very nearly the same programme was carried out, but with less advertising. The afternoon meeting was not so large. The friends of the New York City congregation, those of Brooklyn and those of Jersey City, all voted their unanimous desire to be parts of the Ecclesia whose home will be at the "Brooklyn Tabernacle," and unanimously elected Brother C. T. Russell Pastor of the same.

The following Sunday, February 14th, Brother Brenneisen spoke in the afternoon, and in the evening conducted a Berean Bible study. The attendance was all that could be expected.

A special arrangement was made to meet the public on February 21st. The Brooklyn Academy of Music was secured for the afternoon, and the friends of Greater New York and vicinity certainly did manifest great zeal in the advertising of the meeting. The dear friends got out 150,000 copies of the first number of the new paper, "People's Pulpit," on the back of which was an advertisement of the Academy meeting. Window cards were used also, and posters, so that the meeting became widely advertised. The result was better than any of us had dared to anticipate. The house was crowded, seating 2200; approximately 400 stood, and it is estimated that more than 2500 people were turned away, unable to gain admission. To this overflow, however, the ushers distributed a special number of the WATCH TOWER so that we may hope that even they received some blessing. The large audience gave close attention for nearly two hours, and took the literature at the door with considerable manifestation of interest. How many grains of "wheat" were there and how many of these were favorable to influence, the Lord only knows, but we were pleased at the favorable hearing and the interest manifested upon the faces of the audience, which was a very intelligent one.

At the close of the session, Brother Rutherford was announced to speak at "Brooklyn Tabernacle" on the following Sunday afternoon on the "Divine Plan of the Ages" from a Lawyer's standpoint. A large house of earnest hearers greeted him.

Incidentally, we might mention another One-Day Convention recently held in Cleveland, a public service which was very remarkable, in respect to the congregation and the interest shown. The Cleveland friends, very full of zeal, engaged their largest auditorium, "The Hippodrome," which is one of the largest in the country, with a seating capacity of 4600. How thoroughly and wisely the dear friends exercised themselves in the advertising of that meeting may be judged from the fact that the house was full and many were standing, while about 600 were turned away by order of the Public Safety Department.

These large attendances must not mislead any of us into supposing that the Truth is becoming popular. Our readers well know that such is not our expectation, although we are expecting that the next two years especially will see wonderful things accomplished in the spread of the Truth. Of course, the majority attending these meetings come from curiosity, but when we remember that we not only do not have the assistance of our Christian friends of the various denominations, but in many instances have their open, and especially their secret, opposition, the lesson is that religious people are doing more thinking for themselves than ever before, and it is in this class that we may hope to find a considerable amount of "wheat," some for the "Little Flock" and more for the "Great Company."

In this connection, we believe that it will be of interest to nearly all of our readers that we mention some of the Lord's providences in connection with the locating of the Bible House family in Brooklyn. The Tabernacle has no living apartments connected with it, and when we sought to rent a suitable building for the housing of our family of more than thirty, we found that we had a difficult problem. We almost needed a hotel. While the Tabernacle is not in an aristocratic neighborhood, the residence district near it is of a good class with fine, large residences. Some of these are for sale, but none for rent. We thought of going a little distance and finding cheaper quarters, and then reflected that the car-fare to and from the office twice daily would amount to $1800 a year, and besides we would have inconvenience and loss of time.

At an opportune time some friends of the Truth proposed that we purchase such property as would suit our convenience, put it into repair, and that they would furnish the money--we to hold the title and they to take a mortgage for the amount expended, on which they asked but five per cent. interest, and intimated that some of the interest might find its way into the Tract Fund from time to time. This proposal seemed providential and was gladly accepted as the cheapest and best thing possible. We anticipate that the interest will not amount to more than two-thirds of the car-fare estimate, possibly less.

Thus prepared, we made a fresh examination of the district with a view to purchase, and finally made bids upon three properties suitable to our uses with some alterations. We are sure that we will surprise you when we state that the one of the three which came to us at a bargain price is what is known as "The Old Henry Ward Beecher Home." It certainly seems very remarkable that we should get the old Beecher Bethel and then by accident get his former residence. Considerable repairs are necessary, and are being made, but when completed our large family could scarcely be better fixed for the few remaining years of activity which we expect. The new home we shall call "Bethel," and the new office and auditorium, "The Brooklyn Tabernacle"; these names will supplant the term "Bible House."

Some day we may have a Convention in Brooklyn, when we shall have an opportunity of greeting many of our dear readers at one or both of these new locations. We solicit your prayers on behalf of the work and the workers at these new establishments, that with humility of heart and word and conduct, our enlarged opportunities for service may result in the glory of God and in the blessing of others and our own spiritual development in the fruits and graces of the holy Spirit.

- Published by the WTB&TS

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/04/brooklyn-bethel100-years-of-history.html

Unbiblical Teachings

2010-06-06T17:16:00.024-06:00

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not deny Jesus’ godship, or divinity. They accept what John 1:1 says of him, that he is “a god.” However, the Church says that Jesus is not just “a god” but that he is the almighty God, part of three coeternal persons, coequal in power.

The Bible, God’s inspired Word, does not teach that. Instead, it plainly states: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son.” (John 3:16) At no time did Jesus claim to be almighty God. He said he was “the only-begotten Son of God.” Any impartial reading of the Scriptures will verify that.—John 3:18; 10:34-36.

Time and again Jesus said: “The Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he beholds the Father doing.” “I have come down from heaven to do, not my will, but the will of him that sent me.” “What I teach is not mine, but belongs to him that sent me.” “The Father is greater than I am.” And God’s Word adds: “The Son himself will also subject himself to [God].”—John 5:19; 6:38; 7:16; 14:28; 1Corinthians 15:28.

Thus the Trinity is unscriptural. From where, then, did it originate? It was adopted at the Council of Nicea in 325 C.E. when apostates incorporated a pagan idea that had originated in ancient Egypt and Babylon. As historian Will Durant observed in The Story of Civilization: Part III: “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. . . . From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity.” And The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.” - December 1, 1986 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-word-was-divine.html
_______________________

When the descendants of Abraham journeyed down into Egypt, there they came across a whole selection of different gods. According to Wilkinson, Egypt had many gods, the greatest of whom were Neph, Amun, Pthah, Khem, Sati, Maut and Bubastis. Ra and Seb were the first of the second class of Egyptian deities. The Egyptians believed that Neph made the sun and moon revolve. Pthah was worshiped as the creator. Khem was the god of agriculture. Ra was worshiped as a sun-god and his son Seb represented time. The ancient Egyptians also worshiped a trinity made up of Osiris, Isis and Horus, namely, father, mother and son. This trinity is precisely the same as that worshiped in Christendom. It has been handed down from ancient Egypt and Babylon.

Jehovah vindicated his supremacy over all the gods of Egypt when he disgraced them with ten plagues and destroyed the Egyptian forces in the Red Sea. Following the Red Sea victory the Israelites sang to Jehovah’s praise: “This is my God, and I shall laud him; my father’s God, and I shall raise him on high. Jehovah is a manly person of war. Jehovah is his name. . . . Who among the gods is like you, O Jehovah?” There is none.—Ex. 15:2, 3, 11. - December 15, 1959 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Additional Reading: http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.com/
_______________________

What Influenced It

THROUGHOUT the ancient world, as far back as Babylonia, the worship of pagan gods grouped in threes, or triads, was common. That influence was also prevalent in Egypt, Greece, and Rome in the centuries before, during, and after Christ. And after the death of the apostles, such pagan beliefs began to invade Christianity.

Historian Will Durant observed: “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. . . . From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity.” And in the book Egyptian Religion, Siegfried Morenz notes: “The trinity was a major preoccupation of Egyptian theologians . . . Three gods are combined and treated as a single being, addressed in the singular. In this way the spiritual force of Egyptian religion shows a direct link with Christian theology.”

Thus, in Alexandria, Egypt, churchmen of the late third and early fourth centuries, such as Athanasius, reflected this influence as they formulated ideas that led to the Trinity. Their own influence spread, so that Morenz considers “Alexandrian theology as the intermediary between the Egyptian religious heritage and Christianity.”

In the preface to Edward Gibbon’s History of Christianity, we read: “If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians . . . was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief.”

A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge notes that many say that the Trinity “is a corruption borrowed from the heathen religions, and ingrafted on the Christian faith.” And The Paganism in Our Christianity declares: “The origin of the [Trinity] is entirely pagan.”

That is why, in the Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings wrote: “In Indian religion, e.g., we meet with the trinitarian group of Brahmā, Siva, and Viṣṇu; and in Egyptian religion with the trinitarian group of Osiris, Isis, and Horus . . . Nor is it only in historical religions that we find God viewed as a Trinity. One recalls in particular the Neo-Platonic view of the Supreme or Ultimate Reality,” which is “triadically represented.” What does the Greek philosopher Plato have to do with the Trinity?

- Should You Believe in the Trinity? - WTB&TS

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-christendom-borrows-from-plato.html
______________________

Many religious people say that Jesus is God. Some claim that God is a Trinity. According to this teaching, “the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God.” It is held that the three “are co-eternal and co-equal.” (The Catholic Encyclopedia) Are such views correct? Jehovah God is the Creator. (Revelation 4:11) He is without beginning or end, and he is almighty. (Psalm 90:2) Jesus, on the other hand, had a beginning. (Colossians 1:15, 16) Referring to God as his Father, Jesus said: “The Father is greater than I am.” (John 14:28) Jesus also explained that there were some things neither he nor the angels knew but that were known only by his Father.—Mark 13:32. Moreover, Jesus prayed to his Father: “Let, not my will, but yours take place.” (Luke 22:42) To whom was Jesus praying if not to a superior Personage? Furthermore, it was God who resurrected Jesus from the dead, not Jesus himself. (Acts 2:32) Obviously, the Father and the Son were not equal before Jesus came to the earth or during his earthly life. What about after Jesus’ resurrection to heaven? First Corinthians 11:3 states: “The head of the Christ is God.” In fact, the Son will always be in subjection to God. (1 Corinthians 15:28) The Scriptures therefore show that Jesus is not God Almighty. Instead, he is God’s Son. The so-called third person of the Trinity—the holy spirit—is not a person. Addressing God in prayer, the psalmist said: “If you send forth your spirit, they are created.” (Psalm 104:30) This spirit is not God himself; it is an active force that he sends forth or uses to accomplish whatever he wishes. By means of it, God created the physical heavens, the earth, and all living things. (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 33:6) God used his holy spirit to inspire the men who wrote the Bible. (2 Peter 1:20, 21) The Trinity, then, is not a Scriptural teaching.* “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,” says the Bible.—Deuteronomy 6:4.

Additional Reading: http://www.watchtower.org/e/20090401a/article_01.htm

J. F. Rutherford - On with the work!

2010-06-04T22:35:00.008-06:00

Brother Rutherford was determined to press on with the work of Kingdom-preaching. For years, under the guidance of Jehovah’s holy spirit, the Bible Students had carried on a remarkably extensive campaign in declaring God’s truth. Why, from 1870 through 1913 they had distributed 228,255,719 tracts and pamphlets and 6,950,292 bound books. In the momentous year 1914 alone Jehovah’s servants put out 71,285,037 tracts and pamphlets and 992,845 bound books. The years 1915 and 1916, however, saw a decline in publishing activities because of the expanding of World War I and the breakdown of communications. In 1917, though, the work began showing an upward trend. Why?

The Society’s new president promptly reorganized the headquarters office in Brooklyn. Furthermore, he acted to revitalize the field work. These changes, however, and the programs he stepped up were those that C. T. Russell had begun. Pilgrim representatives of the Society were increased from sixty-nine to ninety-three. Distribution of free tracts was accelerated on occasional Sundays in front of the churches and regularly from house to house. A new four-page tract, The Bible Students Monthly, was published and in 1917 alone 28,665,000 free copies were distributed.

Also stepped up was a new activity started prior to C. T. Russell’s death. Called the “Pastoral Work,” it was a forerunner of the return visits now made by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses. In Russell’s time this activity was limited to about 500 congregations that had voluntarily elected him as their pastor. In a letter to these he described the undertaking as “an important Follow-up Work possible in connection with addresses received at Public Meetings, DRAMA Exhibitions, from Colporteur Lists, etc.—persons who supposedly have some interest in religious matters and who presumably would be more or less amenable to the Truth.”

Women in the congregation who were interested in performing this work elected one of their number to serve as a lieutenant and another as secretary-treasurer. A city was divided into territorial districts, assigned to individual sisters who called on all whose names had been supplied as interested persons. The callers loaned books, which could be read and studied by the borrower. “Then none had the excuse, ‘I have no money,’ as it was a free loan,” remarks Esther I. Morris. At the call’s conclusion the householder was told that a chart talk on the “Divine Plan” would soon be given in the district, and those manifesting interest were encouraged to attend. Afterward follow-up calls were made on individuals attending, in an effort to begin a study in the first volume of Studies in the Scriptures, entitled “The Divine Plan of the Ages.” So the culmination of the program was to gather persons into “classes,” first to hear chart talks and later to become regular groups called “Berean Classes.”—Acts 17:10, 11.

Other steps were taken by the Society’s new president, J. F. Rutherford, to revitalize the preaching work. The colporteur service was expanded. This brought the total up from 373 to 461 colporteurs. To assist them, in early 1917 the Society began issuing a paper called “Bulletin.” It contained periodic service instructions from headquarters. Later, after October 1922, the Bulletin became available monthly to the Bible Students in general. (Eventually it was named “Director,” then “Informant” and thereafter “Kingdom Ministry.”) Sister H. Gambill says that, in time, “it had prepared testimonies which we called ‘canvasses’ that we were encouraged to memorize to use in field service. My sister-in-law . . . would follow me all over from room to room trying to get every word just exact. She so wanted to get it just right.” Reflecting on the fact that the Bulletin contained prepared testimonies, Elizabeth Elrod says: “I appreciated this, for we did not have an arrangement, as we now have, of a person going along with another to train and help one to become an effective publisher. This unified the message going out.”

As the rejuvenation campaign continued, other steps were taken by the Society’s new administration back in 1917. For instance, a number of regional conventions were held. These were designed to encourage the Bible Students to press on with their work and not become weary in well-doing.

Just before 1914 C. T. Russell placed emphasis on a public speaking program. Now it was time to arrange for further qualified speakers to represent the Watch Tower Society from the public platform. How was this done? The program used was the V. D. M. arrangement. These letters stood for the Latin words Verbi Dei Minister, meaning “Minister of the Word of God.” The program consisted of a questionnaire made available to both men and women associated with congregations of Bible Students.

Here are some sample questions appearing on the V.D.M. questionnaire. How well could you answer them? (1) What was the first creative act of God? (4) What is the divine penalty for sin upon the sinners? and who are the sinners? (6) Of what nature was the Man Christ Jesus from infancy to death? (7) Of what nature is Jesus since the resurrection; and what is his official relation to Jehovah? (13) What will be the reward or blessings which will come to the world of mankind through obedience to Messiah’s kingdom? (16) Have you turned from sin to serve the living God? (17) Have you made a full consecration of your life and all your powers and talents to the Lord and his service? (18) Have you symbolized this consecration by water immersion? (22) Do you believe you have a substantial and permanent knowledge of the Bible which will render you more efficient as a servant of the Lord throughout the remainder of your life?

Those submitting their answers to the Society’s V. D. M. department received a reply that included “some kindly suggestions and hints” respecting their answers. Among other things, it was desired that the questions be answered by individuals in their own words.

Explaining matters a little further, George E. Hannan writes: “These questions were to serve as a guide in determining how well an individual understood the basic doctrines of the Bible. Any dedicated person who obtained an 85-percent rating was considered qualified to teach. All such brothers were qualified to give public talks and chart talks. These questions encouraged all who associated with the Society to read the six volumes of Studies in the Scriptures, looking up all the Scriptural references.”

So it was that, as the new president of the Watch Tower Society, J. F. Rutherford took immediate steps to accelerate the work of preaching the good news of God’s kingdom. Blessings followed. The year 1917 witnessed increased field activity to the praise of Jehovah God.

- 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS

1914—A Significant Year in Bible Prophecy

2010-06-03T14:41:00.042-06:00

DECADES in advance, Bible students proclaimed that there would be significant developments in 1914. What were these, and what evidence points to 1914 as such an important year?

As recorded at Luke 21:24, Jesus said: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the nations, until the appointed times of the nations [“the times of the Gentiles,” King James Version] are fulfilled.” Jerusalem had been the capital city of the Jewish nation—the seat of rulership of the line of kings from the house of King David. (Psalm 48:1, 2) However, these kings were unique among national leaders. They sat on “Jehovah’s throne” as representatives of God himself. (1 Chronicles 29:23) Jerusalem was thus a symbol of Jehovah’s rulership.

How and when, though, did God’s rulership begin to be “trampled on by the nations”? This happened in 607 B.C.E. when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians. “Jehovah’s throne” became vacant, and the line of kings who descended from David was interrupted. (2 Kings 25:1-26) Would this ‘trampling’ go on forever? No, for the prophecy of Ezekiel said regarding Jerusalem’s last king, Zedekiah: “Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. . . . It will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.” (Ezekiel 21:26, 27) The one who has “the legal right” to the Davidic crown is Christ Jesus. (Luke 1:32, 33) So the ‘trampling’ would end when Jesus became King.

Additional Reading: http://thirdwitness.com/607_BCE/www.jehovahsjudgment.co.uk/607/

When would that grand event occur? Jesus showed that the Gentiles would rule for a fixed period of time. The account in Daniel chapter 4 holds the key to knowing how long that period would last. It relates a prophetic dream experienced by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He saw an immense tree that was chopped down. Its stump could not grow because it was banded with iron and copper. An angel declared: “Let seven times pass over it.”—Daniel 4:10-16.

In the Bible, trees are sometimes used to represent rulership. (Ezekiel 17:22-24; 31:2-5) So the chopping down of the symbolic tree represents how God’s rulership, as expressed through the kings at Jerusalem, would be interrupted. However, the vision served notice that this ‘trampling of Jerusalem’ would be temporary—a period of “seven times.” How long a period is that?

Revelation 12:6, 14 indicates that three and a half times equal “a thousand two hundred and sixty days.” “Seven times” would therefore last twice as long, or 2,520 days. But the Gentile nations did not stop ‘trampling’ on God’s rulership a mere 2,520 days after Jerusalem’s fall. Evidently, then, this prophecy covers a much longer period of time. On the basis of Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6, which speak of “a day for a year,” the “seven times” would cover 2,520 years.

The 2,520 years began in October 607 B.C.E., when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and the Davidic king was taken off his throne. The period ended in October 1914. At that time, “the appointed times of the nations” ended, and Jesus Christ was installed as God’s heavenly King.—Psalm 2:1-6; Daniel 7:13, 14.

Just as Jesus predicted, his “presence” as heavenly King has been marked by dramatic world developments—war, famine, earthquakes, pestilences. (Matthew 24:3-8; Luke 21:11) Such developments bear powerful testimony to the fact that 1914 indeed marked the birth of God’s heavenly Kingdom and the beginning of “the last days” of this present wicked system of things.—2 Timothy 3:1-5.

[Footnote]

From October 607 B.C.E. to October 1 B.C.E. is 606 years. Since there is no zero year, from October 1 B.C.E. to October 1914 C.E. is 1,914 years. By adding 606 years and 1,914 years, we get 2,520 years. - Published by the WTB&TS
____________________

THE YEAR 1914

A crucial time was drawing close. In 1876 the Bible student Charles Taze Russell contributed the article “Gentile Times: When Do They End?” to the Bible Examiner, published in Brooklyn, New York, which said on page 27 of its October issue, “The seven times will end in A.D. 1914.” The Gentile Times is the period Jesus referred to as “the appointed times of the nations.” (Luke 21:24) Not all that was expected to happen in 1914 did happen, but it did mark the end of the Gentile Times and was a year of special significance. Many historians and commentators agree that 1914 was a turning point in human history. The following quotes show this:

“The last completely ‘normal’ year in history was 1913, the year before World War I began.”—Editorial in the Times-Herald, Washington, D.C., March 13, 1949. “Ever since 1914, everybody conscious of trends in the world has been deeply troubled by what has seemed like a fated and predetermined march toward ever greater disaster. Many serious people have come to feel that nothing can be done to avert the plunge toward ruin.”—Bertrand Russell, The New York Times Magazine, September 27, 1953. “The whole world really blew up about World War I and we still don’t know why. Before then, men thought that utopia was in sight. There was peace and prosperity. Then everything blew up. We’ve been in a state of suspended animation ever since . . . More people have been killed in this century than in all of history.”—Dr. Walker Percy, American Medical News, November 21, 1977. More than 50 years after 1914, German statesman Konrad Adenauer wrote: “Security and quiet have disappeared from the lives of men since 1914.”—The West Parker, Cleveland, Ohio, January 20, 1966. - Published by the WTB&TS
_________________________

1914 Date Verified

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/08/seven-times-2520-years-607-bce-1914-ce.html

DURING the first few months of 1914 the clergy and others poured considerable ridicule upon C. T. Russell and the Watch Tower Society for failing to see anything happening to the Gentile nations. But all this ridicule stopped when nation after nation and kingdom after kingdom began cascading into what now is called the first world war. From July 27 onward into August of that year was a time of world-shaking surprises. A typical public-press reaction to the situation was published August 30, 1914, by a leading New York city newspaper, The World. “End of All Kingdoms in 1914” was the arresting headline of a long feature article in that journal’s Sunday magazine section (pages 4 and 17), from which we quote:

“According to the Calculations of Rev. Russell’s ‘International Bible Students,’ This Is the ‘Time of Trouble’ Spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, the Year 1914 Predicted in the Book ‘The Time Is at Hand,’ of which Four Million Copies Have Been Sold, as the Date of the Downfall of the Kingdoms of Earth.

“The terrific war outbreak in Europe has fulfilled an extraordinary prophecy. For a quarter of a century past, through preachers and through press, the ‘International Bible Students’, best known as ‘Millennial Dawners,’ have been proclaiming to the world that the Day of Wrath prophesied in the Bible would dawn in 1914. ‘Look out for 1914!’ has been the cry of the hundreds of travelling evangelists who, representing this strange creed, have gone up and down the country enunciating the doctrine that ‘the Kingdom of God is at hand.’ . . . Although millions of people must have listened to these evangelists, . . . and although their propaganda has been carried on through religious publications and a secular press service involving hundreds of country newspapers, as well as through lectures, debates, study classes, and even moving pictures, the average man does not know that such a movement as the ‘Millennial Dawn’ exists. . . . Rev. Charles T. Russell is the man who has been propounding this interpretation of the Scriptures since 1874. . . . ‘In view of this strong Bible evidence,’ Rev. Russell wrote in 1889, ‘we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God will be accomplished by the end of A.D. 1914.’ . . . But to say that the trouble must culminate in 1914—that was peculiar. For some strange reason, perhaps because Rev. Russell has a very calm, higher-mathematics style of writing instead of flamboyant soap box manners, the world in general has scarcely taken him into account. The students over in his ‘Brooklyn Tabernacle’ say that this was to be expected, that the world never did listen to divine warnings and never will, until after the day of trouble is past. . . . And in 1914 comes war, the war which everybody dreaded but which everybody thought could not really happen. Rev. Russell is not saying ‘I told you so’; and he is not revising the prophecies to suit the current history. He and his students are content to wait—to wait until October, which they figure to be the real end of 1914.”

- March 15, 1955 Watchtower, WTB&TS

_________________________

End of the Gentile Times

The matter of Bible chronology had long been of great interest to Bible students. Commentators had set out a variety of views on Jesus’ prophecy about “the times of the Gentiles” and the prophet Daniel’s record of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream regarding the tree stump that was banded for “seven times.”—Luke 21:24, KJ; Dan. 4:10-17.

As early as 1823, John A. Brown, whose work was published in London, England, calculated the “seven times” of Daniel chapter 4 to be 2,520 years in length. But he did not clearly discern the date with which the prophetic time period began or when it would end. He did, however, connect these “seven times” with the Gentile Times of Luke 21:24. In 1844, E. B. Elliott, a British clergyman, drew attention to 1914 as a possible date for the end of the “seven times” of Daniel, but he also set out an alternate view that pointed to the time of the French Revolution. Robert Seeley, of London, in 1849, handled the matter in a similar manner. At least by 1870, a publication edited by Joseph Seiss and associates and printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was setting out calculations that pointed to 1914 as a significant date, even though the reasoning it contained was based on chronology that C. T. Russell later rejected.

Then, in the August, September, and October 1875 issues of Herald of the Morning, N. H. Barbour helped to harmonize details that had been pointed out by others. Using chronology compiled by Christopher Bowen, a clergyman in England, and published by E. B. Elliott, Barbour identified the start of the Gentile Times with King Zedekiah’s removal from kingship as foretold at Ezekiel 21:25, 26, and he pointed to 1914 as marking the end of the Gentile Times.

Early in 1876, C. T. Russell received a copy of Herald of the Morning. He promptly wrote to Barbour and then spent time with him in Philadelphia during the summer, discussing, among other things, prophetic time periods. Shortly thereafter, in an article entitled “Gentile Times: When Do They End?”, Russell also reasoned on the matter from the Scriptures and stated that the evidence showed that “the seven times will end in A.D. 1914.” This article was printed in the October 1876 issue of the Bible Examiner. The book Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World, produced in 1877 by N. H. Barbour in cooperation with C. T. Russell, pointed to the same conclusion. Thereafter, early issues of the Watch Tower, such as the ones dated December 1879 and July 1880, directed attention to 1914 C.E. as being a highly significant year from the standpoint of Bible prophecy. In 1889 the entire fourth chapter of Volume II of Millennial Dawn (later called Studies in the Scriptures) was devoted to discussion of “The Times of the Gentiles.” But what would the end of the Gentile Times mean?

The Bible Students were not completely sure what would happen. They were convinced that it would not result in a burning up of the earth and a blotting out of human life. Rather, they knew it would mark a significant point in regard to divine rulership. At first, they thought that by that date the Kingdom of God would have obtained full, universal control. When that did not occur, their confidence in the Bible prophecies that marked the date did not waver. They concluded that, instead, the date had marked only a starting point as to Kingdom rule.

Similarly, they also first thought that global troubles culminating in anarchy (which they understood would be associated with the war of “the great day of God the Almighty”) would precede that date. (Rev. 16:14) But then, ten years before 1914, the Watch Tower suggested that worldwide turmoil that would result in the annihilating of human institutions would come right after the end of the Gentile Times. They expected the year 1914 to mark a significant turning point for Jerusalem, since the prophecy had said that ‘Jerusalem would be trodden down’ until the Gentile Times were fulfilled. When they saw 1914 drawing close and yet they had not died as humans and been ‘caught up in the clouds’ to meet the Lord—in harmony with earlier expectations—they earnestly hoped that their change might take place at the end of the Gentile Times.—1 Thess. 4:17.

As the years passed and they examined and reexamined the Scriptures, their faith in the prophecies remained strong, and they did not hold back from stating what they expected to occur. With varying degrees of success, they endeavored to avoid being dogmatic about details not directly stated in the Scriptures.

Did the “Alarm Clock” Go Off Too Soon?

Great turmoil certainly burst forth upon the world in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I, which for many years was called simply the Great War, but it did not immediately lead to an overthrow of all existing human rulerships. As events in connection with Palestine developed following 1914, the Bible Students thought they saw evidence of significant changes for Israel. But months and then years passed, and the Bible Students did not receive their heavenly reward as they had anticipated. How did they react to that?

The Watch Tower of February 1, 1916, specifically drew attention to October 1, 1914, and then said: “This was the last point of time that Bible chronology pointed out to us as relating to the Church’s experiences. Did the Lord tell us that we would be taken [to heaven] there? No. What did He say? His Word and the fulfil[l]ments of prophecy seemed to point unmistakably that this date marked the end of the Gentile Times. We inferred from this that the Church’s ‘change’ would take place on or before that date. But God did not tell us that it would be so. He permitted us to draw that inference; and we believe that it has proven to be a necessary test upon God’s dear saints everywhere.” But did these developments prove that their glorious hope had been in vain? No. It simply meant that not everything was taking place as soon as they had expected.

Several years before 1914, Russell had written: “Chronology (time prophecies in general) was evidently not intended to give God’s people accurate chronological information all the way down the path of the centuries. Evidently it is intended more to serve as an alarm clock to awaken and energize the Lord’s people at the proper time. . . . But let us suppose, for instance, that October, 1914, should pass and that no serious fall of Gentile power would occur. What would this prove or disprove? It would not disprove any feature of the Divine Plan of the Ages. The ransom-price finished at Calvary would still stand the guarantee of the ultimate fulfillment of the great Divine Program for human restitution. The ‘high calling’ of the Church to suffer with the Redeemer and to be glorified with him as his members or as his Bride would still be the same. . . . The only thing [a]ffected by the chronology would be the time for the accomplishment of these glorious hopes for the Church and for the world. . . . And if that date pass it would merely prove that our chronology, our ‘alarm clock,’ went off a little before the time. Would we consider it a great calamity if our alarm clock awakened us a few moments earlier in the morning of some great day full of joy and pleasure? Surely not!”

But that “alarm clock” had not gone off too soon. Actually, it was the experiences to which the “clock” had awakened them that were not exactly what they had expected.

Some years later, when the light had grown brighter, they acknowledged: “Many of the dear saints thought that all the work was done. . . . They rejoiced because of the clear proof that the world had ended, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and that the day of their deliverance drew nigh. But they had overlooked something else that must be done. The good news that they had received must be told to others; because Jesus had commanded: ‘This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come.’ (Matthew 24:14)”—The Watch Tower, May 1, 1925.

As the events following 1914 began to unfold and the Bible Students compared these with what the Master had foretold, they gradually came to appreciate that they were living in the last days of the old system and that they had been since 1914. They also came to understand that it was in the year 1914 that Christ’s invisible presence had begun and that this was, not by his personally returning (even invisibly) to the vicinity of the earth, but by his directing his attention toward the earth as ruling King. They saw and accepted the vital responsibility that was theirs to proclaim “this good news of the kingdom” for a witness to all nations during this critical time of human history.—Matt. 24:3-14.

- Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTB&TS

Apostates mourn Ray Franz (1922 - 2010)

2010-06-02T16:32:00.207-06:00

Branch Letter", Our Kingdom Ministry, August 1980, "We are saddened to report at this time that five members of the Bethel family, and a few others in the New York city area have recently been disfellowshiped. There has been some apostasy against the organization and the promoting of sectarian divisions in some of the congregations of God’s people. (Titus 3:9-11) Living as we are in times difficult to deal with, it should not be surprising that such things occur. The first-century congregation also experienced deviations as we well know from our reading of the Holy Scriptures.—1 Tim. 1:20; 4:1; 2 Tim. 2:17, 18; 1 Cor. 15:12, 13; Acts 20:29, 30." "Announcements", Our Kingdom Ministry, August 1980, page 2, "This is a notification that Raymond Victor Franz is no longer a member of the Governing Body and of the Brooklyn Bethel family as of May 22, 1980."
_____________________

Apostasy (IPA: /əˈpɒstəsi/) is the formal religious disaffiliation or abandonment or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociologists without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, one's former religion. One who commits apostasy is an apostate, or one who apostatizes. The word derives from Greek αποστασία (apostasia), meaning a defection or revolt, from απο, apo, "away, apart", στασις, stasis, "stand", "standing". Bryan R. Wilson, who was a professor of Sociology at Oxford University, writes that apostates of new religious movements are generally in need of self-justification, and seek to reconstruct their past and to excuse their former affiliations, while blaming those who were formerly their closest associates. Wilson utilizes the term atrocity story, [a story] that is in his view rehearsed by the apostate to explain how, by manipulation, coercion or deceit, he was recruited to a group that he now condemns. Wilson also challenges the reliability of the apostate's testimony by saying that "the apostate [is] always seen as one whose personal history predisposes him to bias with respect to his previous religious commitment and affiliations, the suspicion must arise that he acts from a personal motivation, to vindicate himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a victim, but subsequently a redeemed crusader." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
______________________

Apostasy - "seeing oneself as a victim denied"

Because of strict adherence to Biblical tenets, Jehovah's Witnesses operate at a moderate to high level of tension against their surrounding environment. This has caused some to push for change in areas where there is ubiquitous community opposition to certain doctrines in an effort to reduce such operational tension. The same is often true of an individual who places greater authoritative weight upon secular sources of information when this data challenges Biblical inerrancy and concord. However, where no change occurs, and the mindset of an individual remains fixated upon communal unanimity rather than the greater responsibilities inherent in obedience to the Christian faith, there often occurs a strong tendency to feel victimized by those taking the lead among us.

As a result of seeing oneself as a victim denied, there can occur a powerful drive toward disaffection and apostasy. As is almost inevitably the case, there is a great need on the part of a leave-taker to validate their oppositional stance, and the victim-victimizer scenario greatly assists a person in justifying their course of action. Blame shifting may therefore temporarily relieve a person of accountability, but it will only succeed in sanctioning a person's actions so long as their position is given greater exposure over that of their (former) religious fraternity. Thus, the importance placed upon maintaining a heightened level of awareness toward the apostate's unique view works to reinforce the reasons for their departure by maintaining the consequences of blame and continuing to scrutinize it in the object of hostility. It is not difficult to see then why an apostate so adamantly rejects information that contradicts the typecast that they have worked so hard to establish. Bryan Wilson, Oxford Professor of sociology observes the apostate mindset similarly:

"Sociologists and other investigators into minority religions have thus come to recognize a particular constellation of motives that prompt those who apostasize in the stance they adopt relative to their previous religious commitment and their more recent renunciation of it. Such a person needs to establish his credibility both with respect to his earlier allegiance to a religious body and his subsequent relinquishment of that commitment. To vindicate himself he needs to explain his volte-face." Further endorsement is seemingly found when an apostate locates a support coalition that corroborates a person's disparate or despondent view, which in turn opens new hostilities forged as a result of collective negative experiences. Consequently, apostasy is then empowered and grows exponentially as the individual continually finds reasons to authenticate the rationale of their departure. Part of this rationale is often seen in the "atrocity story" which is tweaked and recounted through various media, and carped upon by those all too willing to overextend their trust when it comes to subjective discourse. However, the "atrocity story" is almost always rejected by sociologists who study the apostate phenomena today.

Perhaps to placate their own sensibilities, but more usually to maintain the semblance of a devoted faith, the apostate must of necessity attempt to convince others that their motives for disaffection were sound and that their new credo is scriptural. Yet, in doing so they must conspicuously evade the clear Biblical injunctions against dissent and contrary expository views. (compare Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 1:3) Paradoxically, in attempting to establish themselves as providers of spiritual edification, an apostate is forced to break the very commands that a Christian is sworn to keep – commands that their former brethren still keep.

By thus breaking God's explicit commands the apostate commits an act of betrayal against Jehovah and must therefore confront the fallout of their indiscretion. And like any sin, the inevitable fallout is the separation of the sinner from God. However, such thinking is rarely entertained by the apostate due to the angst at having to confront their own error. They must therefore reconstruct their shattered experience in such a way that it favours a new ministry rather than a repentant one.

This is in keeping with the fact that much apostate information is presented under the guise of Christian love with a view to helping others appreciate a clearer truth, yet in actuality the apostate feels impelled to propagate their dissent in order to validate their new self image and fortify their religious convictions. Of course, the welcome reception that such information may receive only grants further recognition to an often aberrant viewpoint, which in turn continues the cycle of disaffection.

As a result, the apostate is able to exploit those who misunderstand the scriptural reasons for the operational tension that exists between Jehovah's Witnesses and the moral majority, and subsequently uses this ignorance to their own advantage.

- By Nathan Unger, 2003
_________________________

Jehovah's Witnesses and the Anti-cult Movement: A Human Rights Perspective (June 2005)

http://www.cesnur.org/2005/pa_brown.htm - John B. BROWN, II (Social educator, Tucson, Arizona)

Jehovah’s Witnesses are not immune to this anticult fervor. Deprogrammers like Wally Shiel and Randall Watters who specialize in Jehovah’s Witnesses solicited deprogramming services at one time. Despite this faith community’s being labeled a destructive cult very few members of the anticult movement will acknowledge the contribution this faith community has made to religious freedom in the United States. The aim of this research paper is to emphasize the contribution Jehovah’s Witnesses have made to religious freedom, and how select members of the anticult movement have violated the religious freedom of Jehovah’s Witnesses and other faith communities. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ray Franz is probably the most notable figure of the Jehovah’s Witness anticult movement. Franz was a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Governing Body is the ruling body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses Franz began to have a difference of opinion with official Jehovah’s Witness Doctrine. Franz was asked to leave the Governing Body and was soon officially expelled from the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Private Message Boards for Former Jehovah’s Witnesses

Nothing has been more controversial then the postings from private message boards for former Jehovah’s Witnesses. The most popular message boards are Jehovah’s Witness Discussion Board (JWD) started by Simon Green, and Jehovah’s Witnesses Online (JWO) Dan Ferro. Even within the anticult community JWD and JWO are said to be famous for “flaming” and even “cyber stalking.” JWD founder Simon Green is on the defense because of accusations. There are reports that Green misrepresented statistics about the number of visitors to his site. This issue will be further researched. There has been one court case against a member of JWD and there are reports of cases pending against members of JWO.”
________________________

Ray Franz's 'Conscience' not really in 'crisis'

We all know the story that Ray Franz tells and how Don Cameron and friends merely echo the story without ever taking time to even research it for themselves. Whatever anyone says negative about Jehovah’s Witnesses is always accepted by these apostapposers without question. Facts? Research? No way. Lets take the story and run with it. Lets throw out any and everything we hear and see what sticks. Truth is of no importance, only discrediting JWs is important.

Of course, they have as usual done this with the Mexico military identification card and JWs. Franz says it, and apostates everywhere like Don Cameron repeats it in their books or on their websites or on discussion boards never bothering to research anything about it. Well a little research reveals the truth that they have omitted. - http://settingtherecordstraight.wordpress.com/category/ray-franzs-conscience-not-really-in-crisis/
________________________

I was very sad at the way that the telephone salute to the memory of Ray Franz went on last night. I had suggested to Richard Rawe that he take people who were to speak in alphabetic order and limit them to from 5 to 10 minutes. Unfortunately, Richard paid no attention to the clock and permitted the first three speakers to talk for over an hour. The result was that many of the individuals who were scheduled to speak simply became unavailable. Then Richard went in to a long statement about getting various persons interviews before inviting Rosalie or me on to speak. Ultimately, I broke in, spoke for a few minutes, then went to bed. Whether Rosalie or others ever made it on to the call-in program or not, I don't know. I was so upset at people talking on and on about everything but the memory of Ray Franz that I just couldn't take it any more. I know I am becoming more grumpy as the years go by, but frankly I don't know why people can't limit themselves a bit. After all, the purpose of such a program should have been to honor Ray's memory, not to tell about ourselves. "Let your words be few" is a good biblical maxim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Randy Watters came on first and talked for some twenty five to thirty minutes. Then Joe and Barbara Anderson came on. Joe read a letter that Ray had sent that was excellent. Then Barbara talked. In many ways the fault was not Randy's or the Andersons. Instead of paying attention to the time, Richard would go on asking leading questions which they continued to respond to. So the fault was really his. Ron Frey spoke, was careful of the time, and was excellent. When Richard asked him about himself, Ron said, "I'd rather talk about Ray Franz." I'm glad you and Grace got on, but I'm still in shell shock over the whole thing. Jim (M. James Penton)
________________________

Jim Penton is a ex-JW, who is complaining on an ex-JW board, about other ex-JWs, does it get any better then this? I don't think so! "He that is walking with wise persons will become wise, but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fare badly." - Proverbs 13:20 The above words just about say it all, it appears that apostates love to run off at the mouth (to talk a lot without saying anything important.) This will be my one and only post about Ray Franz, you can read all about him on many of the anti-JW sites. These people love the man and seem to read his books more then they read the Bible. It appears that some dysfunctional codependents' will cling to anything if it makes them feel good. "A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear." - 2 Tim. 4:3
_____________________

Lonnie D. Kliever, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University writes “There is no denying that these dedicated and diehard opponents of the new religions present a distorted view of the new religions to the public, the academy, and the courts by virtue of their ready availability and eagerness to testify against their former religious associations and activities. Such apostates always act out of a scenario that vindicates themselves by shifting responsibility for their actions to the religious group. Indeed, the various brainwashing scenarios so often invoked against the new religious movements have been overwhelmingly repudiated by social scientists and religion scholars as nothing more than calculated efforts to discredit the beliefs and practices of unconventional religions in the eyes of governmental agencies and public opinion. Such apostates can hardly be regarded as reliable informants by responsible journalists, scholars, or jurists. Even the accounts of voluntary defectors with no grudges to bear must be used with caution since they interpret their past religious experience in the light of present efforts to re-establish their own self-identity and self-esteem. In short, on the face of things, apostates from new religions do not meet the standards of personal objectivity, professional competence, and informed understanding required of expert witnesses.”

Religious scholars have routinely found the testimony and public statements of apostates to be unreliable. In his book "The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movement", Professor David Bromley, Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Virginia Commonwealth University, explained how individuals who elect to leave a chosen faith must then become critical of their religion in order to justify their departure. This then opens the door to being recruited and used by organizations which seek to use their testimony as a weapon against a minority religion. "Others may ask, if the group is as transparently evil as he now contends, why did he espouse its cause in the first place? In the process of trying to explain his own seduction and to confirm the worst fears about the group, the apostate is likely to paint a caricature of the group that is shaped more by his current role as apostate than by his actual experience in the group."

John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently a research specialist in religion and New Religious Movements with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. While testifying as an expert witness in a lawsuit, said that when investigating groups one should not rely solely upon the unverified testimony of ex-members, and that hostile ex-members would invariably shade the truth and blow out of proportion minor incidents, turning them into major incidents. Melton also follows the argumentation of Lewis Carter and David Bromley and claims that as a result of this study, the [psychological] treatment (coerced or voluntary) of former members largely ceased, and that a (perceived) lack of widespread need for psychological help by former members of new religions would in itself be the strongest evidence refuting early sweeping condemnations of new religions as causes of psychological trauma.
__________________________

"All who cut loose from the Society and its work, instead of prospering themselves or upbuilding others in the faith and in the graces of the spirit, seemingly do the reverse—attempt injury to the Cause they once served, and, with more or less noise, gradually sink into oblivion, harming only themselves and others possessed of a similarly contentious spirit. . . . If some think that they can get as good or better provender at other tables, or that they can produce as good or better themselves—let these take their course. . . . But while we are willing that others should go anywhere and everywhere to find food and light to their satisfaction, strange to say, those who become our opponents take a very different course. Instead of saying in the manly fashion of the world, ‘I have found something which I prefer; goodbye!’ these manifest anger, malice, hatred, strife, ‘works of the flesh and of the devil’ such as we have never known worldly people to exhibit. They seem inoculated with madness, Satanic hydrophobia [rabies]. Some of them smite us and then claim that we did the smiting. They are ready to say and write contemptible falsities and to stoop to do meanness.” - Oct. 1, 1909

"and the Word was divine."

2010-06-02T12:47:00.010-06:00

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/02/was-word-god-or-god.html

As it might be thought that what Dr BeDuhn has written regarding how best to render QEOS EN HO LOGOS as "the Word was divine" and this somehow undermines the rendering of "the Word was a god" and even obviates the Witnesses 'use' of Dr BeDuhn regarding the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, the following may prove helpful to explain a little more this scholars reasons for his preference in both translation _and_ understanding. Dr BeDuhn himself has written:

"It is true that the most formal, literal translation of the words in John 1:1c would be "and the Word was a god." The grammatical rules involved in this passage weigh very heavily against the more commonly seen, traditional translation, "and the Word was God." However, translation is not only
about rendering a passage word-for-word. It involves also consideration of broader syntax and the
meaning of a passage as a whole.

"The grammatical construction used here can be called the qualitative or categorical use of the indefinite. Basically, that means x belongs to the category y, or "x is a y." The examples I used in a letter now widely circulated are "Snoopy is a dog"; "The car is a Volkswagen"; and "John is a smart person." The common translation "The Word was God" is as erroneous for this construction as it would be to say in English "Snoopy is dog"; "The car is Volkswagen"; or "John is smart person." The indefinite article is mandatory because we are talking about a member of a class or category.

"Sometimes in English we can accomplish the same syntactical function by using a predicate adjective in place of the indefinite noun phrase. In the examples I gave above, this only works with "John is a smart person," which means the same thing as "John is smart." What Harner calls the qualitative sense is the same as what I call the categorical sense. In the many examples throughout the New Testament of the same grammatical construct as found in John 1:1c, the indefinite noun used is always a class or category to which the subject is said to belong. But in several of these examples, the category is used to suggest the quality the subject has, as in the many "a son of x" expressions found in the New Testament.

"Because of this evidence, we cannot rule out the possibility that for John quality was the center of focus rather than category"" Being honest to the original Greek, we cannot narrow the range of acceptable translation of John 1:1c any further than to say it is EITHER "And the Word was a god" OR "And the Word was divine." I can, if pressed, explain at length why these two translations amount to the same thing FOR JOHN. But I also recognize that they leave open interpretation to a range of possible understandings. I am afraid I cannot do anything about that. If I were to say that the NWT translation is the only possible one, I would be committing the same offense as those who have said that "And the Word was God" is the only possible translation. The whole point of my work is to get us past these false assertions, and follow the original Greek, and follow it only as far as it takes us.

"What I can say is that "And the Word was God" is extremely difficult to justify, because it goes against the plain grammar of the passage. Either of the other two translations are acceptable, because the Greek allows them, while it does not obviously allow the traditional translation. What your correspondent needs to understand, in dealing with others on this question, is that the wording "The Word was divine" agrees 100% in meaning with "The Word was a god" and only 50% with "And the Word was God." What must be given up from the latter wording is the absolute identity between Word and God that the traditional translation tried to impose. John clearly did not intend to make such an absolute identification, and that is precisely why he very carefully manipulates his word in the passage to rule it out. But, yes, John is putting the Word into the "god" or "divine" category, and that is as true if the wording is "a god" or "divine."

"Remember, the Word is not a human person, and John does not use "god" for the Word to say he is talking about a prophet or a leader or an important person. The Word is a superhuman (hence "divine") essence or being, very intimately connected to The God. How intimately? In what way connected? In what precise relationship? The answers to those questions are much more involved, and must be based on a reading of the Gospel of John as a whole, where John works very hard to make it all clear. And yes, there will be disagreements about how to understand this larger picture John is trying to convey.

"Of course, if your correspondent is using what I have written in arguments with people who favor the traditional translation, they are likely to seize upon my acceptance of "The Word was divine" as somehow a defense of their view. That is also something that cannot be helped. The idea of a Trinity developed over the centuries after the Gospel of John was written precisely as one solution to the questions raised by John's wording. The JWs have a different solution to those same questions. I am not in a position to arbitrate such historical interpretations of the text. I think John went as far as he felt inspired to go in his understanding of things, and I do not fault him for not going further and for not answering all of the additional questions people have been able to raise since his time.

"The bottom line is that "The Word was a god" is exactly what the Greek says. "The Word was divine" is a possible meaning of this Greek phrasing. "The Word was God" is almost certainly ruled out by the phrasing John uses, and it is not equivalent to "The Word was divine" because without any justification in the original Greek it narrows the meaning from a quality or category (god/divine) to an individual (God)."

Jason BeDuhn: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jdb8/jason-cv1.htm
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair
Department of Humanities, Arts, and Religion
Northern Arizona University.
10/2/2001

The Trinity—Is It Taught in the Bible?

2010-06-02T12:37:00.003-06:00

“The Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. . . . So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God.”

IN THESE words the Athanasian Creed describes the central doctrine of Christendom—the Trinity. If you are a church member, Catholic or Protestant, you might be told that this is the most important teaching that you are to believe in. But can you explain the doctrine? Some of the best minds in Christendom have confessed their inability to understand the Trinity.

Why, then, do they believe it? Is it because the Bible teaches the doctrine? The late Anglican bishop John Robinson gave a thought-provoking answer to this question in his best-selling book Honest to God. He wrote:

“In practice popular preaching and teaching presents a supranaturalistic view of Christ which cannot be substantiated from the New Testament. It says simply that Jesus was God, in such a way that the terms ‘Christ’ and ‘God’ are interchangeable. But nowhere in Biblical usage is this so. The New Testament says that Jesus was the Word of God, it says that God was in Christ, it says that Jesus is the Son of God; but it does not say that Jesus was God, simply like that.”

John Robinson was a controversial figure in the Anglican Church. Nevertheless, was he correct in saying that the “New Testament” nowhere says that “Jesus was God, simply like that”?

What the Bible Does Say

Some may answer that question by quoting the verse that commences John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, King James Version) Does that not contradict what the Anglican bishop said? Not really. As John Robinson doubtless knew, some modern translators disagree with the King James Version’s rendering of that text. Why? Because in the expression “the Word was God” in the original Greek, the word for “God” does not have the definite article “the.” In the earlier expression “the Word was with God,” the word for “God” is definite, that is, it does have the definite article. This makes it unlikely that the two words have the same significance.

Hence, some translations bring out the qualitative aspect in their translations. For example, some render the expression “the Word was divine.” (An American Translation, Schonfield) Moffatt renders it “the Logos was divine.” However, indicating that “divine” would not be the most appropriate rendering here, John Robinson and the British textual critic Sir Frederick Kenyon both pointed out that if that was what John wanted to emphasize, he could have used the Greek word for “divine,” thei′os. The New World Translation, correctly viewing the word “God” as indefinite, as well as bringing out the qualitative aspect indicated by the Greek structure, uses the indefinite article in English: “The Word was a god.”

Professor C. H. Dodd, director of the New English Bible project, comments on this approach: “A possible translation . . . would be, ‘The Word was a god’. As a word-for-word translation it cannot be faulted.” However, The New English Bible does not render the verse that way. Rather, John 1:1 in that version reads: “When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was.” Why did the translation committee not choose the simpler rendering? Professor Dodd answers: “The reason why it is inacceptable is that it runs counter to the current of Johannine thought, and indeed of Christian thought as a whole.”—Technical Papers for the Bible Translator, Volume 28, January 1977.

The Plain Sense of Scripture

Would we say that the idea that Jesus was a god and not the same as God the Creator is contrary to Johannine (that is, the apostle John’s) thought, as well as Christian thought as a whole? Let us examine some Bible texts that refer to Jesus and to God, and we will see what some commentators who lived before the Athanasian Creed was formulated thought about those texts.

“I and the Father are one.”—JOHN 10:30.

Novatian (c. 200-258 C.E.) commented: “Since He said ‘one’ thing,[] let the heretics understand that He did not say ‘one’ person. For one placed in the neuter, intimates the social concord, not the personal unity. . . . Moreover, that He says one, has reference to the agreement, and to the identity of judgment, and to the loving association itself, as reasonably the Father and Son are one in agreement, in love, and in affection.”—Treatise Concerning the Trinity, chapter 27.

“The Father is greater than I am.”—JOHN 14:28.

Irenaeus (c. 130-200 C.E.): “We may learn through Him [Christ] that the Father is above all things. For ‘the Father,’ says He, ‘is greater than I.’ The Father, therefore, has been declared by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge.”—Against Heresies, Book II, chapter 28.8.

“This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”—JOHN 17:3.

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 C.E.): “To know the eternal God, the giver of what is eternal, and by knowledge and comprehension to possess God, who is first, and highest, and one, and good. . . . He then who would live the true life is enjoined first to know Him ‘whom no one knows, except the Son reveal (Him).’ (Matt. 11:27) Next is to be learned the greatness of the Saviour after Him.”—Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? VII, VIII.

“One God and Father of all persons, who is over all and through all and in all.”—EPHESIANS 4:6.

Irenaeus: “And thus one God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ.”—Against Heresies, Book V, chapter 18.2.

These early writers clearly understood these verses to describe the Father as supreme, over everything and everyone including Jesus Christ. Their comments give no hint that they believed in a Trinity.

The Holy Spirit Reveals All Truth

Jesus promised his disciples that after his death and resurrection, the holy spirit would be given to them as a helper. He promised: “When that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide you into all the truth, . . . and he will declare to you the things coming.”—John 14:16, 17; 15:26; 16:13.

After Jesus’ death, that promise was fulfilled. The Bible records how new doctrines were revealed or clarified to the Christian congregation through the help of the holy spirit. These new teachings were written down in the books that later became the second part of the Bible, the Christian Greek Scriptures, or “New Testament.” In this flood of new light, is there ever any revelation of the existence of a Trinity? No. The holy spirit reveals something very different about God and Jesus.

For example, at Pentecost 33 C.E., after holy spirit came upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, the apostle Peter witnessed to the crowd outside about Jesus. Did he speak about a Trinity? Consider some of his statements, and judge for yourself: “Jesus . . . , a man publicly shown by God to you through powerful works and portents and signs that God did through him in your midst.” “This Jesus God resurrected, of which fact we are all witnesses.” “God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.” (Acts 2:22, 32, 36) Far from teaching a Trinity, these expressions by the spirit-filled Peter highlight Jesus’ subordination to his Father, that he is an instrument for the fulfillment of God’s will.

Soon after, another faithful Christian spoke about Jesus. Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin to answer accusations. Instead, Stephen turned the situation around, charging that his accusers were like their rebellious ancestors. Finally, the record says: “He, being full of holy spirit, gazed into heaven and caught sight of God’s glory and of Jesus standing at God’s right hand, and he said: ‘Look! I behold the heavens opened up and the Son of man standing at God’s right hand.’” (Acts 7:55, 56) Why did the holy spirit reveal Jesus to be simply the “Son of man” standing at God’s right hand and not part of a godhead equal with his Father? Clearly, Stephen had no concept of a Trinity.

When Peter carried the good news about Jesus to Cornelius, there was a further opportunity to reveal the Trinity doctrine. What happened? Peter explained that Jesus is “Lord of all.” But he went on to explain that this lordship came from a higher source. Jesus was “the One decreed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.” After Jesus’ resurrection, his Father “granted him [gave him permission] to become manifest” to his followers. And the holy spirit? It does appear in this conversation but not as the third person of a Trinity. Rather, “God anointed [Jesus] with holy spirit and power.” Thus, the holy spirit, far from being a person, is shown to be something impersonal, like the “power” also mentioned in that verse. (Acts 10:36, 38, 40, 42) Check the Bible carefully, and you will find further evidence that the holy spirit is not a personality but an active force that can fill people, impel them, cause them to be aglow, and be poured out upon them.

Finally, the apostle Paul had a fine opportunity to explain the Trinity—if it had been true doctrine—when he was preaching to the Athenians. In his talk, he referred to their altar “To an Unknown God” and said: “What you are unknowingly giving godly devotion to, this I am publishing to you.” Did he publish a Trinity? No. He described the “God that made the world and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth.” But what of Jesus? “[God] has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.” (Acts 17:23, 24, 31) No hint of a Trinity there!

In fact, Paul explained something about God’s purposes that makes it impossible that Jesus and his Father are equal parts of a Trinity. He wrote: “God ‘subjected all things under his [Jesus’] feet.’ But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected,’ it is evident that it is with the exception of the one who subjected all things to him. But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.” (1 Corinthians 15:27, 28) Thus, God will still be over all, including Jesus.

Is the Trinity taught in the Bible, then? No. John Robinson was right. It is not in the Bible, nor is it a part of “Christian thought.” Do you view this as important to your worship? You should. Jesus said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) If we take our worship of God seriously, it is vital that we know him as he really is, as he has revealed himself to us. Only then can we truly say that we are among the “true worshipers” who “worship the Father with spirit and truth.”—John 4:23.

- October 15, 1993 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Additional Reading: http://www.watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm

Could Jesus Have Had Faith in God?

2010-06-01T16:42:00.018-06:00

Trinitarian Dilemma

"HOW could Jesus have had faith? He is God; he knows and sees everything without having to turn to anybody else. Now faith consists precisely in leaning on another and in admitting that which is not seen; that Jesus-God could have had faith, therefore, is excluded.”

According to the French theologian Jacques Guillet, that is the dominant opinion in Catholicism. Does this explanation surprise you? You may have thought that since Jesus is an example for Christians in everything, he must also be a model of faith. If you thought so, you have not reckoned with Christendom’s dogma of the Trinity.

The question of Jesus’ faith really is an enigma for Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox theologians who believe in the Trinity as “the central mystery of Christian faith and life.” Not all deny Jesus’ faith, however. Jacques Guillet affirms that “it is impossible not to recognize that Jesus had faith,” though Guillet admits that, in the light of Trinity doctrine, it is a “paradox.”

French Jesuit Jean Galot, and like him the majority of theologians, is explicit in saying that being “true God and true man, . . . Christ cannot believe in himself.” “Faith consists in believing in another, not in believing in oneself,” notes the periodical La Civiltà Cattolica. The obstacle to recognizing Jesus’ faith, then, is the dogma of the Trinity, since the two concepts clearly contradict each other.

“The Gospels never speak about Jesus’ faith,” say the theologians. In effect, the terms used in the Christian Greek Scriptures pi‧steu′o (believe, have faith) and pi′stis (faith) generally refer to the faith of the disciples in God or in Christ, rather than Jesus’ faith in his heavenly Father. Should we thus conclude that God’s Son did not have faith? What can we understand from what he did and said? What do the Scriptures say?

Prayers Without Faith?

Jesus was a man of prayer. He prayed on every occasion—when he was baptized (Luke 3:21); the whole night before choosing his 12 apostles (Luke 6:12, 13); and before his miraculous transfiguration on the mountain, while with the apostles Peter, John, and James. (Luke 9:28, 29) He was praying when one of the disciples asked him: “Teach us how to pray,” so he taught them the Lord’s Prayer (the “Our Father”). (Luke 11:1-4; Matthew 6:9-13) He prayed alone and at length early in the morning (Mark 1:35-39); toward evening, on a mountain, after dismissing his disciples (Mark 6:45, 46); together with his disciples and for his disciples. (Luke 22:32; John 17:1-26) Yes, prayer was an important part of Jesus’ life.

He prayed before performing miracles, for example, before resurrecting his friend Lazarus: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. True, I knew that you always hear me; but on account of the crowd standing around I spoke, in order that they might believe that you sent me forth.” (John 11:41, 42) The certainty that his Father would answer that prayer indicates the strength of his faith. This link between prayer to God and faith in Him is evident from what Christ said to the disciples: “All the things you pray and ask for have faith that you have practically received.”—Mark 11:24.

If Jesus did not have faith, why did he pray to God? Christendom’s unscriptural teaching of the Trinity, that Jesus was both man and God at the same time, obscures the Bible’s message. It hinders people from understanding the Bible’s simplicity and power. Whom did the man Jesus invoke? Himself? Was he unaware that he was God? And if he was God and knew it, why did he pray?

Jesus’ prayers on the last day of his earthly life give us an even deeper insight into his firm faith in his heavenly Father. Manifesting hope and confident expectation, he requested: “So now you, Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.”—John 17:5.

Knowing that his most difficult trials and his death were imminent, the night he was in the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, “he started to be grieved and to be sorely troubled,” and he said: “My soul is deeply grieved, even to death.” (Matthew 26:36-38) Then he knelt and prayed: “Father, if you wish, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, let, not my will, but yours take place.” Then “an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” God listened to his prayer. Because of the intensity of his emotions and the severity of the trial, “his sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.”—Luke 22:42-44.

What do Jesus’ sufferings, his need to be strengthened, and his supplications indicate? “One thing is certain,” writes Jacques Guillet, “Jesus prayed, and prayer is an essential aspect of his life and of his actions. He prayed as men pray, and he prayed in behalf of men. Now, men’s prayers are inconceivable without faith. Would Jesus’ prayers be conceivable without faith?”

Hanging on the torture stake shortly before his death, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, quoting a psalm of David. Then, in faith, with a loud voice, he cried out a final supplication: “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” (Luke 23:46; Matthew 27:46) One Italian interdenominational translation, Parola del Signore, says that Jesus ‘entrusted his life’ to the Father.

Jacques Guillet comments: “Showing us the Christ crucified, crying out to his Father through the psalms of Israel, the Gospel writers convince us that that cry, the cry of the only-begotten Son, a cry of complete anguish, a cry of total confidence, is a cry of faith, the cry of a death in faith.”

Faced with this clear and dramatic evidence of faith, some theologians try to make a distinction between faith and “confidence.” Such a distinction, however, is not based on the Scriptures.

But exactly what do the severe trials he endured reveal about Jesus’ faith?

The “Perfecter of Our Faith” Perfected

In the 11th chapter of his letter to the Hebrews, the apostle Paul mentions the great cloud of faithful men and women of pre-Christian times. He concludes, pointing to the greatest and perfect example of faith: “We look intently at the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus. For the joy that was set before him he endured a torture stake, despising shame . . . Consider closely the one who has endured such contrary talk by sinners against their own interests, that you may not get tired and give out in your souls.”—Hebrews 12:1-3.

The majority of theologians say that this verse does not speak of “Jesus’ personal faith” but, rather, of his role as “initiator or founder of faith.” The Greek term te‧lei‧o‧teś that occurs in this phrase refers to someone who perfects, who realizes or completes something. As the “Perfecter,” Jesus completed faith in the sense that his coming to the earth fulfilled Bible prophecies and thus established a more solid foundation for faith. But does this mean that he did not have faith?

The passages from the letter to the Hebrews that you can see in the box on page 15 leave no doubt. Jesus was perfected by his sufferings and his obedience. Though already a perfect man, his experiences made him perfect and complete in all things, even in faith, in order for him to become fully qualified as High Priest for the salvation of true Christians. He supplicated his Father “with strong outcries and tears,” he was “faithful” to God, and he had “godly fear.” (Hebrews 3:1, 2; 5:7-9) He was “tested in all respects” exactly “like ourselves,” says Hebrews 4:15, that is, like any faithful Christian whose faith undergoes “various trials.” (James 1:2, 3) Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus could be put to the test “like” his followers without being tested in his faith as they are?

Supplications, obedience, suffering, trials, faithfulness, and godly fear attest to the complete faith of Jesus. They indicate that he became the “Perfecter of our faith” only after being made perfect in his own faith. Clearly, he was not God the Son, as the doctrine of the Trinity asserts.—1 John 5:5.

Did He Not Believe God’s Word?

The Trinity doctrine so conditions theologians’ thinking that they come to the extreme view of maintaining that Jesus “cannot believe God’s Word and its message” because “as the very Word of God, he can only proclaim that word.”—Angelo, Amato Gesù il Signore, with the ecclesiastical imprimatur.

Yet, what do Jesus’ continual references to the Scriptures really show? When he was tempted, he quoted from the Scriptures three times. His third reply told Satan that Jesus worshiped God alone. (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10) On several occasions Jesus mentioned prophecies that applied to himself, showing faith in their fulfillment. (Mark 14:21, 27; Luke 18:31-33; 22:37; compare Luke 9:22; 24:44-46.) From this examination we must conclude that Jesus knew the Scriptures inspired by his Father, he observed them with faith, and he had complete trust in the fulfillment of the prophecies that foretold his trials, suffering, death, and resurrection.

Jesus, the Model of Faith to Imitate

Jesus had to fight the fight of the faith down to the end in order to maintain loyalty to his Father and to ‘conquer the world.’ (John 16:33) Without faith, it is impossible to achieve such a victory. (Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 5:4) On account of that victorious faith, he was an example to his faithful followers. He certainly had faith in the true God.

[Footnotes]

A more extensive discussion of the groundlessness of the Trinity teaching can be found in the brochure Should You Believe in the Trinity?, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. http://www.watchtower.org/e/ti/index.htm

Jesus, the “Perfecter,” Perfected

Hebrews 2:10: “It was fitting for the one for whose sake all things are and through whom all things are, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Chief Agent of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Hebrews 2:17, 18: “He was obliged to become like his ‘brothers’ in all respects, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, in order to offer propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered when being put to the test, he is able to come to the aid of those who are being put to the test.”

Hebrews 3:2: “He was faithful to the One that made him such, as Moses was also in all the house of that One.”

Hebrews 4:15: “We have as high priest, not one who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested in all respects like ourselves, but without sin.”

Hebrews 5:7-9: “In the days of his flesh Christ offered up supplications and also petitions to the One who was able to save him out of death, with strong outcries and tears, and he was favorably heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered; and after he had been made perfect he became responsible for everlasting salvation.”

- October 15, 1994 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Additional Reading: http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.com/

Millions Now Living Will Never Die

2010-05-16T23:08:00.047-06:00

THE “MILLIONS CAMPAIGN”

Contributing to disciple-making work in those days was a new preaching activity—the “Millions Campaign.” It featured distribution of the 128-page book Millions Now Living Will Never Die, placed with the people on a contribution of 25c a copy. The book was used in conjunction with a public-speaking program that began on September 25, 1920, and that centered around a lecture (originally entitled “The World Has Ended—Millions Now Living May Never Die”) given by J. F. Rutherford in Los Angeles on February 24, 1918, and published in the new book in 1920.

In retrospect, Lester L. Roper says: “Then came my time for a public talk on the subject ‘Lift Up a Standard for the People, Millions Now Living That Will Never Die.’ I was accustomed to dealing with the public, but that was different. I felt the floor would come up and hit me in the face any time. And I guess it did take intestinal fortitude, as then we had only a very small number in the truth in all the world—and to tell them ‘Millions now living would never die’!”

Millions Now Living Will Never Die eventually was translated and published in various languages. Unlike the “pastoral work,” which had consisted of lending books to the people, copies of the “Millions” book were placed with them on a contribution, and interested persons could later obtain volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. The “Millions Campaign” lasted for some time, and a great witness was given by this means. Newspaper notices and billboards with the words “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” were used to bring it to public attention. So extensive was the campaign that the slogan has been remembered through the years.

Recalling the effect of the “Millions Campaign,” Rufus Chappell writes: “We had offered the publication Millions Now Living Will Never Die in and around Zion [Illinois] and the results were of interest. I remember a large, flashing electric sign over the Waukegan Dry Cleaners building on North Sheridan Road about five miles from Zion, which said, ‘We Dye for the Millions Now Living Who Will Never Die.’ This was a very popular subject at that time, and many people had questioned the phrase and learned the truth from this publication.” - 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS
______________________

In the lecture “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” delivered by J. F. Rutherford on March 21, 1920, at the Hippodrome in New York City, attention was directed to the year 1925. On what basis was it thought to be significant? In a booklet published in that same year, 1920, it was pointed out that if 70 full Jubilees were calculated from what was understood to be the date when Israel entered the Promised Land (instead of starting after the last typical Jubilee before the Babylonian exile and then counting to the beginning of the Jubilee year at the end of the 50th cycle), this could point to the year 1925. On the basis of what was said there, many hoped that perhaps the remaining ones of the little flock would receive their heavenly reward by 1925. This year also was associated with expectations for resurrection of faithful pre-Christian servants of God with a view to their serving on earth as princely representatives of the heavenly Kingdom. If that really occurred, it would mean that mankind had entered an era in which death would cease to be master, and millions then living could have the hope of never dying off the earth. What a happy prospect! Though mistaken, they eagerly shared it with others. - Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, WTB&TS
_________________________

ANNOUNCING HOPE FOR MILLIONS

The Watch Tower magazine published a full report of the convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1919, and this gave a fillip to the activity in Britain. On August 25, 1920, President Rutherford and others from Brooklyn began a lecture tour of Britain. The public address was entitled “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” Up and down the land, packed halls, overflow meetings and thousands not getting in, marked the public response. This lecture was the high point of a four-day convention in London, where the brothers distributed more than 400,000 leaflets for a meeting that overflowed the Royal Albert Hall.

Toward the close of 1920 the Society published Golden Age No. 27, a twenty-page outsize issue of a new magazine. It gave authentic reports on persecutions of God’s people in England, Canada, America, Germany and other lands. It exposed the part Christendom’s religion and its leaders had played. It pointed out the reason for these attacks and declared that Christendom as well as the entire system was doomed. It exposed the League of Nations. It predicted extensive Communism and anarchy. But, above all, it pointed to the remedy for all humankind’s trouble. The campaign with this magazine, planned to start on December 1, 1920, called for a copy to be left at each home. Two weeks later, at a second visit, the caller would invite the householder to contribute for the magazine. Some made a contribution, but some made a fuss because of their distaste for its message.

In 1922 came another tour of Britain by Brother Rutherford again to present the “Millions Now Living Will Never Die” lecture, and again to capacity audiences. In 1925, at conventions during April and May, the same halls were used and again were rapidly packed, and, in many cases, crowds had to be turned away. By the end of that year 1925, there were 355 congregations in Britain and 167 full-time colporteurs besides 96 part-time workers, then known as “auxiliaries.”

Following the lead given by Brother Rutherford, speakers traveled throughout the land giving the same address, “Millions Now Living Will Never Die,” in cinemas, halls, any kind of meeting place that could be rented. Large-scale advertising in newspapers and with tracts and posters drew the attention of the public. The brothers would hire a hall, sometimes in an outlying district, advertise the meeting intensively, give the address, and then cover the territory with the book Millions Now Living Will Never Die. For the first year’s campaign, a quarter of a million books were printed and lectures were given to hundreds of thousands of people. There have been very few statements at any time that have made a greater impact on the public mind than that confident declaration “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” - 1973 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS
__________________________

1925—A CRITICAL YEAR

The year 1925 got off to a good enough start, with the French Watch Tower magazine being enlarged from 12 to 16 pages. Also, the tract entitled “Ecclesiastics Indicted” was distributed in France, many copies right outside the churches. In the whole of the French-speaking field, over two million of these tracts were put out!

Brother Rutherford visited France once again in May of 1925. He was scheduled to give the talk, “The Frauds of the Clergy Exposed,” at the great Trocadéro Palace overlooking the river Seine opposite the Eiffel Tower. Brothers from the north of France had come down to Paris a week beforehand to help the local brothers advertise it. But the large-sized handbills quickly got into the hands of the Catholic clergy, who put pressure on the police to stop this street advertising. As a result, some of the brothers were arrested.

About 2,000 persons responded to the invitation and came to the talk. Brother Rutherford began to speak when suddenly about 50 priests and members of Catholic Action, armed with sticks, rushed into the hall singing the Marseillaise (the French national anthem). Three times, Brother Rutherford left the stage and then came back. Opposers were shouting: ‘If he’s a judge, let him go judge the Americans!’ The August 1, 1925, Watch Tower reported:

“While a greater mass of the audience were opposed to the clergy, yet . . . they were bantering with each other and paid no attention to the speaker; and it was impossible to address them. . . . it became absolutely necessary to abandon the meeting.”

That same year of 1925 sparked off even greater difficulties within the organization. The book Millions Now Living Will Never Die had been widely used in the French field since 1921, and on the basis of its contents, much was expected of 1925. But when 1925 came and went without the anticipated happenings coming to pass, those on the outside who had read the book made fun of the brothers. Brother Jules Anache in Sin-le-Noble writes: “We were scoffed at by our enemies who wrote articles, one of which was entitled ‘Millions now living will never die if they take Pink pills,’ referring to a remedy that was popular at the time.”

Worse still, the faith of some of the brothers themselves was shaken. Some expected to go to heaven that year. This brought about siftings in the congregations, particularly in Alsace. Sister Anna Zimmermann writes: “Unjustified hopes brought about great testings. Many gave up.”

Indicative of this testing was the question meeting held by Brother Rutherford during the Basel, Switzerland, assembly, which took place May 1-3, 1926. The report on this convention stated:

“Question: Have the ancient worthies returned?

“Answer: Certainly they have not returned. No one has seen them, and it would be foolish to make such an announcement. It was stated in the ‘Millions’ book that we might reasonably expect them to return shortly after 1925, but this was merely an expressed opinion.”

A mistake had been made but, as Brother Rutherford stated, this was no reason to stop serving the Lord. Yet some did, and so that period marked further siftings in the French field. Figures published in the French Watch Tower show that in 1925 there were 93 present at the Memorial in the Mulhouse Congregation in Alsace, whereas in 1927 the Memorial attendance had dropped to 23. - 1980 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, WTB&TS
_________________

As we have heretofore stated, the great jubilee cycle is due to begin in 1925. At that time the earthly phase of the kingdom shall be recognized. The Apostle Paul in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews names a long list of faithful men who died before the crucifixion of the Lord and before the beginning of the selection of the church. These can never be a part of the heavenly class; they had no heavenly hopes; but God has in store something good for them. They are to be resurrected as perfect men and constitute the princes or rulers in the earth, according to his promise. (Psalm 45:16; Isaiah 32:1; Matthew 8:11) Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the condition of human perfection. - Millions Now Living Will Never Die, published in 1920, WTB&TS.

At the time, it was believed that faithful men of old times, such as Abraham, Joseph, and David, would be resurrected before the end of this system of things and would serve as “princes in all the earth,” in fulfillment of Psalm 45:16. This view was adjusted in 1950, when further study of the Scriptures indicated that those earthly forefathers of Jesus Christ would be resurrected after Armageddon.—See “The Watchtower,” November 1, 1950, pages 414-17.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus’ second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect. Because of this, some have called them false prophets. Never in these instances, however, did they presume to originate predictions ‘in the name of Jehovah.’ Never did they say, ‘These are the words of Jehovah.’ The Watchtower, the official journal of Jehovah’s Witnesses, has said: “We have not the gift of prophecy.” (January 1883, page 425) “Nor would we have our writings reverenced or regarded as infallible.” (December 15, 1896, page 306) The Watchtower has also said that the fact that some have Jehovah’s spirit “does not mean those now serving as Jehovah’s witnesses are inspired. It does not mean that the writings in this magazine The Watchtower are inspired and infallible and without mistakes.” (May 15, 1947, page 157) “The Watchtower does not claim to be inspired in its utterances, nor is it dogmatic.” (August 15, 1950, page 263) “The brothers preparing these publications are not infallible. Their writings are not inspired as are those of Paul and the other Bible writers. (2 Tim. 3:16) And so, at times, it has been necessary, as understanding became clearer, to correct views. (Prov. 4:18)”—February 15, 1981, page 19. - March 22, 1993 Awake, http://jehovah.to/xlation/fp.html

“As for you, beloved ones, call to mind the sayings that have been previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they used to say to you: ‘In the last time there will be ridiculers, proceeding according to their own desires for ungodly things.’ These are the ones that make separations, animalistic men, not having spirituality.” (Jude 17-19) Beloved ones, this is now the second letter I am writing YOU, in which, as in my first one, I am arousing YOUR clear thinking faculties by way of a reminder, that YOU should remember the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through YOUR apostles. For YOU know this first, that in the last days there will come ridiculers with their ridicule, proceeding according to their own desires and saying: “Where is this promised presence of his? Why, from the day our forefathers fell asleep [in death], all things are continuing exactly as from creation’s beginning.” (2 Peter 3: 1-4)

Apostates - "animalistic men"

2010-05-12T09:37:00.041-06:00

“As for you, beloved ones, call to mind the sayings that have been previously spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they used to say to you: ‘In the last time there will be ridiculers, proceeding according to their own desires for ungodly things.’ These are the ones that make separations, animalistic men, not having spirituality.” (Jude 17-19)

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/05/apostasy.html

Jude said much to expose the “ungodly men” who slyly crept into the congregation. Then, entreating fellow believers for whom he had great affection, Jude bid them to recall words previously spoken by Jesus’ apostles. Recalling those sayings should have moved all genuine Christians to “put up a hard fight for the faith.”

The apostle Paul warned fellow overseers that from among them men would “rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.” (Acts 20:29, 30) He told Timothy that ‘in later times some would fall away from the faith.’ (1 Timothy 4:1, 2) And the apostle Peter specifically warned that ‘in the last days there would come ridiculers, saying: “Where is this promised presence of his?”’—2Peter 3:1-4.

Hence, recipients of Jude’s letter had good reason to expect “ridiculers” to appear during the period that immediately preceded the end of the Jewish system of things. It was not unlikely that the “ungodly men” who had slipped into the congregation were ridiculing faithful believers who adhered to Jehovah’s righteous standards and would not join the “false brothers” in loose conduct. But it was essential that godly persons “put up a hard fight for the faith,” even though they might have been derided by false teachers who ‘proceeded according to’ and were driven by their own immoral “desires for ungodly things.”—Compare 2 Corinthians 11:26; Galatians 2:4, 5.

Whereas God, by his spirit, assured the unity of those loving him, those ungodly ridiculers tried to “make separations,” or “distinctions,” endeavoring to carry on a separating work among Jehovah’s people. (Jude 19, New World Translation, 1950 edition, footnote; Psalm 133:1-3; 1 Corinthians 1:10) Although the ridiculers spoke against faithful responsible men in the congregation, the ungodly ones expressed admiration for individuals who could benefit them. (Jude 8, 16) Like the Pharisees, they looked down on the humble, godly members of the congregation. Rather than gathering with the Lord, they tried to scatter. Even today some try to draw the unsteady away into private groups, supposedly for “Bible study.” This could never promote love for God, Christ and the Christian congregation.—Luke 11:23.

Those men were fittingly termed “animalistic,” or “soulical,” for they were sentient creatures yielding to fleshly sensations, appetites and inclinations. (Compare Kingdom Interlinear Translation, verse 19.) Although they considered themselves spiritually enlightened, Jude described them as “not having spirituality,” or, literally, not having “the spirit.” Actually, those “animalistic men” lacked Jehovah’s spirit, could not comprehend spiritual matters and scarcely rose above the level of unreasoning beasts. If we have Jehovah’s spirit and understand “the deep things of God,” we should be deeply grateful to our heavenly Father.—1 Corinthians 2:6-16.

How to Remain in God’s Love

Additional Reading: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-o-jehovah-are-good-and-ready-to.html

Jude next turned to earnest entreaty, saying:

“But you, beloved ones, by building up yourselves on your most holy faith, and praying with holy spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love, while you are waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ with everlasting life in view.” (Jude 20, 21)

Jude lovingly showed how his cherished fellow believers could remain in the love of Jehovah. Following his counsel certainly would include the cultivating of faith, a fruit of God’s spirit. (Galatians 5:22, 23) But in view of Jude’s earlier reference to fighting for ‘the faith delivered to the holy ones’ (vs. 3), the expression “most holy faith” may have referred to the whole range of Christian teachings, including the good news of salvation. The foundation of such true faith is Christ, and it was called “most holy” because it looked to the God of holiness and was based exclusively upon his holy Word.—Acts 20:32; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

For Christians to ‘upbuild themselves on their most holy faith,’ or to strengthen it, they must diligently study God’s Word personally and congregationally. Frequently discussing the Scriptures with fellow Christian witnesses of Jehovah, as well as proclaiming the good news to others, will deepen the impression the Bible makes on our hearts. But none of this can be accomplished apart from earnest prayer. An individual ‘prays with holy spirit’ when praying under its influence and in harmony with the things in Jehovah’s Word. Moreover, the Scriptures, written under inspiration of God’s spirit, show us how to pray and what to request in prayer. For instance, we can confidently pray to be filled with God’s holy spirit. If we ‘pray with holy spirit,’ our prayers will reveal a proper heart condition, one loved by God. We will thus be protected from improper influences, including the views of any “ungodly men” who might slip into the congregation.—Luke 11:13; Romans 8:9, 26, 27.

To ‘keep themselves in God’s love,’ Jude’s fellow believers had to observe Jehovah’s commandments and those of His Son. (John 15:10; 1 John 5:3) Remaining in the love of God calls for speech and conduct approved by Jehovah. Being imperfect and sinful, the faithful ones would, in order to remain in God’s love, continually require Jehovah’s mercy extended through Jesus Christ and made possible by means of the ransom sacrifice of their Lord. (Romans 5:8; 9:14-18; 1 John 4:9, 10) The continuance of divine mercy toward Jesus’ faithful followers eventually results in everlasting life.—John 3:16.

- September 1, 1982 Watchtower, WTB&TS

http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/03/ransom-and-you.html
_____________________

Apostasy (IPA: /əˈpɒstəsi/) is the formal religious disaffiliation or abandonment or renunciation of one's religion, especially if the motive is deemed unworthy. In a technical sense, as used sometimes by sociologists without the pejorative connotations of the word, the term refers to renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, one's former religion. One who commits apostasy is an apostate, or one who apostatizes. The word derives from Greek αποστασία (apostasia), meaning a defection or revolt, from απο, apo, "away, apart", στασις, stasis, "stand", "standing". Bryan R. Wilson, who was a professor of Sociology at Oxford University, writes that apostates of new religious movements are generally in need of self-justification, and seek to reconstruct their past and to excuse their former affiliations, while blaming those who were formerly their closest associates. Wilson utilizes the term atrocity story, [a story] that is in his view rehearsed by the apostate to explain how, by manipulation, coercion or deceit, he was recruited to a group that he now condemns. Wilson also challenges the reliability of the apostate's testimony by saying that "the apostate [is] always seen as one whose personal history predisposes him to bias with respect to his previous religious commitment and affiliations, the suspicion must arise that he acts from a personal motivation, to vindicate himself and to regain his self-esteem, by showing himself to have been first a victim, but subsequently a redeemed crusader."

Lonnie D. Kliever, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University writes “There is no denying that these dedicated and diehard opponents of the new religions present a distorted view of the new religions to the public, the academy, and the courts by virtue of their ready availability and eagerness to testify against their former religious associations and activities. Such apostates always act out of a scenario that vindicates themselves by shifting responsibility for their actions to the religious group. Indeed, the various brainwashing scenarios so often invoked against the new religious movements have been overwhelmingly repudiated by social scientists and religion scholars as nothing more than calculated efforts to discredit the beliefs and practices of unconventional religions in the eyes of governmental agencies and public opinion. Such apostates can hardly be regarded as reliable informants by responsible journalists, scholars, or jurists. Even the accounts of voluntary defectors with no grudges to bear must be used with caution since they interpret their past religious experience in the light of present efforts to re-establish their own self-identity and self-esteem. In short, on the face of things, apostates from new religions do not meet the standards of personal objectivity, professional competence, and informed understanding required of expert witnesses.”

Religious scholars have routinely found the testimony and public statements of apostates to be unreliable. In his book "The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movement", Professor David Bromley, Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Virginia Commonwealth University, explained how individuals who elect to leave a chosen faith must then become critical of their religion in order to justify their departure. This then opens the door to being recruited and used by organizations which seek to use their testimony as a weapon against a minority religion. "Others may ask, if the group is as transparently evil as he now contends, why did he espouse its cause in the first place? In the process of trying to explain his own seduction and to confirm the worst fears about the group, the apostate is likely to paint a caricature of the group that is shaped more by his current role as apostate than by his actual experience in the group."

John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently a research specialist in religion and New Religious Movements with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. While testifying as an expert witness in a lawsuit, said that when investigating groups one should not rely solely upon the unverified testimony of ex-members, and that hostile ex-members would invariably shade the truth and blow out of proportion minor incidents, turning them into major incidents. Melton also follows the argumentation of Lewis Carter and David Bromley and claims that as a result of this study, the [psychological] treatment (coerced or voluntary) of former members largely ceased, and that a (perceived) lack of widespread need for psychological help by former members of new religions would in itself be the strongest evidence refuting early sweeping condemnations of new religions as causes of psychological trauma.

Watchman, what of the night?

2010-05-09T03:04:00.012-06:00

“Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night.”—Isa. 21:11, 12, Authorized Version.

THE world is passing through a “night”! It is now approaching the darkest period of this figurative night. What will be the look of things when the morning dawns remains to be seen. What is disturbing mankind more and more is the worsening of the state of human affairs in every aspect of life. World history times this as beginning with the first world war. Politicians, religious clergymen, social leaders and economists may think they see some rays of dawn and may try to spark up good cheer. But there is no solid reason to be optimistic about the tottering system of things.

The coming of this “night” was seen decades in advance. The available records of the past century prove that. The dawning of the brightest “day” in all human history was also foreseen. It was called to public notice by word of mouth and printed page.

A magazine that now has a circulation of millions of copies each issue, in scores of languages, bears witness to that fact. When its first issue appeared in July of 1879 the magazine was entitled “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.” That first issue contained eight pages, and its page size was greater than that of the magazine today. It had a timely mission to fulfill. This was hinted at in that its title contained the meaningful words “Watch Tower.” Fittingly, then, at the masthead under the title there appeared the significant quotation from the most ancient book on earth. It read: “Watchman, What of the Night?” “The Morning Cometh.” Those words were quoted from the Holy Bible, from the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 21, verses 11, 12, according to the King James or Authorized Version. In Bible times a watchman was associated with a watchtower on the wall of a fortified city. This elevated position provided a fine lookout. The publishers of the magazine purposed to serve as a watchman class. By means of the columns of the magazine, the publishers endeavored to answer the question, “Watchman, what of the night?” That challenging question continued to appear on the first page of the magazine down to its issue of December 15, 1938.

When the Watch Tower magazine first appeared on July 1, 1879, with a modest printing of 6,000 copies, the world stage was taking on a portentous appearance. The Franco-German War of 1870 had been fought, and the second German Reich or Empire had emerged. An arms race was due to develop between the British Empire and the rival German Empire. In 1878 the Berlin Congress of Nations had been held for settling the Eastern Question that involved the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire between European empires, particularly Britain and Russia. Consequential future hostilities between nations threatened!

It was indeed a time for looking into the prophecies of the Bible to see whether they had anything at all to say about the meaning of world events and their outcome. Appropriately, on January 1, 1895, the Watch Tower magazine changed its front-cover design to show a corner watchtower at the edge of a raging sea. Also, at the bottom of the page under this new design, the magazine displayed the following words based on Luke 21:25-31 (AV) in italic letters: “Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking forward to the things coming upon the earth (society); for the powers of the heavens (ecclesiasticism) shall be shaken. . . . When ye see these things come to pass, then know that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads, rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh.—Luke 21:25-28-31.”

The Spanish-American War followed in 1898 with losses to the Spanish Empire. In 1899 came the Boer War in South Africa, with gains for the British Empire. The international arms race speeded up. When the aeroplane was invented, it allowed for warfare in the skies. By then, too, successful forms of submarines had been invented and used in warfare. Thus the 20th century promised to be an exciting time for the “watchman” class to report on to anxious inquirers. Especially so, since the “watchman” class expected the “times of the Gentiles” to end in autumn of 1914.—Luke 21:24, AV.

WHY INQUIRE OF THE “WATCHMAN”?

The inquiry in Isaiah 21:11, addressed to the “watchman,” finds itself couched in a setting breathing war. The context that follows reads: “The pronouncement against the desert plain: In the forest in the desert plain you will spend the night, O caravans of men of Dedan. To meet the thirsty one bring water. O you inhabitants of the land of Tema, confront the one fleeing away with bread for him. For because of the swords they have fled away, because of the drawn sword, and because of the bent bow and because of the heaviness of the war. For this is what Jehovah has said to me: ‘Within yet a year, according to the years of a hired laborer, all the glory of Kedar must even come to its end. And the ones remaining over of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the sons of Kedar, will become few, for
Jehovah himself, the God of Israel, has spoken it.’”—Isa. 21:13-17.

Likewise, the “pronouncement” that precedes the exchange of words between the inquirer and the watchman breathes of warfare. So there is reason for concern on the part of the inquirer. Where is the inquirer located? Evidently in the path of a world conqueror. Isaiah 21:11 reads: “The pronouncement against Dumah: To me there is one calling out from Seir: “Watchman, what about the night? Watchman, what about the night?’”

The name of the place against which the pronouncement is aimed is called Dumah, a name that means “Silence.” Evidently the name is prophetic, predicting that the place is to become marked by silence. The name does not necessarily mean that the silence due to desolation and death already reigns there. Dumah’s location is indicated by the fact that the call to the watchman comes from Seir, the land of Seir. This land is associated with Idumea, the country of Edom. This may account for it that the Greek Septuagint Version speaks of Idumea instead of Dumah. Edom was the nickname that was given to Esau, the older twin brother of Jacob. The people of the land of Edom opposed the nation of Jacob, or the nation of Israel.

Jacob’s older twin brother was called Esau, which means “hairy,” because he was hairy at birth. The name Seir means “hairy or shaggy,” but the land of that name was not so called because of Esau. His descendants took over the land of Seir by conquering the original inhabitants. Esau, or Edom, is notorious for having been willing to sell the birthright of a firstborn son to Jacob. Jehovah, the God of Jacob, recognized the sale and conferred the divine blessing upon the purchaser, Jacob. For this reason Jacob became hated by Esau. Little cause for amazement, then, that, when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, gave way to glee over the terrible calamity upon their brother nation, Israel. This national disaster, together with the carrying of the surviving Israelites into Babylonia, took place in the century after Isaiah’s prophecy about the watchman.

Where, though, is the location of the watchman to whom the inquirer in the Edomite land of Seir directs his inquiry? The prophecy concerning the inquirer and the watchman was given by Isaiah, and he found himself in the yet free land of Israel. So the source of the watchman’s answer lay in the land of Israel, regardless of where the Israelites came to find themselves at the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. At the time of the giving of the prophecy Isaiah represented the watchman appointed at God’s command to give the correct answer to the inquiry. Isaiah and his children had the divine approbation. Very appropriately, then, Isaiah pictured the “watchman” class of today, the remnant of spiritual Israelites who have the heavenly inheritance. These are the ones who have been enlightened with regard to the darksome world situation today.

In 1879 C.E., the editor of the Watch Tower magazine and his associates were fully dedicated, baptized Christians. They offered themselves to serve as a watchman group in behalf of their spirit-anointed Christian brothers. All of these together made up a larger “watchman” class. They could not dodge the then arising question, “Watchman, what of the night?” The only trustworthy answer that they could give was that which God’s inspired Word put into the mouth of the watchman of old. This was, in effect, “The morning cometh, and also the night.” (Isa. 21:12, AV) Ah, yes, according to the outlook given by Jehovah God a brighter period, “the morning,” had to come. This would usher in the millennium, or thousand years, of the reign of Jehovah’s Messiah, his glorified Son Jesus. But before that there had to come “the night” of world distress!

Doubtless, because of the promised “morning” that was to usher in the millennial reign of Christ, the series of Studies in the Scriptures that the editor of the Watch Tower began to publish in 1886 was called “Millennial Dawn.” And under that title were quoted the words of Proverbs 4:18, AV: “The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light, Which Shineth More and More Unto the Perfect Day.” But it was “the night” over which the inquirer in the land of Seir was so concerned. In the days of the prophet Isaiah any darkness of “the night” that rested upon the Edomite land of Seir was due to thicken. This would be the case as that land came under the domination of a new world conqueror, one favoring, not the Edomites of Mount Seir, but, rather, the brother nation of Israel.

Today, more than a century after the Watch Tower magazine first appeared, worldly people who are groping for the light continue to raise the pressing question, “What about the night?” The only one that has the valid answer to that question is the “watchman” class. This class has not been at a loss for the right answer, the Bible answer. It has welcomed all further inquiry, just as in Isaiah’s prophecy the watchman went on to say: “If you people would inquire, inquire. Come again!”—Isa. 21:12.

To that end the Watch Tower magazine has continued to be published until now. Just as a literal watchman has to keep awake all the time at his guard post, so the Watch Tower magazine has kept awake and has not missed an issue since its first issue in July of 1879. This has been true despite the worldwide persecution upon the “watchman” class during World Wars I and II. It has reported on the progress of “the night,” not being afraid to announce that it will reach its darkest point in “the war of the great day of God the Almighty” at what Bible prophecy calls Har–Magedon. Thus the anointed “watchman” class keeps on fulfilling its commission to “proclaim . . . the day of vengeance on the part of our God.”—Rev. 16:14-16; Isa. 61:1, 2.

- July 1, 1980 Watchtower, WTB&TS

The Emphatic Diaglott

2010-05-06T13:18:00.046-06:00

In the year 1857 Benjamin Wilson, a newspaper editor in Geneva, Illinois, U.S.A., published the first section of his interlinear translation of the inspired Greek Scriptures. The final section was issued in 1863. It was issued as one bound volume in 1864 and was called “The Emphatic Diaglott.” The name “Diaglott” means, literally, “through tongue,” but is understood to signify “interlinear.” In 1902 the copyright and plates of the Diaglott were bought from the Fowler & Wells Company of New York city and were presented as a gift to the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, Charles Taze Russell being then president of the Society. In the year 1927 this Society began issuing the Diaglott as printed on its own presses, and continues publishing it till now.

In the broad left-hand column of each page the Diaglott presents the Greek text, using the recension made by the German Dr. J. J. Griesbach in 1775-1777, and under each Greek word is presented its English equivalent. In the slim right-hand column of each page is presented a modern English translation as made by Benjamin Wilson.

It was through The Emphatic Diaglott that the Society’s first president, C. T. Russell, learned that the inspired Greek Scriptures speak of the second “presence” of Christ, for the Diaglott translated the Greek word “parousía” correctly as “presence,” and not as “coming” like the King James Version Bible. Accordingly when C. T. Russell began publishing the new Bible magazine in July of 1879, he called it Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. Today, ninety years later, this magazine is entitled “The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom,” and is published in seventy-two languages. Apparently, in first naming the magazine in 1879 Editor Russell was unaware that in 1862, or a year before The Emphatic Diaglott was completed, Dr. Robert Young had published in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Bible translation called “Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible” and that this translation also translated the Greek word “parousía” as “presence” and not as “coming.” He also produced the Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, which, on page 188, column 1, shows parousía to mean “a being alongside,” or “presence.” The Watch Tower issue of April, 1883, recommended this Concordance to Bible students.

- November 15, 1969 Watchtower, WTB&TS

Also See: http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/emphatic-diaglott-and-watch-tower.html

_______________________

Benjamin Wilson's main legacy consists in two areas

The original 1865 Fowler and Wells edition of the Emphatic Diaglott was one of the earliest interlinear Greek-English New Testaments published in America and thus had considerable influence. After Wilson's death the copyright was purchased by the Millenial Dawn Bible Students (later the Watchtower Society) which from 1902 distributed Wilson's work widely around the world. For this reason Wilson's name is often incorrectly associated with Jehovah's Witnesses, though Wilson never had any association with the founder of that group Charles Taze Russell. Further Wilson's own views on the allegorical nature of the devil, non-preexistence of Christ, literal return of Christ, - increasing in conflict with the Watchtower Society after 1914 - are occasionally reflected in the side column of the Diaglott giving Wilson's own English translation.

The church Wilson was a leading figure in founding still exists today. In 1921 the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith split into two, primarily over the issue of whether the devil was to be understood as literal or figurative, both taking the name Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith, resulting in some confusion today: The smaller group, which retained the view of Wilson on the devil as allegory, is now sometimes also known as the Church of the Blessed Hope. This group is in unity talks with Christadelphians. The larger group, which today predominantly believe in a supernatural devil, are also known as the Church of God General Conference. Their publications commonly cite Joseph Marsh (1802-1863) rather than Wilson as their spiritual forebear, though Marsh's role in the formation of the group is not clearly documented.

- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
___________________________

A nephew of Benjamin Wilson wrote this account of the production of The Diaglott:

"While I was a boy, my father put me into The Gospel Banner office to learn the printing business. It was during this time, that the EMPHATIC DIAGLOTT was translated and printed. I can now in my mind’s eye see my Uncle Benjamin, sitting at his desk, making a literal word for word translation of the New Testament. I remember seeing the Greek type arrive from England. Many readers of the Diaglott may not be aware that my Uncle not only translated the Diaglott, but took charge of the mechanical work as well. He electro-typed the entire book himself. The following was the process he followed. As each page of the Diaglott was put into type, he took an impression of the page of type in wax. This wax mold was then blackened with very fine blacklead dust. He had a vat containing acid. In this acid he hung a copper plate, and also the wax mold, before he went home at night. In the morning he would find the wax mold would be covered with a thin sheet of copper. This acid dissolved the copper, and the black lead attracted it to the wax mold. He then made metal plates out of melted metal and fastened the copper sheet upon it. He then printed the first edition of the book, from these plates, on a hand press. I used to ink the plate by a soft roller, while he worked the press."

- Peter Hemingray. A preface to the new edition of The Emphatic Diaglott, The Abrahamic Faith Beacon Publishing Society, Miami 2003
_______________________

THE EMPHATIC DIAGLOTT

We are in receipt of many letters asking, whether this work is of any value to English readers who have no knowledge of the Greek. We answer, Yes; it is specially designed for such: and the Diaglott, together with Young's Analytical Concordance, are worth more than a year's study of the Greek. Both should be in the hands of every Bible student; but if you cannot afford both, the Diaglott is the most valuable--indeed almost indispensable.

Many orders come for the Diaglott from persons not subscribers to the TOWER, and for extra copies for friends from those who are subscribers. Hence, we must explain particularly, why we can supply this work to TOWER subscribers only, and to these only one copy each, at the special price $1.50. The reasons are as follows:

Some years ago a Brother, who is a great friend to the TOWER, and a great admirer of the Emphatic Diaglott also, suggested that, Every student of God's plan, as presented in the TOWER, ought to have the aid which the Diaglott affords. The difficulty which seemed to stand in the way was, that it is of necessity an expensive work (Retail price in cloth binding $4.00, postage 16 cts. = $4.16.) and the great majority of our readers are far from wealthy, like the majority of the saints in all ages. To meet this difficulty, the Brother proposed to the TOWER PUB. CO., that, if they would be at the trouble and expense of mailing the books, he would supply one copy each to all TOWER subscribers, at a price to bring the book within the reach of all, viz. $1.50, including postage.

This was begun when our subscription list was much smaller than now, and is still continued: New readers of either DIAGLOTT or TOWER need both. Subscribers will please save us the annoyance of refusing, and returning their money, by ordering only one copy of the Diaglott: unless your first copy has worn out,--in which case, in ordering another, mention this fact. The only way for others to get the book at this special price is to subscribe for the TOWER: and the Diaglott must be mailed direct to the subscriber and not to another person.

- July, 1888 Watchtower, WTB&TS
______________________

THE EMPHATIC DIAGLOTT

This very valuable work, published under the author's copyright by Fowler & Wells Co., New York City, until now (A.D. 1902), has been sold by them at $4 in cloth and $5 in half leather binding. For several years a friend, an earnest Bible student, desirous of assisting the readers of our Society's publications, has supplied them through us at a greatly reduced price; now he has purchased the copyuright and plates from the Fowler & Wells Co., and presented the same to our Society as a gift, under our assurance that the gift will be used for the furthering of the Truth to the extent of our ability, by such a reduction of price as will permit the poor of the Lord's flock to have this help in the study of the Word.

REDUCED PRICES.--These will be sold with ZION'S WATCH TOWER only. In cloth binding $1.50 (6s. 3d.)--includes postage and one year's subscription, new or renewal, to Z.W.T. On thin paper, in full morocco leather, divinity circuit, red under gold edges, silk sewed leather lined, $2.50 (10s. 6d.)-- includes postage and one year's subscription to Z.W.T. The morocco bound edition will not be ready for some time, but orders may be sent in now, for later delivery.

- December 15, 1902 Watchtower, WTB&TS
_______________________

Christadelphians will know him best as the author of The Emphatic Diaglott. In my experience, however, the knowledge of his work often exceeds that of the author himself. For instance, I have often noted CGAF connections with Wilson only to hear the reply: "Oh yes, he was a Russellite!" I can assure you he was never such. The confusion probably arises because the copyright for The Diaglott was purchased in the early 20th century by an anonymous buyer who then donated it to the Watchtower Society. The fact that they published his work is a sad, ironic twist of history — nothing more. It must be emphasized that there was never any connection between Benjamin Wilson and the group now known as the "Jehovah’s Witnesses". By the time they had acquired the copyright, Wilson had died, and there is no evidence at all that Benjamin Wilson ever came in contact with anyone from the "Millennial Dawn Bible Students", as the denomination was popularly referred to before 1931. (There is a much happier ending to this story, as many may know. In 2004, the Abrahamic Faith Beacon Publishing Society brought home The Emphatic Diaglott and re-published a new version of it, working in partnership with The Christadelphian Advancement Trust.)

Benjamin Wilson was a towering man of faith. He was a printer by trade and printed a newspaper, The Western Mercury, after he settled in Geneva — a small town west of Chicago — in 1844. But he was far more than just a printer. He was also a diligent Bible scholar, to which The Diaglott attests. This translation was truly a labor of love for him. Not only did he spend hours, days, and months poring over the Greek — he probably spent just as much time setting the type for its publication:

"I can now in my mind’s eye see my Uncle Benjamin, sitting at his desk, making a literal word for word translation of the New Testament. I remember seeing the Greek type arrive from England. Many readers of the Diaglott may not be aware that my Uncle not only translated the Diaglott, but took charge of the mechanical work as well. He electro-typed the entire book himself" (Thomas Wilson, "How, When, Where, and By Whom was the Gospel of the Kingdom First Introduced into the Western States?", The Restitution, Nov. 28, 1906).

Benjamin Wilson believed in the virtue of independent Bible study. He fully understood that it falls to each of us to "prove what is true" and "hold fast that which is good." It was evident in the many columns he wrote as editor of The Gospel Banner for some 15 years.

This leaning on the Word is nowhere more evident than the Confession of Faith that he, along with fellow brethren, crafted in 1868 when they formed their first congregation of believers in Geneva. It is both elegant in simplicity and gracious in expression. The main points are listed here:

- Reflection, January 2009, The CHRISTADELPHIAN TIDINGS of the Kingdom of God
______________________

Preface

To trouble the reader with any lengthy remarks on the important advantages to be derived from a new translation of the Sacred Writings is deemed altogether unnecessary. Much information on this point has been given by others who have published modern Versions of the New Testament, with the reasons which have induced them to do so. Those reasons will serve in a great measure also for this. It is generally admitted by all critics that the Authorized or Common version of the Scriptures absolutely needs revision. Obsolete words, uncouth phrases, bad grammar and punctuation, etc., all require alteration. But this is not all. There are errors of a more serious nature which need correction. The translators of the Common version were circumscribed and trammeled by royal mandate; they were required to retain certain old ecclesiastical words which, accordingly, were left untranslated. Thus the minds of many who had no means of knowing the meaning of the original words have been misled and confused. Biblical criticism, however, during the last two hundred years, has done much to open up and elucidate the Word of God, by discovering many things which were unknown to the old translators, making great improvements in the text, detecting numerous interpolations and errors, and suggesting far better renderings of many passages. Many modem versions have availed themselves of this valuable assistance, and it is believed they have thereby been enabled to give the English reader a better understanding of what was originally written.

Without presuming to claim any superiority for this, as a translation of the New Testament, over any other modern version, it is thought that the present Work presents certain valuable features, not to be found elsewhere, and which will be of real practical utility to every one who wishes to read the books of the Evangelists and Apostles, as they were written under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These features are;—An approved Greek text, with the various Readings of the Vatican Manuscript, No. 1209; an Interlineary literal Word for Word English translation; a New Version, with the Signs of Emphasis; a copious selection of References; many appropriate, illustrative, and exegetical Foot-notes; and a valuable Alphabetical Appendix. This combination of important items cannot be found in any other book. The reader will find further remarks on this subject, on the page headed, "Plan of the Work;" and he is also invited to read the pages with the respective captions;—"To the Reader;" "History of the Greek Text;" and "History of English Versions." Also, on another page will be found the "Letters and Pronunciation of the Greek Alphabet," for the special benefit of those who may wish to obtain a rudimentary knowledge of that language.

The intelligent reader will at once perceive the utility and importance of this arrangement. Readers who are familiar with the original tongue obtain in this Work one of the best Greek Testaments, with important ancient Readings, well worthy of their attention; and, it is presumed, that there are even few Greek scholars who are so far advanced but may derive some help from the translation given. Those who have only a little or no knowledge of the Greek may, by careful reading and a little attention to the Interlineary translation, soon become familiar with it. This work, in fact, places in the hands of the intelligent English reader the means of knowing and appropriating for his own benefit, with but little labor on his part, what has cost others years of study and severe toil to acquire.

Scrupulous fidelity has been maintained throughout this version in giving the true rendering of the original text into English; no regard whatever being paid to the prevailing doctrines or prejudices of sects, or the peculiar tenets of theologians. To the Divine authority of the original Scriptures alone has there been the most humble and unbiased submission.

In the preparation of this Work for the press, all available help to be derived from the labors of great and learned men has been obtained and appropriated. Lexicons, Grammars, ancient and modern Versions, Commentaries, critical and explanatory. Cyclopedias, Bible and other Dictionaries, etc., have been consulted and culled from. Also, the suggestions, opinions and criticism of friends, on words, phrases and passages, have been duly considered, and sometimes adopted. It is not presumed that this Work is free from faults or errors. Infallibility is left for others to claim. Great care, however, has been exercised to make it as correct as possible.

The Work is now sent forth to the public, to stand or fall on its own merits. True, it cannot boast of being the production of a council of learned men as King James' version; but let it be remembered that Tyndale alone, under very disadvantageous circumstances, did far more for the English Bible than that learned body, for they only followed in the wake of his labors.

This Volume, principally designed for the instruction and advantage of others. is now reverently committed to the blessing of our Father in the heavens, with an earnest and sincere desire that many of those who peruse its pages may be led by the knowledge, faith and obedience inculcated therein to obtain an inheritance in the aionian kingdom of Jesus the Anointed One.

Geneva, Ill. Aug., 1864

B. WILSON
___________________

So who was this earnest Bible student, anonymous friend and benefactor?

The answer was established in a court hearing in 1907. And it is not rocket science to guess who it really was.

The hearing was in connection with CTR’s difficulties with Maria Russell, and in April 1907 testimony was taken on CTR’s financial situation. At this hearing he explained quite openly how the Society obtained the Diaglott.

He stressed that the aim had been to allow as many as possible to obtain the Diaglott, and so had made it available on a not for profit basis.

Quoting from pages 204-205 of the transcript of the April 1907 hearing, CTR said (quote and CAPITALS MINE)

We publish also a brief New Testament, with an interlinear translation in English, and the marginal translation. It was published originally and for many years, for 30 or 40 years, by Fowler and Wells, of New York. THE PLATES WERE PRESENTED TO THE SOCIETY BY MYSELF. The Society had certain corrections made in the new plates etc., as they were considerably worn, and the edition which Fowler and Wells retailed at $4.00 and wholesaled at $2.66 – 2/3 the Society is now publishing at $1.50 per copy, and it includes postage of 16 cents on this, and as they are nearly all purchased by subscribers to the Watch Tower it goes additional with each volume, and in his subscription to the journal; that is to say, that the Watch Tower for the year and this book that was formerly sold for $4.00 go altogether, with postage included, for $1.50, WITH THE VIEW OF INTERESTING PEOPLE IN THE WATCH TOWER PUBLICATION, and permitting the Watch Tower subscribers to have the Diaglott in every home possible (end of quote).

So CTR personally donated the plates to the Watch Tower Society.

- Research by Jerome, for the Watch Tower History Blog. http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2011/11/emphatic-diaglott-and-watch-tower.html

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation

2010-05-06T12:46:00.073-06:00

“It Is the Best Interlinear New Testament Available”

THAT is how Dr. Jason BeDuhn http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jdb8/jason-cv1.htm describes The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. He explains:

“I have just completed teaching a course for the Religious Studies Department of Indiana University, Bloomington, [U.S.A.] . . . This is primarily a course in the Gospels. Your help came in the form of copies of The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures which my students used as one of the textbooks for the class. These small volumes were invaluable to the course and very popular with my students.”

Why does Dr. BeDuhn use the Kingdom Interlinear translation in his college courses? He answers:

“Simply put, it is the best interlinear New Testament available. I am a trained scholar of the Bible, familiar with the texts and tools in use in modern biblical studies, and, by the way, not a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But I know a quality publication when I see one, and your ‘New World Bible Translation Committee’ has done its job well. Your interlinear English rendering is accurate and consistent to an extreme that forces the reader to come to terms with the linguistic, cultural, and conceptual gaps between the Greek-speaking world and our own. Your ‘New World Translation’ is a high quality, literal translation that avoids traditional glosses in its faithfulness to the Greek. It is, in many ways, superior to the most successful translations in use today.”

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures is published by Jehovah’s Witnesses to help lovers of God’s Word get acquainted with the original Greek text of the Bible. It contains The New Testament in the Original Greek on the left-hand side of the page (compiled by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort). A literal word-for-word English translation is found under the lines of Greek text. In the narrow right-hand column is the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which allows you to compare the interlinear translation with a modern English translation of the Bible. http://www.watchtower.org/e/20080501a/article_01.htm

- February 1, 1998 Watchtower, WTB&TS
_____________________

Additioanl Reading: http://jehovah.to/xlation/int.html

A NEW INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION

And now, in this year 1969 at the “Peace on Earth” International Assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses, there is released to the reading public The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. This is a clothbound book of 1,184 pages. The Greek text that it uses is that prepared and published by Westcott and Hort in 1881. Underneath this is printed a literal word-for-word translation. In the right-hand column alongside on each page is presented the modern-day translation as found in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in a revised edition. However, in the interlinear literal translation of the Greek the English words are not taken bodily or directly from the New World Translation and placed under the appropriate Greek word. No! But under each Greek word is placed its basic meaning, according to its grammatical construction, whether this agrees literally with the New World Translation or not. What we as Bible students should want is what the original Greek text says. Only by getting this basic meaning can we determine whether the New World Translation or any other Bible translation is right or not.

For example, in Matthew 8:5 the New World Translation uses the expression “army officer” but in the interlinear translation under the Greek word you read “centurion,” because that is what the Greek text literally calls this army man. In Mark 6:21 the words “military commanders” are found, but under the Greek word you read “chiliarchs,” meaning a commander of a thousand soldiers, for that is what the Greek word literally calls this army officer. In Acts 19:41 the New World Translation has the word “assembly,” but the interlinear reading says “ecclesia,” like the Greek. In this particular verse it does not mean a “church” or “congregation,” as the word does elsewhere. Thus we learn more specific details.

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation contains and preserves for us both the Foreword and the Appendix as found in the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, as published in the year 1950. These two features are very vital, because The Kingdom Interlinear Translation contains footnotes that refer the reader to such Foreword and Appendix and also to an Explanation of the Symbols Used in the Marginal References. For instance, those footnotes will refer you to the Foreword in order that you may learn why, in the New World Translation, the divine name Jehovah appears in its translation of the Greek Scriptures.

Of course, the Westcott and Hort text does not contain God’s name Jehovah or Yahweh by itself. But in Revelation 19:1, 3, 4, 6 the Greek text does contain the word Hallelouiá and beneath this Greek word each time the interlinear translation renders it literally “Hallelujah.” This is really a Hebrew phrase and it means “Praise YOU Jah,” this word “Jah” being an abbreviation for Jehovah. Hence the New World Translation in the right-hand column renders it, “Praise Jah, YOU people!” In other places where the New World Translation uses the divine name Jehovah, the interlinear literal translation puts “God,” or “Lord,” or “the Lord,” under the corresponding words in the Westcott and Hort Greek text. But the footnotes show where Hebrew translations of the inspired Greek Scriptures use God’s name Jehovah in those places. The footnotes also show where even The Emphatic Diaglott uses the name Jehovah in a number of places in its modern-day translation, but not in the interlinear.

The English word “soul” is much misunderstood, most religious people thinking the Bible’s use of the word makes it mean that man has an immortal, invisible soul inside him that departs from the human body at death. With The Kingdom Interlinear Translation you can find out that this is not true, for the interlinear reading shows “soul” under wherever the Greek word psy‧khe′ occurs. In 1 Corinthians 2:14 and 15:44, 46 and elsewhere you will find in the interlinear the adjective form “soulical,” for the Greek word above is psy‧khy‧kos′, which the New World Translation renders as “physical,” not “psychic.” Matthew 10:28 speaks of the soul or psyche as being destroyed, and Revelation 16:3 speaks of the soul or psyche as dying. The human soul is not immortal.

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation plainly shows that the common Greek in which Jesus’ disciples wrote the inspired Greek Scriptures did not contain the indefinite articles “a” and “an.” How so? Because nowhere in the interlinear English translation will you find those indefinite articles. This is very important, for these indefinite articles can make a difference in meaning. For instance, there can be a difference between “God” and “a god,” can there not? Especially so in cases where the Greek uses the definite article “the” before the title “God.” In such cases, the interlinear will read “the God” (or “the god”). But in cases where the Greek expression “the God” refers to the one whom Trinitarians call “God the Father,” the interlinear readings of the translations produced by Samuel Bagster and Sons, Limited, omit the definite article “the” even though the Greek definite article is there in the text. The Emphatic Diaglott does not hesitate to put the word “the” under the Greek definite article when it occurs before the title “God.”

In this connection, let us take those controversial verses of John 1:1, 2, which the clergymen of Christendom resort to in order to prove their doctrine of a Trinity or One God in Three Persons, as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In these verses the Greek term Logos means “Word.” So the Diaglott’s interlinear wording reads: “In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god was the Word. This was in a beginning with the God.” However, in its modern-language reading it drops the article “the” before “God” and puts the title “GOD” in all capital letters. Also, it drops the article “a” from before “beginning” and from before “god” and puts “the” before “beginning” and puts “god” with an initial “G,” thus, “God.” This way the modern-language rendering reads: “In the Beginning was the LOGOS, and the LOGOS was with GOD, and the LOGOS was God. This was in the Beginning with GOD.” So, only the kind of type used shows the difference between “the God” and “a god.”

Other Bible translations drop all use of the indefinite article “a” and insert the definite article before the word “beginning” and drop the definite article “the” before God. For example, the King James or Authorized Version reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”—John 1:1, 2.

However, in its interlinear word-for-word rendering, The Kingdom Interlinear Translation reads: “In beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward the God, and god was the Word. This (one) was in beginning toward the God.” From this literal reading it is apparent that the writer, the apostle John, is speaking of two individuals and is showing that the one who was with the Other is different from that Other One. Hence the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures endeavors to show this difference and, with grammatical correctness and doctrinal correctness, it reads: “In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This one was in [the] beginning with God.” To avoid saying “a, god,” other Bible translations like An American Translation and the one by Dr. James Moffatt say “divine”; and The New English Bible—New Testament says “what God was,” that is to say, “what God was, the Word was.” Thus even these Bible translations cannot be used to prove the Trinity doctrine.

Trinitarians have no grounds for complaining against this use of “a” before “god,” because all other Bible translations use the indefinite articles “a” and “an” hundreds of times before words although they are nowhere found in the original Greek text. Not only that, but those translations repeatedly insert the definite article “the” before certain words where it does not occur in the Greek. Take, for example, many cases of the word “spirit” or the words “holy spirit.” There are cases in the Greek text where the definite article “the” does not occur before those words. But the Trinitarian translators will slant their translation by inserting a “the” before “spirit” or “holy spirit,” to make it read “the spirit” and “the holy spirit.” In such cases they will also capitalize the word “Spirit” in order to give the reader the impression that it refers to some intelligent person, the Third Person of some Trinity.

In such cases The Kingdom Interlinear Translation, in its word-for-word translation, shows that there is no “the” there, and the New World Translation does not there insert a “the” or capitalize the word “spirit,” but lets it read plain “spirit,” and “holy spirit.” So, in Acts 6:3, the apostles say to the Jerusalem congregation: “Search out for yourselves seven certified men from among you, full of spirit and wisdom.” Then, in Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist says concerning the coming Jesus Christ: “That one will baptize you people with holy spirit and with fire.” This rendering of the Greek text agrees with the Bible truth that God’s spirit is his invisible active force that is used for a holy purpose, in a holy manner.

By means of his holy spirit God inspired the writing of all the Holy Scriptures. In 2Timothy 3:16 we read: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching.” But, instead of the words “inspired of God,” the interlinear word-for-word reading shows that the one Greek word here used means literally “God-breathed,” that is, breathed by God. As it were, God breathed upon the men whom he inspired to write the Holy Bible.

Back in the apostles’ days there were not too many handwritten copies of the Holy Scriptures at hand, neither were there books written about the Bible and in explanation of it. Hence much instruction in the Bible had to be done by reading Bible verses out loud to students and with explanations by word of mouth. So, in Galatians 6:6 we read: “Moreover, let anyone who is being orally taught the word share in all good things with the one who gives such oral teaching.” But the interlinear reading brings out the basic sense of the Greek words used respecting oral teaching by using the expressions “the (one) being sounded down to” and “the (one) sounding down.” This vividly shows that the sound of the teacher’s voice went down into the ears of his Bible student. This made the course of instruction one of oral teaching.

SAFEGUARD AGAINST ERROR

Many other cases could be here treated to show how The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures brings out the precise meaning in its word-for-word translation under the Greek text. Bible students who have the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, besides English, will particularly be able to appreciate these points. They will appreciate how the New World Translation has endeavored to put God’s Word as contained in the original Greek into these languages with the “correct words of truth” in each language. No claim of divine inspiration is made for these translations in modern-day language. The translators had to do what even the inspired Bible writer, “the congregator,” King Solomon, had to do, and that is, search to “find the delightful words and the writing of correct words of truth.” (Eccl. 12:10) Nevertheless, in all this searching they have trusted in the guidance, not inspiration, of God’s holy spirit. Solomon indeed wrote his books in the Bible with “delightful words.” The translators tried to imitate him.

Because of digging down into the literal meaning of the original Bible language The Kingdom Interlinear Translation can serve as a safeguard against error in these days when many religious leaders are teaching twisted things, even twisting the written Word of God. Religious clergymen of Christendom come along and try to overawe sincere Bible students by claiming to know the original Bible language and therefore knowing what it actually says. But by going to The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, a student can go to the original Bible text and consult the interlinear literal translation of that language. Thus he can check as to whether what such domineering clergymen may say is true or not. In this way the student can be helped to put up a defense argument and safeguard himself against being misled from the Bible truth.

Although readers in English will get the most benefit from The Kingdom Interlinear Translation in a direct way, yet this new Bible help will be used by the owners, the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, in preparing its magazines, books, booklets, and other publications. Thus those not reading English will indirectly get the benefit thereof in those languages in which the Society’s literature is published. So all lovers of God’s written Word can thank him for this new Bible-study aid.

- November 15, 1969 Watchtower, WTB&TS
________________________

Excerpts: these segments are taken from a larger work. Read the full story in the March 22, 1987 Awake, pg. 10 -14, WTB&TS

How Knowing Greek Led Me to Know God

From Phillips Academy I went on to college, to Princeton. In my senior year I decided I wanted to teach, and after graduating, I did start at an Episcopal boys’ school, St. Paul’s, in New Hampshire. This was consistent with my background. Growing up, I was a longtime choirboy at the local Episcopal Church. In my area the respectable people were either Unitarian or Episcopalian. So I’d been steeped in the very High Church Episcopalianism but exposed to very little Biblical or spiritual understanding. The Bible was swallowed up in church formalism. Now at St. Paul’s I was immersed in it once again. Everybody—faculty and students—had to go to chapel every weekday and twice on Sunday.

I taught Latin and Greek there for four years. After my first year I got married to a young lady named Suzanne. The next three summers I studied for and got my master’s degree in Latin and Greek. While considering going for my doctoral degree, I received a letter from my old Greek mentor at Phillips Academy, Dr. Chase. “I’ve just had an opening in Andover,” he wrote. “I know you want to go to graduate school. But would you please come down and talk to us?” I did, and wound up teaching Greek there. I’ve taught there ever since . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://phillipian.net/node/106033

By this time I had started going to Witness meetings at the Kingdom Hall. Next I went from door to door with Arthur. One woman, a Baptist, gave me one of these little tracts about the Witnesses, supposedly exposing their errors. In several places it referred to the Greek. So I was curious: Just how knowledgeable were they in Greek. Within a few weeks I had acquired several more similar tracts to examine.

Most of them revolved around the Trinity. They assumed the Trinity to be true, then carefully selected their scholarly authorities to prove it. In fact, the attacks on Witness teachings often focused on the Trinity and on their New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. In Greek, as in English, some words can mean different things in different contexts. The English word “bow,” for instance, can be a courteous bow, a bow of ribbon, or a bow with which to shoot arrows.

In Bible study, however, you look not only at the context but also at other scriptures to see how the word is used in different settings. So you check to see whether you’re leaning on your assumptions or on the evidence. I noticed that these tract writers frequently manipulate the evidence, misrepresent it. On the other hand, the Society was quite honest in looking at all the evidence, all the possibilities, offering their conclusions, but then telling you to decide. After a careful examination of the points of controversy, I saw that the Society was right.

In some places the Trinitarians clearly manipulate the evidence. The classic example of this is, I guess, John 8:58. There Jesus said: “Before Abraham was, I am.” (King James Version) The Trinitarians pick up Jesus’ use of “I am” here and relate it to Jehovah’s statement to Moses in Exodus 3:14 (KJ), “I am that I am.” Because both Jesus and Jehovah used “I am,” they argue that this makes Jesus and Jehovah one. And the Greek root does say am in the present tense at John 8:58.

However, even their own theological grammar books acknowledge that where an expression of past time appears in the sentence, the present tense verb can sometimes be translated as if it has begun in past time and continues up to the present. This is also true in French and it is true in Latin. Hence, when the New World Translation says “I have been” instead of “I am,” it is translating the Greek correctly. (John 8:58) Yet the Trinitarians act as if ‘No, that’s not even possible!’ So I began to notice this misrepresentation of the evidence on the part of the detractors of the Society.

‘Well, since the Society’s scholarship is credible in the Greek,’ I reasoned, ‘must it not also be in its other writings?’ It was this that led me to study in earnest, which in turn led me to baptism in 1970.

The year before this, a publication was released by the Watch Tower Society entitled The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. It proved to be crucial for me. Perhaps more than any other single thing, it was instrumental in causing me to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the left-hand column on each page is the original koine Greek text, and under each line is a literal translation of the Greek. In the right-hand column of each page, in modern-day English, is the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures.

Incidentally, right at the time when this publication came out, I was assigned to teach at Phillips Academy a course in New Testament Greek. Since I did not learn Greek from a theologian who was teaching New Testament Greek, I was probably much more objective about it. I could look at the words with fresh eyes, free of the traditional, doctrinal notions.

Such preconceptions can really give you eyes that don’t see and ears that don’t hear because if, as you do your research, you’re looking for something to confirm what you already believe, that’s all your eyes and ears will see or hear. Instead of looking to see ‘Well, what’s the whole case?’ they see only what can be used, or misused, to support their preconceptions.

Incidentally, most theologians that I’ve met are not strong in Greek. The quality of Greek scholarship in the Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, however, is very good. It’s the kind of thing that a person who really wants to work with the Greek, even though not knowing much Greek, can do a lot with. I feel it’s one of the greatly underappreciated jewels of the Watch Tower Society’s publications. - As told by, Nicholas Kip

Degrees: BA, Princeton, MA, Trinity College, teaches at Phillips Academy http://www.andover.edu/About/Pages/default.aspx

_______________________

Coptic John 1:1c: What Conclusions Can Be Drawn?

Relative to Coptic John 1:1c, what conclusions can be drawn from a multi-year study of the Sahidic Coptic language, including a detailed study of the entire Sahidic Coptic New Testament?

1- That the translation of Coptic neunoute pe pSaje into standard English as "the Word was a god" is literal, accurate, and unassailable. It is simple, but not simplistic. It is what the Coptic text actually says and literally conveys. Any other translation of it amounts to interpretation or paraphrase.

2- That rendering a Sahidic Coptic common ("count") noun, like noute, god, when bound to the Coptic indefinite article, ou, into English as "a" + noun is so prevalent, as for example in Coptic scholar George Horner's 1911 English translation of the Sahidic Coptic New Testament, that this is beyond dispute.

As just the nearest example of this, after John 1:1c itself, is John 1:6. Here we have the Coptic indefinite article, ou, bound to the Coptic common noun rwme, man: aFSwpe nCi ourwme eautnnoouF ebol Hitm pnoute . In Horner's English translation we read: "There was a man having been sent from God." That is the simple, literal, and accurate translation. Likewise, "a god" is the simple, literal, and accurate translation of ou.noute at John 1:1c, the same Coptic indefinite article + common noun construction as found in John 1:6 and elsewhere. Only with respect to Coptic "mass" or abstract nouns is there no need to translate the indefinite article into English, but this is not the situation at Coptic John 1:1c, because noute, god, is a Coptic common or "count" noun.

3 - That, whereas some Coptic grammarians hold that ou.noute may also be translated into English adjectivally as "divine," they give no examples favoring this usage in the Sahidic Coptic New Testament itself. Coptic ou.noute is not used adjectivally or "qualitatively" in the Sahidic Coptic New Testament. The published works of these scholars have been heavily invested in the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Coptic "gospels" like Thomas, Philip, and Judas. Perhaps translating ou.noute as "divine" fits the esoteric or philosophical context of the Gnostic "gospels." But there are no examples in the canonical Coptic New Testament that justify an adjectival translation of ou.noute as "divine," whereas a literal translation of ou.noute as "a god" works just fine. Although "divine" is not altogether objectionable, since a god is divine by definition, a paraphrase is unnecessary when an adequate, understandable literal translation is available.

4- That all the primarily Trinitarian-based objections to translating ou.noute as "a god" at Coptic John 1:1c amount to little more than presupposition or special pleading. Though such faulty, superficial objections have been cut and pasted frequently on the Internet, they are poorly researched and often misleading.

In one such apologetic, promising full disclosure of what some Coptic scholars "really said," the conclusion about ou.noute at John 1:1 remains the same, i.e., "it might mean was a god, was divine, was an instance of 'god', was one god (not two, three, etc.)"; "In Coptic, "ounoute" can mean "a god" or "one with divine nature"; "So literally, the Sahidic and Bohairic texts say "a god" in the extant mss. ... A rather clumsy reading might be: The Logos was in the beginning. The Logos was with God. The Logos was like God (or godlike, or divine) with the emphasis on his nature; not his person."

Not ONE of the scholars appealed to by Trinitarian apologists said that Coptic John 1:1 should be translated to say "The Word was God." Not one. Not one said that "a god" was incorrect. In fact, the interlinear reading for Sahidic Coptic John 1:1c in scholar Bentley Layton's Coptic in 20 Lessons specifically reads "a-god is the-Word."

The Coptic text of John 1:1c was made prior to the adoption of the Trinity doctrine by Egyptian and other churches, and it is poor scholarship to attempt to "read back" a translation such as "the Word was God" into any exegesis of the Coptic text. Such a rendering is foreign to Coptic John 1:1c, which clearly and literally says, "the Word was a god."

5- That, stated succinctly, translating Sahidic Coptic's neunoute pe pSaje literally into standard English as "the Word was a god" stands on solid grammatical and contextual ground. - http://nwtandcoptic.blogspot.com/

______________________

Was the Word “God” or “a god”?

Also See: http://pastorrussell.blogspot.com/2010/06/and-word-was-divine.html

THAT question has to be considered when Bible translators handle the first verse of the Gospel of John. In the New World Translation, the verse is rendered: “In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” (John 1:1) Some other translations render the last part of the verse to convey the thought that the Word was “divine,” or something similar. (A New Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt; The New English Bible) Many translations, however, render the last part of John 1:1: “And the Word was God.”—The Holy Bible—New International Version; The Jerusalem Bible.

Greek grammar and the context strongly indicate that the New World Translation rendering is correct and that “the Word” should not be identified as the “God” referred to earlier in the verse. Nevertheless, the fact that the Greek language of the first century did not have an indefinite article (“a” or “an”) leaves the matter open to question in some minds. It is for this reason that a Bible translation in a language that was spoken in the earliest centuries of our Common Era is very interesting.

The language is the Sahidic dialect of Coptic. The Coptic language was spoken in Egypt in the centuries immediately following Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the Sahidic dialect was an early literary form of the language. Regarding the earliest Coptic translations of the Bible, The Anchor Bible Dictionary says: “Since the [Septuagint] and the [Christian Greek Scriptures] were being translated into Coptic during the 3d century C.E., the Coptic version is based on [Greek manuscripts] which are significantly older than the vast majority of extant witnesses.”

The Sahidic Coptic text is especially interesting for two reasons. First, as indicated above, it reflects an understanding of Scripture dating from before the fourth century, which was when the Trinity became official doctrine. Second, Coptic grammar is relatively close to English grammar in one important aspect. The earliest translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures were into Syriac, Latin, and Coptic. Syriac and Latin, like the Greek of those days, do not have an indefinite article. Coptic, however, does. Moreover, scholar Thomas O. Lambdin, in his work Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, says: “The use of the Coptic articles, both definite and indefinite, corresponds closely to the use of the articles in English.”

Hence, the Coptic translation supplies interesting evidence as to how John 1:1 would have been understood back then. What do we find? The Sahidic Coptic translation uses an indefinite article with the word “god” in the final part of John 1:1. Thus, when rendered into modern English, the translation reads: “And the Word was a god.” Evidently, those ancient translators realized that John’s words recorded at John 1:1 did not mean that Jesus was to be identified as Almighty God. The Word was a god, not Almighty God.

- November 1, 2008 Watchtower, WTB&TS