C.T. Russell's name in Adventist paper -1872

stev

The following notice appeared in the Advent Christian Times, May 20, 1872, page 24.

To Correspondents

C.T. Russell, jr

Will comply with your request as soon as possible. You will find something to the point in the Quarterly, if you have them.

stev

C.T. Russell's name also appeared in other issues of the Advent Christian Times. Under the heading Letters Received, the name "C T Russell" was printed in the following issues:

3/28/1871 p. 244

4/1/1871 p. 260

4/18/1871 p. 268

6/6/1871 p. 324

7/25/1871 p. 372

2/25/1873

6/24/1873

The name "J L Russell and Son" also appeared in issues of the papers of the Advent Christian Church. I don't have the dates handy right now. The name occurs numerous times from 1869-1873. The Advent Christian Times was a weekly paper of the Advent Christian Church. The other paper was the World's Crisis. The Advent Christian Quarterly came with the Times every quarter of the year.

Their names appearing repeatedly shows:

1. That Russell was aware of the existence of this paper.

2. That he had contact with the Advent Christian Church beyond his first meeting with Jonas Wendell in 1869(70).

3. That he sent them letters numerous times.

4. He likely read the Advent Christian Times regularly. Articles by Stetson appeared in the paper at that time.

5. The paper stated the printing of the names under Letters Received was a receipt for money sent in the letter. Perhaps Russell was ordering literature.

FreeFromWTBS

Russell was never opposed to reading literature outside of his own. He actually encourage over and over again for people to do their own research. The crackdown on reading outside literature came from Rutherford. Russell had a short list of required beliefs for someone to be considered a brother in Christ. The article was called Things more or less important. Fascinating enough since Salvation for All was one of requirements, Russell would not have associated with JW's spiritually if he were alive today according to their beliefs.

stev

The Advent Christian Times regularly printed notices of meetings of their churches.
The Allegheny church's meeting times were often posted.
Letters from the ministers who served that church were printed, such as Jonas Wendell, George Stetson, J. T. Ongley.
C. T. Russell apparently read this paper at that time.
There were articles by Nelson Barbour and others in the few years before 1873 on the time proofs of the coming of the Lord in 1873. Russell could have had the opportunity to have read them at that time, although according his account, he did not accept them.
There were also articles against the "age-to-come" view, against the views of Storrs while he was editor of the Herald of Life ( Storrs and the Life and Advent Union had separated from the Advent Christian Church), and then against Storrs' new position of 1871 on restitution, at which time he left the Life and Advent Union, and restarted the Bible Examiner.

Years ago, a JW researcher (Richard Rawe), told me that he had seen J L Russell's name in the Herald of Life in the year 1869. I had looked for the name myself when I perused that year, but was unable to find the name. However, the articles in the Herald of Life in 1869-1871 parallel Russell's development of beliefs at that time, and it is possible that Russell had gained these beliefs by reading the Herald of Life at time. There were "age-to-come" articles printed in the Herald of Life, articles against the burning of the world, against the Advent Christian Church as being a daughter of Babylon, the Seed of Abraham blessing the nations. Storrs was very anti-organization, against the label Adventist. Russell acknowledges that he has helped by Storrs, and read the Bible Examiner, which came later, but did he also read Storrs before then? .
It is possible that there was a subscriber(s) to the Herald of Life in the Pittsburgh vicinity, who met with the Adventists, and was a point of contact for Russell. Russell, even though a young man, resisted the ideas of Wendell in his date-setting, was against the burning of the world theory, and favored the "age-to-come" views. This suggests that there was other influences on Russell besides the Advent Christian Church.
It is possible that the Adventist church in Allegheny was made of different parties with various views, and that they tried to peacfully coexist. This would explain Stetson's remark that the schism in that church had been healed, also that that church was advertised as the Church of God for some time, and also that Stetson, who held to age-to-come views even though an Advent Christian minister, was the pastor for a while. In other words, that church might not have been a typical Advent Christian church, but tolerated differences of opinions then current among the Adventist groups.
Storrs had held to the age-to-come beliefs for many years, and while editor of the Herald of Life he wrote about it, and stated that the readership was about equally divided on the subject. Perhaps the Advent Christian church at that time also was divided on the subject for a while, that it was a matter of debate and discussion, but not yet division.
According the history book of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith, many of their early churches were made up of age-to-come believers and Advent Christians, and this lasted even into the 1880s and 1890s when individual churches would divide.
So it is possible that Russell could have attended regularly the Advent Christian Church in Allegheny, heard Wendell preach, and then Stetson during 1871-1873, and yet never consider himself a member, because there were others like him who did the same. The Adventists during that time read each other's papers, the boundaries were fluid, people moved from one group to another, and rejected the name Adventist, even though they would met with others who called themselves Adventists.

Steve

johnny cip

just more proof, that russell got most of his ideas from 2nd. adventists . and stole thier ideas to create his own paper. zions wt.

greendawn

He got the 1914 date from Barbour, the adventists were the second group he contacted after leaving his original church. But was he baptised as one?

stev

One problem is with the terms, "Adventist", and "Second Adventist." Today, we would consider an "Adventist" to refer to any of the groups that came from the Miller Movement. But at that time, "Adventist" and "Second Adventist" were denominational labels. Russell denied that he was ever a member of an Adventist church. Others preferred "Church of God" instead. But Storrs even questioned that. During the Miller Movement, there was a call to come out of Babylon. So after that, Storrs and others were opposed to organizing or forming a denomination. The Advent Christian Church was formed, but Storrs objected to it. It was true that Storrs was the editor of the Herald of Life, the paper for the Life and Advent Union, but he considered that to be only a business association. The Advent Christian Church was the largest group at that time, and ones who opposed their views who were in the minority, might have considered themselves to be "independents", although today we might consider them "Adventists".

Russell does give credit to individuals - Wendell, Stetson, Storrs, Barbour. So it is not entirely correct that he stole their ideas without giving credit. However, his account is very sketchy, and not very complete. He does in several places give the development of his views, but there are holes in his accounts, and he leaves out the background information on how he acquired these views.

Russell must had some continuing relationship with the Adventists and the church in the Pittsburgh area after his encounter with Wendell. Otherwise, how did he learn about Wendell's time proofs for 1873, enough to recognize in 1876 that Barbour used the same proofs? How did he know that they taught the burning of the world? How did he learn from Stetson? Could Stetson have preached every Sunday in Allegheny during the period from 1871-1873, and Russell not have gone to hear him? On the other hand, how did Russell learn about the "age-to-come" views as early as 1869 if the Advent Christian church did not teach them? It is possible that the Advent Christian church in Allegheny had itself these different points of view, and that Russell actually learned from others there. If Russell had read the Advent Christian Times, he would learned about their views. If he also read the Herald of Life when Storrs was the editor, how did he become acquainted with it? It is possible that Jonas Wendell was the point of contact. Jonas Wendell had a relative, Rufus Wendell, who was an associate of George Storrs. Storrs was the one that introduced conditionalism into Adventism, and perhaps Jonas W. referred Russell to them. Or since Conley was a member of the Russell's Bible class, perhaps it was Conley. Russell's opposition to certain Adventist beliefs occurred so early in his contacts with Wendell points to some local person or influence on him in the other direction.

Steve

caeomas

God really needs not reserchers but believers in Him

stolenyouth

How blasphemous, god, if he exists, cannot by definition need anything from us. Or does the sun still revolve around the earth?

C.T. Russell's name in Adventist paper -1872

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