Interesting topic.
I will point out that I am not a formal member of any bible Student group though I do have some contacts with a number of individuals in that movement. Like some, as I began to to grow dissatisfied with the JWs I started wondering about what CTR really taught and what those who still held more closely to "old light" were really like. So I started doing some research and made contacts and maybe a friendship or two with some of them. I kind of like the attitude of many of the ones I've met through the net and feel it is a little disengenuous to call them "Watchtower light." Some are, the LHMM and the Dawn seem to fit a bit into that category, but most are markedly quite different from the JW mold. and for all the criticism of CTR on the net I think that he had alot to do with the mindset of the majority.
There is a book out there, I can't recall the name of it, which was authored by a Bible Student. It seemed like he faced a decision in his life regarding maybe joining the JWs or not. He was aware that there were groups which looked to Russell's writings rather than the Watchtower's, so he decided to make a comparison of what Russell wrote and what was appearing in the Watchtower of his day in order to decide which way to go.
The difference he found astounded him! The Watchtower preached destruction of billions and always made the reader unsure of whether he/she could escape that destruction and see paradise or not. It sort of reminded him of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, a sermon preached by Johnathan Edwards in 1841 and preserved in print to our day, I agree (See Edwards, at the bottom of the post). Russell, on the other hand, wrote words which were calming, assuring one of God's love and the surety of God's provision for salvation. To that author, the choice of where to go was obvious.
The reason for the difference in the tone of the two is quite obvious. Russell was just as shocked and disgusted with the idea of God just wiping out billions of people and either sending them to hell to suffer forever or leaving them dead without hope as many on this forum. the hellfire teaching had caused Russell to turn his back on god just like it has many others throughout history and continues to do right down to our day! and that includes many right here on this forum. So Russell had that in common with a bunch of folks right here! But an Adventist convinced him that God wasn't really that way, and the rest is hidtory, so to speak.
Now Russell made his mistakes. I can find plenty to criticise the man over. He also had strongly held beliefs. But he did not insist that every man or woman who associated with the movement he founded parrot his teachings like some simple-minded moron (Like the Witnesses do). In fact, he despised that kind of thinking, some of his famous comments about needing to read his writings not withstanding.
What I found most telling about Russell's personality was the foreword he wrote to the second Studies In the Scriptures entitled The Time Is At Hand in 1916, just before he died. In part, it says:
This Volume makes no claim to infallibility, and no claim of any direct inspiration from God in the interpretation of His Word. On the contrary, it does claim that the Divine Revelation is the Bible. Its endeavor has been to collate the Bible evidences and to offer suggestions in respect to their significance...
The author acknowledges that in this book he presents the thought that the Lord's saints might expect to be with Him in glory at the ending of the Gentile Times. This was a natural mistake to fall into, but the Lord overruled it for the blessing of His people. The thought that the Church would all be gathered to glory before October, 1914, certainly did have a very stimulating and sanctifying effect upon thousands, all of whom accordingly can praise the Lord--even for the mistake. Many, indeed, can express themselves as being thankful to the Lord that the culmination of the Church's hopes was not reached at the time we expected; and that we, as the Lord's people, have further opportunities of perfecting holiness and of being participators with our Master in the further presentation of His Message to His people.
Our mistake was evidently not in respect to the ending of the Times of the Gentiles; we drew a false conclusion, however, not authorized by the Word of the Lord. We saw in the Bible certain parallels between the Jewish Age and the Gospel Age. We should have noted that these parallels follow the nominal systems to destruction in both cases, and do not indicate the time of the glorification of the New Creation. This explanation will help the reader as he studies "THE TIME IS AT HAND." We have no doubt that the great blessings which have come to many of us in the past will continue to go through the Volume to thousands of others. So with it go the prayers of the author,
Charles T. Russell
Brooklyn, N.Y., October 1, 1916
You can find that foreword linked below at Russell.
Okay, there is a little bit of spin in there, but he was alot more contrite about his mistakes and admitted them one hell of alot more freely than the governing body ever did when they goofed on 1975. can you realy imagine anything like that appearing in the pages of the watchtower today?
I am not suggesting that we all get down on our knees and worship the man, but I did want everyone to try to ponder that little bit about him before the bashing begins.
Edwards, Johnathan, http://www.ccel.org/e/edwards/sermons/sinners.html
Russell, charles Taze, http://www.pastor-russell.com/volumes/V2/Foreword.html
