Can YOU identify this photo (1914 Rapture?)

by AlphaOmega 40 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Leolaia

  *** w10 6/1 p. 181 Brother Russell's Foreign Tour ***

  Our last day in Jerusalem was Sunday, April 24th. It will always be green in our memories this side the vail anddoubtless beyond. We visited the Mount of Olives and then traversed the Bethany road, which Jesus and his Apostles sooften passed over. We noted the brook Kedron outside the city gate and crossed it. We were especially interested in andimpressed by that particular part of the Bethany road where Jesus rode upon the ass accompanied by his disciples andthe multitude shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David," also in the spot where our Master stopped the procession whenhe came in view of the city, and there, weeping over it, declared that Israel's house was left unto her desolate, and that they should see him no more until the day when they would gladly acclaim him their King.

  On p. 179, we learn the names of those who were in the travel party:

  Thus it happened that our company leaving New York numbered twenty-one, seventeen in addition to our own party, which consisted of Brother Driscoll, representative of the Press Association; Brother L. W. Jones, who served us as stenographer on the Atlantic, and Brother Rutherford, who served as stenographer on the Mediterranean, and who will visit the friends in Denmark, Sweden and Norway while we are in Great Britain and who will follow us in Great Britain, reaching home about a month or so later than we. The friends who accompanied us were Brother and Sister Davault, of Illinois; Brother and Sister Ward and son, of Maryland; Brother and Sister Owens, and Sisters Cobb and Noble, of New York; Sisters Frost, Paschal and Houston, of Texas; Brother Pierson, of Connecticut; Brothers Wilson and Young, of Oklahoma; Sister Jackson, of Canada; Brother Koetitz, of Germany, the latter joining our party in Switzerland, where, and subsequently, he served as our interpreter. We had the pleasure also of Sister Rutherford's company as far as Paris.

  The photo shows 23 people. If Mary Rutherford did not go further than Paris, then this would also suggest that she is not the woman in the photo. Russell also had that Brother Hall joined the party when they got to Egypt and Israel, but the party numbered 20 people at that point.
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  Zico

  That's not Judge Rutherford!
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  AlphaOmega

  http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2lbnkgh

  This should be a bigger version of the two Rs. TinyPic is playing me up at the moment !

  Compare with this one...

  http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4ibm4gk

  Great deductions about the travelling party !

  Why would someone go to the trouble of faking a photo like this only to put a bald Rutherford in?

  Zico, are we going to get a new thread about your talk ?
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  stev

  The photo was likely taken in 1910 during the World Tour. See the Watchtower June 1, 1910. They were at the Mt. of Olives at the Memorial on that trip. Rutherford went on the tour.

  Regarding 1914 rapture: whoever made the comment about the photo does not have a very intimate knowledge of the history of the Bible Students/JWs. There is a lot of misinformation on the internet. Russell and the Bible Students were not expecting the rapture in 1914, nor were they expecting it to take place on the Mt. of Olives. The word "rapture" was never in the Bible Student vocabulary.

  Russell rarely used the word "rapture", once or twice in his writings in the early years around 1878-1881. He used more often "change", "glorification", "translation". In 1878, and 1881, Russell was expecting the "rapture", but after 1881, he modified his views, and believed that all the Church class must die as human beings, so those after 1881 of the little flock would die and then be instanteously changed. He then expected the glorification to take place before 1914, but Russell was not sure how this would occur, although he speculated it might be as result of persecution and violence. As 1914 approached, Russell urged the Bible Students to careful about making dogmatic statements about what they expected to happen that year. As I have heard the story, Macmillan said in a discourse that he had a "one-way ticket to the Pleaides." Russell would not have been happy about Macmillan's discourse. It reflected on Russell, because Russell was the one who had originally made the claim dogmatically. Perhaps Russell made an object lesson of Macmillan to deflect criticism and attention away from himself.

  Macmillan's bridge story is interesting, but there are reasons to doubt.it. It occurs nowhere else, Russell himself never told the story in print. Russell did indeed expect the rapture in 1878, but after 1881 he gave up on the rapture, so many Bible Students would not have known of his earlier expectation. How did Macmillan know that the papers reported it in 1878? Has any paper been found to corroborate this? Did Russell himself tell him this, perhaps in conversation about Macmillan's own premature expectation? Did Macmillan's own experience color his story about Russell?

  The Millerite ascension robe stories are also in dispute, SDA historians claim there is no truth to these stories. Perhaps this bridge story is also apocryphal. But it is certain that photo caption is phony. It is unfortunate that Russell and the Bible Students indulged in such speculation and phony date-setting, but this photo caption is guilty of it as well.
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  stev

  Russell DID expect in 1878 to be taken to heaven, contrary to Macmillan's story. And Russell did NOT expect in 1878 to have many years on the earth to preach to the world, as Macmillan claims he said. After 1878, Russell expected the rapture in 1881, and his work was to preach to the "wise virgins', those few of the "little flock", that the Bridegroom had come. Russell did not envision at that time that there would be many years to preach to the world. He expected his time on earth to be a very short one. Only after 1881 did he personally begin to have a longer time frame. The story is curious one, it doesn't ring true, and Macmillan could be reading his own post-Russell experiences into the story.
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  Invetigator74

  In the Watchtower Reprints/Vol.5(1906 - 1910) on page 4676 you'll find a photo similar to the one in this post.It states it was taken April 24th, 1910.
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  Invetigator74

  Also the same photo can be found in the "1910 Souvenir Notes Bible Students Convention"(if one could be found,being they are very rare)between pages 44-45.Yes da Judge is in the pic, for the Souvenir Note's states that a Mr.Jamal(guide from Syria) arrange a meeting between Rutherford and a Dr.Isaac Levy(head of the Zionist movement in Palestine)in the city of Jerusalem.The meeting took place at 11:00am on a Sunday morning.
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  Leolaia

  stev....I did some research on newspapers in the 1870s and there were lots of stories about Second Adventists in white robes awaiting the end, but none so far about Russell, and these stories led me to believe that they were a popular leitmotif about the Second Adventists.

  Examples:

  "He was an Adventist, which did not hinder his being a Cook county granger .... But he muffled himself up in his ascension robes last Monday, and mounted one of those stacks of hay to get a good start for New Jerusalem, which did not keep him from going to sleep, after he had waited awhile for the grand event. Peaceably he dozed, until just before the rain, when some heathenish boys set fire to the hay stack, and as the flames circled around him he awoke. He supposed it was all over, and he philosophically remarked, I'm in hell, just as I expected" (Sedalia Daily Democrat, 29 May 1875, p. 1)

  "If there is any class of people in this world whose faith cannot be shaken, that class is composed of the people known as Second Adventists. At least twice or three times a year for the last generation or two, have they set the time for the final crash of this world, upon with we live, move and have our time, and still the world rolls on in peace, and the Second Adventists announce their past presentments with all the confidence and assurance that characterized the first attempt to set the time for the end of the world. The seventh of July is the time fixed upon now, and the faithful believers are again preparing their ascension robes, and getting all things in readiness for the final catastrophe" (Decatur Republican, 28 June 1877, p. 5).

  "The end of the world is predicted for January 5th, and an Advent preacher advises his congregation to get their ascension robes ready" (Chester Daily Times, 16 November 1878, p. 3)

  "A man in Denver believes that the world will come to an end on next Christmas. He has prepared with robes for the occasion and will stay on his housetop on that day, ready to be caught up to heaven. He has made no ascension robe for his wife, however thinking that she is to remain and be destroyed" (Daily Nevada State Journal, 14 December 1878, p. 2)
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  Leolaia

  Invetigator....Yeah, I thought it was from the Souvenir Notes too. Here is the picture that appeared in the Watchtower:

  
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  kid-A

  Thats definitely Rutherford, and he was nearly completely bald except for a little "scrap" of a forelock he combed over to the side for his photos.