Pastor Russell cherry picked his theology; a little from here and a little from there.
He scarcely had an original idea in his head!
From Christadelphian Emphatic Diaglott he got the "parousia" invisible Jesus idea, for example
Russell snuggled up to the Adventist buffet and cherry-picked view after view.
Just a few examples:
NELSON BARBOUR
Barbour set forth his view that the "6,000 years" from Adam's creation ended in 1873 (pp. 76-77). Jesus returned in 1874, and the "Harvest" would be from 1874 to 1914. 1914 would see the end of the "Gentile Times," the setting up of the kingdom of God on earth, etc. In the chapter on "The Times of The Gentiles" Barbour wrote (pp. 83, 84):Hence, it was in B. C. 606, that God's kingdom ended, the diadem was removed, and all the earth given up to the Gentiles. 2520 years from B. C. 606, will end in A.D. 1914, or forty years from 1874; and this forty years upon which we have now entered is to be such "a time of trouble as never was since there was a nation." And during this forty years, the kingdom of God is to be set up. (But not in the flesh, "the natural first and afterwards the spiritual)," the Jews are to be restored, the Gentile kingdoms broken to pieces "like a potter's vessel." and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and the judgment age introduced.
These are some of the events this generation are to witness.... I am not willing to admit that this calculation is even one year out.
All of this Russell carried with him with little modification when he started Zion's Watch Tower magazine in 1879.
After receiving a copy of the Herald magazine (Barbour published) in about 1876, Russell was impressed with Barbour's "invisible presence" views on Christ's coming (which Russell apparently came to believe independently from Barbour) and he accepted much of his chronological views. His acceptance of Barbour's chronology came about in the following manner: After reading the Herald, Russell wrote to Barbour about his chronology. Later in 1876, Russell arranged a meeting with him in Philadelphia to see if he could convince him, in Russell's words, "that the prophecies indicated 1874 as the date at which the Lord's presence and the 'harvest' began." "The evidence satisfied me," Russell said.
During these meetings Russell accepted all of Barbour's time calculations, including his calculation of the Gentile times. While still in Philadelphia, Russell wrote an article entitled "Gentile Times: When do They End?" which was published in George Storrs' periodical the Bible Examiner in the October 1876 issue.
Pyramidology influence
Lutheran minister Joseph Seiss had a peculiar and telling influence on Russell's teachings. It is clear Russell was aware of Seiss' book on Pyramidology, A Miracle in Stone, as he quoted it favorably in his Thy Kingdom Come in the chapter on Pyramidology. Penton also claimed that Seiss believed Jesus was not resurrected in the flesh, but as a spirit, something JW's believe to this day. Seiss also produced other books such as The Gospel in the Stars on a Christianized Astrology. Seiss had numerous occult/fringe beliefs, many of which were also believed by Adventists, including Russell.Influence of Henry Drummond
Carl Olof Jonsson demonstrated that Henry Drumond in 1828 first advocated the idea of an invisible second presence of Christ with his "two-stage coming doctrine." This was picked up later by Seiss and Jonsson concludes Russell probably "plagiarized" the works of Seiss in his "invisible presence" doctrine in his Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return bookletCarl Olof Jonsson, The Gentile Times Reconsidered (Atlanta: Commentary Press), 1986, p. 27. Hereafter, Jonsson.
Robert Crompton, Counting the Days to Armageddon Jehovah's Witnesses and the Second Presence of Christ (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co.), 1996, pp. 20- 21. Hereafter, Crompton.
C.T.Russell: the GREAT CHERRY-PICKER
by Terry 7 Replies latest jw friends
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Terry
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Think About It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhOf73nwvY
Think About It
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Mall Cop
Terry, It's all been hand me down hear say double speak with the "Carrot" as a lure that glittered and caught so many of us back in the late 60"s and early 70's.
When one does a history study of the watchtower from the Great Cherry-Picker days to now, one will not accept a Bible/Book study from jw's.
When one gets lured in with the "Carrot" and without the history study, ( as you and I and millions of others have) we lose our lives for a period of time. I lost 33 years. You suffered jail etc. Many loss so much. If only we had this information way back then.
Like the song goes, I wish I knew then, what I know now, sigh!
Thanks Terry for all the research you do and share.
Blueblades
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hamsterbait
Russell did admit he took teachings from different denominations. On one occasion he listed the teaching, and where it came from. (The Proclaimers Book quotes the passage.)
At first they believed that God had given to each group a truth, a seed to be cultivated. The idea that all other churches are wrong and will be destroyed "in their millions" by 1917 came after he died.
HB
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JWoods
At first they believed that God had given to each group a truth, a seed to be cultivated. The idea that all other churches are wrong and will be destroyed "in their millions" by 1917 came after he died.
But BEFORE he died, Russell was tacitly encouraging the idea the he himself was the "faithful and discrete slave". All the doctrinal issues prior to the full self-empowerment of Rutherford were really Russell.
I have to commend Terry for reminding us again that there was great hypocrisy and self-promotion in the Russell era long before the sins of the Rutherford excessive dictatorship.
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Terry
Russell did admit he took teachings from different denominations. On one occasion he listed the teaching, and where it came from. (The Proclaimers Book quotes the passage.)
Ahhh, but the Proclaimers Book was to stop the bloodletting done by the advent of the Internet as the Watchtower sought to get out ahead of all the apostate revelations and to REFRAME their own story as they themselves wanted it told.
If you look at the way uncomfortable information is chopped up into several segments and presented out of order you can see how difficult it was to avoid damagining themselves while owning up to certain facts previously avoided or denied.
Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose is quite a different version of the story if you put it side by side with Proclaimers.
There is little honesty to be found that isn't forced out of them.
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hamsterbait
Terry -
I wish I still had the Proclaimers Book, the Divine Purpose Book and the 1975 yearbook.
My recollection is that there are alarming numbers of contradictory "facts" spread between them.
One day I want to list them all...
HB
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Terry
Jehovah's Witnesses — Proclaimers of God's Kingdom
A Summary Critique
David A. Reed
This is the most significant book Jehovah's Witnesses have published in nearly half a century. In 1950 their New World Translation revised the New Testament to support the sect's theology; now Jehovah's Witnesses — Proclaimers of God's Kingdom reinterprets Watchtower history to thwart criticism.
Christians versed in evangelizing JWs know that the most effective approaches begin not with biblical discussion but with exposure to the sect's disturbing history. Documentation of failed prophecies, doctrinal flip-flops, and bizarre teachings weakens confidence in the Watchtower organization and forces Witnesses to reexamine their faith. The new Proclaimers book, as JWs refer to it, is designed to protect them from such assaults.
Most JWs reading Proclaimers will be coming face-to-face for the first time with information about failed prophecies of the world's end in 1914, 1925, and 1975 (pp. 62, 78, 104, 632-33), founder Charles Taze Russell's failed marriage (645), second president Joseph F. Rutherford's estranged wife Mary and their son Malcolm (89), the role Egyptian pyramids once played in Watchtower teachings (201), and numerous doctrinal reversals and other embarrassing episodes. But why would the Watchtower Society want to expose Witnesses to the very material opposers confront them with? Evidently, for the same reason doctors expose people to flu vaccine — immunization.
Vaccine introduces a weakened virus and allows the immune system to develop antibodies under nonthreatening circumstances; similarly, Proclaimers introduces damaging information in muted form. It sugarcoats some embarrassing episodes with euphemistic language. For example, rather than admit that Russell promulgated false prophecies, the book minimizes his role and shifts blame to the membership by saying "the Bible Students" innocently "thought," "expected," and "hoped" certain things would happen in 1914 (134-36).
Moreover, by arranging the sect's history topically rather than chronologically the book chops up unpleasant stories into bite-size pieces easier to swallow. Consider the embarrassing doctrinal flip-flop on the identity of the "higher powers" of Romans 13:1 . The Watchtower Society taught for decades that these were the secular governments; then during the 1930s-1950s it identified them as Jehovah God and Jesus Christ; finally in 1962 it decided once again that they were secular governments. The new history hides the back-and-forth aspect by omitting the first part of the story and presenting the change in 1962 as "progressive understanding" — even though the "progress" actually took them backwards to a view held formerly (147).
The book's topical format also allows it to pull an episode out of the context of surrounding events and insert it into another context according to topic. In the process it can alter facts in a manner that would have been impossible had the story been kept within its chronological framework. For example, consideration of Russell's religious affiliation during the 1870s is broken up into discussions on pages 43-48, 120-22, 132-35, 204, and 236-37. So, when the book says on page 204 that "the operation of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses has undergone significant changes since Charles Taze Russell and his associates first began to study the Bible together in 1870," readers may have forgotten what earlier chapters revealed: Russell remained part of an Adventist organization until 1879; no JW organization existed prior to that date.
Elsewhere, the casual reader is given the impression that Russell came up with the idea of Christ's invisible "presence" from an interlinear rendering of the Greek word parousia and then later encountered N. H. Barbour's group, which believed similarly. In actuality, it was the other way around. According to the 1959 official history book, Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose (18), it was "one of Barbour's group" who came up with that interpretation and then Russell learned it from Barbour. (Proclaimers does not actually lie about this; it simply begins page 133 with events of "1877" and then goes on to events of "1876" — technically accurate, but worded so most readers will be misled.)
Besides rewriting history and doing cosmetic restoration on skeletons in the Watchtower closet, Proclaimers actually does reveal more about the organization than any prior Watchtower publication. Notably, it departs from recent custom to provide extensive photographic coverage of past and present leadership — including individual color portraits of Governing Body members (116).
It also devotes 50 of its 750 pages (352-401) to photos of factory and office facilities around the world. With the Brooklyn properties alone (pictured on four pages) valued at $186 million (see "Looking Beyond Brooklyn Heights Toward Heaven," New York Times, 29 Nov. 1992, p. 46), the other major holdings shown no doubt add up to billions of dollars.
Although described in its foreword as "objective" and "candid," Proclaimers could more appropriately be termed clever and convincing. It was obviously forged as a powerful defensive weapon. And it will certainly strengthen the Watchtower fortress. But it can also be turned against its owner.
First, it can be used to show a JW that certain things actually did happen. For example, in the past, Witnesses often dismissed information about Rutherford's San Diego mansion "Beth-Sarim" and the sect's preoccupation with pyramids as stories fabricated by apostates. Now abbreviated accounts of such matters in Proclaimers (76, 89, 201) can serve as common ground — a jumping-off point to introduce what radio commentator Paul Harvey would call "the rest of the story."
Second, after a JW has seen the necessary documentation, attention can be focused once again on Proclaimers — this time to notice how its carefully crafted accounts conceal important facts. The JW will be forced to think about whether writers who manifest such disregard for truth can join in saying, "But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" ( 2 Cor. 4:2 KJV ).
