How did Brother Russell view his own role? Did he claim some special revelation from God? In the Watch Tower of July 15, 1906 (page 229), Russell humbly replied: “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.) . . . The truths I present, as God’s mouthpiece, were not revealed in visions or dreams, nor by God’s audible voice, nor all at once, but gradually . . . Neither is this clear unfolding of truth due to any human ingenuity or acuteness of perception, but to the simple fact that God’s due time has come; and if I did not speak, and no other agent could be found, the very stones would cry out.”
..............Spiritual instruction is provided by means of magazine articles, books, convention programs, and outlines for congregation discourses—all of which are prepared under the direction of the Governing Body of the faithful and discreet slave.
Uhmmmmm..........well, not exactly:
continuing the 25 April 1894 Extra Edition of Zion’s Watch Tower:
Of course Russell did not bother to question why he and his associates were ‘the agent’ that God in some way had chosen to reveal such ‘truths.’ But equally importantly, he was again deceiving himself without apparently recognizing the fact. That becomes clear from what he wrote on page 110 of the same article. There he wrote how, after prayer, the Lord had revealed to him the information he was to publish in Tabernacle Teachings and, later, in its revised form as Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices.
Believing that the prayer would be answered affirmatively, I went into my study next morning prepared to study and write. The forenoon I spent in scrutinizing the text and every other Scripture likely to shed light upon it, especially the epistle to the Hebrews, and in looking to the Lord for wisdom and guidance; but no solution of the difficult passage came. The afternoon and evening were similarly spent, and all of the next day. Everything else was neglected, and I wondered why the Lord kept me so long; but on the third day near noon the whole matter came to me as clear as the ‘noon-day sun—so clear and convincing and so harmonious with the whole tenor of Scripture, that I could not question its correctness; and no one has ever yet been able to find a flaw in it. (This has been published in several editions in pamphlet form under the title, “THE TABERNACLE SHADOWS OF THE BETTER SACRIFICES,”
Direct Divine Guidance.
