Charles Russell's Last Days (page 7)

lovelylil

reslight2,

Thanks for wieghing in on this subject. I have bookmarked this page to go back when I have more time and read your thoughts on the faithful and wise servant. Peace, Lilly

Band on the Run

I have a few questions. Who would want to murder Russell? He obviously was very ill and close to death. Was there an autopsy? He did not die at home. A train is a pretty public place.

Thank you so much for the Bible Student slant. I tend to be knee jerk against Witnesses but I am just curious about Bible Students. Recently, I reread some of Russell's writings posted on a Bible student web site. I fail to see the attraction. May I ask what he preached that made him unique and worhty of following and reading his lit to this day? I know I'm failing to be respectful and I do want to signal my respect. Did not others believe similar things? Historians today tend to believe thaat the times bring forth peope, rather than vice versa, and that other people raised in the same milieu would have stepped forward if needed.

I'm not an expert in Christian theology. Perhaps I dabble in it. I find it difficult reading. (theology in general). We still read Augustine, Confessions and City of God, the Imitation of Christ--so maybe it is not weird that people still read Russell. I find something in those books that I don't see in Russell.

Maybe it how to pronounce potato or potato. I'm also curious as to how many Bible Students there are today and what the age range is. Are contemporary works published?

lovelylil

Band,

The bible students do not keep attendence records but I have been to one of their conventions, there was maybe 100 ppl there. They are not anywhere near the size of the WT that is for sure.

I read all Russells books too and compared them to orthodox theology. There was a lot of error in his books. I found out later that he called all the early church father's writings "rubbish", and discarded them.

The thing with Russell is he simply did not understand orthodox theology plus saw a lot of hypocrites in the church and he decided to reinvent theology to his own liking. He took what he did like from several sources, millerites, adventisist, etc. and created a mixed bag theology. This is sort of what many in the church do today too. They "pick and choose" what they believe from the bible, and in many times reinterpret it to their liking.

Russell seemed like a very nice man but unfortunately becasue he denied the true identity of Christ, and taught Arianism, he was a true heretic of the church of Christ.

* edited to add; until the Bible students discard Russells books they will not have any real growth in thier movement. They are hindering the Holy Spirit from operating upon them and most modern people today would find Russell's teachings to be way too strange to follow.

Terry

If you really really want to understand what made Charles T. Russell POSSIBLE you have to pinpoint his place in history.

The Civil War ended in 1865 which was 21 years after the Great Disappointment.

I won't go into detail, but, profoundly religious people were crushed by those two events and needed to believe at least

three things to help them psychologically.

First, that there was no Hell. Brothers, sons, fathers, uncles had died FIGHTING against their own fellow christians in the Civil War. If there

was a hell these loved ones might very well be doomed to eternal torment.

Secondly, neither Government nor Chruches were to be trusted. Why? Those two groups had persuaded decent religious believers it was okay

to enlist and fight and kill and die for a non-biblical cause.

Third, Christ was bringing an end to the madness very soon and a reward to those who cared enough to pay attention.

This time true believers would need more concrete proof than just rhetoric. Russell gave them charts, graphs, pyramid passages and scripture.

PEOPLE WERE READY TO BELIEVE a man like Russell.

lovelylil

Terry, excellent insight into this subject! Thanks for your comments, Lilly

Juan Viejo2

Terry, all excellent points.

I watched Ken Burn's "Civil War" last night. The episode I watched was the 90-minute "Gettysburg" episode. Toward the end of the program it discussed how Robert E. Lee was confused as to why he lost - because he was convinced that God Almighty would clearly be on the side of the South. The South was far more religious as a group then the Northern armies and politicians seemed to be. The Civil War was thought to be a "holy war."

So the PBS documentary clearly supports your thoughts on this matter.

Nice post, as usual, Terry.

JV

snowbird

Terry, that is my thinking, also.

I will elaborate later.

Syl

lovelylil

syl, please do, I love your insight too.

Band on the Run

Terry,

That is exactly what I was truing to figure out. Why Charles Taze Russell and not Joe Schmo?

I must say Russell is not my cup of tea (one day after the Royal Wedding). Still, it is amazing, esp. considering the very stilted and dated writing style, that there he has still has significant followers. I find it amazing. My point would be that Jesus said clearly no one will know the hour, and God hours and human hours may have no correlation, yet despite all the failed calculations, many people still revise the calculations with even weirder hints from Bible books rarely read. I can see recalculating a few times. Doing it for more than 100 years seems to be a mark of insanity.

The gospels clearly don't want us to know every detail of Jesus' life or ministry. From the temple until the start of his ministry at 30, we have no clue what he did. We don't know his close friends, clients he loved, clients that did not pay Jesus' bills, what he ate for breakfast every day, his physical appearance, his favorite scripture, his favorite rabbi, cousins. Mary and Joseph are ciphers. I assume the writers knew much of this stuff. Jesus could have clearly told us a time specific. He decided not to do so. I used to believe all this was accidental and that the gospel writers were primitives compared to today. They were sophisticated

Charles Russell's Last Days

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