What strand of Christianity gave birth to WTBTS?

by Band on the Run 65 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Band on the Run

  I know about Johnathan Edwards and William Miller being some of the forerunners of the WTBTS. How about much earlier in time? Was there a group during the Middle Ages or even earlier that preached something similar to the WT doctrine? I don't mean bold Protestants, such as Tyndale.

  I read about Arianism.

  Certainly, these ideas did not appear in a vaccum.

  What do people think about Pastor Russell's writings. I find them bizarre but people wrote in different styles than today. Would Russell be considered "wacky" by the standards of his day. I know almost nothing about Adventism.
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  jgnat

  
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  jgnat

  
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  jgnat

  Early Christian Heresies
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  jgnat

  Adventist Tree

  
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  Perry

  As wacky as Russel was he did not teach that church members were not justified, that Jehovah is not their father, and Jesus is not their Mediator, as did they that replaced him down to this very day.

  There IS NO STRAND OF CHRISTIANITY that denies these things as the WTBS does because the bible itself says that these things CANNOT BE CHANGED without inheriting a direct curse:

  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Gal. 1: 8

  The things that the WTBS rejects are the very essence and definition of Christianity.
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  blondie

  Russell was most influenced by the Second Adventists.

  http://www.seanet.com/~raines/offshoot.html
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  jgnat

  Millerism

  Various groups, writers, theologans and prophets who predicted the end of the world over the centuries:

  http://www.armageddononline.org/failed_armageddon.php
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  Band on the Run

  Thanks so much. The charts are overwhelming. It is going to take a lot of reading.
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  jgnat

  Here's the progression from the early church:

  (wide variety of belief and practice)
  Orthodoxy (nicene council)
  Roman Catholic Church
  Reformation
  Anglican
  Baptist
  Millerite
  Sunday Adventists
  Bible Students
  Jehovah’s Witnesses

  Barbara Anderson wrote about her search for an "unbroken line" of believers from the early church, but she was unsuccessful. There were pockets of believers who strayed from Orthodoxy over the years, but no one held all the beliefs that the Witnesses hold as the "truth" today. I could not find her article when I looked around today.