Let's begin with William Miller. He pretty much started the 2nd Coming rumors pre-Civil War.
He was a war hero in the War of 1812 who sat himself down for a couple of years with his bible and whatever reading material he could lay hands on.
Miller concocted something very familiar to all of us today 200 years later. The Gentile Times nonsense!
It wasn't really original. That ground had been plowed many times before.
Now this topic heading is "Establishing Premises" and we shall look at that historically.
1. Martin Luther wrested away the power of Catholic "authority" to interpret scripture by inventing (out of thin air) a new doctrine.
A. The Catholic Doctrine was Magisterium B. The Protestant replacement doctrine was Sola Scriptura (the bible alone).
2.William Miller, after the war of 1812, using his family bible and whatever other books were in his family's library; Miller cut and pasted his own CHRONOLOGY together. What PREMISE did Miller use? Martin Luther's premise: sola scriptura.
A. Miller's arithmetic and cherry-picked scriptures from Daniel and the now familiar "other" sources came up with 1844: Christ's return!
B.Miller, although not a trained theologian, was invited to preach his "method of computation" in various churches. The local untrained farmers and poorly schooled women folk ate it up like apple pie and ice cream! Thousands of listeners were convinced!
C.As the date approached the mainstream christian denominations warned their gullible members it would all prove to be a folly.
3. THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT was just that: a great big nothing. The target date came and went. Miller was unfazed!
4.New dates were set and those failed too! Miller apologized but continued to believe he was "close" but probably not too far wrong until he died.
After Miller, do you think those thousands of disappointed believers shrugged and admitted they were duped?? NO WAY!
It started all over again.
Various persons tried date setting chronologies and all of them got it wrong!
5. Ellen White (knocked on the skull as a child) had "visions". Those visions proved useful for 2nd Adventists. God was speaking to her directly!
What was Ellen White's PREMISE?? A bump on her head and subsequent "visions"!
A whole "industry" of charts and dispensational teachings mushroomed into a crazy "hobby" for people excited by the prospect of living in the END TIMES.
Among those persons is our old pal: CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL.
6.Russell used his family fortune to fund speculations and to print articles about the 2nd Coming.
A. At first Russell championed any exciting idea that seemed valuable but later broke off on his own.
B. Russell became convinced (as had Miller, whom he admired) that the arithmetic of the bible demonstrated THE END WAS NEAR!
c. Russell set up a corporation for the purpose of publishing warnings as though from a watchman standing in a WATCHTOWER who sees ahead.
7.Russell married an excellent, ambitious and intelligent woman, Maria who edited Russell's writings and came up with ideas of her own.
A. Like Ellen White, Maria concocted a way both she and Charles could have "visions" of True teaching. This became the doctrine of the "faithful and wise servant" or the FDS bullshit we find so endearing today among JW's.
B. Russell's reputation was being pounded by all the denominations he had been attacking and he sent Maria on a world tour to smooth things among the Bible Students. Maria was so charming and intelligent she sucked all the glory out of the room and became very popular!
C.Russell became bitter and estranged from her. A number of accusations, lawsuits and an official legal separation came next to keep Maria from having any hope of publishing through the Watchtower corporation or laying hands on his wealth.
What was the PREMISE for Russell's channel of communication? Maria's wacky interpretation of the scripture about the "faithful and wise servant."
Also Russell was referred to as the Laodicean messenger foretold in Revelation to come in the "Last Days". In other words, Russell simply claimed authority for himself.
A.Russell's predictions never worked out. They came from Pyramidology and cherry-picked nonsense like William Miller had done.
B.Russell claimed 1873/74 as the date Jesus returned. When Jesus didn't show up---Russell declared Jesus officially "invisible"!
8.After Russell died, "Judge" Rutherford pulled a fast one and made himself the next President of the Watchtower Society.
A. At first Rutherford had a board of Directors. When they tried to stifle his crazy ideas he dismissed them and kept their names on the banner as "directors" even though they were not allowed a say in anything!
B. Rutherford began a preaching campaign MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE which targeted 1925 as Armageddon and the resurrection.
C. When 1925 proved to be false prophecy, Rutherford claimed he had "made an ass of" himself. He continued his crazy rants and teachings
On what PREMISE did Rutherford establish himself as "Jehovah's Channel"?
Rutherford, at first, claimed Russell was editing the Watchtower from heaven but later simply RE-INTERPRETED the FDS scripture to include himself.
8. After Rutherford's death, Nathan Knorr and his resident prophet Fred Franz cooked up, reworked and reworded adventist and bible student ideas
and eventually changed every one of them to suit themselves! The Adventist idea of "new light" became Watchtower-speak for "Now we've finally got it right!"
A.Knorr and Franz engineered the new Chronology identifying 1975 as the date Armageddon would arrive.
B.Pressure from the board of directors forced Knorr to relinquish his autonomy as sole authority and the Governing Body became more evenly distributed among several men (as many as 9) who could--presumably stop wild, weird and wacky ideas from being published!
What was the PREMISE for Knorr and Franz as "Jehovah's channel"?
The continued application of Maria Russell's interpretation (with some changes) of the "faithful and wise servant" scripture.
We can stop right there. Enough damage had been done by 1975 to provide a feast of folly for critics and ex-members to point out the
incompetency of Jehovah's governing body.
Since it was still PRE-INTERNET--the Society began cracking down and silencing critics who knew the most about errors on their part.
In 1983 the disfellowship policy became so severe that it applied not merely to religious interactions between members and ex-members but to SECULAR and CASUAL encounters as well. The religion officially became a cult!
Since that time, all efforts have zeroed in on making it a high crime to speak out against the Governing Body.
Demands for Loyalty above all else increase as more and more "old teachings" become impossible to defend and changes are forced upon the religion.
It is now UNTHINKABLE that any voice of criticism be allowed to sound an alarm!
THE BASIS from the beginning for "Jehovah's Channel" has always been human imagination.
Amateur theologians hunt and pick through the bible and twist various unconnected passages into a Pretzel-shape of NEW LIGHT.
Every time the New Light fades it is ignored and replaced.
TRIAL and ERROR would at least lead to progressive doctrines.
But, there is no method at all applied to creating BELIEFS and DOCTRINES other than mere crazy-thinking and contrarian ideology.
Ther is no "there" there!
