[Previously incorrectly posted under Friends, so I've moved it here. edited to add: whoops, I can't delete the old one...Simon??]
The WT admits that Jesus was King as far back as the year 33 C.E., but he supposedly didn't do much while just sitting on a throne at God's right hand and ruling God's "kingdom of the Son of his love" (Col 1:13). It wasn't until he "stands up" from that throne in 1914 that he really arrived in full Kingdom power and became "present". So Christians should be extrememly interested in exactly what Jesus did in his first acts when he became a truly, powerful King! (We all know that kings aren't really kings when they sit on their throne, Jehovah notwithstanding, right?)
Whether that argument stands to reason or not, the Watchtower claim is that one of Jesus' first Regal Acts was, effectively, to give out a Book Award so that First Prize (the only prize) would go to the author of the books which showed the proper aptitude necessary to start the only channel through which God's people could get life-saving spiritual understanding. Imagine what a prize that was! Jesus was paying attention to the books being distributed in 1914! He was a book critic. Lots of people were distributing Bibles, so it was not Bibles, but books that could serve as spiritual "food at the proper time." One might argue that Jesus was really reading hearts, not books, when he chose Charles Taze Russell as the recipient of the honor in 1914. But Jesus said, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," so Russell's words and sermons still serve as evidence of what Jesus was looking for.
Imagine! If Russell's books are still available today, then we can still get a glimpse into the "mind of Christ" by looking into Russell's books ourselves. What a grand opportunity! How could any Christians turn down such a privilege as this? Surely Jehovah's Witnesses, who claim Russell's works as the foundation for the only true, modern-day Christianity, must have already grabbed up all the available copies so that all their new members, or as many as possible, can also have the same privilege of reading these books for themselves -- to share in one of the first royal acts of the most important newly enthroned king, ever!
Some Christians and would-be Christians still consider it a great privilege to travel to Israel/Palestine to tour the "Holy Land." However, compare that mundane opportunity to the chance to share, at least in a small way, with something Jesus has done recently. The Apostle Paul introduced his knowledge of Christ as superior to those apostles who knew Jesus in the flesh, because Paul had the privilege of knowing the resurrected, spiritual, heavenly Jesus. By that same reasoning, we can, at least in some small way, imitate Christ and attempt to critique the same books that Jesus himself critiqued as a heavenly, powerful King. We could try to see in these books what Jesus saw in them and in the author that produced them.
At the very least we should be anxious to obtain them as souvenirs of one of the most important historical events of our time -- one of the most important Kingly acts of all time!
The most widely distributed books by Russell in 1914, were "The Divine Plan of the Ages," "The Time is at Hand" and "Thy Kingdom Come" which Jehovah's Witnesses still distributed until the 1930's, and made some available until the 60's.
I just bought a couple of these books, the same editions that were available in 1914 -- when Jesus himself judged them as prize-winners -- for $15 each on eBay. And these are good copies, complete with their original charts and diagrams of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. It boggles the mind that such a tremendous privilege is still so easily attainable!
Gamaliel