However nutty so many of his notions were, at least Bible Student congregations were autonomous and the folloers nowhere near as judgemental as the current WTBTS crowd.
What's Your Opinion Of Charles Taze Russell?
by minimus 36 Replies latest jw friends
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minimus
It is incredible that an elderly lady of 76 yrs. would remain faithful to Russell. He certainly left a great impression on many, well after his death....... HoChiMin----I believe that volume of Studies in the Scriptures was written after Russell's death by Woodsworth, another KOOK.
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RR
Having been both a JW and BS and researched his life extensively, I can agree with those here who would paint C.T. Russell as a fine Christian man. A product of his time. His seemingly "strange teachings" stem from his environment and the times he lived in. Whether it be pyramidology or whatever.
He grew up too fast, at twenty seven he had his own journal, by 30 years of age he had his own publishing house with congregations worldwide and growing. His early writings showed a man too sure of himself, but as he grew, he toned down.
However, it must be noted that although Russell created the Watchtower Society, he did not created the Bible Students, they existed before, ALWAYS independent and loosely affiliated with the Society, supporting it because they were in agreement with. The Society was just a publishing house who organized Bible Student conventions.
NONE of us, and I mean NONE of us could say what any of us would have done had we been in his shoes, or w hat we would have done in 1916 when he died.
RR
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minimus
I'm sure the Bible Students as well as Jehovah's Witnesses can trace their origins to Abel.......After reading your comments about CTR, RR, I almost feel bad for him. He was simply a product of his environment, who grew up too fast.....hmm.........Neo-Nazi's say the same about Adolph.
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Farkel
Russell was an eccentric dreamer. I detest his memory particularly because he showed his true colors by the way he treated Maria during and after their divorce. Yes, contrary to rumors, they DID get a full-blown divorce. He solicited his followers to cough up the thousands of dollars in alimony that he witheld from Maria because of spite. He used his own Watch Tower magazine to try to convince everyone that he was the innocent party and Maria was the villain. He would not produce and distribute ANY literature if to do so, would result in a financial loss. (Some trusing in "Jehovah" to take care of everything, huh?)
He never consummated his own marriage and did all he could do to "encourage" his followers to do the same. That alone is such an unnatural thing and violates God's own command to reproduce and fill the earth.
In his last decades, he became so full of himself it was nauseating. The nauseating part was that he did his best to present a phony facade of "being humble."
A friend of mine has done a vast amount of research on Russell (much of it is primary research), and some of it has never been revealed in many decades.
Farkel
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ozziepost
He never consummated his own marriage and did all he could do to "encourage" his followers to do the same. That alone is such an unnatural thing and violates God's own command to reproduce and fill the earth.
I'm surprised that 'more' isn't made of this. Coupled with the unnatural marriage of Joe Ratherflawed, there's nothing to recommend these guys as models of happy families that the modern-day borg espouses.
Cheers, Ozzie
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minimus
If CTR's ideas are expressed in the Finished Mystery Book, he was simply a NUT. He sounded like a demon-possessed man. If the early books that he wrote were what he truly believed in, then he was simply an APOSTATE. Either way, he has no defense. Any that think he was a wonderful man of God either never read what he wrote or aren't too bright.
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shamus
Who?
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Farkel
minimus,
: If CTR's ideas are expressed in the Finished Mystery Book, he was simply a NUT. He sounded like a demon-possessed man. If the early books that he wrote were what he truly believed in, then he was simply an APOSTATE. Either way, he has no defense. Any that think he was a wonderful man of God either never read what he wrote or aren't too bright.
The Finished Mystery was written by Clayton (wackhead) Woodworth and some other nutball whose name escapses me. It was purported to be Chuck's final volume of "Studies in the Craptures" but it stood alone as the biggest embarrassment to the Watchtower Crap Society since the so-called 1914 "rapture" that never happened.
Of course, there were other wack jobs who took up the mantle that Chuckie left behind. Namely, Frederick William Franz, otherwise know as "Freddie" or "Fuckweed," depending upon your point of view.
Freddie gave us: Beth Sarim as the place where ancient worthies would live upon their resurrection before 1925 ( 73 years ago), he gave us DFing for taking blood transfusions (thank you very much Freddie for the 10,000 lives or so that cost due to your rantings), he gave us "organ transplants are canibbalism (sp?) , "you cannot lick or caress your very own wife's thingy" rules, he told us that teenage girls are just like "cows in heat" (this guy never got his nut except on his own and so he knows how to tell people how to do or not to do stuff he never experienced?)
Freddie gave us 1975. Guess how many families and lives that bullshit trashed?
Freddie gave us the "King of the North and the King of the South." Totally trashed predictions, too.
Freddie gave us the "Scarlet Covered Beast" and guess what? His own successors slept with "her" and kept sleeping with her for a full decade before they were exposed for doing so. What did they do, then? They LIED, that's what.
Freddie made us all want to blow our brains out (or be killed by his version of "God") because we masturbated. Everyone does that, and those who say they don't are liars. Freddie masturbated, too. Even though he may have had to use tweezers to do so.
Freddie was an amoral scumbag who sold out for a two-bit, chicken-shit religion which doesn't even want to mention all those reams of books and magazine articles that he wrote anymore.
The WTS has discovered that their one and ONLY "scholar" and "guru" was (next to JFR) their biggest embarrassment in their history. NONE of the 73 years of Freddie's writing is in print now. What does THAT tell you about the quality of his efforts, folks?
Get used to it, Watchtower: deal with scumbags and liars. Face the consequences.
Farkel
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onacruse
With both RR's and Farkel's thoughts in mind, I offer:
Charles Taze Russell was a man who did what he did (good or bad), and thought what he thought (right or wrong), for reasons (good or bad) that he found meaningful, or at least useful. He was no different than any one of us.
And ozzie:
there's nothing to recommend these guys as models of happy families
I agree, and would include Knorr along with them. The same can be said of the majority of those who say they believe in and strictly follow the Bible, as well as for the vastly greater number of people that subscribe to other non-Biblical religious movements on this planet.
The issue is not, what do I think of him, or of them, but rather, what do I think for myself.
Craig