oh, please! I read all of Russell's books and they were very strange and filled with false teachings and prophecies that did not come true. This time though I was ready to see them for what they were as I already made it out of the WT.
The only thing I can say for Russell is that he believed you did not need an organization to worship God. He was right about that. But, nowadays all the groups he started believe you do have to belong to one of them (and they are organizations) in order to have the truth.
When associating with a few of these groups, as soon as I started asking tough Q's I was attacked and told by many that unless I followed what Russell says (faithful servant) I could not possibly be in Christ's body. Sound familiar?
You see the biggest thing they have in common with the WT is they also believe they are the only way to Christ.
Anyway, most people on this board have not only researched the WT but went all the way back to Russell and know that much of what he taught is false. And just because there are many splinter groups that believe what he taught was true - this in itself does not mean he was right.Lets face it the WT collectively is much larger than all the bible students together but we know they do not teach truth so we see size and number of groups means nothing at all.
There are millions of true Christians in the world and belonging to a certain group that has unique teachings only to them - is not something Jesus told us to look for in his true followers. He said it would be LOVE.
When I told some of these groups I disagreed with them and pointed them to the bible, they insisted I read the volumes (Russell's books) agains and kept quoting them and not the bible. They insisted I prayer for guidence in understanding Russell. When I told them I already came out of a group that quotes books and wanted them to show me themselves where for instance the bible clearly mentions pyramids and the 1874 or 1914 date or that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, they responded by calling me Satanic, saying I was not in the body of Christ, asking me if I dared to think I could replace their precious pastor Russell (Pastor with no theological training), and called me a slew of other names. They also flooded my email box with hate mail - OH, WHERE IS THE LOVE OF CHRIST?
I thank God that HE and his SON alone brought me out of the WT and have now given me the armor needed to not fall for the same type of nonsense again.
Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me. Lilly