It seems that many people believe that Jehovah's Witnesses are an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist church. I've read many claims of this and wonder what the actual relationship is, if any.
Are Jehovah's Witnesses an Offshoot of the SDA?
by Eugene Shubert 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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little witch
Yes, they are.
Begin your internet search with "Millerite Movement"
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Mulan
When I was first doing my research on whether it was really "the truth", I was at the library, in the religion section. A very large book on religion had a section on Adventism. Jehovah's witnesses were in that section. I was confused, until it was cleared up for me.
All it means is that they believe in the second Advent of Christ...............he is coming again, visible or invisible, according to the teachings of your church. I think their origins were about the same time, and maybe some of the people starting groups moved from one to the other. It is not an offshoot though.
There are lots of Adventist religions by the way.
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Joyzabel
Lloyd Barry said "we got our dates from the Adventist"
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Euphemism
Russell was an adventist before he founded the Bible Students. His early influences (e.g. George Storrs and Nelson Barbour... you'll find info about them in the WT and the Proclaimers book) were also adventists. And a lot of his early teachings (the invisible advent of Christ, conditional immortality, and his chronological methods) were all current among Adventists at the time.
For some good background info on the influence of the Adventists on Russell, read the first chapter of C. O. Jonsson's Gentile Times Reconsidered, and also Jim Penton's Apocalypse Delayed.
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Mulan
Not necessarily Seventh Day Adventists though. As I said before, Adventism is a type of religion.
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AlanF
Jehovah's Witnesses are not an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists, but are more of an amalgam of what C. T. Russell called "Second Adventists" and bits and pieces from other religions that Russell liked. The SDA's started around 1848 when some of William Miller's followers went off on their own and formed a new religion. Many others of Miller's followers drifted along and formed loose quasi-religions who called themselves "Adventists". It was from these -- not the SDA's -- that Russell got a lot of his information. Nelson Barbour was an Adventist and the biggest influencer of Russell, via "Bible chronology". Russell was even influenced by an Evangelical Lutheran preacher named Joseph Seiss. AlanF
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fjtoth
Mulan is correct. [Edit: And so is AlanF.] JWs did not originate with the Seventh-Day Adventists. Charles Russell and his father were associated with a Second Adventist group. That is a movement that embraces not only the Seventh-Day Adventists and JWs, but also others such as the Church of God of Abrahamic Faith, the Christadelphians, the Advent Christian Church, the Free Bible Students, the Dawnites, the Worldwide Church of God, etc. While Russell can be identified as the founder of the Free Bible Students, Dawnites and JWs, the other groups did not necessarily spring from each other. Most of them descended independently from what was originally known as the Church of God movement that apparently started in England and came to America in the early 1800s and that blended with the Millerites in the 1830s and 1840s. While most were non-trinitarian when they began, some later accepted the Trinity. A major teaching among them is that Matthew 24 applies specifically to the time in which we are now living. Some of them started with an outstanding leader or spokesperson, such as Ellen White of the SDA, John Thomas of the Christadelphians, Charles Russell of the JWs, and Herbert Armstrong of the WWCOG.
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jst2laws
Alan,
It is so nice not go digging the books out to respond to a thread like this. Hope you never get too tired of this.
And I'm glad your not the type that jumps in and says 'yeh, his was just an adventist' but you give a very balance view of Russell's many sources.
Steve
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gumby
Heres a few tidbits to add to the 7th dayer's I copied and pasted cuz I'm a dumb bastard,
Doctrinally, Seventh-day Adventists are heirs of the interfaith Millerite movement of the 1840s. Although the name "Seventh-day Adventist" was chosen in 1860, the denomination was not officially organized until Ma y 21, 1863, when the movement included some 125 churches and 3,500 members.
Between 1831 and 1844, William Miller--a Baptist preacher and former army captain in the War of 1812--launched the "great second advent awakening" which eventually spread throughout most of the Christian world. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Miller calculated that Jesus would return to earth sometime between 1843 and 1844. Others within the movement calculated a specific date of October 22, 1844. When Jesus did not appear, Miller's followers experienced what became to be called "the great Disappointment."
Most of the thousands who had joined the movement, left it, in deep disillusionment. A few, however, went back to their Bibles to find why they had been disappointed. Soon they concluded that the October 22 date had indeed been correct. They became convinced that the Bible prophecy predicted not that Jesus would return to earth in 1844, but that He would begin at that time a special ministry in heaven for His followers. They still looked for Jesus to come soon, however, as do Seventh-day Adventists yet today.
Gumby