as at least some of you know, i am coauthor of two history books about zion's watch tower's earliest years.
we are at a dead end with one of the watch tower's earliest evangelists, s. d. rogers.
we do not know his first name or have any biography outside of a scattering of newspaper articles and mentions in zwt.
As at least some of you know, I am coauthor of two history books about Zion's Watch Tower's earliest years. We are at a dead end with one of the Watch Tower's earliest evangelists, S. D. Rogers. We do not know his first name or have any biography outside of a scattering of newspaper articles and mentions in ZWT.
Can you - will you - explore this. Help me find out who this man really was.
Thanks for your help.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
Crazy,
He's not buried at a Masonic site. He's buried at the old Watch Tower cemetery, now part of Rosemont cemetery. The pyramid is not his tombstone. It isn't a Masonic pyramid, but is modeled after the headstone for Piazzi Smyth.
This is what we wrote in Separate Identity, volume 1:
Pyramid
A pyramid shaped monument was installed in the Bible Student cemetery in Pittsburgh. The cemetery is occasionally described as Masonic. It’s not. There is a Masonic temple nearby built years later. There is no connection. The pyramid was intended as a general monument with the names of those buried in the Watch Tower plots engraved onto open books. Rather than being a Masonic symbol, the open book motif derives from the book of Revelation. Those who want to cast Russell as part of some great Masonic conspiracy claim the pyramid embodies the “all seeing eye.” It does not. The pyramid symbol refers to Russell’s belief, shared by many others who did not otherwise hold his views, that the Great Pyramid at Gizah was a divinely inspired testimony in stone to Bible truth. We trace the development of this idea in Chapter Three. The use of the pyramid as a monument was suggested not by the back of the US dollar which had an entirely different design in 1920, but by the grave marker for Charles Piazzi Smyth, a prominent pyramidologist and Astronomer Royal of Scotland.
The monument was installed in 1919, some years after Russell’s death. One source suggests Russell designed it, a Bible Student convention report saying: “The Pyramid, as you will note, has an open book carved on each side, intended by Brother Russell for the names of Bethel workers as they ceased their work and were laid at rest, awaiting the great Resurrection of the first-fruits of the Lord.”[1] A Bible Student web page takes pains to blame the pyramid monument on Rutherford rather than Russell. Neither of these statements is correct. The monument was designed not as a memorial to Russell but “as a memorial to the society.” It was “designed by Brother Bohnet, and accepted by Brother Russell as the most fitting emblem for an enduring monument on the Society’s burial space.” According to Bohnet, work started in 1914. The pyramid’s purpose was not Masonic.[2]
[1] Souvenir Notes from the Reunion Convention of Christian Bible Students: Pittsburgh, Pa., November 1-2-3, 1929.
[2] Souvenir Notes from the Bible Student’s Convention: Pittsburgh, Pa., January 2-5, 1919, page 7.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
F, It's not a Knight's Templar symbol. It's a reference to the 'complete suit of armor' Christians are to put on. See Ephesians chapter six.
Suspicion of a secretive order does not mean Russell was connected to them. The so-called secrecy is a myth. Their 'secret books' are easily found by a determined researcher.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
Maybe this will help. I'm a very small person: 4 feet ten inches tall, slightly under 90 pounds. I drive an old Mercury because everything adjusts to my size: The seats, the steering wheel, the mirrors. It's white with a black rag top. It has a blue interior with faux wood trim.
There are at least two other identical cars in this area. One of them is owned by an older woman who, like myself, is blond. She's tall, stout, and a bit grumpy. [I met her once.] We're not at all related. But we drive identical cars. If someone presumed on the basis of similarity that we were related, they would be wrong. That type of presumption is one of the classic logic flaws.
It is what is at work here. The presumption of relationship based on similarity is a false one.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
None of Russell's theology comes from Masonic belief. If you think it did, you must demonstrate it by example.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
But, Finkel, that does not prove any association with Russell.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
Knights Templar and Masons borrowed from Christian Symbolism, not the other way around.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
We should note that plagiarize has a very specific meaning. Holding doctrines similar to or the same as others is not plagiarism. Russell drew from a very narrow set of doctrines, those held by the Age-to-Come/One Faith movement as represented by The Restitution, a religious newspaper. Some claim he was a closet Adventist. He wasn't. None of his doctrine came from Adventism, and all Adventist bodies opposed him.
He read widely from the religious press, often quoting from or mentioning the books and periodicals he read. But he had a narrow doctrinal set, not really meant to please others. If he had plagiarized from others to draw adherents, he would have taught popular doctrine. He did not.
Nothing he taught is original. But why would we expect it to be? He sought the 'old theology,' original New Testament doctrine. He did not seek something novel as did Mary Baker Eddy.
Again, from our book:
Russell saw himself as a kind of cut-and-paste Bible Student, reassembling from scattered sources the Old Theology. Russell said as much in 1889:
We must disclaim any credit even for the finding and rearrangement of
the jewels of truth. “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
The writer wholly disclaims superior ability or qualification for the
reorganization of the truth in its present solidarity. As the time had come for
the bringing together of the scattered thoughts of past centuries in the
marvelous inventions of our day, – so the time had come for the bringing
together of the fragmentary hopes and promises of God’s Word scattered through
Christendom. To deny that the Lord has simply “poured out” this harvest time
blessing of “present truth” in his own due time and in his own way, would be as
wrong as to claim it as of our own invention. …
It came gradually, silently, as comes the morning dawn: the only effort
necessary was to keep awake and face in the right direction. And the greatest aid
in so doing was the effort put forth to awaken others of the “household of
faith” and point them to the light and in turn to urge upon them the necessity
for serving also, if they would overcome the lethargic “spirit of the world,”
and be ready to go in to the marriage of the Lamb.[1]
[1] C. T. Russell: Views from the Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, April 15, 1899, page 87.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
Finkle, you find it probable because you wish it to be so, not on any evidence. The cross and crown feature on Zion's Watch Tower's later issues was a common and commercially produced type fixture [matrix], used on 'Christian' publications.
Here is what Schulz and I say in Separate Identity, volume 1:
Symbolisms
Decorative motifs found on Watch Tower publications are interpreted as Masonic. From an early date a cross and crown design appeared on Zion’s Watch Tower’s front cover. Because it was also used on Masonic paraphernalia, notably on the ceremonial swords, the presumption is that Russell borrowed from Masonic forms, covertly announcing to all “in the know” his Masonic connections. The logic flaws behind this reasoning are astounding.
Cross and Crown
Masonic use of the cross and crown symbolism derives from Christian usage. The symbolism became popular in the 17th Century at least in Christian phraseology. In 1621, Francis Quarles wrote the poem Hadassa: The History of Queene Ester. It contains this couplet:
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that has no cross deserves no crown.
There is a high probability that William Penn took the title of his famous essay No Cross, No Crown from Quarles’ poem. From Penn and others who wrote similarly, the cross and crown coupling became popular. For instance, Matthew Henry observed in his Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (published in several volumes between 1708 and 1710): “We only bear the cross for a while, but we shall wear the crown to eternity.”
By mid-19th Century the phrase, “we must all bear the cross before we can wear the crown” had become common, finding its way into poems, homelies, sermons and common speech. Russell would have heard it repeated ad nausium. The cross and crown was found as an embroidery pattern; it found a place on Sunday school pins, on convention ribbons, and on jewelry, and this long before it appeared on the Watch Tower’s front cover or on a Masonic sword. The cross and crown symbol found on The Watch Tower in the early 1890s is a combination of type matrixes commonly found in a printers type drawer. The revised version from the later 1890s is a single type face, also common in usage.
[1] See his commentary on James in any complete edition. He made the comment when considering James chapter one.
paul has written an interesting piece on jwfacts.com .
https://jwfacts.com/watchtower/blog/russell-not-a-freemason.php.
anyway, it jogged my memory and reminded me of something i thought i would pass on to you.back in the late 80s i had the opportunity to chat with ray franz on the phone and i asked him about this very thing.he didn't say yes or no to russel's masonic connection but what he said was something like, "he is buried in the masonic section of the cemetery so draw your own conclusion.
finkel, can you list the times and places when Russell spoke in a masonic hall?
