1955_Modern History of Jehovah's Witnesses.pdf

MODERN HISTORY OF

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

Study 76

EARLY VOICES (1870-1878)

1 Gradually called out of darkness into his wonderful light'!

(1 Pet. 2:9, NW) Such is an epitomied description of the

modern history of Jehovah's witnesses as they advanced out

of the darkness of "Babylonish" false religious thinking

toward increased restorations of Bible truths . The prolonged

night of spiritual darkness from which the witnesses came

had existed from the early part of the second century follow-

ing the death of the apostles right up to the latter half of

the nineteenth century . Early Christianity with its brilliance

of right doctrine and cleanness of theocratic organiation

began to be eclipsed after the year 100 by a creeping spiritual

darkness of "Babylonish" religious teachings, Grecian pagan

philosophies and rank apostasy.

2 While their complete release from "Babylonish" captivity

did not come until 1919, for a period of nearly fifty years prior

thereto the witnesses experienced a gradual awakening, to

prepare them for their hour of liberation as a New World

people. This proved to be similar to the case of the natural

Jews in captivity in ancient Babylon, where Daniel and many

others of Jehovah's faithful witnesses were aroused to wake-

fulness years before, to be ready for the restoration of true

worship in Jerusalem when it came at last in 537 B .C. So, too,

with Jehovah's witnesses in these modern times, a stir to

spiritual wakefulness became apparent from the 1870's for-

ward.

3 Amidst great industrial, commercial, social and religious

changes early voices of small religious groups were heard

in their efforts to read the signs of the times and predict the

imminent second coming of Jesus, the Christ . Various Ad-

ventist groups were busy in the United States and Europe pro-

For a more detailed covering of this general subject than given in

this section, please see the series of articles appearing in the 1955 issues

of the Watchtower magaine.

297

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claiming a visible return of Christ for 1873 or 1874 even

though the American founder of their movement, William

Miller, had acknowledged his error and disappointment as to

the former set dates of 1843 and 1844 . But these and other

widely proclaimed predictions came to complete disappoint-

ment, because they were not based on accurate Biblical knowl-

edge of Jehovah's prophecies . Christ's return was destined

to be, not a physical manifestation as they had assumed, but

rather, as the Scriptures now clearly indicate, an invisible

presence of glory and power to provoke the greatest crisis

ever to be experienced by man on earth .

4 Still other voices were heard, but these began to proclaim

an impending invisible return of the Messiah . One of these

groups was the disappointed Second Adventists, who forsook

that movement because of the failure of the Lord to return

in 1873, as the Adventists had further predicted . This group

was led by a man named N . H . Barbour. They radiated their

activities from Rochester, New York, performing a preaching

service by sending out speakers to whatever churches would

open their doors to them . They also published a monthly

journal entitled The Herald of the Morning. One of this group

came into possession of the Diaglott translation of the Bible

and noticed something in it that he thought peculiar, that at

Matthew 24 :27, 37, 39 the word that in the King James Ver-

sion is rendered coming is translated presence . This was the

clue that led this group to advocate an invisible presence of

Christ, claiming it began in the fall of 1874 .

5 Yet a fourth voice of proclaimers of an invisible presence

of Christ comes to view, a group of sincere students of the

Bible located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U .S .A ., with its

chairman, C . T . Russell . Charles Tae Russell was born in

Old Allegheny (now part of the city of Pittsburgh) on Feb-

ruary 16, 1852, one of three children of Joseph L . and Elia

Birney Russell. Both parents were Presbyterians of Scottish-

Irish lineage . Russell's father operated a clothing store busi-

ness. His mother died when he was only nine years old . While

still a boy he used to write Bible texts with chalk on the side-

walks, and although brought up a Presbyterian he joined the

nearby Congregational church, because it was more liberal .

At fifteen years of age Russell was in partnership with his

father in a growing chain of men's clothing stores . But while

things went well for young Russell in business, he was

troubled in mind . The doctrines of predestination and eternal

punishment gave him particular difficulty, and by the time

MODERN HISTORY OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

29 9

he was seventeen he had become an avowed skeptic, discard-

ing the Bible and the creeds of the churches .

6 During the next few months Russell continued to re-

flect over the subject of religion, unable to accept it, and yet

unwilling to let it go. Finally, one day in 1870 he dropped into

a dusty, dingy little basement hall near his Federal Street

store "to see if the handful who met there had anything

more sensible to offer than the creeds of the great churches .

There, for the first time, I heard something of the views of

Second Adventists, the preacher being Mr . Jonas Wendell

. . . Though his Scripture-exposition was not entirely clear,

and though it was very far from what we now rejoice in,

it was sufficient, under God, to re-establish my wavering

faith in the divine inspiration of the Bible, and to show that

the records of the apostles and prophets are indissolubly

linked." Shortly after this Russell and about five others be-

gan to meet together regularly from 1870 to 1875 to make a

systematic study of the Bible . Note the following description

of the change-over of thinking that was the fruitage of these

five years of joint Bible study .

7 "We came to recognie the difference between our Lord

as 'the man who gave himself,' and as the Lord who would

come again, a spirit being . We saw that spirit-beings can be

present, and yet invisible to men. . . . We felt greatly grieved

at the error of Second Adventists who were expecting Christ

in the flesh, and teaching that the world and all in it except

Second Adventists would be burned up in 1873, or 1874, whose

time-settings and disappointments and crude ideas generally

of the object and manner of his coming brought more or less

reproach upon us and upon all who longed for and proclaimed

his coming Kingdom. These wrong views so generally held

of both the object and manner of the Lord's return led me

to write a pamphlet-The Object and Manner of Our Lord's

Return, of which some 50,000 copies were published ."

s In January, 1876, Charles Russell for the first time re-

ceived a copy of the monthly magaine The Herald of the

Morning, as published by the Rochester group headed by

N. H. Barbour. A meeting was soon arranged between Russell

and Barbour, since it was discovered that their views were

the same concerning Christ's second coming as being invisible.

As a result the Pittsburgh Bible group of nearly thirty decided

to affiliate with the Rochester group slightly larger in num-

ber. Russell became a joint editor along with Barbour for

The Herald of the Morning . The Pittsburgh group on Russell's

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initiative agreed to finance a small printing place in Rochester

for the joint printing undertakings . It was also decided to

publish a bound book containing their joint views, the work

being completed by 1877 . The 194-page publication was en-

titled "Three Worlds or Plan of Redemption" by Barbour

and Russell as joint authors. During this time Russell at the

age of twenty-five began to sell out his business interests and

went full time into the preaching work, going from city to city

to talk to various gatherings of the public, on the streets and

Sundays in Protestant churches, where he could arrange such

with the clergy.

9 This book set forth their belief that Christ's second pres-

ence began invisibly in the fall of 1874 and thereby com-

menced a forty-year harvest period . Then, remarkably ac-

curately, they set forth the year 1914 as the end of the Gentile

times : "It was in B.C. 606, that God's kingdom ended, the

diadem was removed, and all the earth given up to the Gen-

tiles . 2520 years from B.C. 606 will end in A.D . 1914, or forty

years from 1874 ; and this forty years upon which we have

now entered is to be such 'a time of trouble as never was since

there was a nation.' And during this forty years, the kingdom

of God is to be set up (but not in the flesh, the natural first

and afterwards the spiritual'), the Jews are to be restored,

the Gentile kingdoms broken in pieces like a potter's vessel,'

and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our

Lord and his Christ, and the judgment age introduced ."

-Pages 83, 189.

10 After two years of affiliation a testing occurred that

brought about a parting of the ways . In 1878 Barbour began

to fall victim to higher criticism, denying that the death of

Christ was the ransom price . This plain denial of basic Bible

doctrine amaed the Pittsburgh group and Russell, and finally

the Pittsburgh Bible group withdrew association from the

Barbour group to undertake a separate Bible-publishing work .

Many of the Rochester group sided in with Russell and his

associates on the ransom issue and they, too, came over to

the Pittsburgh association . This parting proved fatal to the

Rochester group, for within a few years the Herald ceased

to be published, and nothing more has been heard from this

early voice sounding the "second-coming" call . In our next

study we shall see who of these many early voices finally

received the blessing of Jehovah to represent him as His

witnesses in future ministerial work .

MODERN HISTORY OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES 301

REviEw : 1. What conditions existed from the second century up to

the latter half of the nineteenth century? 2. How was the time from

the 1870's to 1919 similar to Jewish captivity in Babylon? 3 . What false

assumption was made by many groups looking for Christ's return?

4. What group took a different view? 5 . What other group shared this

view, and what was the background of its chairman? 6, 7 . What re-

established Russell's faith? and to what did five years of study lead?

8. What affiliation and collaboration of effort now took place? 9. What

view was held regarding the period from 1874 to 1914? 10 . What parting

occurred, with what results?

Study 77

SMALL BEGINNINGS (1879-1889)

I It became evident in the year 1879 which of the many

early "second-coming" voices was being chosen by Jehovah to

become his witnesses . Now from the magaine being circu-

lated world-wide in forty languages but which began to be

published in a small way in 1879, it clearly appears that Je-

hovah's hand was upon the small Pittsburgh Bible group

under C. T. Russell's chairmanship . By now they had become

sure that Christ's second coming would begin his invisible

presence ; that a hard time of world distress was ahead ; that

thereafter would follow a millennium of a thousand-year

reign of Christ's kingdom to bring about restoration . (restitu-

tion) of paradise conditions on earth with everlasting life in

store for men of good will from all nations ; and that the glad

tidings of such "restitution" blessings should be heralded the

world over.

2 Having now withdrawn their editorial and financial sup-

port from the Rochester group's magaine, The Herald of

the Morning, the Pittsburgh class decided to embark upon a

great undertaking, that of publishing for the first time their

own monthly Bible magaine . Upon completing many pre-

liminary arrangements, July 1, 1879, saw the release of the

first issue of Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's

Presence, of which 6,000 copies were soon distributed . Class

chairman C. T. Russell was chosen to be the editor with five

other mature Bible students serving as regular contributors .

In 1892 The Watch Tower was changed from a monthly to a

semimonthly journal to keep pace with the extended flow

of new Scriptural material. The record of its circulation is

most interesting. From 6,000 copies in 1879, by 1904 there

were 25,000 regularly printed ; and by 1949 the phenome-

nal peak of 500,000 copies per issue had been reached. But

that is not all ; by 1955 the world-wide circulation in forty

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