At one time he claimed Russell was next to Paul as an expounder of the gospel, but later, in an effort to have his writings supplant Russell’s, he let Russell’s books go out of print. Rutherford, born in 1869, he never was a real judge, but took the title because, as an attorney, he substituted at least once for an absent judge. Russell died in 1916 and was succeeded by “Judge” Joseph R.
This conflict is known to Witnesses as the battle of Armageddon, and just about everything the Witnesses teach centers around this doctrine. It would result in the final conflict between God and the Devil-the forces of good and the forces of evil-in which God would be victorious. His visible return would come later, but still very soon. When 1914 had come and gone with no Jesus in sight, Russell modified his teachings and claimed Jesus had, in fact, returned to Earth, but that his return was invisible. Russell taught his followers the nonexistence of hell and the annihilation of unsaved people (a doctrine he picked up from the Adventists), the nonexistence of the Trinity (he said only the Father, Jehovah, is God), the identification of Jesus with Michael the Archangel, the reduction of the Holy Spirit from a person to a force, the mortality (not immortality) of the soul, and the return of Jesus in 1914. In 1908 he moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, where it has remained ever since. In 1879, he began the Watch Tower-what would later be known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the teaching organ of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was this diminished Adventism which influenced Russell. White, went on to form the Seventh-day Adventist Church. When his prediction again failed, many people became frustrated and withdrew from the Adventist movement, but a remnant, led by Ellen G. When it didn’t, he “discovered” an arithmetical error in his eschatological calculations and said it would end in 1844. The leading light of Adventism had been William Miller, a flamboyant preacher who predicted that the world would end in 1843. Some years later he went to an Adventist meeting, was told that Jesus would be back at any time, and got interested in the Bible. He was raised a Congregationalist, but at the age of 17 he tried to convert an atheist to Christianity and ended up being converted instead-not to outright atheism, but to agnosticism. The sect now known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses was started by Charles Taze Russell, who was born in 1852. Let’s look at their history, because that will help us understand their unique doctrines. Most Witnesses used to be Catholics or Protestants. Their congregations are small, usually numbering less than 200. They don’t have churches they have “Kingdom Halls” instead. Now there are several million of them around the world. Sixty years ago the Jehovah’s Witnesses numbered fewer than 100,000.
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