Charles Russell And Jehovahs Witness Essays - Bible Student Movement

Charles Russell And Jehovah's Witness Charles Russell and Jehovah's Witnesses On February 16, 1852, a child was born that would grow up to lead millions of people astray from families, friends, Christianity, and, most importantly, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The teachings this child taught later as an adult lead people down a road that will only end in one destination?Hell. On this seemingly normal day in 1852, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a son was born to Joseph L. Russell and his wife, Anna Eliza. They named him Charles Taze Russell. This child would grow up to form ?The Watchtower Society? and later the religious group Jehovah's Witnesses. Because Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah Witnesses religious group, grew up to be a lying, immoral man and had religious beliefs that went totally against New Testament Christianity, it is imperative that it is exposed both who he really was and the false doctrines around which his religious group was built. Before one can study Russell's beliefs and proof of his immorality, one mu st learn the history of his life and Jehovah's Witnesses. As mentioned before, Russell was born on February 16, 1852, to Joseph and Eliza Russell. He spent most of his early years in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Not much is know about Russell until 1870, when, at the age of 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh. In 1875, the group elected him ?Pastor.? From 1876 to 1878, he was assistant editor of a small Rochester, New York, magazine until he resigned when a controversy arose over his counterarguments against Christ's ?atonement.? In 1879, Russell married Maria Frances Ackley. Also in 1879, Russell founded ?The Herald of the Morning,? which eventually developed into today's ?The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom.? From 6,000 initial copies, the publication has grown to 17.8 million copies per month in 106 languages (Martin 79). In 1884, Russell incorporated ?Zion's Watchtower Tract Society? in Pittsburgh. In 1886, it published the first of seven books (Russell wrote six by himself.), now entitled Studies in the Scriptures and originally entitled The Millennial Dawn (Martin 17). From these beginnings, Russell gained many followers and continued teaching and preaching until his death on October 31, 1916, aboard a trans-continental train in Texas. After Russell's death, leadership duties were taken over by Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford. Under Rutherford, the official name ?Jehovah's Witnesses? was taken at Columbus, Ohio, in 1931, to differentiate between the true followers of Russell and other splinter groups (Martin and Russell 11). Following Rutherford's death in 1942, Nathan Knorr, Frederick Franz, and Milton Hanschel have assumed the leadership role, respectively. Through these leaders, Jehovah's Witnesses has grown to a total membership of 5,413,769, as of the end of 1996 (Martin 93). Now that the history of Charles Taze Russell and Jehovah's Witnesses has been covered, it is now time to move on to a comparison of basic Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs to accepted Christian biblical doctrine. There are many tenets to the Jehovah's Witness faith that are totally against accepted Christian biblical doctrine. The Jehovah's Witness religious group has made an attempt to separate themselves from the name Charles Russell in the years following his death. Even though the following doctrines mentioned are listed as Jehovah's Witness beliefs, a careful comparison between them and the writings of Charles Russell would show a clear connection. The following are just a few of the Jehovah's Witnesses' false doctrines followed up with biblical refutation. The doctrines mentioned are taken directly from their official pamphlets and books. First, here are some of their beliefs on Jehovah God. Jehovah Witnesses believe there is only one true God and that he has many titles but has only one name. That name is ?Jehovah.? Jehovah's Witnesses arrogantly claim that by using Jehovah, they have ?restored? the divine name of God. This is totally untrue. In the ancient Hebrew texts, where Witnesses claim they have found this as God's name, only the Hebrew consonants ?YHWH? or ?JHVH? appear. In the Hebrew language, any vowels could be inserted between the consonants, giving any combination from JoHeVaH to JiHiViH, without doing any damage to the grammar of the language. To insist their past leaders had a revelation on this topic is a pathetic