Former Jehovah's Witnesses from the Bible Students

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This Bible Students' convention in 1923 they were not part of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Bible Students, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Adventists
The early Bible Student movement began in the 1870’s and 1880’s with the early Watch Tower (until 1916) and 6 volumes of “Studies in the Scriptures.”

Main attraction (since the 1870’s):  If Jesus Christ died once for all, then should not all benefit?

Central doctrine – Ransom and Restitution:  Adam sinned and brought sin and death to all his descendants.  Jesus Christ, as Son of God (from whom he received his right to life) and son of Adam (from whom, through Mary, he received his human nature), voluntarily sacrificed himself to substitute in death for Adam (and hence for all his race); therefore all who died in Adam may be released from the death penalty by Jesus Christ.  Those called in this age are to be perfected now in order to join with Christ in His thousand-year kingdom for the blessings of all the families of the earth.  The object of Christ’s Kingdom will be the restoration of mankind to the perfection lost in Eden.  [E.g., Studies in the Scriptures (S.S.) Volume 1, Study IX, “Ransom and Restitution.”]
 

Doctrinal implication:  The Gospel Age is a call to develop the character likeness of Christ now; so that in the next age the faithful may join with Christ for world conversion.  The call is to those who wholly desire to serve the Lord, not to those who are afraid of what happens if they don’t.  The church must learn to love their enemies now; so they will be able to bless them in the age to come.  Any who refuse to reform then will, with Satan, cease to exist (no eternal consciousness).  Universal salvation means universal opportunity, not universal reconciliation.
 

Other principal teachings:  Christ’s Second Advent is in two parts: (1) To call Israel according to the flesh to come out of the world and return to their land (now Israel) and to call spiritual Israel to come out of sectarianism and stand free from all sects and creeds of men, and then (2) the thousand-year resurrection kingdom of Christ for the restitution of all that was lost in Eden.  (Christ is not visible during either part of His Second Presence; “hereafter the world seeth me no more.”  It is the second phase that the groaning creation yearns for.)
 

Most expected something to do with the end of “this present evil world” in 1914, about 1st Oct.  But several expected it would not happen then.  Pastor Russell suggested it could be either way.  [“What Pastor Russell Said, p. 79-89.]  In August, 1914, World War I had begun in earnest.
 

The Bible:  The Bible is the word of God, the one and only standard of faith and truth.  Only when all scriptures on a topic harmonize can we say we have the truth on that topic.
 

Organization:  Each ecclesia is independent of all other ecclesias and service organizations; each periodically elects its own elders, etc.  There is no world headquarters (except in heaven).
 

Tolerance of differences:  “There should be frequent regular meetings at which reasonably full opportunities would be given to anyone to present what he might believe to be a different view of truth from that perhaps generally held and approved by the Ecclesia.”  [S.S. Volume 6, p. 314.]
 

Pet peeves:  Welcome to our church.  Check your brains at the door.
You must join us to be saved.  Otherwise horrible things will happen to you.
Scripture must be interpreted to fit theology.
If there isn’t a hell, there ought to be!  If you want people to be good, you’ve gotta scare ’em.
 

History
In the late 1860’s a young man in Allegheny, Pa. (now Pittsburgh, North Side), Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916), a Presbyterian turned Congregationalist, was warning people about hell fire, when an atheist challenged him as to how a loving God could predestinate billions of people to an eternity of torture, when as yet they had done nothing either good or bad.  Realizing he had no satisfying answer, he looked into Eastern religions and found they had no answers.  Temporarily, he turned his attention to his mercantile business.  Walking home from work one evening in 1869 he stumbled upon a Second Adventist meeting (not Seventh-day Adventist) of Jonas Wendell (an advocate of 1874 for Christ’s return), which was sufficient to reestablish his faith in the Bible.  He, his family and other Christian friends began a Bible study.  By 1872 they had come to link Christ’s ransom sacrifice and the restitution of all things, and in 1874 he, his father and sister were immersed (baptized).  The local congregation grew and in 1876 elected Charles as pastor.  In 1879 Charles married Maria (Mä-rye'-uh) Frances Ackley and then started the Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence journal.

C.T. Russell wrote six volumes of “Studies in the Scriptures” (1886-1904, nearly 3,000 pages) to harmonize all scriptures on Ransom and Restitution, Bible chronology and types, the nature of God and the nature of man, and what the Christian should do about it.  These “volumes” were sold at minimum price by full-time and part-time “colporteurs” in America and then overseas.  Nine million “volumes” were circulated in his lifetime (12 million by 1927); 4,000 newspapers carried his sermons to fifteen million readers; the “Photodrama of Creation” audio-visual presentation (in four 2-hour parts) was shown free of charge to over ten million people in both hemispheres and in many languages.  Motivated by the message, there was plenty for Bible Students to do all around the world, and the adherents continued to grow in numbers.

Groups from the Second Advent movement
Second Advent Church (now Christian Advent Church): The Advent Christian General Conference (P.O. Box 23152, Charlotte, NC, 28227) would mostly agree with the early Watch Tower, though not on the Second Presence and perhaps not on the extent of atonement.  A brief history is given by Clarence J. Kearney, “The Advent Christian Story” (1968).  Jonas Wendell and George Stetson had limited association with them and with young C.T. Russell.
 

Church of God, Faith of Abraham: Crystallized from the Second Advent movement under Joseph Marsh.  They believe God is not a Trinity; immortality is conditional upon obedience and not inherent; no eternal torture; Christ’s sacrifice will not benefit unbelievers; and most believe there is no personal devil.  [Those I have met are of good personal character.]  [Christadelphians believe much the same, although they stemmed from John Thomas in England (not an Adventist)].  One of them, Benjamin Wilson in Oregon, Illinois, published the first Greek-English diaglott of the New Testament in 1864.  They have the Atlanta Bible College in Atlanta, Georgia.  They number somewhat more than ten thousand, though a minority of the churches are not members of the General Conference.
 

Seventh-Day Adventist Church: Though among the later groups to crystallize from the Second Advent movement, they have grown the fastest.  In contrast to the other Adventist groups, they consider Christians bound by the Mosaic Law and claim divine revelation for Ellen G. (Harmon) White and some of their other leaders.  While now becoming stridently Trinitarian, like nearly all other Adventist groups they believe in conditional immortality.
 

When Pastor C.T. Russell Died

When C.T. Russell died, J.F. Rutherford hurried to the Watch Tower office in Brooklyn and took over.  At the next W.T. annual meeting a Committee on rules and regulations recommended some new rules, which were adopted.  Andrew N. Pierson then nominated J.F. Rutherford for President and several others seconded the nomination.  The Jan. 15, 1917, W.T. says, “There being no further nominations, a motion was made that the rule of balloting be suspended, and that the Secretary of the Convention be directed to cast the entire vote for Brother J.F. Rutherford.  Thereupon the Secretary cast the ballot as directed, and Brother Rutherford was declared the unanimous choice of the convention as President of the [W.T.] Society for the ensuing year.”

Four of the seven members of the W.T. Board of Directors sought to limit Rutherford’s now autocratic control; so on July 17 Rutherford, as President, replaced those four with four directors of his own choosing.

J.F. Rutherford view: “Their purpose was to discredit me before as many friends as possible, and then pass a resolution depriving me of the management of the Society.  They had told me they were consulting lawyers…  I submit that it can hardly be said that I have acted from any selfish or ulterior motive.  I was advised by one of the best corporation lawyers in Philadelphia that these four men were not legal members of the Board, and that I had the legal authority to appoint a new board.  I appointed this Board not for a selfish purpose, but to protect the interests of the Society.”  [“Harvest Siftings,” ca. August 1917.]
Bible Student view:  Rutherford put his ally, A.H. MacMillan in charge of the W.T. annual meeting, and the latter prevented nomination of anyone else in 1917.  The President is responsible to the Board of Directors, not the other way around.  In the 1918 W.T. Annual Meeting, J.F. Rutherford received 194,106 votes, about 30,000 votes more than the number of shares voting (about 163,300) – and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  Everyone not siding with J.F. Rutherford was then driven out.  [See “Light After Darkness,” Sept. 1, 1917; “Facts for Shareholders of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society,” November 15, 1917.]
Hundreds left the Watch Tower under pressure and thousands more left in sympathy with them.  But they did not all go in the same direction.  In the first wave, thousands called themselves Associated Bible Students, largely in the eastern half of America, with many more in Europe, India, and Australia.

Pastoral Bible Institute (PBI): Formed late in 1918 to keep Bible Students in communication with each other, to pursue the pastoral work, and to publish The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom.  Books on Daniel and Revelation were published, as are several booklets and a special issue on Bible Students History, available on www.heraldmag.org.  For Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 1, “The Divine Plan of the Ages,” in 35 languages, it links to http://www.godsplan-today.com/.

Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement (LHMM): In December 1918 the Philadelphia ecclesia and other adherents of Paul S. L. Johnson formed the LHMM, which has published The Present Truth and Herald of Christ’s Epiphany (for adherents) and The Bible Standard (for public witness) journals ever since.  Johnson published 17 volumes of Epiphany Studies in the Scriptures.  He taught that C.T. Russell was the church’s Parousia Messenger and he was the Epiphany Messenger; that the heavenly calling ceased at 1914; and that new adherents would all receive a favored resurrection on earth as Youthful Worthies.  (An Epiphany Campers class was later added by Johnson’s successor, Raymond G. Jolly).  From an initial thousands in America, they are now hundreds here and thousands overseas, especially in Poland and Nigeria.
 

Standfasts: J.F. Rutherford authorized a book on Ezekiel and Revelation, The Finished Mystery, to be published as the 7th volume of Studies in the Scriptures.  Predominantly in the Pacific Northwest and west of Lake Michigan, Standfast Bible Students regarded it as virtually inspired, and they stood fast for all of it even after Rutherford repudiated parts of it.  The Standfasts also believed the call to any heavenly hope had ended in 1914, and so public witness was out of date.  While the movement virtually died after World War II, there are some neo-Standfasts today.
 

Philanthropical Society: Alexander Freytag left Rutherford and formed the Philanthropical Society, or Menschenfreunde (Man’s Friends), primarily in Switzerland and France.  Teaching only the earthly hope from henceforth, they soon numbered about 50,000, though the Swiss and French groups eventually split.  They were nearly unknown in America.
 

New Covenant: In 1908 Pastor C.T. Russell returned to his early thought that there are three great covenants under the promise to Abraham, that the church now is under a Grace Covenant to develop the heavenly seed (Bride of Christ), and that Christ and the Church will bring the blessings of the New Covenant to the world in Christ’s coming Kingdom.  Hundreds, believing that the church now and the world then will both be under the same covenant, left the Watch Tower movement in America and Australia.  They generally believe the concepts of Ransom and Restitution, while rejecting any idea of the faithful church having a part in the sin-offering; and most reject any invisible presence of Christ before the end of the Gospel Age.
 

Dawn: As J.F. Rutherford began major changes in Watchtower teachings in the late 1920’s, a second wave began leaving.  The Dawn began active public witness work with Frank & Ernest radio broadcasts in 1931 and the Dawn magazine in 1932.  They produce books, booklets and tracts in many languages, and do printing for many local Bible Student ecclesias.  Booklets may be downloaded at  www.dawnbible.com.
 

Chicago Bible Students: In the 1960’s C.B.S. Press and associates began reprinting virtually everything that Pastor C.T. Russell ever published.  But the Studies in the Scriptures volumes are reprinted by others: Dawn, LHMM, New Brunswick, and Fort Worth all publish them (though the latter two publish them principally in English).
 

Jehovah’s Witnesses: The W.T. built WBBR (New York) in 1924 and built their radio work up to 408 stations broadcasting their message in 1933.  But by about 1930 perhaps three-quarters of those with a heavenly hope had left the Watchtower, while those desiring an earthly resurrection proportionately increased.  Beth-Sarim, a mansion in San Diego, was built with all-volunteer labor and $75,000 in materials; it was then deeded to J.F. Rutherford for $10 (whether due to Rutherford’s ill-health, or to get him and his wine, women and profanity away from Brooklyn, remains in question, even among Witnesses).  J.F.R. turned the message towards the latter, introducing a Jonadab class.  In 1931 the movement adopted the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” likely to distinguish themselves from all other Bible Students.  With a worldwide membership of about two million, Witnesses today are kept busy in Kingdom Hall meetings and witnessing from door to door.  The organization built up to be a rumored $900 billion operation by 2007.

Under Fred Franz, they produced the New World Translation of the Bible in 1950 and then the Kingdom Interlinear New Testament diaglott.  NWT is relatively accurate, but KI is better.
The modern Watchtower now teaches that members must keep up with “new light,” that the W.T. is God’s visible organization on earth, that Jesus’ ransom sacrifice is for all, but that since 1914 only baptized Jehovah’s Witnesses will benefit from it – others will perish in Armageddon.  Members are pressured to have no friends outside the Witnesses.  For those who doubt anything, to be disfellowshipped is a continual threat.  But for those remaining faithful to the organization, there is the hope of seeing their enemies destroyed and then of procreating a new world of people in Christ’s thousand-year Kingdom
 

THE VOICE OF HOPE!
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