Historical
Publications
Relating
to Jehovah’s Witnesses
Links
to Sources & Articles Relating to Watchtower History
The history of the Jehovah’s Witness/Bible Student movement cannot be properly appreciated apart from understanding their emphasis on biblical chronology. This played a major role even before their beginnings with Charles Taze Russell as their pastor in the early 1870s. Russell himself explained the background of his movement in an article entitled "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" in the February 1881 Watchtower:
“Looking back to 1871, we see that many of our company were what are known as Second Adventists, and the light they held briefly stated, was that there would be a second advent of Jesus-- that he would come to bless and immortalize the saints, to judge the world and to burn up the world and all the wicked. This, they claimed would occur in 1873, because the 6,000 years from the creation of Adam were complete then.”
Second Adventists should not be confused with Seventh-Day
Adventists. The Second Adventists were some of the spiritual heirs of the
Adventist movement begun by William Miller in the late 1830s and early 1840s. A
good overview of the Adventist movement in the nineteenth century can be found
in this article from
the Catholic Encyclopedia. Russell was primarily influenced by and
fellowshipped with those who were in the Advent Christian Church and the Life
and Advent Union. See these links for
more on these influences on Russell:
The Adventist
Family The Adventist
Movement
Jehovah's
Witnesses--An Adventist & Russellite Offshoot
Biography
of William Miller – nineteenth century biography of the man who was the
founder of the Adventist movement.
Evidence
from Scripture & History for the Second Coming of Christ About the Year
1843 Lectures by William Miller
published in 1842.
In Chapter VII of the above work, Miller detailed his view that the “seven times” of Daniel chapter 4 had an additional fulfillment on the “people of God” and was a period of “seven prophetic times,” being 2,520 years from 677 BC to AD 1843:
"Seven times," in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, was fulfilled in seven years. Nebuchadnezzar, for his pride and arrogancy against God, was driven among the beasts of the field, and was made to eat grass as oxen, until seven times passed over him, and until he learned that the Most High ruled in the kingdoms of men, and gave it to whomsoever he would. This being a matter of history, and as an allegory or sample to the people of God for their pride and arrogancy, in refusing to be reformed by God, and claiming the power and will to do these things themselves,--they, too, like Nebuchadnezzar, must be driven among the beasts of the field, (meaning the kingdoms of the world,) until they learn the sovereignty of God, and that he dispenses his favors to whomsoever he will. That, being a matter of history, and a sample only, was fulfilled in seven years; but this, being a prophecy, will only be fulfilled in seven prophetic times, which will be 7 times 360 years, which will make 2520 years….
Then, if Babylon was the nation which was to scatter the people of God, and this, too, in the days of Manasseh, I ask, When was this captivity? I answer, In the year 677 before Christ; see 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9-13; see also the Bible chronology of that event; this being the first captivity of Judah in Babylon. Then take 677 years, which were before Christ, from 2520 years, which includes the whole "seven times," or "seven years," prophetic, and the remainder will be 1843 after Christ; showing that the people of God will be gathered from among all nations, and the kingdom and greatness of the kingdom will be given to the saints of the Most High; mystical Babylon will be destroyed by the brightness of his coming; and sin, and suffering for sin, will be finished to those who look for his coming.
Chronology Chart by
William Miller “Seven times” begin in 677 B.C. and run until 1843 A.D.
Lecture Chart
used by William Miller. 2,520 years run from 677 B.C. until 1843 A.D. Photo of
original chart
Views
of the Prophecies and Prophetic Chronology from manuscripts by William
Miller. Same text in PDF here
Millerite magazines:
The
Signs of the Times DJVU scans of original issues (1840-1841)
The
Midnight Cry PDF scans of original issues (starting in 1842).
Critique of
Miller's Work by a Baptist minister
named John Dowling written in 1840. Chapter IV refutes Miller’s 2,520 year
chronology as a “stretch of ingenuity.” With a bit of sarcasm he criticizes
Miller’s 677 BC date as “calculating backward” to make the chronology
work. Ironically, he suggests 606 BC
would have been a more appropriate beginning date for such a 2,520 year period
but he notes this would not have served Miller’s purpose of supporting his
predictions for 1843:
He then looks into his Bible chronology, and
finds that in the year BC 677 one of the kings of Judah, named Manasseh, was
carried a prisoner to Babylon. Here, then, says Mr. M., must begin this
punishment of seven times.
It would have answered his purpose, doubtless, much better had this subtraction happened to have brought out the number 606 BC, the date of the commencement of the 70 years captivity of the Israelites in Babylon; but figures will not bend, and therefore, for want of a better, this date of Manasseh's being taken prisoner is adopted, though it was the mere captivity of an individual king, and not of the Jewish people, as the Babylonish captivity was, 71 years after.
This is precisely the date that later Adventists (such as
Nelson Barbour) adopted as the beginning of this 2,520 years!
The idea of a 2,520 year prophetic time period was put
forth by several different people in the 19th century.
See this chart Part
1 Part
2 taken from the book The Gentile Times
Reconsidered.
Miller
Overthrown or The False Prophet Confounded --Fascinating contemporary
criticism of William Miller published in 1840. From the Introduction:
The
Almighty has wisely hidden that day from us. Let the man who would rashly
essay to raise the veil, ponder well upon the responsibility he assumes.
Let him not imagine that he does God service by terrifying the weak, and, in
this way, driving them into the church. Such was not the policy of the
apostle, who cautioned the flock not to be terrified by word or by epistle, as
if the great day of the Lord was at hand. Let those clergymen who
willfully encourage Miller's imposture bear in mind that the cause of truth can
never be aided by deception; and that, if they should now gain a few
converts through his instrumentality, their loss will eventually be greater
than their gain. That portion of their wall which is built with his
untempered mortar will, when it fall, carry with it some of the more sound
mason-work, and "great will be the fall thereof." Those who are
driven into the church by groundless fears will prove sad converts when those
fears are removed by the disgraceful exposure of their prophet. A
sectarian triumph of three years will hardly compensate them for the reproof of
their own consciences, and for making merchandise of men by feigned words, or
by withholding sound ones. Suppose that Christ had not risen from the
dead; then would the apostle's faith have been in vain; and how can it be
expected that those who have embraced religion on the credit of Mr. Miller's
prediction will remain firm in the faith after the imposture is exposed?
New York Herald
Articles on the Millerites
Contemporary news coverage of the Millerite movement
Cover
illustration of March 2, 1843 New York Tribune (front page) edited by
Horace Greeley
Days
of Delusions--A Strange Bit of History Reminiscences of the Millerites by
Clara Endicott Sears. Chapter
9 and Chapter 12
relate George Storrs’ involvement with the movement.
History Channel video clip on William
Miller and his spiritual heirs.
How the original 1843 prediction was supplanted by
predictions for 1844 based upon chronological and theological reasons is
explained here.
The development of the different Adventist groups after the “great
disappointment” of 1844 is outlined here
and how the date 1844 was re-interpreted by some Adventists after that
disappointment from a prophesied earthly event to an unseen heavenly event is
explained here.
The Advent
Christian Church still exists today. Its doctrinal stance can be found
here: Declaration
of Principles of the Advent Christian Church
The
History of the Second Advent Message and Mission, Doctrine and People by
Isaac Wellcome (1874) in djvu format.
Advent Christian History
One of the influences for the Millerite movement and 19th
century Protestant premillennialism was the book The Coming of the Messiah
in Glory and Majesty, written in 1811. The author was Manuel Lacunza, a
Spanish Jesuit who took the pen name of Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra. The book and its
ideas were eventually censured by
the Catholic Church but found support among some Protestants, notably
Edward Irving. Background on Irving can be found here
and the Millerite connection can be read about here.
Irving’s translation of Lacunza’s work is in 2 Volumes: Volume 1 and Volume 2. The
ideas of Christian Zionism and a secret return of Christ to gather his saints
can be attributed to Lacunza and Irving.
Another influence was the book HORAE
APOCALYPTICAE by Rev. E.B. Elliott,
published in 1844. In discussing chronology, it mentions the year 1914 on pages
1429 and 1431 as one of “the extreme dates.”
Elliott was focused on the year “1865, or thereabouts” as the time for
the return of Christ (see page 1421). Although not an Adventist, his book had
quite an influence on Protestants who held to premillenialism. Nelson Barbour
acknowledged his debt to Elliott for his understanding of chronology in the March
1874 issue of The Midnight Cry and Herald of the Morning:
The chronology published in the "Midnight Cry," of 1873,
is the only strictly Bible chronology from Adam to Cyrus, ever published. -I
know how comprehensive is this statement, and what I am saying-I do not claim
to have been the author, or even the compiler. It was advocated by Bowen, then
by Elliott, of England, and lastly by myself.
Books by Second Adventists
who influenced Charles Russell:
The
Present Truth or Meat in Due Season , written by Jonas
Wendell in 1870. (Wendell was the Adventist preacher Russell credited with
restoring his faith.) On pages 35-36, Wendell explains Miller’s “mistake” and
proposes 1873 as the year chronology pointed towards:
All those who are familiar with the views of Father Miller know
that he terminated the seventy weeks or 490 years at the crucifixion of Christ,
in A.D. 33. Here we discover a mistake of thirty years: for it is certain the
seventy weeks did not end at the cross, but extended on to about the time of
the Roman army going against Jerusalem. In one of the published lectures of
William Miller, he said: "Let my enemies show any other year in which all
these periods will center, then I will admit I may be mistaken." Time proved
that which his enemies could not do. I must confess that it did appear to me
that no other year could be found, in which all the periods would center, until
within a few months; and now I am satisfied that the year 1873 is the year in
which the 2300 days [years], the 1335 days [years], and the 6000 years end.
They come together in that year without the sound of a hammer; there is no
passage of Scripture strained from its plain, literal meaning to reach this
result.
On page 45
Wendell gave 1880 as an outside date for Christ’s return:
"This generation" who see these things begin to
come to pass "shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled."
It is certain. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away." That this is the true import of the passage is to my mind
clear, from the fact that the events here specified did not take plane in the
lifetime of those who heard him, but were to, and did, take place since the
"great tribulation" ended. There is no other rational conclusion but
that the same generation who see the signs of an event should live to
witness the event signified by those signs. As a generation is
equivalent to a hundred years (compare Gen. 15:16 with Matt. 24:13), and the
first sign was the darkening of the sun in 1780, this generation will end in
1880: therefore we may expect the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven before
1880.
Six Sermons by George Storrs Russell wrote articles for Storrs’ magazine The Bible
Examiner
George Storrs’ earlier involvement with William Miller
and the 1844 prediction can be read here
A Vindication
of the Government of God... by George Storrs
Treatises by
George Storrs A note about Storrs’
failing health appears in the January 1880 Watchtower
Treatises
by George Stetson Russell preached
Stetson’s funeral: see November
1879 Watchtower
EVIDENCES
FOR THE COMING OF THE LORD IN 1873: OR THE MIDNIGHT CRY by Nelson Barbour
On pages 32 & 33 Barbour explains how he came across
the chronology he would come to accept while in London. Referring to himself in
the third person, he explains:
On arriving in London, he went to the library of the
British Museum, and among many other extensive works on the prophecies, found
Elliott’s Horae Apocalypticae, which at that time, 1860, was a standard
work; advocating 1866 as the time for the coming of the Lord. There the chronology was found as now given
in these pages, with some slight additional proof. Elliott, who was trying to prove the end in 1866, had worked it
up. But it overran the time, and finding
no possible way of shortening it a single year; he closed with the remark,
"It seems to overrun a few years, but it is barely possible some mistake
may have occurred among so many periods, though I am unable to discover
it."
After adopting Elliott’s chronology, he predicted the
Second Advent would occur “a few years” later than Elliott’s prediction.
Barbour explained there was a 30 year “tarrying” from 1843 to 1873 paralleling
the time from Christ’s birth to the beginning of his ministry. (See page 99)
Nelson
Barbour's Articles on Chronology in various Advent Christian magazines. In
an article entitled “The 1873 Time” in the November 11, 1873 issue of Advent
Christian Times, Barbour gives his reasons for revising his 1873 prediction
for the year 1874:
But notwithstanding all this I
am still enforcing the 1873 arguments with more faith and a greater zeal than
ever, though I do not expect the Lord until the seventh month of 1874.
Midnight
Cry & Herald of the Morning March 1874 magazine edited by N. H.
Barbour. Towards the end of this issue Barbour explains his expectations for
the fall of 1874:
I believe the
"sign of the Son of man in heaven." will appear this coming AUTUMN;
that, then the Gospel will have ended, God’s spirit be withdrawn, and a reign
of terror, such as this world has never yet experienced, be inaugurated.
I believe that time of trouble has already began, and in progress
in its incipient state, since last September.
I believe the six
thousand years from Adam ended at that time, and that we are now "IN THE
DAY OF THE LORD," and that probation and the Spirit of God lingers a
little fraction of time, to fill up certain jots of prophesy, and that a few
months will usher in the "Time of Trouble" in all its dread reality,
and that this state of things will continue for YEARS, before the age of peace,
and millennial glory will commence.
I believe in the
midst of all this trouble, when all existing political and social organizations
are shaken to the center, and all confidence between man and man has fled from
the earth; that Christ and his saints will organize a kingdom, "which shall
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and stand forever."
Picture
of the cover of Barbour’s Herald of the Morning
Later
articles from Barbour's magazine
Soon after 1874 Barbour came to believe that Christ had returned in
1874, but invisibly. For example, this statement appears in the July 1875 Herald
of the Morning (page 28) :
Every careful reader of this paper must have become satisfied the
old traditions, and loose ideas which have obtained in relation to the manner
of Christ's coming are, in the main, unscriptural; and that there is, and must
be a period of time called, "the days of tie Son of man;" in which,
although He is here, the world will be ignorant of his presence. Otherwise, how
can they be "building, planting, and marrying; and know not"? For
"as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be, in the days of the Son of
man."
In the September 1875 Herald of the Morning,
Barbour explains his developed understanding of chronology. 1914 is mentioned
as the terminus of the “time of trouble.” The “harvest” is to end in the spring
of 1878, culminating in a gathering of the living saints with the resurrected
saints “to the Lord in the air”:
I believe the earth [or cosmos] abideth forever; but
that the ages, [aionies] are continually passing. That we are now in the end of
the gospel age, and the commencing of the age of, or "times of restitution
of all things." That this transition period is called "the time of
harvest" And that it began in the autumn of 1874, and will end in the
spring of 1878; measuring three and a half years. And that the events of this
time of harvest, are first the resurrection of the dead in Christ; second, the
binding of the tares in bundles; third and last, the translation of the living
saints and gathering of them together with the risen ones to the Lord in the
air.
I believe that though the gospel dispensation will end
in 1878, the Jews will not be restored to Palestine, until 1881; and that the
"times of the Gentiles," viz. their seven prophetic, times, of 2520,
or twice 1260 years, which began where God gave all, into the hands of
Nebuchadnezzar, 606 B.C.; do not end until A.D. 1914; or 40 years from this.
I believe that during this 40 years, just begun the
"time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation;" will be
fulfilled. And in the mean time, the kingdom of God will be set up, "break
in pieces, and consume all these [Gentile] kingdoms," "and the stone
become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth," and usher in glory of
the millennial age.
When the "harvest"
is ended, I believe the most terrible judgments of war, famine, pestilence, and
desolation, this world has ever witnessed; will prevail, until one universal
reign of terror obtains, from pole to pole: until life shall be a burden to the
most favored; and death earnestly desired.
Barbour's
1876 Article on the Pyramid says
the Great Pyramid points to year 1914. Speculations on how pyramidology spread
in Second Adventist circles can be read here. Background information
on Charles
Piazzi Smyth and pyramidology
among Russell’s followers. Pictures
from Smyth’s Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.
C.T. Russell explains how in 1876 he came to be
affiliated with N.H. Barbour in the July 15, 1906 Watch Tower,
Reprints page 3822.
Some Advent Christians were not pleased with Barbour
& Russell’s preaching that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874. From the Advent Christian Times of July 18, 1877, pp. 89-90:
"One N. H. Barbour, called Dr. Barbour, with his confreres, J. H. Paton
and C. T. Russell, is traveling around the country, going everywhere that they
can find Adventists, and preaching that Jesus has come secretly, and will soon
be revealed and mingling in their lectures a lot of "Age-to-come"
trash, all to subvert their hearers. They are not endorsed by Adventists,
"Age-to-come" folks, or anybody else, yet having some money and a few
sympathizers they will probably run awhile. They have been to Ohio and Indiana
and are working westward. We are credibly informed that one of them boasted in
Union Mills, Ind., a few days since, that they would break up every Advent
church in the land. We guess not. Their whole work is proselytizing. The Lord
never sent them on their mission. Give them no place, and go not near them or
countenance them."
As cited here from the forum Zion's Watchtower
Society--The Early Years
(Discussion group on this early period of Watchtower history). See also:
19th Century
Pioneers of Jehovah's Witnesses (Discussion group on similar topics). For
some background on the “age-to-come” theology presented by Barbour, Paton and
Russell, see the section “Age-to-Come Controversy” at this site.
Books by Russell’s early
associates:
The Three Worlds
by Nelson H. Barbour
and C.T. Russell, published in 1877. (The book was written by Barbour and
financed by Russell.) Pages 104-108 explained that Christ returned invisibly to
the earth in 1874-1875. Page 108 says the resurrection of the saints happened
in the Spring of 1875. The end of the “harvest” is expected to be in the Spring
of 1878 (pages 68, 89-93, 124, 125-126, 143).
See, for example, this interpretation of the sounding of the “7th
trumpet” mentioned in Revelation
chapters 10 & 11 on page 143:
With this message the “mystery
of God will be finished, as he declared to his servants the prophets.” And from
August, 1840, to the Spring of 1878, or 37 and a-half years, will consummate
this part of the work. Then look out for “angry nations” “and the nations were
angry, and thy wrath is come…” (verse 18).
The year 1914 is seen as the final end of the “day of
wrath”:
…the
“times of the Gentiles,” reach from B.C. 606 to A.D. 1914, or forty years
beyond 1874. And the time of trouble, conquest
of the
nations, and events connected with the day of wrath, have only ample time,
during the balance of this forty years, for
their
fulfillment. [page 189]
Shortly after the Spring of 1878, C.T. Russell wrote his
first article for Herald of the Morning (July, 1878). Russell refers to
the failed realization of expectations for the translation of the Church to
heaven and explains (based on parallels to first-century chronology) that the
harvest will last another 3 ½ years--for a total of 7 years—ending in the
autumn of 1881. The “time of trouble” for the world will not have its “entire
accomplishment” for another 37 years (1914-1915). However, the “burning of the
tares” of the harvest is expected by the end of this second 3 ½ years, with the
translation of the Church presumably “soon thereafter.” The text for the
following article can be found on page 10 of this collection
of Russell’s writings:
When a short time since our expectations of translation failed of
realization, doubtless all who understood the foundation upon which those hopes
were based felt somewhat disappointed; yet we did not for a moment feel cast
down. We realized that what God had so plainly declared must some time have a
fulfillment….WHEREIN DID WE ERR?
We had supposed that this gathering was accomplished in the one day of
Pentecost, which followed Christ's ministry; but we now see that while some of the
wheat of that age was there gathered into the garner, the gospel dispensation,
yet those were not all the wheat. No, the gathering of the wheat required time,
and we shall show had three and a-half years allotted to it, making the harvest
seven years long….
Our harvest, like theirs, has two special kinds of work.
1st. A separation between wheat and tares, by the tares being bound in bundles.
2dly. The gathering of the wheat, while the tares are burning. We have
all along recognized the separation as the work of the three and a-half years
just ended….
That this work has been accomplished in the three and a-half years of
the harvest just ended, we thoroughly believe, but as there, so here, there is
a "gathering into the barn" to be done, and the pattern teaches us
that it will require three-and-a-half years for this part of the harvest work;
but remember this is not setting a time for translation, the translation not
being due until all are gathered, and how long after we know not, but presume
soon thereafter. But, says one, I thought the gathering "into the
barn" was translation.
So we all did, and that was the mistake; we supposed the separation took three
and a-half years, and the gathering one moment. We now find that the gathering
here, as in the end of the Jewish age, takes three and a-half years; and know
that the "gathering into the barn" is not translation, but a work
that precedes it. Translation, or the changing of the living, (1 Cor. 15:51) is
the work of the Spirit (Phil. 3:21)….
TARES ARE BEING BURNED.
What is this? We have seen that there is a great time of trouble coming upon
the world, and that it has already commenced, but has some thirty-seven years
future for its entire accomplishment; but while this trouble upon the world is
expressed by the figure of fire, yet it must be a different fire from this
which burns up the tares, for the tares are not the world. No, "the field
is the world," "the tares are the children of the wicked one."
They are hypocrites pretended wheat "wolves in sheep's"
clothing." During this three and a-half years we expect (Matt. 13:41-42),
to be fulfilled.
We therefore anticipate a dreadful burning of tares, and a scorching of all
wheat, which has not been separated from them.
By the next year, C.T. Russell and N.H. Barbour’s
disagreement over the nature of Christ’s atonement led to their parting.
Russell began publishing the magazine Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of
Christ’s Presence in July, 1879. By 1881, Russell was reporting that Barbour
had reversed his views and no longer taught that Christ had returned invisibly
in 1874. (See the February,
1881 Watch Tower, Reprints p. 188).
Barbour continued to publish The Herald of the Morning for
several years.
Day Dawn by John
H. Paton, published in 1880. 1914 is seen as the conclusion of the “time of
the end.” Page 73 states:
The exact time when the resurrection of the dead, or the translation of the living church is due, we do not pretend to know,
but think we have good reason for believing that they will have taken place before "The time of the end" has expired, or before 1914.
In an article in the April 1880 Watchtower
Russell explains his view of the role of Miller and other Adventists in what he
felt was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. William Miller is mentioned
specifically and Nelson Barbour is acknowledged (the author of “The Midnight
Cry”) but not named. (Complete issue of the April 1880 Watchtower
can be read here.)
In that article, Russell explains how he did not hear the “Midnight Cry” about
Christ’s invisible return until 1876:
The writer, among many others
now interested, was sound asleep, in profound ignorance of the cry, etc., until
1876, when being awakened he trimmed his lamp (for it is still very early in
the morning.) It showed him clearly that the Bridegroom had come and that he is
living "in the days of the Son of Man." [Reprints p. 87]
Russell acknowledged the role Wendell, Stetson, Storrs,
Paton and Barbour had played in an article in the May 1890 Watchtower entitled
"Harvest
Gatherings and Siftings."
Writings by Charles Taze
Russell:
Early Writings
of Charles Taze Russell before he started the Watchtower magazine.
On pages 3 & 4 from the October 1876 Bible Examiner (published by
George Storrs) Russell explains that by 1914 the “Gentile Governments shall
have been dashed to pieces” and the Jews and “Jerusalem shall be delivered
forever.” The “escape of the Church” or the “taking by Christ of His Bride” is
seen as occurring earlier as “one of the first acts in the Judgment.”
The Object and
Manner of Our Lord's Return 1877
Object
and Manner of Our Lord's Return scanned and in another format.
Food
For Thinking Christians 1881
Russell’s early views on biblical chronology (and the
dates 1874, 1878, 1881 and 1914) are explained in the articles "A Stone of
Stumbling" and "How
Long, O Lord" in the January 1881 Watchtower. The February 1,
1881 Watchtower (page 5) indicates that the “change” to heavenly glory was
expected for the autumn of 1881:
And now we come nearer to the time when
OUR CHANGE SEEMS DUE
(We know not the day or hour,
but expect it during 1881, possibly near the autumn where the parallels show
the favor to Zion complete and due to end, the door to the marriage to shut,
and the high calling to be the bride of Christ, to cease.)
But, see also "The Year 1881"
and "The Door Was
Shut" in the May
& October 1881 Watch
Towers where this is downplayed and October 2, 1881 is said to mark the
time when the call to be part of the “Bride of Christ” ended.
Russell affirmed that Christ’s Second Advent occurred in
the fall of 1874 and that the “Day of the Lord” extends from 1874 until 1914.
See the May
1881 Watchtower. The full article can be read here.
Picture
of Watch Tower magazine from June, 1886.
Russell’s later expectations for 1914 can be seen in
these scans from The Time is At Hand, which he first published in 1889.
These scans are from the 1907 edition: Pages 76-77 Pages 78-79
Russell explained in the July
15, 1894 Watch Tower (page 226) in an article entitled “Can
it be Delayed Until 1914?” that 1914 would be the end of the “time
of trouble.” The chronology, he believed, was “God’s dates” and “not ours”:
Now,
in view of recent labor troubles and threatened anarchy, our readers are
writing to know if there may not be a mistake in the 1914 date. They say that
they do not see how present conditions can hold out so long under the strain.
We see no reason for changing
the figures-- nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God's
dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning,
but for the end of the time of trouble. (Emphasis his)
Russell’s mature view on eschatology and chronology can
be found in Study
IX of Vol. 3 of Studies in the Scriptures, particularly pages
305-308. There he ties together the Adventist movement of William Miller to the
Second Advent of Christ in 1874 and the end of the Gentile Times in 1914. Russell
believed that Christ had resurrected the saints in 1878 as spirit beings to be
with him on the earth during a time of harvest. He hoped that “shortly” those
of the saints still alive on earth would be “changed to the same glorious
likeness”:
Behind us are all the prophetic landmarks which point to
this time as the most wonderful period in all the history of the world. They
have shown us that since 1873 we have been living in the seventh millennium;
that the lease of Gentile dominion, "The Times of the Gentiles," will
expire with the year 1914; and that the advent of him whose right it is to take
the dominion was due in 1874. They have shown us that in the days of these
Gentile kings, before their lease of power expires, the God of heaven will set
up a Kingdom, and that the setting up of that Kingdom has actually been in
progress since the year 1878; that there the resurrection of all the dead in
Christ was due; and that therefore, since that date, not only is our Lord and
Head invisibly present in the world, but all these holy messengers are also
with him. And observe, farther, that this date of the resurrection of the dead
in Christ parallels the date of the resurrection of the Head of the body. Our
Lord's resurrection occurred three and a half years after his advent as the
Messiah, in A. D. 29; and the resurrection of his body, the Church, we have
seen, was due in the year 1878, three and a half years after his second advent,
in October 1874.
Prophecy has also indicated the manner of our Lord's return, so that, though he
is present, we should not expect to see either him or the risen saints, who are
now in his likeness, except by the eye of faith — faith in the "sure word
of prophecy;" though we have learned that those who now constitute
"the feet of Christ" shall also shortly be changed to the same
glorious likeness. They shall then be spirit beings, like him, Christ, and like
all the risen saints who are now with him, and will in due time see him as
he is. (1 John 3:2.)…
We have marked, too, the fixed dates to which the Prophet
Daniel calls attention. The 2,300 days point to 1846 as the time when God's
sanctuary would be cleansed of the defiling errors and principles of Papacy;
and we have noted the cleansing there accomplished. We have noted the
fulfilment of the 1,260 days, or the time, times and half a time, of Papacy's
power to persecute, and the beginning there, in 1799, of the Time of the End.
We have seen how the 1,290 days marked the beginning of an understanding of the
mysteries of prophecy in the year 1829, culminating in the great movement of
1844 known as the Second-Advent movement, when, according to the Lord's
prediction, the wise virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom, thirty years
prior to his actual coming. We have seen the fulfilment of the predicted
tarrying; and for fifteen years the midnight cry, "Behold the
Bridegroom!" has gone forth. We have marked with special delight the 1,335
days, pointing, as they do, to 1874 as the exact date of our Lord's return; and
we have since that time experienced the very blessedness promised — through the
clearer unfoldings of the wonderful mysteries of the divine plan.
Then we have seen the great harvest work, in its appointed
time and order, beginning in the autumn of the year 1874, gradually and
silently, but rapidly, progressing. We have marked the bundling and binding of
the tares, and the gathering of the wheat. And what blessing and joy come to us
in the assurance that since the summer of 1878, when the King took his great
power and began his reign by the resurrection of those who slept in Jesus, it
is no longer needful that his members should "sleep" and wait for
glory, but that for each the moment of finishing his course in death is the
moment of the joyful "change" to the full perfection of the divine
nature and likeness. Indeed, "blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
from henceforth" forever. They rest from their labors, but their
works continue; for the work on the other side the vail is the same work in
which all the overcomers are engaged on this side the vail; except that, with
those who have entered into the glory of the divine nature, the work is no
longer laborious, and no longer costs fatiguing sacrifice.
In addition to all this, we see the beginnings of the
return of divine favor to fleshly Israel already manifested in the beginning of
a turning away of their blindness and prejudice against Christ Jesus, in the
opening up of the land of promise and their expulsion from other lands, and
also in the returning fruitfulness of Palestine itself. These outward signs
alone, aside from all prophetic dates and times, would be strong evidences that
we are living in the close of the age appointed for the selection of the Church
or Kingdom class, because of the positive assurance of the Scriptures that
their blindness and cast-off condition would continue only until the members of
the body of Christ had been selected.
Early
Picture of C.T. Russell Picture of Charles & Maria
Russell Later Picture of C.T. Russell Picture of Russell in
Later Years
C.T.
Russell Photo & Movie Gallery includes video clips from The
Photodrama of Creation
The Tabernacle
and Its Teachings Supplement to February 1882 Watchtower (not in Watchtower
Reprints)
Index of
pre-1920s Watchtower publications from reexamine.org
Comparisons
of Different Editions of Studies in the Scriptures see below:
The text for these editions of the volumes of Studies
in the Scriptures is the 1916 edition.
Studies
in the Scriptures -- in PDF format
Studies in the
Scriptures – best viewed in Internet Explorer.
Studies
in the Scriptures – has a searchable database
Individual volumes:
The
Divine Plan of the Ages Volume 1
Some
quotes relating to the "Divine Plan" book
Scan
of the "Chart of the Ages"
Scan
of Volume 1--1908 edition
The
Time is at Hand Volume 2
Scan of Volume
2--1917 edition
Thy
Kingdom Come Volume 3
Section
from Vol. 3 on the Great Pyramid
Scan of Volume
3--1919 edition
The
Battle of Armageddon Volume 4
Scan of Volume
4--1915 edition
The
Atonement Between God and Man
Volume 5
Scan of
Volume 5--1915 edition
The
New Creation Volume 6
Scan of
Volume 6--1924 edition
(Resurrection of the “dead in Christ” to heavenly life in
the year 1878 is mentioned on page 663.)
Scan of
Tabernacle Shadows--1915 edition
Photo-Drama
of Creation Video clip from
Photodrama
Pastor Russell's
Sermons published by the Watchtower
Society after Russell’s death
Pastor
Russell's Sermons --PDF
What
Pastor Russell Said "Question Book"
What
Pastor Russell Wrote for the Overland Monthly
Works by C.T. Russell
Online a searchable database
Two classic oral debates:
Russell
vs. Eaton (Methodist Episcopal)
Russell
vs. White (Disciples of Christ)
More of Russell’s writings can be found in Harvest Gleanings Harvest
Gleanings--Vol. 2 and Harvest Gleanings--Vol.
3
Pastor Russell's
Convention Discourses 1906-1916
Expanded
Biblical Comments Commentary on the
Bible from Russell’s writings--PDF
Expanded
Biblical Comments From another
source with links to commentaries.
The Laodicean
Messenger A biography of C.T.
Russell (scanned PDF version)
The
Laodicean Messenger html version
The Messenger
of Laodicea short booklet with
photos of Russell
See this picture of Russell’s
tombstone and this picture of
the pyramid at his gravesite.
The
Pyramid at Charles Russell's grave
Biography of
Charles Taze Russell --written by
J. F. Rutherford Biography--PDF
version
Scans from December 1, 1916 Watchtower
Page 356 Page 357 Page 358 Page 359
How firmly the Bible Students held to the published chronology
can be seen in an article entitled “A Father’s Letter to
His Son” in the
September 1,
1908 Watchtower. Russell, as editor of The Watch Tower, published a
letter written by an anonymous Bible Student father to his infant son. The
letter is to be opened by this son on his 10th birthday in the year
1916:
TO MY DEARLY BELOVED SON:--
It has been on my heart for a
considerable time to write you a letter, to be opened on your tenth birthday,
__________, 1916, to endeavor to express something of the feeling of love and
tenderness I have towards you, and to point out, for your eternal joy, and for
your safety, certain principles, which I hope you will receive into a good and
honest heart. At last a favorable opportunity has come, and as my last message
to you I beg you to give earnest heed to all that this letter contains.
[He explains
why Mom and Dad are gone:]
I know that when this letter is
read your papa and mamma will have passed from earthly scenes forever, and the
great time of trouble, "such as
never was since there was a nation," will no longer be a matter of
prophecy, but of history.
[Mom and Dad will have been “changed from earthly to heavenly conditions”:]
The time when the suffering shall be finished
is now very near, hence it follows that, if we have proved sufficiently
faithful to the Lord, the time is near at hand when we shall share with him the
glory that is to follow. This means that very soon it will be true of us, as it
is true of the Lord, that we shall be changed from earthly to heavenly
conditions, and the world will see us no more, forever.
[This
Father is concerned for his son’s future on this earth after the “time of
trouble”:]
I come now to the special object of this letter. The Scriptures indicate that in the year 1915, the year before this letter is read, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Isaiah, Daniel, and all the holy prophets and patriarchs from Abel to John the Baptist, will have been raised from the dead and will be in charge of the earthly phase of the Lord's Kingdom, with headquarters at Jerusalem. The Lord's Word also seems to indicate that this truth, and the fact that there has been a change of dispensation, may possibly not be generally believed until the year 1918. I am writing this to you so that you will not be one of those who will be mistaken on this point, but will understand that, by the time this letter is read, the squar
