J16.10.94B.htm

(Cont. from Page 16/10/94A).

From Chapter 2.

Organizational Beginnings: (1873-1912)
Charles Taze Russell.

Russell preached that the 6,000 years of man's existence on earth had ended in 1872... and that the seventh millennium had begun in 1873. The glorified Christ became invisibly present in 1874... For forty years, the "saints," God's consecrated ones, would be "harvested," until, on October 1, 1914, the Gentile Times would end. On October 1, 1914, the evil worldly system would collapse, God would save His everlasting day, and there would be a general "Restitution" for all mankind but not before the "living saints" (Russell and his followers) would be suddenly and miraculously caught away bodily to be with their Lord, in 1878. (Pg.33,34). JW 'elders' today still boast in the many "lying signs and portents" that originated from "dungy idols" such as Charles Taze Russell the founder member of the 'governing body' of JWs today. Sadly, Russell built with "stubble" on the foundation of The Christ, and his work is destined for burning. Fools still follow in his footsteps, seeking glory by means of apostate speculations and predictions. (1 Cor 3:11 13).

Russell fortified his chronology with cranky evidence from "God's Stone Witness the Pyramid." "The Great Pyramid [is] a part of [God's] instrumentality for convincing the world of his wisdom, foreknowledge and grace... located in the geographical centre of the land surface of the world, the measurements of the Great Pyramid represent the earth and God's plan for the earth's salvation... In it are contained prophetical and chronological teachings." [Studies in the Scriptures, Vol.3, pp.317,326]. Russell believed that the measurements of the Pyramid proved that 1914 would be the end of the world order. He read more things into the Entrance Passage of the Pyramid than an art critic might into an Abstract Expressionist painting. (Pg. 35,36). Yet another of Russell's "lying signs and portents" "so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god." (2 Thess 2:4 & 9).

Pittsburgh newspapers reported that on the night of the Memorial of Christ's death in 1878, Russell was found on the Sixth Street Bridge dressed in a white robe, waiting to be wafted to heaven. (Pg.36). This man committed all these Godless acts because he was visited with the "active delusion" of apostasy. (See 2 Thess 2:11 Moffatt).

During the 1880s, ecclesias of Russellite Bible Students voted congregationally on some matters and elected a board of elders who were responsible for directing congregational matters. Today elders of congregations are appointed by an eighteen-man governing body in Brooklyn (an all-white, all-male group with a median age of 60); elders and governors form a self-perpetuating elite. (Pg.37). In reality what they are perpetuating is in fulfilment of the illustration The Christ gave in Matthew 24:48-51 The "evil slave".

On March 4, 1908, Mrs Russell was granted a divorce… In 1909, she appealed for an increase in alimony, and Russell moved out of the jurisdiction of the Pittsburgh courts, transferred all his assets to the Watch Tower Society so that he could declare himself penniless, and moved his staff and his operations to Brooklyn, New York, to avoid being jailed for failure to pay alimony. Finally, in 1911, the courts, on appeal, ruled conclusively on behalf of Mrs Russell, Justice Orlady of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania stating, with barely concealed anger, that Pastor Russell's "course of conduct toward his wife evidenced such insistent egotism and extravagant self praise that it would be manifest to the jury that his conduct toward her was one of continual arrogant domination that would necessarily render the life of any sensitive Christian woman a burden and make her life intolerable. (Pg.40).

(Cont. on Page 16/10/94C).

16/10/94B.