Focus on Charles Taze Russell

It is being claimed that Charles Taze Russell was “the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” under the heading, “Jehovah’s Witnesses: False Religion.” In truth, Charles Taze Russell was not the founder of the religion known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He did not believe in such an organization, nor the teachings of this religion. He was certainly not the founder of that which he did not believe in.

http://rlctr.blogspot.com/2008/03/was-russell-founder-of-jehovahs.html
http://ctr.reslight.net/?p=65

Russell himself never thought of himself as the “founder” of any religion; he claimed Christ as the founder of the religion that he believed in, that is, Biblical Christianity.

It is claimed that because of Russell’s “questionable character”, the Jehovah’s Witnesses no longer look at Russell as the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Officially, the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” leadership claim that their religion goes all the way back to Abel. Individually, however, one might hear some the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” refer to the Charles Taze Russell as their founder, or as the “modern-day” founder of their religion. However, we are not aware that any of them would “no longer” claim him as their founder because of an alleged “questionable  character” that is falsely attributed to Russell. However, the JW leadership does highly discourage study of Russell’s writings, with the claim that it “old light.” We highly suspect that the real reason is that Russell’s writings would expose much of the teachings of the JW leadership as being false.

It is claimed that Russell actually predicted the coming of Christ on two occasions. Most knowledgeable Bible Students would laugh at this, since anyone familiar with the writings of Russell knows that Russell never “predicted” the coming of Christ on any date at all. It is claimed that first Russell predicted that Christ was to return in 1874. Until 1876, Russell had no interest in the dates that were being set by various “adventists.” In 1876, however, he became interested in some material that was presenting Christ as having already come invisibly in 1874, two years earlier. It was not until then that Russell had any interest in the year 1874. Since this was two years after 1874, Russell never predicted any coming of Christ in 1874.

It is claimed that when Christ did not come in 1874 as Russell had allegedly predicted (which, in fact, Russell never predicted Christ to return in 1874), that Russell then changed the date to 1914. Both claims are in error. It would have Russell allegedly giving up on the year 1874 as the year of Christ’s return, something which he never did. Until the day he died, he continued in the belief that Christ had returned in 1874, and never at all changed his mind on that from 1876 until his death. Thus, the claim that he predicted Christ was to return in 1914 is ludicrous, to say the least.

It is claimed that Russell lied under oath, which claim is also false.

http://tinyurl.com/4ocwz
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/6444/perjury.htm
http://rlctr.blogspot.com/2008/09/russells-perjury.html
http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/contents/history/gr8%20battle.htm
http://www.pastor-russell.com/life/lie1.html

The true founder of the religion known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was Joseph Rutherford. Rutherford, after Russell died, used deceit and legal trickery to gain control of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as a basis to form his new religion which he later called “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” You will not find any reference in Russell’s writings to a Watch Tower organization, and certainly not of an organization that Rutherford conceived after Russell died. Almost immediately after Russell died, however, Rutherford and his followers began to instill the concept of an “organization” in connection with the Watch Tower Society. (See the Watch Tower issues of December of 1916).