Response to Some False Statements
Two pages related a story of Dustin Walker at canada.com that we have not been able to place comments on have basically the same false information about Charles Taze Russell. We wish to state, however, that our remarks are not to be taken as personally against Mr. Walker. We believe that he probably was himself misled by others.
Walker’s story can be found here:
http://www.canada.com/Keeping+faith/1692869/story.html
The story again here (with comments):
http://www.chtv.com/ch/cheknews/story.html?id=b3d5d95d-c598-43e5-8c0c-6811dd1895ed&p=3
We tried to post comments on the latter page, but every time we tried to submit the comments, we received a “page not found” reply. Therefore, we are submitting our comments here. Any who wish to reply our comments may do so on RL Bible Disucssions Board.
It is claimed that “Marketing has been part of the Jehovah’s Witness faith almost since its inception in the late 1800s by former Adventist follower Charles Russell.”
There was no Jehovah’s Witnesses organization in late 1800s, nor did that organization exist in the days of Charles Taze Russell at all. Russell did not believe in such an authoritarian organization, and preached against forming such an organization until the day of his death.
As to his being an Adventist, we suppose this would depend on what one means by such a term. Russell was associated with the Second Adventist (not the Seventh-Day Adventists) group for a short time, although, being non-sectarian, he did not claim to be a “Second Adventist” as though belonging a denomination.
It is claimed that Russell “Russell taught his followers that hell does not exist ” It is not true that Russell taught anyone that hell does not exist. He believed and taught the true “hell” as revealed in the Bible. He taught any who would listen the truth about the Bible hell as shown in the Bible itself.
It is then claimed that Russell “predicted the return of Jesus in 1914.” Russell never predicted the return of Jesus in 1914 (or any other date). This is a fabrication of later JW leadership (and some others). He did teach, among other things, that the end of the Gentile Times would be in 1914, and that the “time of trouble” was due to begin in 1914. But he never said one word about the return of Christ in 1914.
We are next falsely informed that “When that failed to take place, Russell said Jesus’s return was invisible, and that his visible return was imminent.” This claim, being based on the preceeding false claim, is nullified since the first claim is false. Russell had come to realize and believe, sometime before 1876, that Christ’s return is invisible. After learning that Christ’s return would be invisible, he never taught that Christ’s visible return was imminent, since he — from that time forward — did not believe in a bodily visible return at all.
Similar false claims are being made on some other sites (we do not necessarily agree with anything on these sites):
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Jehovah-s-Witness-1617/Mr-Charles-T-Russell.htm
