Focus on Charles Taze Russell

We are presenting below Charles Taze Russell’s reply to Robert Ingersoll. We have expanded the scriptures, and so that honor may be truly given to whom it is due, we have supplied the holy name in appropriate places.

THY WORD IS TRUTH

An Answer to Robert Ingersoll’s Charges Against Christianity

In Mr. Robert Ingersoll’s now celebrated “Christmas Sermon” he took Christianity severely to task, and awakened considerable excitement in religious circles. The Rev. Buckley, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York City, declares that the pith of Mr. Ingersoll’s “Christmas Sermon” is found in three charges which he makes against Christianity, and which Dr. Buckley denominates “three gigantic falsehoods.” They are as follows:

A Youtube video has been given to us as alleged evidence in support of the alleged allegation that was a freemason. The video is directed toward “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Reference is made to one the JWs books, and a statement concerning Christ’s alleged return in 1914. Russell, of course, did not believe that Christ would return in 1914, but rather than he had returned in 1874.

We are also aware of the claim made in the JW publications that Christ’s return in 1914 had been proclaimed by “Jehovah’s Witnesses” for many years before 1914. Since there were no “Jehovah’s Witnesses” before 1914, and since we do not know of anyone at all who, before 1914, was proclaiming Christ was to return in 1914, the claim is false on two counts.

This is in reply to a video that appears on YouTube entitled “Charles Taze Russell founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses was a Mason”.  Our replies on YouTube never seem to appear, so we are responding here.

We have already shown many times that Russell was not the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor did he ever believe in such an authoritarian organization. Although the video is directed toward “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Russell himself was never a member of that organization, nor were his teachings the same as that organization.

See:
http://tinyurl.com/rl-russellfounder

Is Charles Taze Russell’s tomb a pyramid?

The sermon below was delivered by Charles Taze Russell at in 1913, and appears in Pastor Russell’s Convention Discourses, beginning on page 359. Some enemies of Russll have taken portions of this sermon out of context in order to make it appear the Mr. Russell was a member of the Freemason organization, or that he was being highly influenced by Freemasons. Of course, those who are familiar with Russell’s writings know he was not a member of the Freemason organization, and that was only interested in the comparison of masonry (building) with the building of the spiritual temple of God as spoken of in the Bible, and the fact that the building work of God’s temple is not understood by the world. We have reproduced the entire sermon here so one may see exactly what Russell was saying and in what context he was making his statements. We have expanded the name of Bible books and added some comments in footnotes.