Focus on Charles Taze Russell

The following is the text of the article that appeared in The Bible Students Monthly, January, 1914, issue. Written by Charles Taze Russell, the article relates his viewpoint concerning “the end of the world,” and how he was not expecting the “end of the world” in 1914. Indeed, the article further shows that Russell was not expecting the second coming of Jesus in 1914, as some have claimed. We have expanded the names of some of the Bible books that were abbreviated in the original, in order to aid electronic searches for scriptural references. Links are provided for relevant information on some words or phrases of the text, which may be accessed by clicking on the words or phrases. We do not necessarily agree with all of Russell’s conclusions as presented in the article.

Many sites claim that Russell was into astrology, and that he used astrology to support his expectations (often falsely presented as being “failed prophecies”) concerning 1914.

A quote that is often presented, and is often falsely attributed as words of Russell, is found in the Watch Tower of May 1, 1903. The way it is usually quoted, presented as alleged failed prophecy, is like this:

1903 “When Uranus and Jupiter meet in the humane sign of Aquarius in 1914, the long-promised era will have made a fair start in the work of setting man free to work out his own salvation, and will insure the ultimate realization of dreams and ideals of all poets and sages in history.” (Watchtower, May 1, 1903, p. 130-131; p3184 Reprints)

1914

CHRONOLOGY–October, 1914, Re the High Calling. Q89:1:: QUESTION (1914)–1–Dear Brother Russell, in the event of October of this year coming and going, and you should still be in the flesh, do you think that that would be an indication that the Lord had left you out of the High Calling class?

ANSWER–I would not. Our understanding, dear friends, respecting October, 1914, is that to the best of our judgment–judgment of the Scripture testimony, of how to read the chronology furnished in the Bible, to the best of our judgment the year 1914, the month of October, will mark the end of the Gentile times.

1913::

We take this occasion to remind our readers afresh that nowhere in our writings have they found anything positively stated respecting the closing years of this Age, except that we understand that the Gentile Times will close in October 1914, and that consequently we expect, speedily following that date, the transfer of the rulership of earth to the great King of Glory, in a “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.” We have pointed out that prior to that date a testing work will be in progress in the Church–a time in which the question will be, not so much, who will fall? as, who shall be able to stand in this evil day? – Ephesians 6:11.

1908:

1886:

Many statements have been made to the effect that all of Charles Taze Russell’s expectations concerning 1914 were a failure. However, for those familiar with Russell’s writings, it is obvious that what is being said is not entirely true. Yes, not all Russell expected for 1914 came to pass, but his main expectation, that the “time of trouble” was to begin in 1914, we believe did come true.

Someone has just posted a page on a website directed toward “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” but which in reality is mostly concerning Charles Taze Russell. First, let us say that we have studied the works of Charles Russell very extensively for over forty years. (We are not with the JWs; we consider ourselves as associated with the Bible Students).

We have to state first that most of what is presented by the writer is from somebody’s imaginative mind.

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.

The following is taken from
Pastor Russell’s Convention Discourses
Regarding Brother Russell in Tacoma, Washington (1913)

(Tacoma Tribune, June 19, 1913.)

Opposition by Preachers

We give herewith the
newspaper report of the attack by the preachers and Pastor
Russell’s reply:

(From Tacoma Tribune)

ATTACKS RUSSELL for SELLING PRACTICES

Rev. E. L. Benedict of Mason M. E. Church
in Statement Scores Evangelist

Attacking Pastor Russell “for sailing under false pretenses,” Rev. E. L. Benedict of the Mason M. E. Church today declared the evangelist had made a fortune by selling books and wheat, using his religion as a means to raise money.

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.

A website has posted the following:

1897 “Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874,” (Studies in the Scriptures, vol. 4, p. 621). Oops, didn’t happen. Present day JW’s said this was going to happen in 1914. When that didn’t occur, they said it did happen only it was an invisible return.

The first line of the page from which the above quote is taken as well as the tittle of the page lets the reader know that the page is about Charles Taze Russell. Thus, when reference is mad to the JWs, the evident assumption is that it is referring to Russell as allegedly representing the JWs.

We are quoting the following from a website:

In 1876, Russell wrote an article that appeared in the October, 1876 issue of the Bible Examiner under the title, “Gentile Times: When do they End?” On page 27 he was writing about Luke 21:24…

We have reproduced the entire article under consideration and it may be seen at:

http://ctr.reslight.net/?p=140

We wish to say to begin with that the article represents Russell’s view before 1904; in 1904, he came to realize that the “time of trouble” was begin in 1914, not end in 1914. See our research on this at:

The following is the entire article that was written for "The Bible Examiner" and published in 1876. We reproduce it here for reference purposes.

GENTILE TIMES: WHEN DO THEY END?

BY CHAS. T. RUSSELL

(October, 1876 – The Bible Examiner Vol. XXI. No.1 Whole No. 313)

“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Luke 21:24.

Doubtless our Lord intended to communicate to His disciples some knowledge, and possibly it was addressed more to the disciples in our day, than to the early church.

This is in response to some claims being made at:

http://jwfaq.blogspot.com/2009/03/was-charles-taze-russell-founder-of.html

One, in leaving the JW organization, has set forth many of his reasons for leaving that organization. We are not so concerned about all things that he has stated, but we are concerned about statements made pertaining to Charles Taze Russell. We do not entirely blame the author for his statements, since he probably was not very familiar with what Russell actually taught or believed when the author made the statements.

Contents

Introduction
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4