Focus on Charles Taze Russell

It is being reported that Charles Taze Russell taught that the Christian God was the devil, not Jehovah. The alleged evidence for this is presented with reference to Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7, The Finished Mystery, page 410. These statements appear to stem from some false statements made by Dr. John Ankerberg and  Dr. John Weldon  in a book entitled: “Why Is The Doctrine Of The Trinity A Vital Belief For Christians To Understand?”  In that book, it is stated:

We are presenting the following from Pastor Russell’s Sermons because of the anti-sectarian statements that Russell made in this sermon, which show that he did not believe in an authoritarian sectarian organization as the “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. To help with searches, the names of Bible books have been expanded; we have also supplied the holy name at appropriate places. This sermon can be found in the book Pastor Russell’s Sermons, beginning on page 459.

“Upon this rock will I build My Church; and the gates of Hell [Hades, the grave] shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” — Matthew 16:l8,19.

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:

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.

This is in response to “Finding Cracks in the Watch Tower” by Brianna Marecki

Since Charles Taze Russell did not believe in the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and since he did not believe in such an organization as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, we believe that it is misleading to speak of Russell as the founder of that which he did not believe in. Nevertheless, since this idea is so generally assumed, and since most writers who write concerning this have never really studied Russell’s writings, we can see why authors keep repeating this idea.