The following statement has been made on
a forum concerning Charles Taze Russell:
Russell questioned his faith at an early age and was uncomfortable with hell and predestination. He bounced around between Presbyterianism, Adventism, and Congregationalism before founding the movement that would become the JW’s.
Russell was right in questioning his faith in the teachings of man, especially those teachings that would depict the Creator as a fiendish demon as in such doctrines as the supposed indescribable eternal sufferings of billions of men, women, children, infants, etc., who died without believing in Jesus. Of course, as he pointed out, he thought that these teachings were actually a part of the Bible, and thus, believing this, his faith concerning the Bible also came into doubt. Once he learned that the Bible did not teach such blasphemous doctrines such as the eternal indescribable suffering of most of mankind, as well as the trinitarian dogma, and that it did teach that Christ died for all, he was right in taking up the Biblical stand for the truth concerning these matters.
For more information of the condition of the dead, hell, hades, sheol, lake of fire, eternal torment, etc., see:
For more information about the “ransom for all,” see:
For more information about the “trinity,” see:
Russell, however, learned the Biblical truths about hell, the condition of the dead, and about the trinity, as well as “the ransom for all,” from others who had become before him. His understanding of these matters did not originate from out of the blue, nor were they simply his own thoughts. It was the proper Biblical understand ing of these matters that led him to reaffirm his faith in the Bible, in the God of the Bible, and in Jesus as the Son of God who gave himself a ransom for all.
I doubt that Russell would have ever claimed to have been the founder of the Bible Students movement. At any rate, the Allegheny class of Bible Students existed before Russell became associated with N. H. Barbour, who was a “Second Adventist” (not to be confused with Seventh-Day Adventists).
Russell, of course, did not found an organization called “
Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He never heard of such an organization; he did not believe in such an organization, and he preached against the formation of such an organization until the day he died. Russell refused to allow himself or the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society to become a “central authority” over the local congregations, although, individually, and as congregations, many of the Bible Students had come to view him as such.
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