Focus on Charles Taze Russell

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.

It is being claimed that Charles Taze Russell was “the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” under the heading, “Jehovah’s Witnesses: False Religion.” In truth, Charles Taze Russell was not the founder of the religion known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He did not believe in such an organization, nor the teachings of this religion. He was certainly not the founder of that which he did not believe in.

http://rlctr.blogspot.com/2008/03/was-russell-founder-of-jehovahs.html
http://ctr.reslight.net/?p=65

Russell himself never thought of himself as the “founder” of any religion; he claimed Christ as the founder of the religion that he believed in, that is, Biblical Christianity.

One has posted in another forum that if it had not been for Charles Taze Russell, then there would never have been any “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. From this, the thought is that Russell is therefore responsible for the creation of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” organization. It is further claimed that both the teachings of Rutherford and Russell are both flawed, and that we should not follow men.

There was a poem that once appeared in the Watch Tower , and which was reprinted in the Watch Tower book, Poems of Dawn. We haven’t been able to find out who originally wrote this poem, but it appears to have been in existence before Charle Taze Russell started printing the Watch Tower. It was probably originally written in the mid-1800s. It appears on several sites online, including some that are not related to Charles Taze Russell, the Bible Students or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The idea of depicting Jesus as though he would actually appear to one as described in the poem, and to put words into his mouth as described, may be distasteful to some but we can agree that the sentiments expressed in the poem, as attributed to Jesus, can be found in the words of Jesus and his apostles in the Bible. We present the poem below for any who might be blessed by it.

This is in response to an article appearing at:

http://jesus-messiah.com/html/birthdays.html

The article is addressing the Jehovah’s Witnesses belief concerning not celebrating birthdays.

First, let us say that we are not in disagreement with much of what is stated on that page.  We are mostly addressing some errors concerning the references to Charles Taze Russell and the allegations being made against Russell.

The statement is made:

“They [Jehovah's Witnesses] will not confess that this doctrine came from the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Charles Taze Russell got it from his Muslim studies as a member of the Masonic lodge.”