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.

This is in further reply to:
http://www.freewebs.com/wwwsoundnessofmindcom/charlestazerussell.htm

Under the subheading of “Some Strange Teachings of C. T. Russell” is listed the teaching of “pyramidology.” The statement is made that certain calculations based on the Great Pyramid were “integrated into the prophecies of Russell.”

Although Russell never used the word “pyramidology,” Russell did believe that the Great Pyramid corroborated the Bible. It has been said that truth is stranger than fiction; this, however, is because of limited perceptions of truth. Thus, unless one actually studies pyramidology, the idea of pyramidology may seem “strange,” just as many non-Christians believe that the idea of God sending a son to die for our sins is “strange,” if their minds have not been conditioned to accept this. Yet, the very fact that Jesus died for our sins is confirmed by the Great Pyramid.

ZION’S
WATCH TOWER
AND
HERALD OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE

Vol. I********** JULY, 1879 ********** No. 1

page 1
SUPPLEMENT TO
Zion’s Watch Tower,

And “Herald of Christ’s Presence.”

==========

PITTSBURGH, PA., JULY 1, 1879.

==========

To the readers of the “HERALD OF THE MORNING,”

DEAR FRIENDS: My connection with the “Herald” having been terminated rather suddenly, and under circumstances which must seem rather remarkable and peculiar to you, I feel it to be a duty both to you and to myself to offer an explanation of the manner of withdrawal and my reasons for so doing. Quite a number who were personally acquainted with me thought there must be more of the story to tell, and I have received a number of letters asking an explanation. To these inquiries and to many unexpressed of similar character, let me offer the following statement:

Before 1878, Russell and Barbour had expressed that the translation of the saints should be expected in the spring of 1878, using parallels to arrive at that date. The event in the first side of the parallel was the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, which was suggested to find its parallel in 1878, and the thus the suggestion that in 1878 the living saints would be translated. However, from Russell’s later statements attributed to Russell, Russell evidently held some reservations that perhaps they were coming to the wrong conclusions about what to expect for 1878, but he evidently held this to himself until after 1878. Thus, the “disappointment” for Russell was not all that great, whereas, it appears that the disappointment for Barbour was much greater than for Russell. We should note that while Russell retained the basic timeline until his death, his views concerning what happened on what date later changed, as well as his expectations for 1914. We have added to some of our own remarks in double brackets [[...]]. We have also expanded names of the Bible books, and added Biblical citations (Names of book, chapters and verses of quotations given) that were not given in the original publication. Of course, the seven-year period Russell allots for the harvest in this article proved to be a wrong conclusion, but Russell denied that his expectations should be considered “prophecy.” Russell plainly stated that he was not a prophet. Nor did Russell believe himself to be the head of an organization, such at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ central authority doctrine.

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.

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:

This is in response to some claims being made at:

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

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.