'Knock Knock' Who's There?: The Truth About Jehovah's Witnesses by James Anthony

Author:James, Anthony [James, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2013-08-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

the history lesson

1799 - PRESENT

The Watchtower Society, the main corporation behind the Jehovah's Witnesses, is a multinational organisation. In 2001 it was reported to have an annual income of over $950 million. It was listed in the top forty of New York's highest earning corporations. Due to the fact that volunteers perform most, if not all work, they have minimal expenses other than the printing and distribution costs of their religious magazines, books, and leaflets. Their total assets are likely to be worth in the region of several billion dollars. As with most religious groups, they enjoy tax relief status and even get many benefits like the 'Gift Aid' arrangement in the United Kingdom. Clearly it is a wealthy organisation, but it, like most others had to start somewhere. As I learned more and more about the history of the religion, I become both shocked and disillusioned. A summary of my findings is presented in this chapter .

Much (if not all) of the history of Jehovah's Witnesses that is known to followers of the religion is learned from the Watchtower publication 'Jehovah's Witnesses – Proclaimers of God's Kingdom'. Much of the disturbing true history of the Watchtower Society has been either left out entirely or heavily 'sugar coated'; however, there still are notable instances of questionable actions, beliefs and teachings, all of which serve as testimony against the claim that they are in fact God's chosen organisation.

Charles Taze Russell

This highly respected founder of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society started his spiritual quest in the 1870s. The Adventist movement and recent friendship with Nelson Barbour, a publisher of the religious magazine 'Herald of the Morning' heavily influenced him. Barbour's fixation with chronology and biblical prophecy captivated the interest and focus of Russell, who sold his father's prosperous clothing chain for the then small fortune of $300,000 to further this work. Russell's cash injection aided the publication of literature that claimed the Bible foretold the resurrection of all dead Christians in 1878. When this failed to materialise, Russell and Barbour began to dispute the reasons for their error, which ultimately led to their separation, and ended their friendship.

Having retained much of his fortune, Russell started his own religious journal entitled 'Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence' in 1879, followed by the formation of 'Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society' in 1881. He quickly gained recognition and was able to print and distribute his literature to a large and growing audience by the use of his own funds and donations from followers. Russell had developed an obsession with prophetic dates and publicised his expectations which were lapped-up by his followers. His key chronological doctrine was that the 'last days' began in 1799, Jesus Christ began ruling in heaven in 1879, and the 'end of the time of trouble' (i.e. paradise conditions) would commence in 1914. The following quote is from a section entitled, 'Can it be delayed until 1914?'

“We see no reason for changing the figures – nor could we change them if we would.

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