Did Russell Start the Jehovah's Witnesses?

This is partly in response to a post made at:
http://jwfaq.blogspot.com/2009/03/was-charles-taze-russell-founder-of.html

Russell was indeed a non-sectarian, and he did not believe in such an organization as Rutherford later formed after Russell died. Rutherford, in fact, rejected the core teachings of Russell and the Bible Students and replaced them with his own teachings.

Evidently, it is assumed that the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses began with Russell when Russell formed a Bible study group in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh). That group, however,  did not accept any belief in an authoritarian organization such as the "Jehovah's Witnesses". Nor did they go about preaching a message to people that they (and their children) would be eternally doomed in Armageddon if they do not join with them. Indeed, they rejected similar teachings held by some in their day. Russell, until the day he died, preached against such teachings.

Rutherford, not Russell, was the one who set up an authoritative organization. Rutherford evidently realized that the core teaching of the "ransom for all" would not be an effective doctrine to sustain an organization such as he envisioned, and thus he changed that teaching to make it a ransom for some, but not all, and he adopted a teaching of eternal destruction for almost all Bible Students who disagreed with him, something Russell never thought to do. Russell was certainly not the founder of that which he did not believe in.

The fact that Russell and his associates started the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society does not mean that Russell was responsible for what happened after his death, any more than Jesus, in instituting his church can be held responsible for others who came after him who sought to lord it over the church, and sought to kill others who disagreed with them, which was actually is disobedience to the teachings of Jesus. The JW organization came into being after Russell died. At the protest of thousands of Bible Students all over the world, Rutherford, after Russell's death, proceeded to form his organization and began to teach almost the opposite of what Russell taught concerning the atonement. Over the next 15 years, many, if not most, of the Bible Students refused to support Rutherford's new organization, so that the Bible Students movement, as a whole, continued to exist separate from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. By 1928, more than 75% of the Bible Students had rejected Rutherford's new organization and his new "gospel" associated with that organization. Thus, the name of the Bible Students movement was not changed in 1931 to "Jehovah's Witnesses", but Rutherford had the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" adopted by his organization in order to distinguish his followers from the Bible Students who continued their own work separate from the WTB&TS. The Bible Students continued to preach the Kingdom message of goods news of great joy that will for all the people. Rutherford led his followers into preaching a message similar to that of the Papacy, that is, join us or you will be eternally doomed. 

While there is no doubt that the Jehovah's Witnesses organization sprang forth from the Bible Students, it is deceptive to say that Charles Taze Russell was the founder of the JWs, since he preached against the kind of organization that Rutherford created after Russell died. See:
What Did C. T. Russell Teach About “Organization” As Related to the Watch Tower Society?

Is is being claimed that Russell's International Bible Students had their name changed in 1931 by Rutherford to "Jehovah's Witnesses". Although the Bible Student's movement is not "Russell's", the Bible Students who rejected Rutherford's "organization" dogma, DID NOT have their name changed by Rutherford in 1931 to Jehovah's Witnesses. According to the WTS's own records, by the year 1928, more than 75% of the Bible Students had rejected Rutherford's new organization and his new dogma associated with such an organization. Thus, the original Bible Students movement did not have their name changed by Rutherford. Indeed, it was in order to distinguish his new organization from the old Bible Students movement, that Rutherford named his new organization “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in 1931.

The name "International Bible Students Association" is the name of a legal entity in England; that name was never changed, and the legal entity still has that name to this day. At the same time, the Bible Students association itself was often referred to as the "International Bible Students Association." Russell evidently realized that there was some conflict in this double application, and endeavored to get local ecclesias to use the name "Associated Bible Students". Some did, but it appears that most continued to use the name "International Bible Students". The Bible Students movement continues to this day separate from the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society.

See:
I.B.S.A. and Jehovah's Witnesses - Some Clarifications
Bible Students Did Not Become Jehovah's Witnesses

Nor did Russell believe in the "Gospel" (Good News) that is preached by the Jehovah's Witnesses.  Russell believed in the "ransom for all" -- that every descendant of Adam who has ever been born will benefit from the sacrifice of Jesus. This was indeed the main emphasis of his ministry, and Russell considered this the core doctrine upon which all doctrine should be tested. Rutherford denied that doctrine, and introduced the idea that millions of men, women, children, etc., of the world will be eternally destroyed without ever having received any benefit from the "ransom for all." This is almost the very opposite of what Russell taught. In his denial of the "ransom for all", Rutherford actually used strawman arguments, misrepresenting that Biblical teaching, in order to justify his denial. His later followers blindly followed their leader into that denial, while the earlier Bible Students knew better, and did not accept either Rutherford's new organization, or his denial of the "ransom for all." At any rate, Russell was not the founder of an alleged "Gospel" (Good News) that he did not believe in.Russell did not believe in the "Armageddon" message that is preached by the Jehovah's Witnesses. See:

The JW Organization, Armageddon, 1914, and Russell

It is evidently thought that since Russell was the "founder" of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, and since today The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is the official instrument used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, this is some manner is supposed to mean that Russell was the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Actually, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as Russell had created it was virtually destroyed shortly after Russell died. Rutherford's new by-laws and his new policies essentially created a new Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Russell's original non-authoritarian Watch Tower Society, in effect, ceased to exist. 

Comments then shift away from Russell as the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses to the date 1914. Although this has nothing at all to do with the claim that Russell was the founder of the JWs, what Russell was expecting for 1914 is misrepresented; it is true that not all that Russell was expecting for 1914 was accomplished, but the main thing, at least from 1904 onward, that Russell was expecting that 1914 was to bring the beginning, not the end, of the time of trouble. That time of trouble did begin in 1914, and I believe we have been in it ever since. Russell died in 1916, still holding to the belief that the time of trouble had begun in 1914.

It is claimed that the Society, after 1914, concluded that "1914 was not the end of the Seven Times". While we are not associaed with the JWs, neither Russell nor Rutherford ever concluded "that 1914 was not the end of the 'Seven Times'" Russell, himself, believed until he died in 1916 that the seven times had ended in 1914. Rutherford did reject a lot of the other methods that Barbour and Russell had used to obtain the date 1914, but Rutherford did not reject the "seven times" application of Daniel 4. As far as I know, the JWs still believe this to this day. I know that many Bible Students still believe to this day that the times of the Gentiles ended in 1914.

We should note that Rutherford did reject 1874 as the date of Christ's return and he claimed that Christ returned in 1914. Evidently, Rutherford wanted to bolster his "organization" claims by pointing the time prophecies to events within his "organization." 

Nevertheless, Russell, by means of his will and the original charter, had sought to keep the legal entity, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, from becoming what it did become. Russell, of course, had no control over what Rutherford did after Russell died.

Russell, however, never presented his expectations and conclusions concerning the Gentile Times as though he were a central or governing authority over others. He did not reject anyone as being a Christian if they disagreed with him that the Gentile Times was to end in 1914 (indeed, not all the Bible Students agreed with him on this while he was alive, and the same is still true today).

Russell died in 1916, rejoicing in his belief that the Gentile Times had ended in 1914 and that the time of trouble had begun in 1914. Russell had been suffering from multiple chronic illnesses for several years before he died.

Russell never gave any prophecies at all; the only "prophecies" that Russell believed in are the prophecies of God's prophets and the apostles as given in the Bible. He separated his conclusions based on the study of those prophecies from the actual prophecies. He consistently disclaimed be a divinely-inspired prophet, or that he had presented his conclusions as being divinely-inspired prophecies. Since Russell never gave any such "prophecies", one cannot look at any "failed prophecies" of Russell.

See: Charles Taze Russell and False Prophecies

The author has a second page, entitled "Was Charles Taze Russell the Founder of the JWs? Part 2", although there is nothing at all on that page that demonstrates that Russell was the founder of a religion, or that Russell was the founder of the kind of an organization that he preached against. Many people do indeed like to take the words of Russell out of context of his own writings, and place them in the context of the authoritarian claims of the JWs, so as to make it appear that Russell was claiming that same authority as the JW leadership today, when in reality, he was not!

See:

Russell on Authority and Organization

See also our studies on:
The Ransom and Jehovah's Witnesses

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