Several blog readers have tried to
help, sending us links and pointing to various sources. This is good. With the
exception of one item, we knew of, had, or owned as an original all of these
things. Was their effort wasted? No. We now have two important documents, one
the direct result of a link sent by email and the other the result of following
up on an idea suggested to me by one of the links. So no effort was wasted,
even if we are familiar with almost everything sent. Keep it up!
As a result of this effort we can
narrow the time period for Keith, Paton, and Barbour’s discussion of an
invisible parousia to between April 8, 1875 and June 1875. This may seem
like a minor detail, but it is significant. It shows that the discussion was
brief, limited to a few weeks. This fits with the pattern of quick recovery
already established by Barbour. In this same period, Barbour promoted the idea
that the dead saints were resurrected in April 1875.
Every fragment of detail makes our
understanding of events clearer. So this is a huge thank you to those who
contacted me in the last three weeks.
I’m still writing a history
textbook, but we are working on volume 2 of Separate Identity. If you want to
help in a more focused way, we need details about individual congregations as
they were in the period 1875-1895. Names, locations, names of those associated,
how they functioned, are all important details. A persistent search of online
newspaper archives would help. Be inventive, imaginative. Do not focus on the
United States alone, though probably most information will come from US
newspaper archives.
We are developing in outline form
the debates between Russell and Barbour as they developed between 1879 with the
founding of Zion’s Watch Tower and 1886. If you want to contribute to
that, please email me with your ideas. While Mr. Schulz is on the mend, please
don’t email him at this time. I’ll pass on anything important, but his time is
filled with misery and doctors.
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