It
seems to me that there is a lot of discussion about what Russel was teaching
but much of it is left out. In particular, what he was professing would soon
occur and the dates he put forward. Much of the focus is on his teachings which
do have a lot of Biblical backing for them but little or no discussion on his
false teachings. For instance, what exactly was this upcoming 'gospel age' that
he was advocating and did he set a date for this or for Armageddon?
As
side issues, this presents us with interesting fare. The tracts were free, paid
for primarily out of Russell’s pocket and secondarily by contributions to the
Tract Fund. The modern Watchtower Society declined to allow us access to the
ledger book from this period, which still exists. We do not know why.
Do you have any proof that the tracts were primarily paid for from Russell's pocket primarily? This is especially in view of the fact that you admit to not having access to the ledgers of that time.
It is possible that what was printed in publications about the
funding at that time was deceptive, just as the current Watchtower is today. So
much discussion is made about the free tracts and little on the publications/bibles
he sold.
The tracts served the purpose of advertising and it was
through them that individuals were encouraged to purchase more substantial
publications.
But
in terms of income levels in the 1880s, an immense amount of money was expended
to provide evangelizers with free tracts. This gives the lie to the claims of
some former-adherents that the Watch Tower was founded by Russell as a money
making scheme. It was a money-losing proposition
The fact that the tracts were distributed at no cost in no way proves that Russell was not establishing a money making scheme. In many businesses you've got to create a market who is ready and willing to part with their money for more of your products. Many businessmen expect a loss in the initial years in order to reap profits in the following years. There are various methods that businesses use to encourage people to purchase their products. Providing free samples or advertising in brochures are just two, both methods being used by Russell and who knows what else because there is little discussion about this.
His venture into his Photo-Drama of Creation was another
innovative project which he was prepared to gamble on.
The
message of God’s Love contrasted with the message of fear preached in
Christendom. In Russell’s view God would save the bulk of humanity, in what
some call “near-universal salvation.”
I cannot see any substantiation regarding the claim that his message did not include a measure of fear, just as Christendom's does. If the idea is that more humans would be saved under Russell's idea's than under Christendom’s, this doesn't mean you can claim there was no fear being taught through his doctrines. To also claim that all of Christendom were preaching fear is not proven and may well be false.
His
passion for individual and public testimony shows through despite his
questionable punctuation and grammar. And to his readership it was the passion
that mattered. They saw it as founded on Biblical “truth.”
I find this comment intriguing. It would have been more correct to claim "His passion for individual and public testimony shows through despite his questionable teachings of Biblical 'truth'." And then you follow on with a significant comment in saying that it was his passion that mattered to his readers. That seems to be very much the case because his teachings could not hold water on their own.
In
conclusion, I find the blog very biased and it seems that the writer has been
moved by his passion.
de vienne
Dear Listener,
You misapprehend the
nature of what you read. We do not write either a polemic or defense of the
Watch Tower. We write history based on the original documents. What you read is
a partial of a much larger work, not even a complete chapter. We deal with
Russell’s predictive failure elsewhere. For instance in volume one of Separate
Identity we included a chapter entitled Aftermath of Failure. That chapter
discusses the 1878 failure. We have another that will appear in volume two [the
extract you read is part of vol. 2] that discusses Russellite expectations for
1881.
You ask about the
Gospel Age, calling it “up-coming.” Our text makes it clear that in Russell’s
dispensationalist view it was ending. He thought it would end at or near 1914.
We deal with that in another chapter.
Do we have proof
that the tracts were primarily paid for by Russell? Yes, we do, and we include
a chapter [vol. 2, nearing completion] entitled Organizing and Financing the
Work. Put briefly, in the 1880s Russell’s readers were relatively poor due
to a series of post-Civil War recessions and depressions. We have some pages
from the Watch Tower ledger, sent to us by someone connected to the
Watchtower’s writing department and by the Watchtower itself. Most of these
list expenses. One lists the major contributors by name and amount. Russell
leads the list by far. We include the full text of that page in a later
chapter. Additionally, over his lifetime Russell contributed a quarter million
dollars to the WTS. WT ‘shares’ were issued if requested for each ten dollars
in contributions. The number of Russell’s shares reveals the amount he
contributed. He was majority share-holder until his death, and outstanding
shares did not pass his in number until near his death.
Court testimony
(Russell v. Russell and Russell v. Brooklyn Eagle] shows that Society
publications were sold at a loss or simply given away. The partial chapter you
read concentrates on the years 1879-1886. All publications were given away free
except for a few remaining copies of Object and Manner which were available in
large lots for ten cents. Colporteurs got everything for free, keeping money
from subscriptions obtained to defray expenses. In this period there were no “more
substantial publications.” Money for Paton’s Day Dawn went to Paton and A. D.
Jones, his publisher; not to Russell. Russell paid for copies and gave them
away at no cost to those who would circulate them. This was at a financial loss
to Russell.
He offered a few
Bibles and concordances at a break-even discount. From 1881 when Zion’s Watch
Tower Tract Society was founded until 1887, the cut off year for Separate
Identity, our book, the Society was deeply in debt. A donation of Florida lands
by the Russells reduced the debt but did not put the Society in the black.
You write: “It is
possible that what was printed ... about the funding at that time was
deceptive.” Historians shouldn’t speculate. And that’s what this is. Ethically,
we can’t make things up. We must be guided by available documentation – by that
I mean original material, not secondary sources – unless there is a compelling
reason to reject the original claims. If you can find proof that the WTS
financial statements are deceptive, we will happily include it in this chapter.
But ‘proof’ isn’t speculation; it is something in a trustworthy contemporary
document.
In the period on
which we concentrate [to 1887] ZWT operated at a loss. Later when forced to
open the books in the two court cases I mentioned earlier, it was demonstrated
that even Studies in the Scriptures circulated at a net loss. The books did not
pay their way.
By message of
“fear,” Russell meant Hell-Fire doctrine. We should clarify that. You wrote:
“This doesn’t mean there was no fear being taught through his doctrine.” You
mistake current Watchtower practice with Russell era practice. Your statement
exemplifies a common logic fault. You presume something was true because you
want it to be true. At this point you give us unfounded speculation.
Speculation drives research, but alone it is unsound. If you can find in
something Russell wrote some form of fear mongering, point me to it. We’ll
happily use it in the next volume of Separate Identity.
Simply because the
narrowly focused extract from this chapter leads to a conclusion differing from
a commonly expressed opposition narrative is no reason to call us biased. We
present in footnotes our sources. You have no sources except personal opinion.
“Could be” and speculation are not a refutation. Evidence from original sources
would be.
I
should add that admission to the Photo Drama was free, at considerable
expense to the Watch Tower Society. So, how does it contribute to your
belief that Russell made money off of it?
https://www.amazon.com/Separate-Identity-Organizational-Readers-1870-1887/dp/1304969401
de Vienne:
Dear Eye,
Much of what is written about both men is not exactly true, sometimes blatantly false. But I'd never claim that their belief systems were Biblical or that their personal lives were without fault. Because there is so much written by both sides that is wrong, or incomplete, or misleading, we're taking extreme care to be accurate; to tell the story as bluntly and plainly as we can. We base our work on original sources, some of which have been buried for 100 years or more.
We've found and continue to find material hidden in archives leading us to places where Proclaimers will not take you. We've also found astounding misrepresentation in books some of which are seen as authoritative. And example is a book written in 1945 by a Presbyterian minister who wrote as a sociologist. He manufactured quotations. Following his work to the sources he cites shows him to be pretty much a bloody liar.
Then there is plain ignorance. Watchtower books mention people favorably who never were adherents or who left for other belief systems and they do not tell you that. I think they do not know it. Watchtower 'histories' are unfootnoted except for Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose; I have an instant distrust of something that presents itself as a history that fails to footnote. In fairness, I should observe that there are respected authors who've done the same.
We footnote everything because we want our readers to be able to follow our train. We think those who read our books have working minds. I am never disturbed by someone making a decision off available information.. We want the narrative to be refreshed and accurate. As I said earlier, most of what is out there on the Internet and in already published books is false or misleading. There are exceptions. Zoe Knox's new book is worth a read. It is very expensive, but you should be able to read it via interlibrary loan. The trend among historians now is to question everything. And to dig deeper. No history is without a least minor faults, but Besier and Stokosa's Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe Past and Present, a multi volume work with essays be 'experts' in their field is as close as one comes. If we make a decision based on a group's history, we should verify what we read.
TD
“Put briefly, in the 1880s Russell’s readers were relatively poor due to
a series of post-Civil War recessions and depressions.”
Were these the "Panics" of the latter 19th century? (Crop
failures, financial speculation, unemployment, etc.)
de Vienne
Contributions were
not as forthcoming as he wished. The January 1885 Zion’s Watch Tower reported on the state of the tract fund for the two
previous years, starting with the deficit of $2571.34 that existed at the start
of 1883. Expenditures for the period from January 1, 1882 – December 31, 1884,
totaled $2,366.10. The fund remained in deficit nearly twenty-five hundred
dollars. The loss of ‘two or more’ significant contributors unquestionably
affected the work, as did an economic downturn that started in 1884 and
continued into the next year. Russell commented on it and its effects:
The opening year finds the whole world in a state of
financial depression which will doubtless be worse before improvement comes.
Since we are advised in Scripture that the Day of the Lord’s presence will be a
time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation, some may be inclined
to anticipate too much, too speedily. This is a tendency which all need to
guard against. We should not for a moment lose sight of the apostles striking
illustration of the trouble of this day, as recorded in 1 Thes. 5:3. From this
illustration we should expect spasmodic trouble and distress of nations: and
that these will become more frequent and more serious until they reach the
climax stated by the prophet, and result in the death of present systems and
the delivery of the children of this world into the New and better, the ‘golden’
Millennial age, in which the King of righteousness shall rule and reign Lord of
all, blessing all the families of earth.[1]
The
financial depression of 1885 was the culmination of several years of
compounding problems in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. Edwin Earl
Sparks, a contemporary historian, summarized the complex crisis this way:
The crops of 1883 although surpassing the unfortunate
yield of 1881 were scarcely up to the average, and the corn crop fell nearly
four hundred million bushels behind. Large quantities of stocks and bonds had
been watered by extensions and consolidations which could not be expected to
yield immediate dividends, and they declined steadily during the year. Northern
Pacific threw on the market in October 1883 an issue of twenty million dollars
and created a mild panic. More than ten thousand firms became bankrupt during
1882, a larger number than marked any year since 1873. Causes for the
depression were found in over-production, financial troubles abroad, over-railroad
building, and capital lying idle because rates of interest were unattractive.[2]
This
dry summary doesn’t contribute as much to our understanding as does Russell’s
caution against seeing in the world’s financial travail a prophetic
fulfillment. People were hurting financially. Many Watch Tower readers were not well off, and even those who were had
to watch their pennies. The basics, food to eat and coal to heat with, were
scarce and expensive. Jobs dissipated. A United States government report said:
Out of the total
number of establishments, such as factories, mines, etc., existing in the
country, about eight per cent were absolutely idle during the year ending July
1, 1885, and perhaps five per cent more were idle a part of such time; or, for
a just estimate, seven and a half per cent of the whole number of such
establishments were idle, or equivalent to idle, during the year named. . . .
Making allowance for the persons engaged in other occupations, 998,839
constituted ‘the best estimate’ of the possibly unemployed in the United States
during the year ending July 1, 1885 (many of the unemployed, those who under
prosperous times would be fully employed, and who during the time mentioned
were seeking employment), that it has been possible for the Bureau to make. ...
A million people out of employment, crippling all dependent upon them, means a
loss to the consumptive power of the country of at least $1,000,000 per day, or
a crippling of the trade of the country of over $300,000,000 per annum.[3]
If God supported the work, he
supported it out of the pockets of believers who were in straightened
circumstances. Contributions lagged. With the publication of The Plan of the Ages in 1886, Russell
changed his approach to circulating Watch Tower publications. It soon became
apparent that The Plan of the Ages would
not pay its own way. The volumes of Millennial
Dawn were sold at a loss through most of their printing life. This was a
result of philosophy and practicality. Russell turned to a colportage to circulate
Millennial Dawn and the Tract Society’s
books and booklets. The booklets were often given away freely, and the
agreement with the colporteurs allowed them as much support from the
circulation of books as the Watch Tower Society could manage.
de Vienne:
Dear Eye,
Much of what is written about both men is not exactly true, sometimes blatantly false. But I'd never claim that their belief systems were Biblical or that their personal lives were without fault. Because there is so much written by both sides that is wrong, or incomplete, or misleading, we're taking extreme care to be accurate; to tell the story as bluntly and plainly as we can. We base our work on original sources, some of which have been buried for 100 years or more.
We've found and continue to find material hidden in archives leading us to places where Proclaimers will not take you. We've also found astounding misrepresentation in books some of which are seen as authoritative. And example is a book written in 1945 by a Presbyterian minister who wrote as a sociologist. He manufactured quotations. Following his work to the sources he cites shows him to be pretty much a bloody liar.
Then there is plain ignorance. Watchtower books mention people favorably who never were adherents or who left for other belief systems and they do not tell you that. I think they do not know it. Watchtower 'histories' are unfootnoted except for Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose; I have an instant distrust of something that presents itself as a history that fails to footnote. In fairness, I should observe that there are respected authors who've done the same.
We footnote everything because we want our readers to be able to follow our train. We think those who read our books have working minds. I am never disturbed by someone making a decision off available information.. We want the narrative to be refreshed and accurate. As I said earlier, most of what is out there on the Internet and in already published books is false or misleading. There are exceptions. Zoe Knox's new book is worth a read. It is very expensive, but you should be able to read it via interlibrary loan. The trend among historians now is to question everything. And to dig deeper. No history is without a least minor faults, but Besier and Stokosa's Jehovah's Witnesses in Europe Past and Present, a multi volume work with essays be 'experts' in their field is as close as one comes. If we make a decision based on a group's history, we should verify what we read.
[1] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1885, page
1.
[2] E. E. Sparks: The American Nation: A History. National Development, 1877-1885, Harper & Bros. New York, 1907,
pages 328-329.
[3] Report on Industrial Depression,
United States Bureau of Labor, 1886, as quoted in David A. Wells: Recent Economic Changes and Their Effect on
the Production and Distribution of Wealth and the Well Being of Society, D.
Appleton & Co., New York, 1899, page 18.
1 comment:
Comments about 'false teachings', 'deceptive' writings and 'money making schemes' suggest a mind made up prior to investigation. The Listener appears to approach the subject with an outcome predetermined, regardless of the evidence you provide. If this is the case, although I would like to think otherwise, I fear that your reply will likely be in vain since it has been said that "Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired."
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