A few paragraphs from my Intro Essay.

Unrevised rough draft. Comments, please. And thanks to those who commented on the previous post.

            I do not have space to fully examine the millenarian antecedents of Russell’s belief system. So what follows doesn’t even qualify as a survey; it is the briefest of ‘tastes’ – a short essay on millennial thought up to the Russell era. In this short profile, I will take you no further back than the 16^th Century. I will focus on British and American millenarianism. There were similar systems in most of Europe, but Russell’s acquaintance with them was slight. He came to German millenarianism through Seiss, whose references to it are few and indistinct. There were French, Swiss, Polish, Bohemian and Italian believers, but we think Russell knew next to nothing about them.

            Before I proceed I should note that Russell’s prophetic views are not the only one of his doctrines that have roots in the colonial era. His rejection of the Trinity connects directly to the Colonial era and early Republic era belief of non-Trinitarian congregational churches in New England. The belief, characteristic of Watch Tower adherents, that Bible reading was obligatory and that it was meant to be understood by the average reader extends backward to Seventeenth Century Separatist and Puritan England. So too does Russell era Watch Tower belief that the proper form of church governance is congregationalism. Conditional immortality doctrine, the belief that immortality is a gift from God, not an inherent right, finds its origins in an ancient past, and as it came to Russell in the reformation era.

            The belief that God directly intervenes in the life of Christians came to America with the earliest European settlers. It was as strongly held in Russell’s day as it was among the Jamestown colonists (1607), the Pilgrim Separatists (1620) and the Puritans who followed. We see it in Russell’s supposition that his meeting with Wendell was only “seemingly” an accident. We see it in this volume and in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower when new adherents see a Watch Tower tract or an issue of the paper falling into their hands as an act of divine providence. Both in Brittan and in the American colonies, the belief that ‘marvels’ portended divine messages was strong. A strayed horse, a comet, a cloud’s shape all were messages from God. Tall tales of marvels were persuasive political and religious arguments. Rationalism started to prevail in the last third of the Seventeen Century, but the belief persisted and persists still. We see it in the pages of modern Watchtower publications when an adherent is convinced that God guided them into the light of truth. (And in fact, we cannot gainsay God’s guidance or his answers to prayers without repudiating the New Testament.) In Russell’s experience we see it in his narration of his fall on the snow which he attached to a moral lesson. That events have meaning was the belief of our colonial era ancestors. Colonial era Almanacs were willing to credit astrology even while promoting religion. These found their counterpart in A. D. Jones and Russell’s willingness to credit astrology even while – in Russell’s case – seeing it as a tool of Satan. The tension between Separatist and Puritan seeking holiness and the Church of England’s position as the state church expecting all to submit to its ritual, dedicated to Christ or not, spilled into the 19^th Century. Puritan insistence that the church was for the holy only –  committed, obedient Christians – is the background to Russell’s criticism of compromised churches that he saw as mere social clubs. Ultimately this derived from New Testament doctrine. Christians are to be holy as God is holy. (I Peter 1:16) There is, Paul writes, no room within Christian ecclesias for unrepentant, unregenerate sinners. This tension expressed itself in Watch Tower belief and in Plymouth Brethren belief and in that of conservative churches and non-conformist chapels in the United Kingdom.

            While Russell’s connection to his Anglo-American heritage is largely ignored by writers, these connections are of less moment than the millennial heritage from which his belief system truly came. Historians differ in details. Some postulate an era when millennialism died out, only to be reborn in America in the era of the newly-born Republic. Some say it died out in England after the Restoration, thrown into disfavor by its political connections to the Puritan revolution. Neither of these claims is true. Confusing the sermons, lectures and books of academics and philosophers for the belief of John Plowman or Mary Housemaid, those who sat in church pews and who ultimately represent Christian belief, is a mistake. I agree that any historian of religion must grasp the intellectual arguments and philosophies promoted by those who thought themselves Christendom’s guiding lights. But it was belief systems held in common that drove events and movements. 

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And ... here is an illustration from vol 2 Separate Identity ... Sunderlin registered at Gillig's when in England: