This will come down on Monday. If you intend to comment, now is the time.
Evangelical Voice
Personal
evangelism was characteristic of the age especially among millennialists. Belief
in Christ’s near return meant that spreading the message was urgent. The New
Testament suggests that Christians share that message, and millennialists saw
doing so as an imperative obligation. Millennialist belief was widely spread in
Churches, even when the pastor rejected it. Believers were susceptible to the
message, no less so to the Watch Tower message. Post Civil War, mainline American
churches reached a fragile peace among themselves with a tacit agreement, not
always observed, to not criticize each other. Millennialists, including Watch
Tower adherents, felt free – even obligated – to criticize the lack of moral
and scriptural adherence among the denominations. Clergy reacted strongly and
negatively, but for Milennialists, “imminence has meant that the individual
must be ever-vigilant for the Lord’s return.”[1] This,
in turn, meant that they shared their beliefs and expectations.
Russell
era evangelism is the foundation upon which the descendant religions – Jehovah’s
Witnesses and Bible Student congregations – are built. Yet, its origins are
left unexplored. Watchtower writers focus on a few key events: An article in
the April 1881 Watch Tower, Rutherford’s Advertise the Kingdom speech; the
circulation of Food for Thinking Christians. These events are related
with minimal or no connection to their context. Secular and opposition writers
do no better, drawing almost everything they say from Watchtower Society
commentary, presenting an similar history. A regrettable exception is found in
A. T. Rogerson’s D.Phil. thesis. He discusses Russell-era evangelism with the
same carelessness that he demonstrated in his previously published book:
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4 comments:
Superb. Many thanks for this fascinating and updated article. So many intriguing thoughts here. I especially liked the comment that "Watch Tower belief was that God would ultimately save and bring to heavenly or earthly paradise nearly every human who ever lived. To us, this is not elitism."
This blog has always maintained that 'the story is in the details'. My only concern, as someone who is still a novice to this period of history, is that the story doesn't get lost in so many details. But this is not a criticism, just an admission of my inability to assimilate so much fine information. (Perhaps I need the Beginners Guide to Separate Identity?)
Good to read this again with the extras. When John A Bohnet went home and interested his family with the message in the lte 1890s, one member at that time was probably his married sister, Elizabeth Octavia Bohnet Pettibone. Elizabeth lived to be 102 and died in 1961. The 1961 newspaper cutting on Find a Grave shows that her funeral was conducted by one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Just stunning.
Stunning is an understatement. The comprehensiveness and detail of the work is astounding. I and many others in my acquaintance are eagerly awaiting the finished product.
Andrew Grzadzielewski
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