Paton in his parlor
(This article first appeared on Blog 2 in January 2013)
A key platform of early Watch Tower theology was
future probation, the belief that countless numbers would get their opportunity
to accept Christ and be saved in a future life. George Storrs had championed
his take on this doctrine in Bible Examiner, and CTR had promoted the slogan “A
Ransom for All.” Both Storrs and others, when accused of being Universalist would
argue that their teaching stressed universal opportunity, but not universal
reconciliation.
And yet it is
not too difficult to see how taking their reasoning a step further could lead
some to a Universalist view. Several who broke away from the Bible Student
movement promoted the doctrine of universal salvation, and this article is
about two large examples, which both had links with the small township of
Almont in Michigan. It is a story of coincidence, since some of the key
players’ lives overlapped and they knew each other at one time.
As always it must be stressed that this article
represents a stab at history, not theology. We are just looking at the
historical implications for the Watch Tower Society at certain points in its
early history.
The first example was John H Paton. Paton was born
in Scotland in 1843, but came to America and ultimately settled in the Almont
area. He became a Baptist minister in Almont in 1870, but the appointment was
short-lived. He was expelled for heresy (specifically his belief in conditional
immortality) in 1872 and promptly built an Adventist Church in Almont, allied
to the Michigan Advent Christian conference. His views continued to evolve, and
after about two years he parted company from them. He became a supporter of
Nelson Barbour’s ministry, finally becoming a co-editor with CTR of Barbour’s
magazine Herald of the Morning. When Barbour and CTR split, he supported the
fledgling ZWT in 1879 and in 1880 wrote Day Dawn. This was the first major
hardback book promoted in the pages of ZWT.
In 1882 Paton
founded his own magazine, The World’s Hope, and as the pages of ZWT soon showed
became estranged from CTR. He eventually founded The Larger Hope Association –
the name suggestive of the “larger” hope of salvation he now promoted. His
little Advent church in Almont was renamed the Larger Hope Church. The book
“Almont, The Tale of Then and Now” by Hildamae Waltz Bowman page 91 (1985
edition) has a picture of the building situated in North Bristol Street,
Almont. According to Bowman, Paton was the only pastor, and when it started as
an Advent Church in 1872 it had just fifteen members. It folded through
declining membership after twenty five years, or c. 1897. It subsequently
became a school building, a rug factory, and then a private home. It still
exists as a dwelling today at 318 North Bristol Street.
The Larger Hope
Church in Buchanan lasted a little longer. It was another former Adventist
Church, and Lizzie Allen was pastor there for some time around 1890. There was
a direct rail link from Buchanan to Imlay City, about eight miles north of
Almont, and this allowed Paton to visit at will. Newspaper records show
funerals conducted in Buchanan by John H Paton (sometimes as Elder sometimes as
Rev.) for members such as Isaac Marble (1901), Aaron Miller (1904), Clarissa
Mead (1905), Mary Miller Mowbray (1907) and Jane Wagner (1907). However, by
1917, that church too appears to have folded. The Lake Union Herald for October
24, 1917 (a SDA paper) carried the announcement for Buchanan: “The (SDA)
company at Buchanan have recently rented the Larger Hope Church building and
cordially invite our people to attend their Sabbath school, which has been
recently reorganized, also their weekly prayer meeting – Fred L. Segar, S.S. Supt.”
The book Greetings from Buchanan (Goodsell and Myers 2005) describes how this
arrangement became final: (quote) “In 1921 (the SDA church) bought the building
formerly occupied by the Larger Hope Church of Christ on the northeast corner
of Moccasin and Third Streets.” After being sold by the SDAs to the Church of
Christ in the 1950s, the building was eventually torn down to make a parking
lot.
Paton’s magazine
had already shut down in 1916. His independent ministry was coming to a close,
and he died in 1922. It never became a large force or movement. Nonetheless,
for a while it was an alternative home for some who had once associated with
CTR’s ministry and ZWT magazine.
Today, his
magazine provides historical insights. Paton kept in touch with numerous individuals
once associated with CTR, and so his magazine provides historical information
including obituaries for William H Conley and Nelson Barbour. Had it lasted
just a few more months longer in 1916 it would no doubt have carried an
obituary for CTR. It also shows how an alternative spiritual home was on offer
for many years for those thinking of leaving the Bible Student movement.
At the time
Paton’s activities were winding down, another Almont resident was firing
up. This was George Lawley Rogers. There
were a number of similarities in their stories. Like Paton, Rogers was born in
Scotland (around 1869/1870). After immigrating to Canada, border crossing
records show him then moving from Toronto to Almont in August 1910. In the 1920
Almont census his immediate next door neighbour was John Paton’s older brother,
David Paton. Rogers became Pastor of the same Baptist Church as Paton had been
many years before. Like Paton he eventually left the Baptists due to his changed
beliefs, and again like Paton took up the message of universal reconciliation.
According to Rogers’ obituary (published in 1947) when Rogers left the Almont Baptist
Church nearly the whole congregation went with him. They founded what was
called the Grace Tabernacle. These included some who were related by marriage
to Paton or “Uncle John”. Such a family link is not all that surprising – in a
small place like Almont with the propensity for large families, it would be
unlikely for people not to be related in some way.
It would be
satisfying to make a direct theological link between the two men, but that
cannot be done after all this time. They would certainly know each other, but
came from different backgrounds and had different takes on Universalism. Paton’s Universalism stemmed from his Arminian leanings
– the concept of free will, but man being given repeated opportunities to
ultimately make the right choices for salvation, whereas Rogers’ Calvinistic
background (with its overtones of predestination) leant more to salvation being
wholly God's achievement. Still, it is quite a coincidence that the tiny
place of Almont featured in both histories. One can surmise that any local
remnants of Paton’s church might have found a spiritual home in Rogers’ Grace
Tabernacle after Paton was gone.
So the connection
with the Bible Student movement?
Rogers was to
link himself with the Concordant Publishing Concern that formed in 1909 to
publish a magazine entitled Unsearchable Riches (hereafter abbreviated as
UR). His conversion to universal
reconciliation owed a lot to the work of A E Knoch of this group. (Rogers
eventually moved from Almont to Los Angeles to work closer with him). Knoch
would have a special life-long mission to produce a brand new Bible
translation. The Concordant Version (hereafter abbreviated as CV) was to be an extremely
literal translation stating in its forward that it “keeps to a minimum the
confusion resulting from translating different Greek words with the same
English word.” Rogers
would be given special credit for his professional help in dealing with NT
Greek verbs in this project. He was already assisting Knoch with this work
while Paton was alive, probably from around 1919 or even earlier.
There were
obviously some WT readers who also had a look at the magazine Knoch edited. Since
the theology of UR was both non-Trinitarian and non-Hell fire, they would find
immediate points of agreement. This may have prompted some dialogue between CTR
and Knoch because UR published a letter from CTR in October 1915 explaining his
objections to Universalism. Knoch published his own response, but CTR declined
to debate further, explaining that the views of the WT Society were already expressed
in details in its publications.
So we come to the year 1920. Paton was still
alive, his neighbour Rogers was increasingly supporting the Concordant Bible
Concern, and then – seemingly out of the blue – the Watch Tower magazine
published a page and half extolling the virtues of the Concordant Bible
translation.
It covered part
of page 190 and all of page 191 in the WT for June 15, 1920. It was explained
that the plates of the Diaglott were now worn and would require considerable
work to restore. This new project, to be issued as a part-work starting with
Revelation (called The Unveiling) would include an interlinear. It would have
the advantage of the Codex Sinaiticus MSS that was not available to Benjamin Wilson
when he produced the Diaglott, and also the CV Greek-English interlinear was far
more consistent than Wilson’s. The article stated that the WT Society was not
the publisher (hence the reason why the CV has never appeared on an official
list of WT Society published Bibles) but they were acting as “transmitters in
the matter”, forwarding orders to the publishers.
There was
another advertisement for the work in the November 1, 1920 WT calling it
“unique in a field already seemingly well-worked.”
But then in the
WT for February 1, 1921, came the following announcement: “In our issue of June
15, 1920, announcement was made of an arrangement to supply the friends with
the Concordant Version of the Sacred Scriptures. This arrangement has not been
entirely satisfactory. Some of the friends have been sending orders for future
translations. This office will not further handle those. We have on hand a
limited supply of the translation of Revelation, designated “The Unveiling”,
and when this stock is exhausted we will discontinue handling this work.”
Although the CV
Revelation had just been a translation and interlinear with no explanatory
material added, it was to be dropped. The WT Society went back to restoring the
Diaglott, and remained sole publishers of the latter until it eventually went
out of copyright.
When UR later
criticised the way the order was revoked, Watch Tower Society President, J F
Rutherford, wrote a letter to Knoch explaining why the arrangement had been cancelled.
Knoch published it along with his own comments in UR for January 1928. On
November 25, 1927, Rutherford had written (in part):
“The notice was
inserted in the WATCH TOWER by one who had no authority. The order was given by
one who had no authority to order them. When I found that you were advocating
universal salvation including the Devil himself, I took steps to see that our
Society had nothing whatsoever to do with the distribution of the Concordant
Version, and that was the first time it was called to my attention as to how
the notice got in the WATCH TOWER. In
the service of the Redeemer, J.F. RUTHERFORD.”
The problem from the WT
perspective was that this group with Knoch and Rogers and others was not just the
producer of a new Bible translation. Like Paton in the 1880s, they were a
religious group promoting universal reconciliation. As noted above, they had
already provoked a response from CTR. Since they obviously believed they were
right and the WT Society was wrong on this key point, it was natural for individuals
to proselytise. In the previous issue of UR (November 1927) that reprinted
Rutherford’s letter, Knoch wrote:
“The Lord has
graciously enabled us to help many who once believed the International Bible
Students Association philosophy, and the indications are that He will use us to
bless very many more.”
Two key figures from WT history who embraced the
Concordant message were Fredrik Homer Robison and Menta Sturgeon.
Robison had lived in Bethel with CTR since before
the move from Allegheny to Brooklyn in 1909 and had subsequently been in prison
with Rutherford in 1918. He had visited Knoch in search of a Diaglott
replacement, and since he was on the WT’s editorial committee in 1920, it was
probably Robison who was responsible for the announcement about the Concordant
Version in the June 15 issue.
He last appeared as part of the WT editorial
committee with the April 15, 1922 issue. He left Bethel at this time, which no
doubt had an effect on others. From 1923 he was a sometime writer and speaker
for the Concordant Publishing Concern.
A travelling and
speaking companion for Robison during 1923 and 1924 was the man from Almont,
George Rogers. The two men became friends. So we have Fredrik Robison, who
worked with CTR for a number of years, now sharing platforms with George
Rogers, who had been a direct neighbour of John Paton’s brother and whose
Almont congregation contained Paton relatives. As noted above, Paton had been
one of CTR’s early associates. He had been more than that because it was he who
conducted CTR’s wedding. One would imagine that the subject must have come up
in personal conversation when Robison and Rogers compared notes.
Robison was to
die at quite a young age in 1932.
The second key
figure who embraced the Concordant’s message in the 1920s was Menta Sturgeon. Sturgeon
had been CTR’s travelling companion on his last journey and at one time was
suggested as a possible president of the WT Society. He too converted to
Universalism, and used his contacts to introduce Concordant speakers to WT
adherents, or more likely by the mid-1920s, to former WT adherents. It must be
remembered that following 1917 there was a split between those who stayed with
the Society and those who did not. Those who left association with the IBSA did
not stay as one united group, but fragmented quite rapidly. (A list of some of
these groups is given in the full text of the Jehovah’s Witnesses resolution
proposed by J F Rutherford in 1931). For
those who did not accept the material now presented in the WT, these were
confusing times. The Concordant magazine for September 1939 for example,
describes one such meeting of former WT adherents; they had already received
speakers from two of the seceding groups and were now quite happy to have a former
IBSA speaker present the Concordant message to them as well.
The influence of Robison and Sturgeon and others, and
their contacts among former contemporaries gave the Concordant people a
platform, which for some appeared as attractive as Paton’s message had been
forty years before.
Ultimately time moved on, and the principal players
passed from the scene. The links and controversies of the early years were
generally forgotten. In more recent times the Watchtower magazine has been
happy to quote from the Concordant Version NT (see for example w91 2/2 p. 29
and w94 12/15 p.32). Yet, going back in years, the step from belief in future
probation to universal reconciliation was easy for some to make. And it does
seem curious that one tiny little place, Almont, in Lapeer County, Michigan –
less than three thousand inhabitants even today – was to have links with those
who supported CTR’s ministry, and then for whatever reasons, decided to look
for a spiritual home elsewhere.
Note:
Thanks are due to helpers from Almont and Buchanan who checked certain material for me.
