Thursday, October 25, 2018
Unless there's something better ...
Bernard sent this photo of 101 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, the Watch Tower's first office. Unless we get something better, this is it. The Watch Tower office is the smaller building with the peaked roof.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Front Cover Illustration
We are considering front cover illustrations for Separate Identity, volume 2. Of those we've found, few are worth considering. Do you have a suggestion?
I resent this ...
I see I must explain my posting name, "Sha'el, Princess of Pixies." Because, I suppose, some people cannot separate a rather silly blogger name from what I write.
I chose this name just before my novel, Pixie Warrior, was published. Pixie Warrior's main character is a young pixie named Sha'el. It turned into a cross over book, attracting adults and young adults, and sat on the several bestseller lists. eg: http://wardancingpixie.blogspot.com/2009/12/it-was-best-seller.html
I've never seen the need to change my posting name. I do not intend to change it. Making jest because of it will not endear me to you.
That said, if you wish to address me by my hereditary title, "Your serene highness," I'll laugh with you. I am, as I have explained before, the American born daughter of an Austrian mother and a German-American father. But while I value my heritage, my abilities and education are my own work, and I owe nothing to anyone for them.
If all you see is my silly posting name, you do not see ME.
I chose this name just before my novel, Pixie Warrior, was published. Pixie Warrior's main character is a young pixie named Sha'el. It turned into a cross over book, attracting adults and young adults, and sat on the several bestseller lists. eg: http://wardancingpixie.blogspot.com/2009/12/it-was-best-seller.html
I've never seen the need to change my posting name. I do not intend to change it. Making jest because of it will not endear me to you.
That said, if you wish to address me by my hereditary title, "Your serene highness," I'll laugh with you. I am, as I have explained before, the American born daughter of an Austrian mother and a German-American father. But while I value my heritage, my abilities and education are my own work, and I owe nothing to anyone for them.
If all you see is my silly posting name, you do not see ME.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Obviously Time to Restate the Rules
New comment on an earlier article and my reply. If you have questions or comments, make them here.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
It's mine to write - Live with it.
My preface as outline draft.
Preface One – By R. M. de Vienne
It’s
taken longer to write this volume of Separate Identity than we
anticipated, but as with the two previous books, few of our expectations have stood
up under the light of better research. We believed that a second volume would
complete our research. It has not done so. There will be, assuming we live long
enough to complete it, a third and final volume.
This
volume differs in format from its predecessor. The first volume follows a loose
chronological order. Because of its narrow focus primarily on the years 1879 to
1882, this volume is a series of essays each focusing on an aspect of Watch
Tower transition into a separate, identifiable belief system. There is a looser
chronological order here; and the chapters occasionally overlap each other in
subject matter. As before we elected to present this history in as much detail
as we can, hoping thereby to take our readers into the spirit of the times.
Omission seems to us to be misdirection.
Volume
3 will focus on the fragmentation that followed 1881. It is partially written,
but much hard research remains. And as always, we’re hampered by lack of
resources. We have few issues of key magazines. We do not have anything like a
complete run of A. P. Adams’ Spirit of the Word. We miss key years of J.
H. Paton’s The World’s Hope. A paper published in California exists as a
few clippings pasted into a scrapbook. A booklet written by Barbour seems to
have been lost. We do not have any of the first issues of Jones’ Day Star. We
appreciate help locating things like these.
Now,
let me tell you about volume two. This volume examines the continuing
controversy between Russell and Barbour. One writer suggested that it was short
lived. It lasted until Barbour’s death in 1905. We tell you the story up to 1882.
It is more complex than most writers appreciate, and its complexity explains
the development of key Watch Tower doctrines, at least one of which persists
until today.
We
tell you about the Watch Tower’s principals struggle to preserve the body of
believers, to transition Barbourite believers into Watch Tower adherents. We
tell you about their earliest missionary journeys, drawing much of this from
sources not referenced by anyone else. We introduce you to people mentioned
only once or twice in Zion’s Watch Tower but who played an important
role in its earliest years. We tell you about the nature of the earliest
congregations and fellowships and how they were formed. Again, we draw on first
hand experiences not found in any
history of the movement. We tell you about the reaffirmation of old doctrines
and the discussions behind that.
The
movement attracted clergy to its ranks. We discuss this in some detail, naming
names, telling the story as we could uncover it of several clergy turned Watch
Tower believers. In 1881 Russell and a few others organized and provided
initial financing for the work. We provide details not found elsewhere, and we
correct a widely-spread error. We tell you about the start of the publishing
ministry and the development of the Priesthood of All Believers doctrine among
Watch Tower adherents. A key event was the printing and circulation of Food
for Thinking Christians. Though the Watchtower Society declined to share a
key document, offering no explanation as to why a document from 1881-1882 should
be kept secret, we offer our readers a full discussion of this small book’s
circulation and its effects on readership. With the circulation of Food
new workers entered the field. The Watchtower society has ignored these,
especially John B. Adamson, in its histories. We do not know why, but we think
the reasons multifarious. Adamson and some others among the earliest
missionaries left the Watch Tower movement. Watchtower writers tend to ignore
the contributions of those who deflected from the movement. It is probably safe
to say that much of this history is unknown to Watchtower researchers. It’s not
their focus, and they’ve left it unexplored.
An
important part of this era’s story is the spread of Watch Tower doctrine to
various ethnic groups within the United States and to other lands. So we tell
you about work among foreign language groups in the United States. The Zechs
and a Norwegian sea captain are part of this story. We tell you about the early
work in Canada, the United Kingdom, China, and other lands. We discuss at
length the history of a man mentioned with favor in Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom. His story is far different from what the
author of that book presumed. We tell you about the early work in Liberia.
[This history appeared first as B. W. Schulz: “Watch Tower Faith in Liberia: A
Conflict of Faith and Authority,” Nssuka Journal of History, University
of Nigeria, Volume 4, 2017, page 31ff.] Other lands come into this picture.
Almost none of this has been published anywhere except in the original
documents.
Eighteen eighty-one was a key year in
Watch Tower history. Most of those who mention that year’s events misstate
them. We do our best to correct the misdirection and misstatement common among
recent writers. We think we provide a more complete picture of the Watch
Tower’s earliest years, a more balanced picture than found elsewhere.
Read Mr. Schulz’ Introductory Essay.
It clarifies issues that confuse some writers. It puts Russell and the Watch
Tower movement in a historical perspective often misstated or ignored by recent
writers. A later chapter takes up attempts by historians and sociologists to
place the Watch Tower movement within one of the current theoretical frameworks.
We suggest that they ignore key elements of the Watch Tower belief system so
that their theories are questionable.
Acknowledgements
Before considering some important
issues, we have some housekeeping issues. First, we have many to thank for
their assistance:
[continue]
We
have received a steady stream of queries asking if our work is sponsored by the
Watchtower Society. It is not. We have corresponded with them from time to
time. Lately they have ignored our letters which are, in my opinion not at all
inflammatory. [We are, after all, historians, not polemicists.] I herewith
reproduce our last letter to them, dated to the end of July 2018, which has to
the date of publication gone unanswered. Judge for yourself. Is this letter
hurtful? Accusatory? In any way? I cannot explain why it remains unanswered,
except to suggest that the Watchtower wishes to control the narrative and finds
a detailed history, no matter how neutral, threatening.
[Insert letter here]
Formatting and Grammar
We
have retained the spelling and grammar of those we quote, and we use quotations
freely. Much of the source material upon which we’ve relied is not easily
accessible or has been misrepresented by other writers. A quotation from the
original helps relieve our readers of the task of finding this material. Of
course, a really interested researcher will not rely on our quotations if they
can find the original, nor should they. So unless you find a note attached to a
quotation, presume that the italics and small capitals are as they are in the
originals.
We
should note, too, that though we have quoted an author, we may not and
sometimes most definitely do not agree with them. Usually this will be plain
from context. Occasionally in a footnote we describe a disagreement. Without
exception, polemicists from the past are a disagreeable, dishonest, and vulgar
bunch. We’ve still quoted from some, but you now know our opinion in the
plainest terms. And our opinion is not based on their opposition to Watch Tower
theology, especially as expressed in the Russell era, but on a consistent
misrepresentation of Watch Tower adherents, misquotation or out of context
quotation of original source material, an unwarranted assumption of saintly
character by some who are truly disreputable men.
With
volume one of this work we were able to follow a mostly chronological order.
Because this volume considers a very narrow year range – mostly the years from
1879 to 1882 – this is not possible. We present you with a series of essays
each of which considers an aspect of Watch Tower history. You will find some repetition
of points. We’ve tried to limit this, but that it occurs is unavoidable.
My View
Bruce’s
introduction addressed the difference between Age-to-Come and Adventism and
more commonly held millennial view quite nicely. I will add only one point, a
quotation from Ernest Sandeen’s The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and
American Millenairanism, 1800-1930. Dr. Sandeen puts to shame those who
confound Adventism with mainstream millennial belief, and he does it quite
politely:
[insert quotation]
If
you haven’t read B. W. Schulz’ introductory essay, please do so now. I fully
agree with what he has written, and I have some thoughts to add to it. A major,
in fact the major, problem with most of what is written about the
Russell years is a consistent misunderstanding and misrepresentation of
American and British religious history. There are probably many reasons for
this, but within my experience the two most noticeable are confirmation bias
and dependence on secondary sources. These are interdependent. A certain class
or writers supposes that because someone with some sort of college degree wrote
it, it must be true. This is evident in the tendency to track Russellism back
to Adventism only on the basis of what another wrote. Few ask, “What is the
evidence and where does it lead?”
An
example of over dependence on secondary sources is found in William Sims
Bainbridge’s The Sociology of Religious Movements.[1]
After some pages discussing W. Miller, E. G. White and C. T. Russell,
Bainbridge observes: “Russell is quite different from either Miller or White.
He was not given to visions, but did have a will to dominate that Miller lacked.
In the absence of good biographies or access to original documents such as
letters, it is hard to get the measure of the man.”
This
tells us far more about Bainbridge’s research than it does about the state of
Russell- related research when he wrote. [1997]. He was dependent on Curry and
Rogerson, using them in preference to the available Watchtower Society product,
Jehovah’s Witnesses: Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, apparently because
they had some sort of academic standing that Watchtower writers lack. But even
in 1997 neither of their works stood up under close examination. As for
Bainbridge’s assertion that researchers lacked material, many thousands of
pages of Russell’s writing were easily available. There is no evidence that he
read any of it. The fault is not his alone. It was a common one twenty years
ago and remains common today. The two most recent books by known scholars that
touch on Russell and the movement he fostered suffer from lack of in-depth
research into original sources, confirmation bias, and a misunderstanding of
American religious history – and of British religious history. So, while they
are fairly solid introductions to Watchtower history and Witness culture, they
are fundamentally flawed. There is in these works a reliance on myth and
superficial research. I am not the only one to confront this issue when
considering Millenarian belief systems. James West Davidson noted it, writing:
“Few historians even those whose province is religious history, have read the
Revelation of John or the many voluminous commentaries written about it by
seventeenth and eighteenth century Englishmen.” Our somewhat wider observation
is that those writing on our topic have a superficial understanding of the
Millenarian experience out of which Russellism came, or, for that matter, the
American religious experience. Those more recent writers from the United
Kingdom do not seem to understand British Millenarian belief at all.
Despite
claims that they have done so, they have not read what the principal actors in
this drama wrote. They meet names of those about which they know little beyond
what an online ‘encyclopedia’ may tell them and write as if they knew these
characters intimately. Yet, they have not read what the principals wrote. So we
read of Storrs, Wendell, Barbour and others, but find their lives, beliefs and
history are misstated, taken out of context, and in some cases we find frank
fabrication. Imagination replaces solid research. For a historian or
sociologist to do this is to perpetrate a fraud on his readers. That they
failed to read what these men wrote is self-evident. And it is without excuse. Zion’s
Watch Tower; The Bible Examiner; The World’s Crisis; The
Restitution; The Herald of the Morning and their American and
British predecessors and contemporaries are not impossible to find. If you
write about these men and the others that populate Watch Tower history but fail
to read what they said, how are you an honest narrator?
There
is an abundance of material available, and some authors have read parts of it.
But characteristically those who write Watchtower history don’t make vital
connections. Russellism, the Watch Tower movement in the Russell era is a late
19th Century expression of a fundamental belief system that has its
roots in the apostolic era. More specifically, Russell-era Watch Tower theology
is an expression of Millenarian belief systems common in Europe from the 16th
Century forward. Do not misconstrue this for an endorsement of Watch Tower
theology as expressed in the Russell era. I am only pointing toward the
‘family’ of belief systems to which we can trace it.
[Introduce new section here]
In this short profile, I will take you no further back
than the 16th 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.
Historians
differ
[1] Routledge, New York, 1997, page 106. Despite my
criticism noted above, this is a book that should be read by anyone researching
religious history.
On ebay ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Watchtower-Jehovah-Witness-Movie-Rutherford/392147808637?hash=item5b4dd4b17d:g:vQoAAOSwgSpbw19d
Very rare film in original canister.
Very rare film in original canister.
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Submissions and style issues
Style issues.
We have several pending articles by others. Here is what we
expect:
1. Submit articles in Word format or Word Perfect if you
must.
2. Use Times New Roman at 12 point, justified. The British
version of word is set to another font. When you are done writing, select all
and chose Times New Roman. If you do not follow that procedure, I end up with a
mass of conflicting code. It is very frustrating to fix Word code.
3. No spaces between paragraphs. Set that to 0. Again you
present me with code issues if you set it to anything else.
4. Set your paragraph format to first line indent .5. You
can do that by simply hitting the tab key ONCE as you start a new paragraph. If
you hit it multiple times, you’ve nearly ruined your document.
5. Block quotations should be formatted with margins set at
.6 both sides. A block quotation does not need quotation marks; that it is indented
serves the same purpose as quotation marks. Any quotation five lines or longer
should be indented to this standard.
6. The footnote format we use, and that we want you to use,
is:
Ima Author: I Wrote This¸ My Publisher is an Idiot, New
York, New York, 1985, page 88.
or
Ima Author: I Write Articles, Nonsense Monthly, June
2, 1881, page 19.
or
Birthed Boy: My Memories of Chaos, typescript manuscript
reproduce at [web page] or alternately [Found in the Harvard Mss collection.]
7. Check your format settings for background color. Chose
default or you will end up with a white or colored background.
8. Put your name on the article. You may use your first name
or any alternate name. But be consistent. Match your comment persona. Full,
real names are desirable if you are building a c.v.
9. Your article should be, when possible, sourced to
original documents. If that’s not possible, let me know in advance.
10. Articles should focus on the Russell era when possible.
If you have an idea for a later era, pass it by me first. There is no sense in
writing about something we do not find suitable for the blog.
11. This is a history blog. We do not want a polemic. We
want well-researched articles that focus on Watch Tower history. That does not
mean that we will reject a controversial topic. Good, solid research trumps
all.
12. If English isn’t your first language, we will work with
you to put your article in proper, grammatical condition. Make it worth our
while. Write good stuff.
Monday, October 15, 2018
An update of sorts ...
We’ve
spent more money than we should buying books to pursue a new topic. Now we have
to read them all, extracting the salient points. Some contradict each other,
but all are worth reading. These are well-researched, well-thought-out books,
despite the conflicting views.
We
used the overage from the donation for the expensive book mentioned earlier. We
added a significant amount from our household budgets to buy the rest.
The
topic I’m pursuing is the chain of millennial beliefs from the late 16th
Century until the Russell era. We think this is necessary to refocus
researchers [and other interested parties] onto the true antecedents of Russell
era theology.
A
subset of this topic is the effect of ‘Russellism’ and Brethren belief on mainstream
American Protestant belief. This trail started with a comment by a clergyman
who found Russellism troubling because members of his church were persuaded by
it. Russell Sperry Chafer wrote [in 1915]:
The
country is being swept by “Russellism” (so-called “Millennial Dawn,” “International
Bible Students’League,” etc.), and the appalling progress of this system which
so misrepresents the whole revelation of God can only be accounted for in the
unsatisfied hunger of the people for the prophetic portions of Scripture. Such
a false system, mixing truth with untruth, and designed to interpret all of the
divine revelation, is evidently more engaging to the popular mind than only the
Scriptural presentation of the fundamental doctrines concerning God, Man and
Redemption.
After
finding this we found similar comments from other clergy and a series of really
disreputable acts. This led us to question just how much influence on the
trends among Protestant clergy the Watch Tower had. Snippets of things from
Russell added to our suspicions and questions.
So
all of this – though it requires more intense research than I first expected –
will become part of my introductory essay. The subject really requires a
solidly researched book. As it is now, it is scattered among books making up a
long bibliography. Some of them are wrong, but only because the authors had
limited resources compared to what is available today. Since 1970 a number of
authors have touched on this history or presented in some detail a small
portion of it. My task ‘should I care to accept it’ is to present an overview
in an essay. Others will have to take it from there. I only want to refocus my
academic partners, friends and enemies onto what I believe is the correct trail
and off the Adventist trail that is false. And short sighted.
Some
of those who visit this blog would be perfectly capable of turning my relatively
short essay [still a work in progress] into a book-length treatment. Think about
it.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Material Published on this Blog
If you wish to republish something from this blog, contact me FIRST.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Malcom's Bible
by Jerome
(with grateful thanks to Brian, current owner of the book, who provided the
graphics from it along with other useful input acknowledged below)
Several
decades ago a Bible Student came across a Holman’s Linear Bible (c. 1902 with
ZWT references) in a book resale shop in Van Nuys, California. It was in very
poor condition, but she noted a picture of Pastor Russell that a previous owner
had pasted inside the cover. This prompted the purchase and the volume was
subsequently rebound.
It now
appears that this Bible had once belonged to Malcom Rutherford, the only son of
Joseph Franklin and Mary Rutherford. After the death of his second wife,
Eleanor, Malcom spent his last years in that area. (He and both his wives are
buried side by side in the Forest Park Memorial Cemetery, Glendale, Los Angeles
County, California.)
The link
with this Bible to the Rutherford family starts with the picture of CTR pasted
inside the book. The picture has been cut from a magazine or paper and has been
much folded and taped together before being attached. It is a portrait that was
regularly used in convention reports c. 1905-1907. Just above the picture are two small scripture
paste-ins, the kind of thing regularly found in Manna books of the era. One was
for a Sister Boerger and the other for a Sister Rutherford.
The sticker
on the right is addressed “Dear brother Rutherford” and signed “sister
Boerger.” The sticker on the left is addressed to “sister Boerger” and signed
“sister Rutherford.”
Searching
for “Sister Boerger” has not been successful as yet. There was an Annie Boerger
who wrote a filler for the August 2, 1922, Golden Age magazine. But whether she
had any connection with the Sister Boerger in the Holman Bible I do not know. If anyone else
can assist, please do make a comment.
However,
the key names are Brother and Sister Rutherford.
A close
check on the flyleaf where one would expect to find the owner’s name yields
three names. They are actually very faint and were written in pencil. Either
someone has tried to erase them or they have just faded with age. However,
modern photographic technique has been able to restore the names, and I am very
grateful to the present owner of the volume, Brian K, who has achieved this.
The three
names are: J. F. Rutherford, Mary M.
Rutherford, and M. C. Rutherford.
It would
have been nice if all the three names were original signatures, but this is not
the case. We have J. F. Rutherford’s signature from a personal letter written
in 1914, and this is a different hand.
We do not
have Mary Rutherford’s signature (unless it is on the paste-in). However, we do
have examples of Malcom’s signature. From his WW1 draft registration document
in 1917 this is how he signed his name.
Moving forward in time this is how he signed his registration document for WW2 in 1942.
All the
names in the Holman Bible are in the same hand. Brian sent me a comprehensive
analysis of the handwriting, and is confident that this is in Malcom’s own
hand. I have no reason to doubt this.
So, the
area where the Bible surfaced, the stickers naming Brother and Sister
Rutherford, the names of the three members of the Rutherford family on the
flyleaf and a handwriting comparison indicates that this was most likely Malcom’s
own Bible.
But why
would Malcom keep this Bible, since he did not stay with his parents’ religion?
We must remember that Malcom was a Bible Student for a number of years. He was in
the supplemental census return for May 14, 1910, living and working in Brooklyn
Bethel with both parents at the age of 17. He is listed as a “mail clerk.” He
travelled from Liverpool, UK, to the United States on the Lusitania in April
1911 as “Pastor Russell’s valet.” Later that year he appeared in the convention
report as one of CTR’s stenographers. He joined his parents on a pilgrim visit
to the UK just before WW1 in 1914. According to the May 1, 1915 WT he was
stenographer for his father in the Rutherford-Troy debates in Los Angeles. When
first submitting his draft papers in 1917 he claimed exemption on the grounds
that he was a member of the International Bible Students Association. When his
father was jailed he wrote a long letter of support dated July 21, 1918, which
was printed in full in the St Paul Enterprise newspaper for December 10, 1918.
It occupies four full length columns.
The letter
started…
…and ended…
After his
marriage to Pauline Lucille Short (generally known as Bobbie) in March 1918
Malcom did eventually join the services and was in the army from 10 September
1918 to 24 December 1918. (One curiosity is that his letter written to his
father in July was not printed by the Enterprise until December, by which time
he had been in the army for three months.) But he remained in contact with both
his parents. In the 1920 census he is living in the same street as his mother.
Years later in May 1938 Malcom and Bobbie were on the same passenger list as
JFR on the S. S. Mariposa arriving in Los Angeles, California. The 1944
Monrovia City Directory then has Malcom and Bobbie living with Mary in her home.
(Whether they moved in to help her in old age, or whether she was helping them
out we just don’t know.)
The Holman
Linear Bible with ZWT references was published in 1902. Malcom would have been
only 10 then, and his parents only fully embraced the faith later. So the Bible
could have been a gift from CTR back in the day. It could have first belonged
to Malcom’s parents or just his mother. Since he lived with his mother for a
while he could have inherited it from her, even as late as her death in 1962.
There are all sorts of possibilities, some more credible than others, but on
present evidence we just don’t know. If we could find the mysterious “Sister
Boerger” it might help, but that would only give us a rough date for the
stickers that bear her name, not when they were added to the volume as it now
is. And there may have been more subtle evidences of provenance removed when
the volume was rebound.
If only for
nostalgic family reasons one can imagine Malcom keeping the Bible. But then in extreme
old age or after he died, the Bible ended up in a resale shop.
Just one
last point needs to be addressed – the spelling of Malcom’s name. The
signatures in Malcom’s hand show him spelling it the more conventional way as
Malcolm. (The Watchtower Society’s Proclaimers book also spells it that way.) But
his birth details leave out the second ‘L’ to spell it Malcom. His grave
marker, obviously based on some official documentation, does the same.
Since he
had no children and his second wife Eleanor died before him one wonders who
organised the funeral and the marker and its inscription. Eleanor had extended
family and her marker complements his. Probably her family were responsible.
Saturday, October 6, 2018
Submission Call
We will entertain submissions about Russell's newspaper sermons and the syndicate that circulated them. Articles should be no longer than 20 single spaced pages. They should be footnoted to sources. Footnotes should be at the bottom of the page in the manuscript. They will move to end of document here. We cannot pay you for your work. This will be a project for which you only receive a well done.
We reserve the right to reject any submission. Your work should be well-written and in standard English. If English is your second-language, we will work with you to put it is more standard form. So do not let your command of English stop you.
We prefer footnotes to contemporary sources and original source material. Send submissions to rm devienne at yahoo dot com. no spaces in the email.
Russell's sermons were printed in many American newspapers, some in Canada, Wales, and in European nations. Your focus may be broad or narrow as you wish. But it must be informative, not a mere recitation of things that have previously appeared in Watchtower publications.
We expect history not a polemic. However, we accept 'let the facts speak for themselves' writing.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
A single paragraph from ch 1, vol 2
Before moving forward, we should note that Ellis’ comment
about Russellites and social issues is echoed into the Twentieth Century.[1]
However, a view of the world contrary to our own does not indicate that
doctrine is false. Bible doctrine, assuming one believes the book inspired, is
determined by its adherence to Scripture. The same is true of later comments on
Russell’s morals. A long-standing approach by those clergy wanting to suppress
a doctrine was to disparage the character of its proponents. This is one of the major logic fallacies. It is the fallacy of
Pretended Danger: Imputation of bad character to deflect an argument. It is
meant to draw attention from the issues to the man raising them. If the author
or promoter of the claims made has a bad character there is no reason to accept
what he says. This is a common fallacy among polemicists, because it relieves
them and their readers from the obligation to refute or reason. It is also too
common among some who present themselves as historians.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Asking for the impossible.
Watch Tower evangelists were active in Orange and Rockland Counties, New York, after 1881. We have slight record, but want more. Because they had no distinctive name before 1886, this is very hard to trace. It will require more time than we have. But there are various newspaper searches on line.
The Library of Congress site referenced below.
and
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
are two of the best. If you have free time [hard to come by, I know.] give it your best shot. Please.
The Library of Congress site referenced below.
and
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
are two of the best. If you have free time [hard to come by, I know.] give it your best shot. Please.
Extract of Chapter One - Vol 2 in very rough draft
THIS is up for Comment.
Russell again invested in a large printing, announcing
in the September 1882 issue: “The October number of zion's watch tower will partake of a missionary character.
We will be sending out a very large issue to new readers – about two hundred
thousand in all. If you desire you may share in the work of scattering the ‘good
tidings of great joy,’ by sending copies of this missionary number to your
Christian friends. Order as many as you can use judiciously, or send us their
addresses and we will supply them.”[1]
The
issue was a combined issue, dated October-November 1882. Russell ‘introduced’
the paper to the Sunday-School Superintendents for whom it was intended:
Inasmuch as this number of ZION'S WATCH TOWER will go to
each of the ninety thousand Sunday School Superintendents of all denominations
in the United States, it is proper for us to introduce our paper to them
specially.
The special mission of ZION'S WATCH TOWER is to
clearly and forcibly elucidate and present truth on all religious topics, without
fear or favor of any except our heavenly Master. It is strictly unsectarian and
follows no formulated creed. Its method – comparing Scripture with Scripture,
we believe to be the correct one for the elucidation of truth. Thus getting
God's own explanation of His will and plan, we realize that God is his own
interpreter, And He will make it plain.
While desirous of the esteem and fellowship of every
child of God and loath to offend any, we yet stand ready to offend all, if a
clear and forcible presentation of any Scriptural teaching shall have that
effect. We discuss all Bible doctrines, not shunning the most abstruse – an
uncommon thing among Christian journals.
This feature makes our paper valuable to Sunday School
Superintendents and Bible teachers, and advanced Bible scholars, in this day
when infidelity is challenging nearly every doctrine held by the churches.
Surely there never was a time when an open and fearless examination of every
point of doctrine was so much more needed than practiced. An intelligent
understanding of Scripture was never more necessary than now.
We desire to assist in this great work, and with
others to raise up the standard of truth against error in every form. We make
no claim to defend every theory and creed of Christendom – this would be
impossible, since many of them contradict each other – but we endeavor to draw
direct from Scripture its uncolored and unbiased teaching on all questions.
Believing that the true basis of Christian Union is a correct understanding of
God's Word, rather than an ignoring of differences, we seek for this.
This sample copy is sent you in order that if desired,
it may be one of your assistants in seeking for Scriptural truths. We will send
it on trial.
THREE MONTHS FREE.
to all Sunday School Superintendents, teachers and
Bible scholars. We therefore invite you to send in your names at once.[2]
Russell
included an explanation of his motive in sending out this missionary issue:
A very large edition of this issue has been sent out
in hope of awakening thinking Christians from the lethargy and worldliness which
has so largely overspread Christendom. The topics presented will be new to many
of them, and we trust that all thoroughly consecrated readers will test it, and
decide on its truthfulness, not by their prejudices, not by any sectarian
creed, but by the Word of God, the only proper and infallible test; remembering,
that the cause of divisions or sects is, that each party defends its creed,
instead of laying aside tradition or accepting the harmonious testimony of
Scripture.[3]
Russell
and Watch Tower adherents continued to send out literature to clergy and
evangelists until near Russell’s death in 1916, perhaps afterward as well. The
Word and Witness, a Pentecostal paper published in Malvern, Arkansas,
opposed publishing the names and mailing addresses of their preachers. Some
were young and not stable and others who were “supposed to be stable, even old
men, have been led astray with Russellite and Millennial Dawn teaching.” The
paper’s editor said it was “astonishing what inroads the devil is making by
watching for such addresses, and sending these hungry but untaught hearts such destructive
tracts.”[4]
Russell inserted a notice in the January 1883 Watch Tower inviting those
who received the sample copies to subscribe:
We offered the Tower
three months on trial, free. Many availed themselves of the offer and others
sent us lists of names of friends they thought would be interested by the
papers. With this number we complete the three numbers to about ten thousand
such trial readers. [Oct., Dec. and January.] All of these who are interested,
we hope to hear from at once. The Lord’s poor who are interested, but
unable to pay, should remember that they are welcome to the Tower free, but must ask for it.
We have extra copies of these three issues.[5]
We do
not know how many of the “about ten thousand” trial readers subscribed.
Offering the paper free to the Lord’s poor is unique to the Watch Tower
as far as we can uncover. Later, in 1912, William T. Ellis, a Presbyterian
Clergyman, would dismiss this, writing: “Russell's people do not go out into
the field of evangelism, reclaiming the unchurched. One searches his record in
vain for anything about the rescue of the outcast and the sinning. Neither
is there any trace of interest in the thronging social problems of our time. Ministry to the poor, visitation of the sick, care for the orphaned – these are outside of the pale of Russellite activities.
The limit of his benevolences is to send his literature free to ‘the Lord's poor.’”[6]
is there any trace of interest in the thronging social problems of our time. Ministry to the poor, visitation of the sick, care for the orphaned – these are outside of the pale of Russellite activities.
The limit of his benevolences is to send his literature free to ‘the Lord's poor.’”[6]
Ellis’
comments are a series of lies that would not be worth addressing except that he
is quoted by modern opponents of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are not writing a
polemic; this is not written to support or condemn the descendant religions of
the Russell era Watch Tower. But if you oppose them, you should do so honestly.
You should fact check. Those who quote Ellis do neither. In other chapters [among
them “Out of Babylon” and “In the World but Not of It.”] we touch on these
issues and present evidence that Russell era congregation structure was such
that support for the poor, evangelism of the ‘unchurched sinners’ and concern
for social issues were part of Russellite belief and practice. We give examples
of the conversion of that class to Watch Tower belief. What Ellis objected to
was Russellite belief that the full rule of Christ was at hand. Ellis was a post-millennialist.
He believed that human efforts would bring any Kingdom of God. This was a view
that was dieing among Protestants, but which persists among some until today. Despite
this viewpoint conflict, Ellis simply got it wrong, and appealing to Watch
Tower literature without reference points was fakery of the worst sort. As we
said, he lied.
[1] Untitled Announcement, Zion’s Watch Tower,
September 1882, page 1.
[2] C. T. Russell: Sunday School Superintendents, Zion’s
Watch Tower, October-November 1882, page 1.
[3] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch
Tower, October-November 1882, page 1.
[4] A Warning, The Word and Witness, December 20,
1913.
[5] Untitled announcement, Zion’s Watch Tower,
January 1883, page 1.
[6] W. T. Ellis: Investigating and Instigator, The
Continent, September 26, 1912, page 1342.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Tentative chapter end: Food for Thinking Christians
This is up for comment ... COMMENT. Not that we'll get many. Mostly because many of our readers have never researched this material. But we always hope ...
A
Twentieth-Century writer suggests that Food
for Thinking Christians is Russell’s most important book. In that it was
the first widely-spread dissemination of Watch Tower teachings, this is true.
Criticisms such are Rall’s and those of more modern anti-sect writers ignore or
diminish the significance of the long history of Historicist interpretation of
prophecy. A more thorough going Biblical discussion would have benefited all
parties. It did not occur in any meaningful way.
What
did occur was an increase of resignations from former church affiliation on the
part of newly converted Watch Tower adherents. Russell printed one such letter
in the December 1881, Watch Tower.
Written by a woman to her congregation of sixteen years, it was a plain
statement of the essentials of Watch Tower teaching:
Believing that we are in the harvest of the Gospel Age
as spoken of in Matt. 13:30, when the reapers are separating the wheat from the
tares, which the Lord has permitted to grow together during the age, and also
that the nominal church of all denominations is represented by the wheat and
tares in the field– in which both have been growing, and that its mixed
condition of worldly-mindedness and lukewarm Christianity is displeasing in the
sight of our Lord, I have … concluded to sell all that I once found dear–my
reputation and my friends if need be–my time, my talents, my means, my all.
This mixed condition of truth and error, worldliness
and lukewarmness, etc., I believe to be the Babylon described in Rev. 18, in
which are still some of the Lord’s dear children. To all such he says, (vs. 4) “Come
out of her my people that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
In obedience to this command, I ask to have my name
taken off the list of membership of the nominal church. It is written in the
Lamb’s book of life and that is enough.
In withdrawing my name I do not withdraw my affections
from you, but would if I could have you all “as ripened wheat,” gathered into
the barn – condition of safety, rather than bound with the bundles of tares for
the burning – with the “fire of God’s jealousy.”
Let me urge you each to a deeper consecration and a
more thorough searching of the Scriptures.
Others
separated from their previous church affiliation forming de facto congregations
in cities where more than one shared similar beliefs. The congregation in
Albany, New York, dated its formation to 1881 and by implication the
publication of Food for Thinking
Christians. They called themselves “Believers in the Restitution,”[1]
one of many names used by congregations of Watch Tower adherents. Some were
initially skeptical of the message, only to take it up later. Others believed
the message on first reading and became life-long adherents. In 1916, A. P.
Logan, of Houston, Texas, wrote that he “loved this present Truth since ...
‘Food for Thinking Christians’ first was issued. He considered Russell as “second
only to St. Paul.”[2] H. M.
Glass recalled his introduction to the message: “In 1881 ... a package of
‘Towers’ came to our Sunday school superintendent, who distributed them to the
school. We got one and with it, the Allegheny address of the editor. We next
got ‘Food for Thinking Christians.’ Ever since that good day we have been
bountifully supplied with ‘meat in due season.’”[3]
Henry
Rudolf Riemer, an immigrant from Germany[4],
received his copy through a personal visit in 1883. His son, Hugo Henry Riemer
recalled it this way:
In 1883, my father, then a presiding elder over a district of the
Methodist church in the middle western part of the United States, answered a
knock at his door. There stood one of the early witnesses of Jehovah holding up
a paperbound book entitled “Food for Thinking Christians,” written and
published by C. T. Russell. After a greeting, he told my father, “Mister, here
is a book that will make you happy with the only true happiness.” He then
handed the book to my father, who thumbed through it, noting the many Scripture
quotations and citations in it. Being impressed by the earnestness of the man,
who had kept on talking to him, he gave a contribution for the book.
Mother was just packing father’s traveling bag for a weekend trip on
the train. He handed her the book, requesting that she put it in his grip on
the very top of his things. After he had taken a seat on the train, he opened
his grip and took the book out and began reading. He finished reading it when
the train arrived at his destination, and he said to himself, “Thank God! That
is the truth.”
When father arrived home, he said to mother, after greeting her and us
four boys, “Mamma, I have found the truth.” Mother said, “What do you mean?” He
said, “Do you remember that book you packed in my traveling bag? I want you to
read it and let me know what you think of it.” But he had some misgivings as to
her reaction, because she was the daughter of a lay preacher. She read the book
and then said to father, “If that is the truth, we have no place in the
Methodist church.” With rejoicing father said, “Mamma, those are the most
precious words I ever heard you speak.” I was five years old at the time, but
from then until now, at the age of 86, Jehovah has not failed to show his love
toward me as he poured it out on my father and mother.[5]
photo:
Heinrich
Reimer
H.
H. Riemer’s account leaves out significant detail, and it implies that his
father remained a Watch Tower adherent. However, his father Henry [Heinrich] Reimer’s obituary
appears in The Dawn, an opposition journal:
Brother
Riemer became a Christian at an early age and because of this stand was forced
to leave his father’s home. He studied for the Christian ministry and was
faithful as a minister in the Methodist Church until he was privileged to see
the light of present truth as a result of reading Pastor Russell's booklet, “Food
for Thinking Christians, or Why Evil Was Permitted,” published in 1881. With a
family of young children to support he withdrew from the Methodist ministry, studied
Medicine and was successful as a medical doctor until his retirement late in
life. His third and final stand for Christian principle came when he, in
company with others of like precious faith, discerned the errors of the
Society, and withdrew there from in 1928. Up to the last moments of his life he
gave evidence, though with failing memory along most lines, of clearness in his
understanding of the fundamental doctrines of present truth. He finished his
earthly course on Thursday, October 29th, 1936, at 90 years of age.[6]
W.
E. Haller encountered the booklet shortly after it was published. Writing about
his experience in 1917, he recalled that “‘Food for Thinking Christians’ was my
first book to digest, and [I] still have it.” He moved for work to a town near
Allegheny, attending meetings held in the Grand Army of the Republic Hall on
Federal Street, Allegheny, starting in July 1887. He committed to the faith in
1888, entering the colporteur work shortly afterward. Recalling his work, he
wrote: “Nothing but Millennial Dawns, in paper leaves, was out at the time I
first heard him. [i.e. Russell.] Those I introduced by colporteuring up the
Monongahela valley during the summer of 1889, the second volume being first
published that season.[7]
Ellen
S. Dodge [born April 1852] was also introduced to the Watch Tower faith through
Food for Thinking Christians. We do not know how the booklet reached
remote Schoolcraft County on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and it probably
doesn’t matter in this context. She “received comfort from its pages,” she
wrote, and “surrendered [her] will to the Lord.”[8]
John
L. Mears [May 1837-1920] was a Civil War veteran, serving in two Ohio Volunteer
Infantry regiments. His parents emigrated from Lancashire, England, in 1828.
About two years before his death John wrote:
After being raised a
Baptist by strict religious parents, my father being a minister. I naturally
believed a great deal just as it came to my ears at boyhood; but later, doubts
arose as to the dealings of God to humanity. So I went on with doubt and fears ...
when one day I got a little book called “Food for Thinking Christians,” and I
just devoured it and that gave me an appetite for more of the same. I got the
Watch Tower and of course that was pretty strong “meat,” but finding that the
Tower was in accord with Scripture, I have simply read about everything that
our dear Pastor has written.[9]
George Washington Haney [born 1844],
a Kansas farmer, received a copy in 1881. He read it and still had it in his
possession in 1914. He arranged to meet Russell in the “early eighties.” “I
have read and kept in close tough with everything that he has put out,” Haney
wrote.[10] Haney
saw participation in the world’s affairs as compromise: “I saw that the enemy
is the ruler of this world, and, as I could not serve two masters, I gave up
politics, and have not voted since.” He thought serving on a jury and swearing
to tell the truth in court were both wrong. He dated adopting these beliefs to
near the time he read Russell’s booklet.[11] There
are many others whose names we know who persisted in the Watch Tower faith
after reading Food for Thinking Christians, but a long list seems
irrelevant. The booklet developed interest, and new workers entered the field,
some sharing their faith locally and some becoming itinerate evangelists.
Jane Ann Marwood [Aug. 1834 – Jan. 11,
1927], with her husband Robert, immigrated to America, settling in Nebraska in
1866, and acquiring a small-hold farm. By 1907 her husband is described as an
early-days pioneer and a prominent cattleman living near Clearwater, Nebraska.[12]
Without otherwise defining it, she
wrote of ‘a time of trouble’ that turned her thoughts to Christ, and if she
hadn’t been a Bible reader before she became one. (Most likely this was the
great grasshopper plague.) “I well remember the time when as I was reading Rom.
12:1, it struck me that I had never presented my body a living sacrifice, and
being alone, I fell on my knees and, then and there, consecrated. That was
somewhere in the late seventies.”[13] A
“dear old brother” in the Congregational Church gave her a copy of Food for
Thinking Christians. She studied it carefully, consulting the cited
Scriptures. She was convinced:
When I received the first copy of Food for Thinking
Christians ... and had read and proved it true from the scriptures, I knew I
had been taught wrong all my life, and being a teacher in the Sunday School,
was teaching others wrong. On my knees I asked forgiveness for the wrong I had
done, in the blessed name of Jesus, and God surely heard my cry for light. I
sent for the Watch Tower, and the dear Lord led me out of darkness into His
Marvelous Light. From that time on I tried to lead others into the light but
for years no one would listen.[14]
That no-one would listen is not
totally true. At least one of her eleven children did. In late 1899 or very
early in 1900, [Probably December 1899 or early January 1900.] she send Russell
five dollars for ‘an order,’ asking him to “put the balance into the Tract
Fund. “Some of it is from my daughter,” she wrote.[15] When
she accepted Watch Tower teaching as Scriptural Truth, she returned to the
friend who had given her the tract. His reaction was unexpected:
The man who first
gave me Food for Thinking Christians ... used to say, when I told him of the
light I had received: ‘Mrs. Marwood, I do not want that light. It is ignis
fatuus light. Every time I received more light on different scriptures I tried
to tell him about it, but he would have none of it, and to this day no memeber
of his family will look at Brother Russell’s writings. It made my heard sat.
When I would go to church or Sunday School they were all afraid of me, thinking
I would lead some of their members astray, and my name was cast out as evil.[16]
Not long after reading Food
she subscribed to Zion’s Watch Tower. In a letter to Russell written in
1909, she recalled: “I had always prayed for you and all those who labored with
you in the watch tower office,
from the time I first took the tower,
which was in 1882.”[17] We
lose track of Jane Marwood after 1915. However, by 1922 there was enough
interest in Clearwater, Nebraska to warrant a visit from W. M. Wisdom, a
traveling Watch Tower representative, who spent two days there in 1921.[18] And
visits in 1922 by O. L. Sullivan, R. L. Robie, and J. A. Bohnet and regularly
thereafter by traveling “brethren.”
Marwood’s experience illustrates several
things. Here, it illustrates the enduring conviction of ‘truth’ engendered in
some by reading Food for Thinking Christians and The Watch
Tower. In other chapters we note the expulsion of Watch Tower adherent
people from their previous churches, not because of untoward behavior, but for contrary
belief. In one chapter we consider the evangelical persistence of the sole
adherents within their comunities. Marwood’s experience fits neatly into all of
these narratives.
[1] His Second Coming: Believers in
the Restitution Say Christ Will Come again in 1914, The Albany, New York, Evening Journal, May 28,
1900. There is no record of this group in contemporary issues of Zion’s Watch Tower. This article comprises the entire history of the Albany
congregation before the 1890’s. In 1900 they met in the home of Fredrick
Clapham at 288 First Street.
The article is vague, and it is possible that instead of the congregation being
formed that year, it was a reference to the formation of Zion’s Watch Tower
Tract Society. The actual quotation is: “The ‘Believers in the Restitution is a
society organized in 1881. It is comparatively small in this city, but in
several sections and in England,
it is flourishing.
[2] Note from Logan to Editor of St.
Paul Enterprise¸ January 18, 1916, issue.
[3] Letter from Glass to Editor of St
Paul Enterprise, March 7, 1916, issue.
[4] Born in August 18, 1848,
Marienwerder, East Prussia. Died October 29, 1936, in Buchanan. Missouri.
Married Emilie Balcke in 1871.
[5] H. H. Riemer: Experiencing
Jehovah’s Love, The Watchtower, September 15, 1964, page 571.
[6] The Passing of Brother H. R.
Riemer, The Dawn, January 1937, pages 32-33.
[7] Letter from Haller to Editor of St.
Paul Enterprise, February 27, 1917, issue.
[8] Letter from Dodge to Editor of St.
Paul Enterprise, January 16, 1917, issue.
[9] Letter from Haney to Editor of St.
Paul Enterprise, January 2, 1914, issue.
[10] Letter from Haney to Editor of St.
Paul Enterprise, January 2, 1914, issue.
[11] Letter from Haney to Russell found
in the article: Practical Questions, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 15, 1893,
page 154.
[12] Untitled article, The Norfolk,
Nebraska, Weekly News-Journal, July 5, 1907.
[13] J. A. Marwood: Letter to Editor, St.
Paul Enterprise, July 30, 1915, issue.
[14] ibid.
[15] J. A. Marwood to Russell, found in Interesting
Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 15, 1900, page 16. [Not in
Reprints]
[16] J. A. Marwood: Letter to Editor, St.
Paul Enterprise, July 30, 1915, issue.
[17] J. A. Marwood to Russell, found in An
Interesting Letter: Zion’s Watch Tower, May 15, 1909, page 159.
[18] International Bible Students Association:
Lectures and Classes by Traveling Brethren, The Watch Tower, August 15,
1921, page 256.
This is a history blog. It does not exist for any other purpose. Your comment may be your sincere belief, but it is out of place here. And in point of fact there are a number of organizations that give away free copies of the Bible.
Ordinarily, I'd take your comment down as a violation of our rules. Instead, I'm using it as an occasion to restate our prime rule: This is a history blog. Comments should be relevant to Watchtower history. People of many faiths, academics, and other writers visit this site. All are welcome to post comments relevant to the history articles we post. None are welcome to advertise their faith or engage in a polemic. This blog exists only to present our research and articles by others that represent well-documented historical exposition. Polemical comments are never welcome.
addenda:
Dear Unknown,
I took down your temper tantrum, and I will not allow any further comments from you. I think you represent your religion accurately, and it is people such as yourself that convinced me it could not possibly be 'truth.' You do not act as a Christian should; you do not know your own religion; and you're factually incorrect in your statements.
I've informed the blog admins to delete any comment from yourself.