Russell, Charles Taze 1852-1916

RUSSELL, CHARLES TAZE 1852-1916

Founder of jehovah's witnesses

Multimedia

At the time of his death from heart failure on 31 October 1916, Charles Taze Russell, the founder and soul of the Jehovah's Witnesses, was among the most widely read columnists in America. The new century had brought with it new technologies, and Russell, who began spreading his faith in the 1870s via publication and public speaking, had taken full advantage of the chance to "harvest" followers, as he referred to his work. His newspaper columns and sermons had expanded by 1913 to some two thousand newspapers with an estimated readership of fifteen million. His own publication The Watch Tower referred to it as "newspaper gospelling," but his word had found other avenues besides the printed page. An example of Russell's innovation and forward thinking for spreading his word was his "Photo-Drama Creation." This multimedia event begun in 1914 was quickly taken overseas as a means of astounding audiences with technology while also preaching Russell's interpretation of the Bible. "Photo-Drama" managed to put words to moving pictures, incorporating phonographic recordings and silent films, and combine artwork, music, and preaching to dazzle the audience. But the core of Russell's work was always his message, a message he had searched hard to find, interpret, and spread.

Youth

"Pastor Russell," as he was known in later life, was born near Pittsburgh in 1852 to Joseph and Eliza Russell, both of Scots-Irish heritage. Russell was raised in a Presbyterian household though in his teens joined a Congregationalist church for a time. His mother had died when Russell was nine, and by age eleven he was working in his father's clothing business. By the age of fifteen, however, Russell had rejected traditional Christian churches because of his repulsion at the idea of predestination and eternal torment. He dabbled with oriental religions for a time in his late teens but he later claimed to have found the road toward his faith when he chanced upon a Second Adventist service in 1869. The seventeen-year-old Russell was deeply impressed by the millennialism preached by Rev. Jonas Wendell and decided that he could only find his faith in studying the Bible directly.

Influences

Wendell was not the only source of influence for Russell. From about 1870 to 1875 Russell studied the Bible fervently with the help of George W. Stetson, pastor of the Advent Christian Church in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and George Storrs, publisher of Bible Examiner magazine and author of Six Sermons, a book that reached a circulation of two hundred thousand. Storrs's theology, his rejection of the Trinity, his reliance on the Bible, and his belief in a mortal soul that could achieve immortality through atonement strongly influenced Rus-sell, but it was his later association with Nelson H. Barbour that would have the biggest impact on Russell's career. Barbour was the publisher of the Herald of the Morning, a religious periodical that Russell first read in 1876 when he was twenty-three years old. Barbour convinced Russell that the "harvest period" had begun, that Christ had already returned to earth in an invisible form in the autumn of 1874, and that the work for gathering souls should begin. Russell became devoted to preaching as well as writing and publishing to spread the good news. "I therefore at once resolved upon a vigorous campaign for the Truth," he later wrote.

Writer

In 1877 Russell published The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return. That same year he and Barbour published Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World. In these books Russell presented his carefully rendered interpretation of the Bible and the idea that Christ had already returned. In order to spread the word on a more regular basis, Russell and Barbour began publishing Herald of the Morning again in 1877, but a schism soon developed. They parted in 1878, and Russell had his name removed from the Herald. He began to publish his own journal in July 1879. Six thousand copies of the first issue of Zions Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence were printed. By 1914 The Watch Tower was printing fifty thousand copies of each issue. Russell continued to preach and write, producing Food for Thinking Christians in 1881, which upon republication in 1886 was known as the Millennial Dawn. During the next two decades, Rus-sell published six volumes of Millenial Dawn, of which some five million copies circulated worldwide.

Spreading the Word

The final thirty years of Russell's life consisted primarily in organizing and enlarging his following. In 1880 he announced that he would visit towns in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York in an effort to enlarge his flock. These were the first of his extensive travels throughout Canada, Europe, the Orient, the United States, and even Palestine. His "London Tabernacle" became a major center in Europe, while his fervent support for a Jewish return to Palestine made him famous in the nascent Zionist movement. Upon his return to New York in 1910 he was given a huge ovation by New York's Jewish community in a gathering at the Hippodrome. Russell had moved his headquarters to Brooklyn in 1908, creating the "Brooklyn Tabernacle," and located the church headquarters in a building named "Bethel," which means "House of God."

Transcending Scandal

His life was not without scandal, though the negative publicity seemed to have no lasting affect on his popularity. In 1909 his wife of thirty years filed for divorce, charging Russell with immoral conduct with women in the church. Russell appealed the divorce five times but was rejected each time. Another scandal involved the selling of a dubious "Miracle Wheat" at his church in Brooklyn. The expensive wheat, said to have miraculous properties, had been donated to the Watch Tower Society by two students. Russell sold the grain for a dollar a pound, raising $1,800 for the church, though the Brooklyn Daily Eagle presented the case as a fraud. Russell sued the newspaper in 1911 but lost the case. It did not seem to matter. Russell continued his work, which gained a measure of validity in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I. Russell had for years predicted that 1914 would mark the end of the genteel times and that heaven was imminent after a period of chaos. The war seemed to be the chaos expected, and many anticipated the coming of heaven. Though heaven did not immediately follow, Russell's prophecy was taken to have come to fruition. His sudden death in 1916 shocked and saddened his congregation, now worldwide.

Sources:

Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (Brooklyn: Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of New York, 1993);

M. James Penton, Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of Jehovah's Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985).