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Jehovah's Witnesses by ANTHONY A. WOEKEMA WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY Grand Rapids, Michigan 0 Copyright 1963 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved ISBN 0-8028-1489- 1 Printed in the United States of America The material in this book is an updating of material originally appearing in The Four Major Cults, Fourth printing, August 1972. Refnanted, March 1986 Contents Abbreviations Preface I. History Charles Taze Russell Joseph Franklin Rutherford Nathan Homer Knorr Statistics and Activities 11. Source of Authority Norm for Interpreting Scripture Method of Interpreting Scripture ITI. Doctrines Doctrine of God Doctrine of Man Doctrine of Christ Doctrine of Salvation Doctrine of the Church and Sacraments Doctrine of the Last Things IV. Appendix: Jehovah-Witness Teaching on the Person of Christ A Revival of Arianism Critique of Watchtouler Exegesis Bibliography Abbreviations ASV American Standard Version KJ King James Version NWT New World Translation, 1961 ed. Paradise Lost From Paradise Lost foParadise Regaitled Religion for Mankind What Has Religiorl Done for Mankind? RSV Revised Standard Version Survival After Death What Do the Scriptures Say about "Survival After Death"? You May Survive Armageddon You May Survive Armageddon into God's New World Your Will Be Done Your Will Be Done on Earth (Note: All Scripture quotations not otherwise identified are from the American Standard Version.) Preface The discussion of Jehovah's Witnesses found in this book is orga- nized as follows: First, a brief history of the movement is given, in terms of the events that occurred during the presidencies of Charles Russell, Joseph Rutherford, and Nathan Knorr. Next comes a sum- mary of statistics and activities. Then the question of the final source of authority for the group is taken up. The doctrines taught by Je- hovah's Witnesses are next expounded in the order of the customary divisions of Christian theology: God. man, Christ, salvation, the church, the last things. An appendix critically examines Jehovah- Witness teaching on the person of Christ. In setting forth the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, I have used primary sources exclusively (Watchtower Society publications). Whenever there was uncertainty about what was being taught on a certain doctrinal point, information was obtained directly from Watchtower leaders. References to the source materials used are given in the footnotes. A bibliography lists primary sources, Bible translations, histories of Jehovah's Witnesses, and a number of gen- eral works. Readers of this book are referred to the author's Four Major Cults (Eerdmans, 1963) for further material. One will find in this last- named voiume an appendix, not found in the present work, which deals critically with teachings common to both Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists on "soul-extinction" in the intermediate state and on the final annihilation of the wicked. Besides setting forth the doctrinal teachings of Christian Science, Mormonism, and Sev- enth-day Adventism, The Folir Major Cults also includes chapters on the challenge of the cults, the distinctive traits of the cult, and the approach to the cultist. 7 8 Jehovah's Witnesses May the Lord use this book for the advancement of His kingdom and for the glory of His name. May He particularly use it to lead many from the errors of the Watchtower to the truth as it is in Christ. Anthony A. Hoekema Grand Rapids, Michigan July, I972 I. History THE HISTORY OF JEHOVAH'SWITNESSES IS VERY CLOSELY TIED IN with the history of the three presidents of the organization who have so far held office. The first of these was Charles Taze Russell (1852-19 16) .' He was born in the town of Allegheny, now part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on February 16, 1852. His parents were Presbyterians of Scotch-Irish descent. At the age of fifteen Russell was already in partnership with his father, operating a chain of men's clothing stores. By this time he had joined the Congregational Church, finding it more to his liking than the Presbyterian. Russell was soon troubled, however, by some of the doctrines taught in this church, the doctrines of predestination and eternal punishment giving him particular difficulty. By the time he was seventeen, in fact, he had become an avowed skeptic, discarding the Bible altogether. He explains how this happened in these words : Brought up a Presbyterian, indoctrinated from the Catechism, and being naturally of an inquiring mind, I fell a ready prey to the logic of infidelity, as soon as I began to think for myself. But that which at first threatened to be the utter shipwreck of faith in God and the Bible was, under God's providence, over- 1 This biographical sketch is based chiefly on material found in two Watchtower publications: Quulified to he Ministers (Brooklyn, 1955). pp. 297-312; and Je/iovu/i'.s Witnesses in the Divine Purposr (Brooklyn, 1959). pp. 14-63. Except where otherwise indicated, the information which follows has been gathered from the above-mentioned volumes. 10 Jehovah's Witnesses ruled for good, and merely wrecked my confidence in human creeds and systems of Bible misinterpretation^.^ One day in 1870 he dropped into a dusty, dingy basement hall near his Allegheny store to see if the handful who met there had anything more sensible to offer than the creeds of the great churches. There, for the first time, I heard something of the views of Second Adventism, by Jonas Wendell. Though his Scripture exposition was not entirely clear, and though it was very far from what we now rejoice in, it was sufficient, under God, to re-establish my wavering faith in the Divine inspiration of the Bible. ." His interest in Bible study aroused to fever pitch, Russell now organized a Bible class of six members who agreed to meet regu- larly. This group met in Pittsburgh from 1870-1875. Russell and his associates were disappointed by the Adventist view that Christ was coming again in the flesh, being convinced that His Second Coming would be a spiritual or invisible one. Russell therefore issued a pamphlet entitled The Object and Manner of the Lord's Return, of which some 50,000 copies were published. In 1876 Russell came into contact with N. H. Barbour of Roch- ester, New York. Barbour was the leader of a group of disaffected Adventists who had left that movement because they, like Russell, believed that the Second Coming of Christ was to be a spiritual, non-visible one. The Pittsburgh group and the Rochester group now joined, with the result that the magazine The Herald of the Morning, formerly published by Barbour, became a joint venture. In 1877 Barbour and Russell jointly published a 194-page book entitled Three Worlds or Plan of Redemption. Watchtower magazine, 1916, pp. 170-71; quoted in Jehovah's Wit- nesses in the Divine Prirpose, p. 14. yote here a typical cult phenomenon: the rejection of all "human creeds. :< .lehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, p. 14. It is important to note that, by his own admission, it was the Adventists who delivered Russell from his early skepticism. Though the term "Second Adventism" which is used in the quotation does not represent any known Adventist denomination, I conclude, from the similarities which exist between Seventh-day Adventist doctrines and Jehovah-Witness teachings, that this group was either a Sev- enth-day Adventist congregation, or a group of Adventists who held doc- trines similar to those of Seventh-day Adventism. From the Adventists Rus- sell obviously borrowed such doctrines as the extinction of the soul at death, the annihilation of the wicked, the denial of hell, and a modified form of the investigative judgment. History 1 I This book set forth their belief that Christ's second presence began invisibly in the fall of 1874 and thereby commenced a forty-year harvest period. Then, remarkably accurately, they set forth the year 19'14 as the end of the Gentile times. .' In a few years, however, Russell broke with Barbour because the latter began to deny that the death of Christ was the ransom price for Adam and his race. Russell now started a new periodical called Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, the first issue coming off the press on July 1, 1879." The new magazine proved to be an important factor in the ex- pansion of the movement. By 1880, for example, some thirty congregations had come into existence in seven states. Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was established as an unincorporated body in 188 1, with Russell as its manager. On December 13, 1884, this Society was granted a legal charter and was organized as a corporation we may therefore recognize this date as the official beginning of the Jehovah's Witness movement.Vhe purpose of the society, as stated in Article 1111 of the charter, was "the dissemination of Bible truths in various languages by means of the publication of tracts, pamphlets, papers and other religious documents, and by the use of all other lawful means. ."i In accordance with this purpose Russell now issued the first of what was eventually to become a 7-volume series of doctrinal books. This first volume, appearing in 1886, was called The Di- vine Plan of the Ages. The entire series, first called Millennia1 Dawn, later came to be called Studies in the Scriptures. These books had a wide circulation; over six million copies of the first volume were distributed. In 1889 the society acquired a building in Allegheny, Pennsyl- vania, which served as its headquarters for the next twenty years. 4 Qualified to br Minisrers, p. 300. It will be noted, therefore, that as early as 1877 Russell specified that Christ had invisibly returned in 1874.
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