Jehovah's Witnesses' History

The Origins of the Jehovah's Witnesses Under Charles Taze Russell

The Jehovah's Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He was born on February 16, 1852, the son of Joseph L. and Anna Eliza Russell. He had great difficulty in dealing with the doctrine of eternal hellfire, and in his studies he came to deny not only eternal punishment but also the Trinity and the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

When Russell was 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1879, he sought to popularize his aberrant ideas on doctrine. He co-published the Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder, N. H. Berber.

The Watchtower, the Zion's Watchtower Tract Society, and Russell's Control of Doctrine

And by 1884, Russell controlled the publication and renamed it The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom, and he founded the Zion's Watchtower Tract Society, now known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.

The first edition of The Watchtower magazine was only 6 ,000 copies each month. Today, The Publishing Complex in Brooklyn, New York, churns out over 100 ,000 books and 800 ,000 copies of its two magazines daily.

Russell claimed that the Bible could only be understood according to his interpretations, a dangerous arrangement since he controlled what was written in The Watchtower magazine. This kind of assertion is typical among leaders of cult religious systems.

Rutherford, Knorr, Franz, and the Renaming of the Organization

After the death of Russell on October 31, 1916, a Missouri lawyer named Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over the presidency of the Watchtower Society, which was known then as the International Bible Students Association.

In 1931, he changed the name of the organization to the Jehovah's Witnesses. After Rutherford's death, Nathan Knorr took over. After Knorr, Frederick William Franz became president. The society was led by Mr. Henschel, who died in 2003.

Growth, Recruitment, and Watchtower Indoctrination

The group has over 4 million members worldwide. The Watchtower Society statistics indicate that 740 house calls are required to recruit each of the nearly 200 ,000 new members who join every year. The Jehovah's Witnesses have several book studies each week.

The members are not required to attend, but there is a level of expectation that gently urges converts to participate. It is during these book studies that the Jehovah's Witnesses are constantly exposed to counter-Christian teachings.

The average Jehovah's Witness, with his constant Watchtower indoctrination, could easily pummel the average Christian when it comes to defending his beliefs. The Jehovah's Witnesses vehemently portray the doctrine of the Trinity as pagan in origin and that Christendom as a whole has bought the lie of the devil.

Rejection of the Trinity, Christ's Deity, and Eternal Punishment

Along with denying the Trinity is an equally strong denial of the deity of Christ, the deity of the Holy Spirit, the belief in hell, and eternal conscious punishment in hell. Beware, this is a non-Christian religion.