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The teachings of Charles Taze Russell

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Rumpel

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The teachings of Charles Taze Russell

Following his analytical examination of the Bible, Russell and other Bible Students came to believe that Christian creeds and traditions were harmful errors. They thought their own work was restoring Christianity to the purity of its first century. Many Church leaders and scholars in his day considered this to be heresy. Russell agreed with other Protestants on the primacy of the Bible, and justification by faith alone, but thought that errors had been introduced in interpretation. Russell agreed with many 19th-century Protestants, including Millerites, in the concept of a Great Apostasy that began in the first century AD. He also agreed with many other contemporary Protestants in belief in the imminent Second Coming of Christ, and Armageddon.

His Scriptural interpretations differed from those of Catholics, and many Protestants, in the following areas:
  • Hell. He said there was a heavenly resurrection of 144,000 righteous, as well as a "great multitude", but believed that the remainder of mankind slept in death, awaiting an earthly resurrection, rather than suffering in a literal Hell.
  • The Trinity. Russell believed in the divinity of Christ, but differed from orthodoxy by teaching Jesus had received that divinity as a gift from the Father after dying on the cross. He also taught that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but the manifestation of God's power.
  • Christ's Second Coming. Russell believed that Christ had returned invisibly in October 1874, and that he had been ruling from heaven since that date. He believed that a 'time of trouble' began then that would mark a gradual deterioration of civilized society leading up to the end of the "Gentile Times" with a climactic multi-national attack on a restored Israel, worldwide anarchy, and the sudden destruction of all world governments in October 1914. After the outbreak of World War I, Russell reinterpreted 1914 as the beginning of Armageddon.
  • Pyramidology. Following views first taught by Christian writers such as John Taylor, Charles Piazzi Smyth and Joseph Seiss, Russell believed that the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by the Hebrews (associated to the Hyksos) under God's direction, but to be understood only in our day. He adopted and used Seiss's phrase, referring to it as "the Bible in stone". He believed that certain biblical texts, including Isaiah 19:19–20 and others, prophesied a future understanding of the Great Pyramid. He believed that the various ascending and descending passages represented the fall of man, the provision of the Mosaic Law, the death of Christ, the exultation of the saints in heaven, etc. Calculations were made using the pattern of an inch per year. Dates such as 1874, 1914, and 1918 were purported to have been found through the study of this monument
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More about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taze_Russell

Is everything clear to you?
Can you make head and tail out of all this?
 
Surely we also have Russell supporters here?
What do they think about all this?
 
No Russell supporters here?
What a deafening silence!

:cool:
 
Lisa said:
He is still part of your cult, says your cult.

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I quote:

Among that group of sincere Bible students was a man named Charles Taze Russell. While Russell took the lead in the Bible education work at that time and was the first editor of The Watchtower, he was not the founder of a new religion. The goal of Russell and the other Bible Students, as the group was then known, was to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ and to follow the practices of the first-century Christian congregation. Since Jesus is the Founder of Christianity, we view him as the founder of our organization.
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https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/founder/

Poor Jesus! :(
Now his name gets mis-used as the "official" founder of some cult. :(
 
Rumpel said:
I quote:



https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/founder/

Poor Jesus! :(
Now his name gets mis-used as the "official" founder of some cult. :(
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Yeah, shame on him... :rolleyes:

he was not the founder of a new religion. The goal of Russell and the other Bible Students, as the group was then known, was to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ and to follow the practices of the first-century Christian congregation. Since Jesus is the Founder of Christianity, we view him as the founder of our organization.
 
first century

Who can tell exactly today what happened in the first century?
 
Rumpel said:
first century

Who can tell exactly today what happened in the first century?
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God's Word...try reading it sometime... :sneaky:
 
calamity said:
There is a lot of that present in religion.
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What’s funny is how many in one religion will mock other religions for their “craziness”, yet fail to see they do the same nutty stuff in just a slightly different manner.

That being said, there’s few religions out there that go to the lengths of lunacy as the JW’s. A few are worse no doubt, but the number is relatively small.
 
Dragonfly said:
What’s funny is how many in one religion will mock other religions for their “craziness”, yet fail to see they do the same nutty stuff in just a slightly different manner.

That being said, there’s few religions out there that go to the lengths of lunacy as the JW’s. A few are worse no doubt, but the number is relatively small.
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Funny thing about unbelievers, they whine when they see the hypocrisy in believers and then they whine when they see earnest effort in believers to adhere to what the Scriptures teach...seems there is no satisfying them, no matter what a believer does...it's sure a good thing believers could not care less what unbelievers think because their aim is to please God, not any human...especially them...
 
Elvira said:
Funny thing about unbelievers, they whine when they see the hypocrisy in believers and then they whine when they see earnest effort in believers to adhere to what the Scriptures teach...seems there is no satisfying them, no matter what a believer does...it's sure a good thing believers could not care less what unbelievers think because their aim is to please God, not any human...especially them...
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Do you eat shrimp?
 
calamity said:
Do you eat shrimp?
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Good question.
And is it OK for the US to have slaves from Canada and Mexico - as the OT allows slavery, provided the slaves are from neighbouring countries.
 
calamity said:
Do you eat shrimp?
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9 The next day as they were continuing on their journey and were approaching the city, Peter went up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

10 But he became very hungry and wanted to eat. While they were preparing the meal, he fell into a trance+

11 and saw heaven opened and something* descending like a great linen sheet being let down by its four corners on the earth;

12 and in it were all sorts of four-footed animals and reptiles* of the earth and birds of heaven.

13 Then a voice said to him: “Get up, Peter, slaughter* and eat!”

14 But Peter said: “Not at all, Lord, because I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean.”+

15 And the voice spoke again to him, the second time: “Stop calling defiled the things God has cleansed.” Acts 10:9-15

13 Furthermore, though you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcised state of your flesh, God made you alive together with him.+ He kindly forgave us all our trespasses+

14 and erased the handwritten document+ that consisted of decrees+ and was in opposition to us.+ He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the torture stake.+" Colossians 2:13,14
 
So God has changed his mind?
Why?
 
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