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| Author | Topic: FAITH ON THE MARCH |
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Ruth Monroe (Moderator) |
posted 5/24/01 12:40 AM
"Faith On The March" provides us with another JW source of early C T Russell history. This 1957 book was written by A. H. Macmillan, who was a prominent JW Bethelite. "Mac" was baptized in 1901, and began to work closely with CTR in Pittsburgh, soon thereafter. In 1906, Mac baptized future WBTS President, J. F. Rutherford. Mac became a close personal friend of CTR, as well as his office assistant. Mac became a WBTS corporate Director in 1918, and was one of those sentenced to prison later that year. Readers should refer to the "Proclaimers" book index for additional info on Macmillan.
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Ruth Monroe (Moderator) |
posted 5/24/01 1:01 PM
Faith on the March A.H. Macmillan Copyright 1957 BEGINNING A NEW WAY Chapter 2 WHEN YOU CHANGE OVER the pattern of your thinking it means changing your way of life, yet the apostle Paul said that for Christians it is necessary to: "Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and complete will of God. "That is the battle that goes with finding the right religion. It was this interest in solving the questions about God, interest in him as a personality who loves, thinks--even hates--that led to the understanding of God's will now being proclaimed world-wide by Jehovah's witnesses. Religions for centuries had been placing emphasis on man and his salvation or damnation, with little regard to the name of the God responsible for these destinies. All concepts of God were fashioned, not particularly from the Bible, but from man's interest in himself. For centuries men had depended on the religious clergy to attend to the matter of salvation. If the layman concerned him- Page 16 self with the Bible, it was viewed almost as heresy; he was a doubter. This made salvation dependent upon men. Eventually some rebelled. They wanted to show that men had nothing to do with the salvation of others. So they said Almighty God had fixed their destinies before he ever created one of the human family. Each man was predestined before birth to a heaven of bliss or a hell of fiery torment. Another reformer said, "This conception of God is my conception of the Devil. If a man is not saved it's his own fault, because God has made all arrangements for him to obtain salvation, but mankind will not accept it." This puts God in competition with the Devil and robs God of his power because it looks like the Devil is getting more converts. If we are to obtain the Scriptural perspective of God's way of salvation, then we must realize that a period of readjustment is necessary. Throughout this time of revaluation we will be faced with many mental and spiritual pitfalls. Some may seem small and insignificant, but to survive them we must completely subordinate our personal preferences. To rely on Jehovah's direction is the way of wisdom. SEEKING GOD'S WILL Sometimes small happenings can affect one's entire life for good or for bad and can extend even into the lives of others to change their course. Some have said that just such a chain of reactions was set in motion when, about 1870, a young man (whose life, later, had considerable influence on my own), upon hearing religious singing in a little dingy hall on one of the dark streets of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, turned aside and walked in. While in many respects this young man was quite like most boys of his age, in other ways he was unusual indeed. Born of Scottish-Irish parents February 16, 1852, he had been brought page 17 up in the Calvinistic doctrine to believe that men before birth were selected or predestinated by God to spend eternity either in the joys of heaven or in the torments of hell. This did not seem reasonable to his inquiring mind; so at an early age he had begun searching for the truth. From earliest youth he had been extremely devoted to the service of God. In fact, his mother had dedicated him to the work of the Lord when he was born. So he was a serious minded young man; he wanted to serve Jehovah God to the best of his ability. But when still a lad he had become so concerned about the doctrine of immortality of the soul and eternal torment that he could not rest. He was completely unsettled in mind. "That's not reasonable," he would insist; "that's not God-like. It just can't be true." However, with nothing else to take its place, at the age of fourteen he would go out Saturday nights to where men gathered on Sundays to loaf, and would write Bible texts on the sidewalk with colored chalk. In this way he had hoped to attract their attention, so that they might accept Christ and avoid being lost and going to eternal torment. At this early age his boundless energy was demonstrated in his eagerness to advertise God's will for man as he saw it. All the time he wanted to be doing something. Finally he left the Presbyterian Church because its teaching on doctrine was too narrow; he joined the Congregational Church, which he found more liberal. He had become particularly interested in the Y.M.C.A. "There's the place I can work with other young men," he reasoned. He had never wanted to sit around the church looking pious or just listening to singing and someone preaching on matters that were unreasonable, horrifying and unlike a God of love. He wanted to be active-- trying to save men from going to eternal damnation. So he had worked and studied, continuing to search for the truth. page 18 TRADITIONALISM ENCOURAGES INFIDELITY He had examined all the different creeds--read up on what they generally taught. He had found disappointment in all of them. All this while he was trying to find something that would blend the obvious attributes of the Most High God, his love, justice, wisdom and power. He reasoned simply that if a theory or a doctrine does not square with those four attributes it must be wrong and any approach to Bible study must keep those four basic principles in mind. Any doctrine that violates any one of the attributes of God or which raises contradictions among them could not originate with God because he does not deny himself. In discouragement he finally turned to an investigation of the claims of the leading Oriental religions, all of which he found to be unworthy of credence; hence we see him arriving at manhood's estate with a mind unsatisfied, a mind which, despite all efforts to the contrary, was still subject to its occasional bad hours on account of its "first impression" on the eternal torment theory. "What is left to believe?" he finally asked himself. "If all the different religions that I have investigated can't present a clear and understandable picture of the Bible, then the Bible itself must be unreliable, so why believe it?" Like many serious thinkers before and since, finding the traditional teachings of religious Christendom untenable, he was falling an easy prey to the logic of infidelity. At the age of seventeen, then, this had become his conclusion: "Now my father is in business here in Pittsburgh and is doing quite well. There is no use in my trying to find out anything reasonable about the future from any of the creeds or even from the Bible, so I'm just going to forget the whole thing and give all my attention to business. If I make some money I can use that to help suffering humanity, even though I cannot do them any good spiritually." page 19 With that in mind he had thrown all of his dynamic force and personality into his father's business and it had really begun to prosper. He and his father had developed the idea of a chain of stores in several communities and soon had expanded their one store in Allegheny into additional establishments there and in adjacent cities. Seemingly he was well on the way to realizing his ambition to organize a corporation that would operate all over the United States. It was while he was in this frame of mind that something happened--the chance encounter that seemed to alter the pattern of his entire life. THE BIBLE STRENGTHENS WAVERING FAITH On this evening about 1,870 he had been walking along one of the dark streets in Allegheny when he heard singing. He paused for a moment. Being young, he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. As a reverential lad, he still had a desire for faith in the Supreme Being. He had heard that religious services were conducted here, so he asked himself, "Is it possible that the handful of people who meet here have something more sensible to offer than the creeds of the great churches?" He turned, entered the dusty little mission, and sat down to listen to the sermon. The preacher was Jonas Wendell. His exposition of the Scriptures was not too clear; many questions were left unanswered. But one thing was certain: this youth's wavering faith in the inspiration of the Bible was immeasurably strengthened; he was now convinced from what he had heard that the records of the apostles and prophets are indissolubly linked. Here was something upbuilding, something sensible to a sensitive and inquiring young mind. A renewed determination to continue his search for the truth opened a new chapter in this young man's life. Taking down his already well-worn Bible, he began a careful and systematic study of the Bible itself. As he read he thought, and the more he pondered the more convinced he became that the time was drawing near for the wise watching ones of the Lord's children to get a clear picture of God's purposes. page 20 Fired now with real enthusiasm, he approached several young men with whom he had been associating, some in a business way and others socially. He told them of his rekindled interest, of his purpose to continue his direct study of the Bible without any consideration of established creeds. Immediately recognizing the possibilities, they said, "Well, suppose we get together and study in a systematic way during certain hours each week." So it started. This young man, who at eighteen years of age organized this little Bible class, was to become one of the best-known Bible students of his generation. He was to become one of the best-loved and the most hated--one of the most praised and most maligned men in modern religious history. That was Charles Taze Russell, later globally known as Pastor Russell. JESUS RANSOM REVEALS GOD'S ATTRIBUTES The study method these young men adopted was simple but effective and has set the pattern for Bible study of Jehovah's witnesses ever since. It was based on the method used by the Christians of the first century. Someone would raise a question. They would discuss it. They would look up all related scriptures on the point and then, when they were satisfied on the harmony of these texts, they would finally state their conclusion and make a record of it. Their findings did not come all at once. They soon learned that the Bible clearly taught that the soul is not immortal and that when a person dies he is actually dead, unconscious, and page 21 that the wages of sin is death. This was certainly a departure from the spiritual fare they had been receiving through the creeds based on tradition. It enabled them to discern answers to questions they never could have understood otherwise. They learned that God had not created man to die. The father of the human race, Adam, had been created perfect and had been given a perfect wife; had been placed in a perfect home under perfect conditions and had been advised that obedience to the divine law would enable him to maintain this way of life in perfection. The Scriptures revealed to them that Adam violated the law of God and was sentenced to death and was driven out of his perfect home to eke out a bare existence in the unfinished earth until death overtook him. While he was undergoing this sentence Adam, for the first time, exercised his power and authority to reproduce; and under the law of heredity his children were born under the condemnation of death and without the right to life. Being unconscious in death, they were without hope unless some provision should be made to restore them to life. Although this early period of study revealed only the general outlines of God's purposes, it was a profitable time of unlearning many long-cherished errors as well. For instance, in considering man's hope of restoration to life they asked themselves, What did Adam really lose? Did he lose a chance to go to heaven?-- as they all had been taught to believe. No, they discovered. After careful study of the inspired Record they summed up Adam's loss in these three things: First, he lost fellowship with God; second, his beautiful home in Eden--he was forced out; third, he lost life and his right to it, for he was told that he would have to struggle in the sweat of his face until he returned to the ground from which he was taken. That means that he would die in the effort to keep alive. This added new meaning to Jesus' words, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. "Now how was this to be accomplished? They began to see page 22 that for Jesus to qualify as a redeemer he must at some time and under some condition have an opportunity to buy back these three things that were lost to the human race through Adam. Now, for the first time, they could see God's attributes in true perspective! His justice required Adam's execution for disobedience, yet his love was revealed in promising a ransom for the obedient ones of Adam's children. His wisdom made it possible for him to provide this means of restoring the way of life begun in Eden and his almighty power made it certain to be carried out. OBJECT AND MANNER OF CHRIST'S RETURN After further study it became clear that Jesus left heaven as a spirit creature, came to earth and became a perfect human being and had to do so in order to become the redeemer. That meant he was not part man and part God. Only by becoming a man as Adam had been could Jesus satisfy the righteous requirements of God's just law on the basis of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life. They learned that when Jesus died as a ransom sacrifice he actually died, but when Jehovah raised him from the dead and he returned to heaven he was given the divine nature or immortality, which he now has. What a prospect this opened up to them! Now, they realized, when Jesus comes again--and the Bible shows that he will--he is coming as an exalted spirit creature to give to obedient humans the benefits accruing from his sacrifice. That was their conclusion; their joy was unbounded. Young Russell wrote of this joyful awakening in the words of the disciples who encountered Jesus on their way to Emmaus after his resurrection "Did not our heart burn within us, while he page 23 talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" But how was Christ Jesus to come? It was during this same period of study, from 1870 to 1876, that they came to recognize the difference between our Lord as "the man who gave himself," and our Lord as he would return, in spirit form. It had become clear to them that spirit creatures could be present, yet invisible; so they could not accept the teachings of the Second Adventists who expected Christ to return in the flesh. These groups were making so many unscriptural predictions as to the object and manner of the Lord's coming, and the things they expected were so fanciful, that they brought great reproach not only on themselves but on all Bible students who were earnestly watching for and proclaiming the coming Kingdom. Having an unusually logical mind, young Russell would not jump to a conclusion, merely accepting certain premises and theories advanced without foundation. He must have Scriptural support and sound reason. That, of course, excluded the Second Adventists' theories because many of them were unreasoning extremists who believed that when Christ came he would burn up the earth and all people on it except second Adventists. In a sincere effort to counteract the harmful effect of their erroneous teachings, in 1873 Russell wrote and published at his own personal expense a booklet, The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return. Thousands of copies were distributed. TIME PROPHECIES SHOW PRESENCE IMMINENT However, the time features of the Lord's second coming were till somewhat vague to these young Bible students. They realized it was to be soon, but found it impossible to agree with current claims of chronology. Strangely, it was in this page 24 very connection that circumstances were again to alter Russell's course and another seemingly insignificant occurrence was to revolutionize his thinking. At the age of twenty-four, during the winter of 1875-76, Russell went to Philadelphia. His purpose was to open up some men's furnishing stores there and to buy some merchandise, since this was something of a wholesale center at that time. Still fresh in his mind, also, were the many truths that had been revealed to him, uppermost being that of the "restitution of mankind" at the Lord's invisible presence. One day in January he came to his office and saw a magazine lying on the desk. It was the Herald of the Morning. Seeing by the picture on its cover that it was connected with Adventism, he picked it up with some curiosity, saying to himself, "I wonder what idea they have now about the Lord's coming and what the new date is that they have set for the burning up of the earth." He opened it and, much to his astonishment, observed the conclusion set forth somewhat cautiously that the Lord was already present and that Jesus' illustration of dividing the "wheat" and "tares" in judgment 17 was already in progress. Russell refused to allow his personal views to dissuade him from investigating. Immediately he wrote to the editor, Nelson H. Barbour, at Rochester, New York, where the magazine was published. He learned enough about Barbour's time calculations to arouse his deep interest. Barbour told him that a reader of Herald of the Morning who owned a new Bible translation, The Emphatic Diaglott, had noticed a somewhat peculiar variation in the rendering of Matthew 24: 3 (as well as verses 27, 37 and 39). Instead of "What shall be the sign of thy coming" (as in the common version), this new translation read: "What will be the sign of thy presence." Here was a new thought. Surely if our Lord were to return invisibly to mankind he would give some necessary evidence as to the time of his arrival. This was a reasonable conclusion. page 25 Still Russell wanted convincing proof, and since there were no books explaining these points of chronology he sent at once to Rochester and paid Barbour's expenses to Philadelphia. Here Barbour proceeded to set forth enough proofs from Bible prophecies to convince Russell that the harvest period had begun in 1874. THE HARVEST MESSAGE BEGINS Russell was a man of action as well as conviction, and he was fully dedicated to the Lord. "Mr. Barbour," he said, "the Lord's time is here for us to tell the people about this. The harvest is already two years under way." "There's no use in doing anything any more," Barbour replied. "The subscribers to the Herald of the Morning are discouraged because 1874 has passed and the Lord didn't come. Some of them lived in 1844 with Miller and the Lord didn't come then, and now they've become discouraged. The printing outfit we have in Rochester is about worn out and we're just getting out the Herald now and then when we can raise some money. Now there's no use trying to revive it." Russell was not to be stopped so easily. "Mr. Barbour," he said, "now is the time to get busy; we have something to tell the people--something you never had before." "What do you mean?" "We're going to tell them that the time for the harvest is here! We can now carry the good tidings that Christ's kingdom is due to bring to mankind the blessings he purchased for them on Calvary. We've preached restitution before but we have never yet been able to point out that we are living when those blessings are to be restored to mankind. This should be preached on a world-wide scale." page 26 That was Russell's enthusiastic response, and in the years that followed his zeal never diminished. PREACHING AND PUBLISHING Immediately he set to work. He gave Barbour some money and authorized him to return to Rochester to begin preparation of a book which they were to co-author. He purposed to set forth for the first time in printed form a Scriptural explanation of the blessings of the restitution combined with the time prophecies of Christ's second presence. This book, The Three Worlds, was published in 1877. Russell now determined to curtail his business and spend his entire time traveling and preaching. It became clear to him at once that, while public lectures aroused interest, something was needed to hold and develop it. To accomplish this he determined to begin active publication of a monthly journal. Although Barbour was acquainted with printing and had been editor of the Herald for some years, he raised a number of objections as to the advisability of reorganizing the printing establishment. However, Russell had real enthusiasm for the work and finally it was agreed for Barbour to buy new type and other printing equipment, which Russell himself paid for. So publication of Herald of the Morning was resumed, with Barbour as editor and Russell associate editor. MAINTAINING THE MIND OF THE LORD Expecting the Lord Jesus to come in 1878 to catch them up miraculously to be with him in heaven, some who had been Second Adventists (including Barbour) were disappointed when that miracle did not occur. Russell, though, "did not for a moment feel cast down," but "realized that what God page 27 had so plainly declared must some time have a fulfillment"; and he "wanted to have it just in God's time and way." On one occasion while talking with Russell about the events of 1878, I told him that Pittsburgh papers had reported he was on the Sixth Street bridge dressed in a white robe on the night of the Memorial of Christ's death, expecting to be taken to heaven together with many others. I asked him, "Is that correct?" Russell laughed heartily and said: "I was in bed that night between 10:30 and 11:00 P.M. However, some of the more radical ones might have been there, but I was not. Neither did I expect to be taken to heaven at that time, for I felt there was much work to be done preaching the Kingdom message to the peoples of the earth before the church would be taken away." It was right at the time of this disappointment, as Russell shows, that a permanent breach began between Barbour and Russell. Paul's words at I Corinthians 15:51, 52, were being wrongly construed, Russell had pointed out. There, in Paul's statement, "We shall not all sleep," the word sleep is not synonymous with die, though some had so understood. Rather, here sleep means state of unconsciousness of those who in death must wait for Christ's second coming to awaken them out of such sleep. Russell showed how Paul clearly meant by his words that those alive on earth when Christ returned would not need to go into such sleep of death to wait for a future awakening, but at the instant of their death they then would be "changed" or resurrected immediately, to be with Christ in heaven as spirit persons. This harmonizes with Paul's words in this same chapter, verse 36: "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die." But Barbour rejected this simple explanation of Paul's words, feeling that he had to "get up something new to divert attention from the failure of the living saints to be caught away en masse." Soon afterward Barbour wrote and published in the Herald page 28 "that Christ's death was no more a settlement of the penalty of man's sins than would the sticking of a pin through the body of a fly and causing it suffering and death be considered by an earthly parent as a just settlement for misdemeanor in his child." That denial by Barbour of the basic Bible doctrine of the ransom value of Jesus' sacrifice came as a real shock to Russell. Russell, who now had been regularly contributing to the Herald, immediately wrote and published a powerful defense of the ransom. Then, in the same journal, Barbour and a few supporters continued attacking the ransom doctrine while Russell and others kept on upholding it. Herald readers were confused; it also greatly disturbed Russell. To him the ransom was the keystone, the great foundation of human hope. To attack it was to shake the basis of God's provision for reconciling sinful man to himself. However, Russell soon realized that continued wrangling would not settle the problem. He determined, therefore, to withdraw his support from the Herald, to which he himself had given new life in order to preach the good tidings of the harvest work. But just to withdraw, he saw, would not be sufficient. The ransom must be defended and the work of proclaiming our Lord's return must be continued. In July, 1879 the first issue of Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence was published by C. T. Russell. In 1884 the nonprofit, charitable corporation was chartered that now is known as Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. It has served as the legal and business agent of Jehovah's witnesses ever since. From these small beginnings a tremendous growth has resulted. The message contained in The Watchtower has never halted. From a first distribution of six thousand copies its circulation had grown by 1957 to more than three million copies in forty-six languages. Its message of comfort and hope has assisted an ever-growing host of supporters to change over page 29 their thinking and to make straight paths for their feet. By 1957 the number of persons actively engaged in preaching this good news of Jehovah's kingdom had expanded to well over six hundred and fifty thousand. WHAT BIBLE STUDY REVEALED Now the issue begun in Eden is to be settled for all time. The good news being preached holds out a prospect of endless life in a world of God's making. You can be sure the way of life begun by God in Eden is not to be lost to mankind. The disobedient act of Adam and Eve has not altered God's purpose. What the first pair did in wrongfully eating of the tree was a little thing, a small happening; but it changed the history of the world. Their yielding to their own personal preference lost for themselves and for their offspring the widest range of individual freedom. It was a corrupting of their minds. Do you think if we persist in their way that it will bring us closer to God? Truth is more important than individuals. It is not a matter of adopting "the religion of your own choice." That is what Adam and Eve did. It is a matter of finding and holding to the one true religion that is God's choice for us. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: . . . he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death." |
| Jim |
posted 6/18/01 4:42 PM
The "several" official Watchtower publications that used 1873 appear to be 75 Yearbook, 1984 Centenial bro. p.4, and w87 3/1 p.10. After the jv book, the correct date was used. |
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