Origins Of Jehovas Witnesses

The Watchtower Society assumes that its history started with Charles Taze Russell who studied the Bible and discovered numerous biblical truths such as the “prediction of 1914”.  On the other hand, they voluntarily forget to mention that their actual history started long before, not with Russell, but with the Baptist preacher William Miller.

A lot of people don't know that the founder of the Jehovah's Witness, Charles Taze Russell, was a 33 degree Mason, and a member of the Knights Templar. The pyramid in this photo is Russell's burial plot and final resting place. As you can see, it is filled with occult symbols, like the Cross of Freemasonry in the circle near the top of the pyramid.

In 1818 Miller calculated the return of Christ to be 1843. This calculation was based on the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 : "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed," If you apply the principle of one-day equals one year, this brings you to 2300 years starting with the reconstruction of Jerusalem by the Persian Artaxerxes 1 in 457 BC. Thus 2300 minus 457 years bring us to 1843. Much later, Miller states "My principles in brief, are, that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844”. Nothing having happened March 21st 1844, a new date was calculated: April 18th 1844. Again nothing. Consequently another new date was projected: October 22nd 1844. Again nothing happened. This latter was coined as “The Great Disappointment” Miller died in 1849 having never seen the return of Christ, but was still convinced of his imminent return. It is estimated that he had between 50 000 and 500 000 followers.

A number of followers concluded that the 1844 date in fact was correct, but that it coincided with the coming of Christ in his sanctuary and the beginning of the Judgment Hour. The following are a few of the sects born from this: “The Advent Church, The Seventh-Day Adventists, The Bible Students (Russellites) and of course The Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Charles Taze Russell was born from a Presbyterian family. His father was an elite Freemason. Russell joined a Congregational Church but was troubled by the churches teachings of hell, which led him to be skeptical about the church in his early adolescence. By the age of 18 (1869) he participated in a reunion by the Second Adventists, held by Jonas Wendell. What he heard resurrected his faith in the Bible. The Adventists believed that the soul is put to rest after death awaiting resurrection. Therefore, no Hell. Russell studied the Bible and was greatly influenced by many Adventists such as George Storrs, Jonas Wendell, George Stetson and Nelson Barbour. Many of Russell’s doctrines came from the Adventists of the first hour including William Miller’s predictions because of his calculations of date for the return of Christ.

One of the major Adventist influences on Russell was Nelson Barbour whom published the magazine “The Midnight Cry” (later named “Herald of the Morning”). Barbour thought Christ would return in a visible manner in 1874. Since nothing happened in 1874, Barbour thought that Christ did actually come, but remained invisible. In 1876, when Charles Taze Russell received a copy of Herald of the Morning, he believed the invisible return of Christ of 1874. He accepted more of the chronologies of events established by Barbour including the calculations of the ‘Gentile Times”.  Russell wrote an article about the Gentile Times in the periodic Bible Examiner by George Storrs. Nelson Barbour and Charles Taze Russell joined for the publication of the Adventist magazine Herald of the morning, where Russell became the assistant editor. In Barbour’s chronology, he says that 6000 years since the creation of Adam ended in 1873 and that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874.  The harvest would happen between 1874 and 1914 the end of “The Gentile Times”. The Watchtower pretends that the year 1914 was determined by the following calculations: 2520 years minus 606 years B.C.; the assumed date of the fall of Jerusalem (actually known as 587 or 586 before Jesus Christ (BC)).

When Russell separated from Barbour to found his own magazine, The Zion’s Watchtower in 1879, he brought these Adventist doctrines with him. Among them he took the ransom doctrine, heaven on earth, critics on the traditional churches, the soul sleep after death and the memorial celebrated once a year by George Storrs. The dates calculated for the return of Christ, the denial of the immortality of the soul and hell, do not come from Jehovah’s Witnesses as they would like us to believe, they actually originate from the Adventists. This leads us to see that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not a religion per say but an Adventist cult.