Biography

Early life

Charles Taze Russell was born to Joseph Lytel Russell and Ann Eliza Birney on
Monday,
February 16, 1852
in

Allegheny,

Pennsylvania,
USA.
Charles, the second of five children, was one of only two to survive into
adulthood. The other Russell children included Thomas, (1850–September
4, 1855),
Margaret ("Mae", married name Margaret Land) who died in the late 1940s, Lucinda
(1857–July
21, 1858), and
Joseph Lytel, Jr. (1859–April
25, 1860).
Their mother died on
January 25,
1861 at the age of
29. The patriarch, Joseph, died
December
17, 1897, at
the age of 84.

The Russells had lived in

Philadelphia, as well as Allegheny. Once established in
Pittsburgh,
the Russells became respected members of the

Presbyterian Church. In his early teens, his father made him partner of his
Pittsburgh

haberdashery store. By age twelve, he was writing business contracts for
customers, and given charge of some of his father's other clothing stores. At
age thirteen, he left the

Presbyterian Church to join the

Congregational Church due to a preference in their organizational style. In
his earlier youth, Russell would chalk Bible verses on the downtown sidewalks to
draw attention to the punishment of hell awaiting the unfaithful. When sixteen,
a discussion with a childhood friend on faults perceived in

Christianity (such as perceived contradictions in
creeds, and
medieval traditions) led him to question his faith. He then began to investigate
other views and philosophies, including

Confucianism,
Buddhism,
Taoism, and
Hinduism,
but abandoning them in short order. In
1870, at age
eighteen, he cautiously attended a presentation by the famous
Adventist
preacher,
Jonas
Wendell. Wendell focused on what Russell considered to be rational, logical
matters relating to Biblical prophecy and chronology, drawing attention to the
future date of 1874 as the supposed date for Christ's return. The presentation
left him with, he later related, a renewed zeal that not only was the Bible the
word of God, but that all Christians had a responsibility to preach the gospel.

Beginnings

From 1870
through 1875 the
Russell family, and others, participated in an analytical study of both the
Bible and the origins of Christian doctrine, creed, and tradition. "Millerite"
Adventist ministers

George Storrs, and

George Stetson, were also closely involved. Russell's group believed they
had found significant errors in common Christian belief. As a result of such
study, the Russell family believed they had gained a clearer understanding of
true Christianity, and were re-baptized in
1874.

In the Spring of
1876, while on business in Philadelphia, Russell found a copy of "Herald
of the Morning", published out of

Rochester,
New York by

Nelson H. Barbour. (1824-1908)
Russell contacted Barbour to set up a meeting in Philadelphia to compare notes.
Barbour introduced him to some new views that convinced Russell, amongst other
things, the
Rapture would occur in April
1878. Russell was
moved to devote his life to what he believed were now the last two years before
the return of Christ. He sold his five clothing stores for approximately
$300,000 dollars. (the buying power of $5.5 million in the year
2005) Through
Russells' encouragement and financial backing, Barbour wrote an outline of their
current views, in the book "Three Worlds; or Plan of Redemption"
published in 1877.
A text Russell had written in 1874, entitled "The Object and Manner of our
Lord's Return", was published the same year. Russell's desire to lead a
Christian revival was evidenced by his calling two separate meetings of every
Christian leader in Pittsburgh. Russell's ideas, and stressing of the Rapture's
imminence, was rejected both times.

Split with Barbour

In April 1878, the Rapture did not occur as Russell, Barbour, and their
associates had anticipated. According to the book Faith on the March,
page 27, written by one of Russell's associates,

A.H. Macmillan, "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.""

Confused by what was perceived to be an error in calculation, Russell
re-examined the doctrine to see if he could determine that it had Biblical
origins, or if it was, in his view, simply Christian tradition. His conclusion
that it is tradition led him to begin teaching, through the pages of the Herald,
what he believed to have discovered on the subject. Barbour, however, highly
embarrassed by the failure of their expectations, rejected Russell's
explanation, and a debate ensued in each monthly issue of the journal from the
Spring of 1878 through to the Summer of 1879. In a matter of months Barbour's
embarrassment led to a recanting of some of the views he and Russell had
previously shared, including any reliance upon prophetic chronology. As their
disagreements turned into a debate over Christ's ransom, a split between them
resulted. Russell removed his financial support, and started his own journal,
entitled "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence," with the first
issue July, 1879, while Barbour formed "The Church of the Strangers" that same
year, continuing to publish the "Herald of the Morning."

Russell's marriage

On March 13,
1879, Russell
married Maria (pronounced 'moriah') Frances Ackley (1850-1938)
after merely a few months' acquaintance. Although expressing a fondness for each
other, the marriage was not based on a romantic love, but was a mutually agreed
upon celibate partnership established for preaching the gospel. In
1897 they separated
following disagreements over the propriety of her role in the management of
Zion's Watch Tower magazine. Russell recorded his version of events in the
July 15,
1906 issue that can
be read

here. In 1906, she sued him for
divorce under
the claim of mental cruelty as a direct result of their marriage agreement of
perpetual celibacy. During the trial she indirectly alleged sexual misconduct by
Charles with a Watch Tower

stenographer whom they had long been caring for as a foster child. The

Brooklyn Daily Eagle published what was claimed to be segments from the
court transcript, which can be read by

visiting this link. Maria Russell, as she was named in her obituary, died in

St. Petersburg,
Florida in
August of 1938 from

Hodgkin's disease.

Death, aftermath, and legacy

During his return from a ministerial tour of the western and southwestern
United States, the already ill Pastor Russell died from the result of multiple
ailments on the night of
October 31,
1916 in a train car
as it approached
Pampa,
Texas. His death
was a major front-page headline in many newspapers across the globe. He was
buried in

Rosemont United Cemetery,

Pittsburgh. The gravesite is marked by both a headstone, and an eight-foot
tall pyramid memorial gifted from friends of the

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

[1] in 1924.

In January 1917

Joseph Franklin Rutherford was successfully elected second president of the
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society despite a series of disputes over the
election process. Further disputes arose over interpretation of sections in
Russell's Last Will & Testament dealing with the future contents of Zion's Watch
Tower magazine, as well as who, if any, had authority to print new literature.
Nearly three-quarters of the congregations chose not to accept Rutherford's
increasing number of changes in doctrine, openly published in the pages of the
Watchtower magazine, as early as 1918. For many Bible Students,

Rutherford's rejection of the
Great
Pyramid in November,
1928, and Russell's
role in restoration of the truth in February,
1927, was
considered the last straw. Those remaining supportive, however, eventually
adopted the new name

Jehovah's Witnesses in
1931, and changed
the name of the Society from Watch Tower to Watchtower. As their
numbers began to grow, Rutherford sought to change the organizational structure
of the Watchtower Society, shifting the long-held independence of the
congregations, to a more centralized role, where elders began to be chosen by
the Society, instead of by the local congregations. Many of those Bible Students
who had ceased association with the changing Watchtower Society attempted to
regroup in 1929 with the First Annual Bible Students Convention held in
the old Pittsburgh "Bible House" long used by Pastor Russell. These conventions
were held yearly, but the process of regathering took nearly twenty years.

(See the article

Bible Student movement for a more detailed history)

Several
Protestant denominations have either formed around, or adopted some style
of, Pastor Russell's views, among them the

Worldwide Church of God, the

Concordant Publishing Concern, the

Assemblies of Yahweh. Among the numerous Bible Student off-shoot groups
include the

Pastoral Bible Institute, the

Layman's Home Missionary Movement and others.

Theology and teachings

Following his analytical examination of the Bible, Pastor Russell, and other
Bible Students, came to believe that Christian creeds and traditions were
harmful errors, believing they had restored Christianity to the purity held in
the first century. Such views and conclusions were viewed as heresy by many
Church leaders and scholars in his day, although adopting some of his views in
later decades. Pastor 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. Pastor 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.
Some of the areas in which his Scriptural interpretations differed from those of
Catholics, and many Protestants, included the following:

• Russell disputed the concept of a burning
  Hell. He
  maintained that 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.


• He did not accept the concept of the
  Trinity as
  usually presented. 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.

• Russell calculated
  1874 to be the
  year of Christ's
  
  Second Coming, and until his death taught that Christ was invisibly
  present, and
  ruling from the heavens from that date. He predicted that a period known
  as the "gentile times" would end in
  1914 and that
  Christ would take power of earth's affairs at that time. He interpreted the
  outbreak of
  World
  War I as the beginning of
  
  Armageddon, which he viewed to be both a gradual deterioration of
  civilized society, and a climactic multi-national attack on a restored Israel
  accompanied by worldwide anarchy.


• He rejected the common chronology of the Bible, published by Bishop Usher,
  and used a direct approach, and deductive reasoning, to calculate the 6,000
  years from Adam. Correlating it with prophetic interpretations, the year 1874
  was seen to be prophetically and chronologically significant, and seen as the
  date of the invisible return of Christ.


• Russell backed up some calculations using
  
  pyramidology. Following the view first taught by Christian writers, such
  as
  
  John Taylor,
  
  Charles Piazzi Smyth and Joseph Seiss, he believed
  
  the Great Pyramid of Giza was built by the
  Hebrews
  (associated to the
  Hyksos) under
  God’s direction, to be understood only in our day. He adopted and used the
  English phrase, referring to it as "the Bible in stone". Based upon certain
  biblical texts, such as Isaiah 19:19,20, and others, the various ascending and
  descending passages were viewed as representing the fall of man, the provision
  of the Mosaic Law,
  the death of Christ, and the exultation of the saints in heaven. Calculations
  were made using the pattern of an inch per year. Dates such as 1874, 1914, and
  1948 were purported to have been found through the study of this monument. A
  detailed review of his thoughts can be found in the appendix of "Thy
  Kingdom Come".


• Russell was one of the earliest of Christian preachers to promote what was
  later termed
  Zionism. Borrowing an idea promoted by Nelson Barbour, he taught as early
  as 1879 that God's favor had been restored to
  Jews as the
  result of a prophetic "double" which ended in
  1878. (favor from
  Jacob to Jesus,
  then disfavor from Jesus to 1878) In
  1910 he conducted
  a meeting at
  New York's famous
  
  Hippodrome Theatre, with thousands of Jews attending. Jews and Christians
  alike were shocked by his teaching that Jews should not convert to
  Christianity. Russell believed that the land of
  
  Palestine belonged to the Jewish race, God was now calling them back to
  their land, and that they would be the center of earthly leadership under
  God's Kingdom. Early in Russell's ministry he believed Jews would flock to
  
  Palestine and form their own nation by 1910, but this did not occur.
  Shortly before his death, he utilized the Jewish press to stress that 1914
  prophetically marked the time when all Jews should flock to Palestine, and
  boldly reclaim the land. (see also
  
  Christian Zionism)

Criticisms and controversies

As early as 1892
Russell's views and management style were strongly criticized by certain
individuals associated with his ministry. In
1893 a paper was
written and circulated to Bible Students in Pittsburgh by associates Otto van
Zech, Elmer Bryan, J.B. Adamson, S.G. Rogers, Paul Koetitz, and others. It
expressed concern that Russell was a dictatorial leader, a shrewd businessman
who appeared eager to collect funds from the selling of the "Millennial Dawn"
books, cheated one of them out of financial gains, and issued thousands of
Millennial Dawn books under a female pseudonym. A booklet entitled A
Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings was written by Russell and issued as
an extra to the April, 1894 Zion's Watch Tower magazine in order to pre-empt
attempts to have their views circulated to a wider audience of Bible Students.
Russell printed copies of letters he had received from these former associates
in order to show that their claims were trumped up, and those involved were
guided by Satan
in an attempt to subvert his work as a "minister of the gospel".

In 1897
Russell's wife left him after disagreeing over the management of Zion's Watch
Tower magazine. She expressed that, as his wife, she should have equal control
over its administration, equal privilege in writing articles, preaching, and
traveling abroad as his representative. In
1903 she filed for
legal separation on the grounds of mental cruelty, related to what she
considered to be forced celibacy, and frequent cold, indifferent treatment. The
separation was ultimately granted in
1906, with Russell
charged to pay alimony. During the trial her attorney made the claim that
Russell had been inappropriately intimate with Rose Ball, a young woman the
Russells had cared for as a "foster daughter" since age ten. She alleged that
Ball had told her Russell claimed to be a "jellyfish floating around" to
different women until someone responded to his intimacy. Russell defended
himself by claiming that not only was she "poisoned" by the women's
suffrage
movement, but that all her claims were false. Following her attorney's claim,
page 10 of the court transcript records that Mrs. Russell was asked by the Judge
to clarify if she was, in fact, accusing her husband of adultery, and replied
"No". The Washington Post and Chicago Mission Friend reprinted the
claim that Russell was a "jellyfish", and was sued by him for libel. The jury
voted in his favor, awarding him one-dollar. After appealing this decision,
Russell received a cash settlement of $15,000 (the same buying power as $310,000
in 2005) as well as payment of all court costs, an agreement for an article of
retraction defending his character, and an agreement that his weekly syndicated
sermons be published in their newspapers.

On March 22, 1911, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a tabloid newspaper,
began publishing articles accusing Russell of gaining profit from a strain of
wheat named
"Miracle Wheat" by its discoverer, K.B. Stoner of

Fincastle,
Virginia in 1903. Once other
newspapers
read this claim, many critics began to insist that Russell had deceived and
defrauded many by selling this supposedly advanced strain of wheat for $60 a
bushel, far above the average cost of wheat for the day. Throughout
1912 and
1913 the Eagle
continued to report on this alleged fraud on Russell's part. He sued the
Eagle for libel, but lost. Russell defended himself publicly, and in
writing, by claiming that the wheat was donated to the Watch Tower Society, and
although sold for $1 per pound Mr. Stoner routinely sold it for a $1.25 per
pound. Russell claimed to have no financial connection to the wheat, and that
any who were dissatisfied by their purchase and donation were offered a refund
as much as one year following purchase. None claimed a refund.

During 1913, other matters of interest were addressed by John Jacob (J.J.)
Ross, a minister from

Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada
in his booklet entitled Some Facts about the Self-Styled "Pastor" Charles T.
Russell. Russell had taken Ross to court on the charge of libel. Ross
attempted to show that when Russell was asked in trial if he possessed knowledge
of the

Greek alphabet he first claimed he did, then retracted the claim when
cross-examined and shown the alphabet. Ross also claimed that Russell blatantly
lied when asked if he was an
ordained
minister by answering "yes". In answer to Ross's accusations, Russell stated
that he never claimed knowledge of the Greek language, merely the alphabet, and
that due to the Judge's objection to the line of questioning, the book was taken
away before he could even see it. He believed that his ordination was "of God"
according to the biblical pattern, not requiring any denominational approval,
and that his annual election as "Pastor" by over 1,200 congregations worldwide
constituted him as "ordained", or chosen, to be a minister of the gospel.

In recent times, Russell has been accused of having had close ties with

Freemasonry. Critics have not only attempted to connect him with any of
several different rites of the Free Masons, but have also attempted to show that
such associations are connected with occult practices. It has been pointed out
that in later ions of his

Studies in the Scriptures series a winged solar disk appears on the front
cover, which some have claimed is an exclusively Masonic symbol. In his
writings, Russell stated that membership in Freemasonry, Knights of Pythias,
Theosophy, and other similar groups are unscriptural. He also

denied having direct knowledge of Masonic practices and considered such
things to be "grievous evils" (1895; Zion's Watch Tower, June, 1895, pg. 143).
His use of the winged solar-disk originated from his understanding that Malachi
4:2, (which denotes a sun with wings), is a symbol that Christ's millennial
Kingdom had begun.

Contributions

Major publications

In 1881

Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was founded for the purpose of
disseminating tracts, papers, doctrinal treatises and Bibles. All materials were
printed and bound by contract with local printers, then distributed by 'colporteurs'.
The Society was officially chartered in
1884. From this
point Russell's ministry intensified. His Bible study group had grown to
hundreds of local members, with followers throughout
New
England, the
Virginias,
Ohio, and
elsewhere, who annually elected him "Pastor". Other congregations that
eventually formed in other nations also followed this tradition.

Russell devoted nearly a tenth of his fortune, along with contributed funds,
in publishing and distributing Food for Thinking Christians in
1881. In the same
year followed The Tabernacle and its Teachings, and Tabernacle Shadows
of the Better Sacrifices. In
1886, after what
was reported to be a financial set-back resulting from the immense outlay on
these three titles, he published the long promised The Plan of the Ages
(later renamed The Divine Plan of the Ages). In the course of
preparation, Russell concluded the book was to be merely the first of a
seven-volume series. The remaining volumes, originally called Millennial Dawn,
but later renamed

Studies in the Scriptures to clarify that they were not novels, were:

• The Time is at Hand (1889)


• Thy Kingdom Come (1891)


• The Day of Vengeance" later retitled "The Battle of Armageddon''
  (1897)


• The At-one-ment Between God and Men (1899)


• The New Creation (1904)

The delayed publishing of the seventh volume eventually became a source of
great anticipation and mystery among Bible Students. Following Russell's death
in 1916, a seventh volume entitled The Finished Mystery, was published in
1917 and advertised
as his "posthumous work". True to Russell's plan, this seventh volume was a
detailed interpretation of the book of
Revelation,
but had included interpretations of
Ezekiel, and
the

Song of Solomon. Immediate controversy surrounded both its publishing, and
contents. In a short time it was established that it was actually written and
compiled by two of Russell's associates,

Clayton J. Woodworth and

George H. Fisher, and ed by

Joseph Franklin Rutherford.

In 1903,
newspapers began publishing his written sermons. These newspaper sermons were
syndicated worldwide, eventually reaching an estimated readership of twelve to
fifteen million in the United States. Through the syndicated sermons, and
advertising efforts made by the newspaper syndicators, Pastor Russell's face
became one of the most recognizable images in the world. Russell, however, had
many critics, and was labeled a
heretic,
amongst other things. As he became more prominent the number of critics
increased.

Achievements

Famous quotes

“The deliverance of the saints must take place some time
before 1914”

 Charles
Taze Russell quote