Thursday, February 16, 2023

It is the 16th of February, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Ok- so, perhaps the show will be a little unorthodox by some standards. The council of Nicaea would like a word with our subject today. Still, we told the story of Arias and the Arians. So today, we remember what we might think of as the modern Arias, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, and their founder Charles Taze Russell who was born on the 15th of February in 1852 in Pittsburgh.

So- yes, a 19th-century new religious movement coming from the 1800s and the Northeast… it seems like they are all connected. More on that in a second.

Charles Taze Russell grew up in the Presbyterian church- a zealous student and evangelist, he would eventually go to the congregational church. But, in his later teens, he developed a skepticism towards the Bible. Despite his reservations, he soon would run into followers of William Miller (that’s right! The guy who predicted the end of the world and his followers would become the Adventists). He liked how they used the Bible to predict future events. He got in on the fun and was soon teaching Bible studies and publishing tracts with a few associates.

He attracted attention with his preaching style and unorthodox positions he claimed to be due to a closer reading of Scripture than his peers in mainline Christian churches. His extensive ends times teachings settled on the year 1914 as the year Jesus would return (it was quite a year indeed, but not the return of Jesus, unfortunately).

“The Watch Tower” was his first journal for his and others' teachings- this and other publications would be assumed into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Among their distinct beliefs is that God the father should be held in esteem- they use the medieval name Jehovah. This comes from the name God gives himself in Exodus- Yahweh. You see this as “YHYW,” and it is sometimes translated in all caps as “LORD.” In Medieval Latin, there is no Y- just a J, and no W, just a V. So YHYW becomes JHJV. There are no written vowel points at this time- but the vowels for another word for God- Adonai, are placed within the JHJV, giving us “Jehovah.” Their reasoning for this name had to do with their belief that God was primary unity- that is, God the father is a god above all Gods, and thus, Jesus and the Spirit are not the same as God at all. Jesus is a created being such as Arians taught. This is why Jehovah’s Witnesses are often included in those “beware of the cults” youth group videos some of us grew up with. Their other distinctive is not accepting blood transfusion as following the injunction not to drink blood. They also do not swear oaths to flags or nations because they read the Sermon on the Mount. Also, no holidays.  

Regarding the 144,000, they believe there will be 144,000 co-rulers with God in heaven, but that this is not the complete number of people going to heaven. They also do not teach in the immortality of the damned, teaching instead that they are “annihilated”- this is not a common view but doesn’t make them heretics (depending on your confession, this may or may not be true).  

Their members are referred to as Publishers- the part-time employees as Pioneers, and their full-time staff- there are relatively few- are called Special Pioneers.

During Russell’s lifetime, his followers were not “Jehovah’s Witnesses” but the International Bible Students Association members, and his publishing arm were the Watch Tower Society. There has always been an emphasis on itinerant preaching and evangelization- if you have a Kingdom Hall (what they call their meeting spaces), you probably have been contacted by them. There are over 8 million Jehovah’s Witnesses in America- this is more than all the Lutherans in America, all the Presbyterians in America, more than the united Methodists, and others.

In 1914 when the second coming didn’t come, they suffered some defections. Still, Russell and other leaders would be imprisoned under the espionage act for not supporting the war nor going into the armed forces via the draft. Russell would die two years later on Halloween 1917. Born on this day in 1852, Charles Taze Russell- the American Arius? He was 64 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary from Hebrews 8:

3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of February 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite Jehovah’s Witnesses include the late Prince and the Notorious B.I.G., Dwight Eisenhower’s Mom, the Williams tennis sisters, and the guy who invented D&D. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who reminds you that Lark Voorhies (distant relation), who played Lisa Turtle on Saved By the Bell, is also Jehovah’s Witness. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.