Charles Taze Russell, or Pastor Russell, was an American Adventist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and founder of the Bible Student movement. He was an early Christian Zionist.
Joseph Franklin Rutherford, also known as Judge Rutherford, was an American religious leader and the second president of the incorporated Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. He played a primary role in the organization and doctrinal development of Jehovah's Witnesses, which emerged from the Bible Student movement established by Charles Taze Russell.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society produces a significant amount of printed and electronic literature, primarily for use by Jehovah's Witnesses. Their best known publications are the magazines, The Watchtower and Awake!
Raymond Victor Franz was a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses from October 20, 1971, until his removal on May 22, 1980, and served at the organization's world headquarters for fifteen years, from 1965 until 1980. Franz stated that the request for his resignation and his subsequent disfellowshipping resulted from allegations of apostasy. Following his removal, Franz wrote two books that shared his personal experiences with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and his views on Jehovah's Witnesses teachings.
Paul Samuel LeoJohnson was an American scholar and pastor, the founder of the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement. He authored 17 volumes of religious writings entitled Epiphany Studies in the Scriptures, and published two magazines from about 1918 until his death in 1950. The movement he created continues his work and publishes his writings, operating from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.
The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged in the United States from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881. Members of the movement have variously referred to themselves as Bible Students, International Bible Students, Associated Bible Students, or Independent Bible Students.
The Dawn Bible Students Association is a Christian organization and movement, and a legal entity used by a branch of the Bible Student movement.
Studies in the Scriptures is a series of publications, intended as a Bible study aid, containing six volumes of great importance to the history of the Bible Student movement, and the early history of Jehovah's Witnesses. A seventh volume was published posthumously and was written by other authors.
The Pastoral Bible Institute was started in 1918 when a number of prominent leaders and members withdrew their support from the Watch Tower Society after Joseph Rutherford became the president of the Society, following the death of pastor Charles Taze Russell. The Watchtower society was the publishing arm of the Bible Student movement, a Christian denomination following Millerite Adventist notions guided by principles expounded by Pastor Russell who founded and led the movement.
Frederick William Franz was appointed president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, a legal entity used to administer the work of Jehovah's Witnesses. He had previously served as vice-president of the same corporation from 1945 until 1977 when he replaced Nathan H. Knorr as president. His position as president was administrative, as the Governing Body assumed over-all control of all Jehovah's Witness corporations in 1976. He remained president until his death in 1992.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in Warwick, New York. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer, and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and the International Bible Students Association. The number of voting shareholders of the corporation is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses. About 5,800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labor, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York. Nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia, and other countries.
The Cross and Crown is a Christian symbol used by various Christian denominations. It has also been used in heraldry. The emblem is often interpreted as symbolizing the reward in heaven coming after the trials in this life.
Alexander Hugh Macmillan, also referred to as A. H. Macmillan, was an important member of the Bible Students, and later, of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He became a board member of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1917 and again in 1920. He presented a history of the religious movement in his book Faith on the March, published in 1957.
The Free Bible Students is a branch of the Bible Student movement. The Free Bible Students form independent, autonomous assemblies and the name, "Free", is given to them to distinguish them from Bible Students, with whom they share historical roots. The group discarded many of the teachings of Bible Student founder Charles Taze Russell.
Historically-speaking, in the former Worldwide Church of God an "evangelist" was a high ranking minister under governance of the Pastor General, Herbert W. Armstrong from 1934 to 1986, then under Joseph W. Tkach, from 1986 until his death in 1995. Higher ranking positions being; "apostle" (first) and then "prophet" (second) as stated in Ephesians 4:11. In the WCG, which was later renamed and is today known as Grace Communion International, the biblical term "evangelist" is no longer used as a ministerial title, although certain denominations with roots in the former WCG organization, such as the Living Church of God and the Philadelphia Church of God, still use the term.
Randolph Elwood Streeter, often referred to as R. E. Streeter, was one of the founding fathers of the Pastoral Bible Institute and a member of the editorial board of that church's The Herald of Christ's Kingdom magazine.
A dispute developed in 1917 within the leadership of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society following the death of society president Charles Taze Russell and the election of legal counsel Joseph Franklin Rutherford as his successor. An acrimonious battle ensued between Rutherford and four of the society's seven directors, who accused him of autocratic behavior and sought to reduce his powers. Rutherford claimed the dissident directors had formed a conspiracy to seize control of the society and overcame the challenge by gaining a legal opinion that his four opposers had not been legally appointed. He subsequently replaced them with four new sympathetic directors.
Conrad C. Binkele led the activities of the Watch Tower Society for the Central European Space until 1925, and in 1928 founded the Free Bible Students in Germany.
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society publications have made a series of predictions about Christ's Second Coming and the advent of God's kingdom, each of which has gone unfulfilled. Almost all the predictions for 1878, 1881, 1914, 1918, and 1925 were later reinterpreted as a confirmation of the eschatological framework of the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, with many of the predicted events viewed as having taken place invisibly. Further expectations were held for the arrival of Armageddon in 1975.
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