Some Thoughts on Doctrinal
History
By Professor M. James Penton
September
22, 2007
I have been doing a great deal
of study on C.T. Russell's doctrinal background. In the past it has generally
been held that that background was Adventist/Millerite, and I am sure that his
eschatology was taken largely from them and someone such as J.A. Seiss. But what
is becoming more and more obvious to me is that Russell, the Adventists, and
practically all U.S. and Canadian Evangelicals were primarily influenced by
British Evangelicalism. And most of these Evangelicals were Anglicans or had
Anglican backgrounds. Of course, it has long been known that John Nelson Darby
and the Plymouth Brethren were important in spreading these ideas, but others
were equally important. In effect, what I am saying is that the British started
and nurtured many significant ideas that people in the States and Canada ran
with them. Carl Jonsson was the first one to put me onto this, but I have been
researching it on my own over the last year and am coming up with some very
interesting historical data, some of which I don’t want to advertise as
yet.
For example, it was in early
nineteenth-century that concepts such as pre-millennialism, the two-stage
coming, the pre-tribulation rapture, the earthly hope and the return of fleshly
Jews to Palestine (and their ultimate restoration to God's favor) was developed
in England. All of these matters were dealt with in depth at the Albury Park
Prophetic Conferences in the 1820s and early '30s, and from there they were
spread far and wide. If someone wants to read good accounts of this I suggest
examining LeRoy Edwin Froom’s The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol.
III.
Significantly, the idea concerning
the return of the Jews was spread all over Britain by various Evangelicals and
ultimately influenced the British government. During the First World War the
British government issued the Balfour Declaration, in part for political reasons
but also for religious ones. At the Versailles Peace Conference, British Prime
Minister Lloyd George was heavily influenced by the Evangelical doctrine of the
return of the Jews to Palestine, as were Balfour and Churchill (although
Churchill was more of a pragmatist). In effect, then, modern Israel might not
have come into existence were it not for those Evangelical influences on the
British government.
The influence of this idea was
important for Russell as well. He simply bought into pre-millennial
dispensationalism and the idea that the Jews were to return to Palestine and to
God's favor. In 1907 Russell promoted a series of strange ideas that reversed
what he had been teaching for nearly twenty-five years (Something he denied). In
the January 1, 1907 Watch Tower he came out with the following teachings:
(1) the Christian Church (the 144,000) had no Mediator; rather it had an
"advocate" as he argued later. (2) The Church was not under the New Covenant.
Rather, the New Covenant would apply to the Jews after Armageddon during the
Millennium. (3) The Church would participate in the sin atonement for those who
were resurrected during the Millennium. As an aside these doctrines are still
taught by the Dawn Bible Students and many other Bible
Students.
Although tied into other issues,
this caused an explosion in the Bible Student movement that was extremely
important, although it is generally ignored today. This was led by Ernest
Henninges and his wife, Rose Ball Henninges, in Australia, but it was quickly
joined by a number of very important Bible Students in the United States. As a
result Russell lost his first colporteur, M.L McPhail, several Watch Tower
directors and his own family.
But Russell refused to yield on
these matters and to all intents and purposes proclaimed himself to be “the
faithful and wise servant,” thus holding that any who disagreed with him would
"lose their crowns" as members of the 144,000. P.S. L. Johnson, who had given Russell
some of his mad-hat ideas, said the “the sifters” would go into the second
death.
During what has come to be called
the New Covenant Schism, the New Covenanters (who are going to hold a Centennial
Convention in Massachusetts next year and who are still active in Australia and
Great Britain) denied a couple of things that I feel were very right. They
argued that Christians should not attempt to use Biblical types unless these
were clearly spelled out in the Scriptures–something the Watchtower hasn't
learned to this day–and they repudiated the idea that the Jews were to return to
Palestine and regain God's favor. Naturally, they also held that Jesus was the
Church’s Mediator and that the Church had nothing to do with the sin-atonement.
Interestingly, it was during the New Covenant Schism that Russell became an
outright Zionist and taught that Christians should not attempt to convert
Jews.
Curiously, in 1934 Rutherford took
the same stand on the New Covenant that the New Covenanters had long held. But
true to form, he gave the New Covenanters no credit. In other words he refused
to admit that the Watch Tower had been teaching false doctrine from 1907 to
1934.
In the past it has generally been
held that Russell’s theological background was Adventist/Millerite, and it is
true that his eschatology was taken largely from them and persons such as the
Lutheran J.A. Seiss. But what is becoming more and more obvious to me is that
Russell, the Adventists, and practically all U.S. and Canadian Evangelicals were
primarily influenced by British Evangelicalism. Of course, as I’ve already
noted, it has long been known that Darby and the Plymouth Brethren were primary
distributors of pre-millennial, dispensational ideas, but many such ideas often
came directly from wealthy, well-educated Evangelicals in the Church of England.
In effect, what I am saying is that the British started and nurtured many
significant doctrines that people in the States and Canada adopted and ran
with.
Curiously, although neither would
want to admit it, the Witnesses and Adventists are [denominations born of the
same source as] many Evangelical groups in existence throughout the world
today.
