Charles Taze Russell
Millennial Dawn – Part 6
Charles Taze Russell

Millennial Dawn

A Counterfeit of Christianity

Part 6

By Professor William G. Moorehead - United Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Xenia, Ohio.

FIRST published in 1886, Millennial Dawn, was the earliest work of Jehovah's Witness founder Charles Taze Russell.

Although much of the book's content is an embarrassment to present day Witnesses, it still contained many unscriptural notions and false prophecies.

In 1911, just three years from Armageddon, Professor William G. Moorehead gave his opinion on the book.

Now, in the coming issues of Concern, you can read just what the professor had to say regarding Mr. Russell's writings.

The spring of 1878 marks the date when the nominal church systems were "spewed out" (Rev. 3:16), and from that time (A.D. 1878) they are not the mouth-pieces of God, nor in any degree recognised by Him".. "We recognise A.D. 1881 as marking the close of special favour to Gentiles - the close of the "high-calling", or invitation to the blessings peculiar to this age - to become joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of the Divine nature" (Vol. 235)

It requires courage or recklessness to make the above statements. For thirty-three years the evangelical churches have been without Divine recognition, "spewed out" of the Lord's mouth! And yet during this same period the Gospel has been carried into the most hopelessly degraded and ignorant sections of our planet by the most devoted and truly apostolic servants of Jesus Christ since the first century. For thirty years all special favour to the Gentiles has ceased! This in the face of the most fruitful years of missions for almost ten centuries. The Dawnists have matchless courage. For bald assertion their equals it would be hard to find.

  1. The final consummation of the age will take place in October 1914. (Vol. II, p.234, Vol. III, p.153.)

This date, 1914, as terminating absolutely the present order of the things of the world, is taken as fixed beyond doubt or peradventure. Dozens of times the writer of these books sets it down as positive and unalterable. He finds its parallel in the ministry and the rejection of the Saviour by the Israelites, A.D. 33 to A.D. 70, when Jerusalem's overthrow occurred and the Jews went into an exile which still endures. So the "harvest", or the final testing, runs from A.D. 1874 to 1914 when Gentile rule will be destroyed, Christendom be annihilated, all wrong end, and righteousness and peace fill the redeemed world. It is then that the Millennium, so long expected and so long yearned after, finally comes and the planet celebrates its glad, its unending Jubilee!

One grows weary of this everlasting attempt to fix chronologically the end of the age. For nearly a thousand years men, many of them devout and earnest Christians, have been quite sure that they had discovered the key of chronological prophecy and confidently announced the time of the end. Awhile before the year A.D. 1000 the world became panic stricken, for it was believed that date would coincide with the final judgement and world's end. Miller, Cumming, Elliott, Dimbleby, Totten and one does not know how many more, tried their hands at fixing the date for the consummation, on chronological and astronomical grounds; they settled both day and date with exactness, and ignominiously failed, of course. Mark 13: 32 should stop this nonsense, but alas it does not.

“One grows weary of this everlasting attempt to fix chronologically the end of the age.”

But three years remain of our age. Once can readily perceive what enthusiasm the nearness of the end must arouse in the hearts of believers in Mr. Russell’s dates.  If but three years lie between us and the cosmical revolutions and convulsions which will shake the earth to its foundations, then why should Dawnists cling to their property and tightly grip their money? Soon it will not be needed wealth will be worthless and bonds have no market. It is no surprise, therefore, that Mr Russell’s followers pour a continuous stream into the Watch Tower treasury, nor that sermons can be printed in multitudes of newspapers all over the land, nor that great halls can be hired for lectures, nor that these volumes can be sold for 37 cents a copy.

  1. At the final resurrection, which is simultaneous for all the dead save “the little flock”, the gospel will be preached to the unsaved and the great mass of mankind will accept it and be saved. (Vol. I, Study 6,8,9.) The preaching to the unsaved dead not at length raised up will last for one hundred years at least and it may continue throughout the entire day of Christ, I.e. during the Millennium (p.144). There are two world-wide judgements recorded in the bible, that of the nations, Matt. 25:31-46; and that of Rev. 20:11-15 – the judgement before the Great White Throne, and which seems to be confined exclusively to the dead, small and great. The two include the race except the saints who come not into judgement as to life and death (John. 5:24). In neither of these judgements is there a hint that opportunity will be had for those arrayed before these thrones to repent, believe, and be saved. On the contrary, their eternal destiny is fixed by the Almighty Judge. Note how all-embracing these two judgements are; the one includes  “all the nations”, the other “the dead, small and great”. None escape save those who have part in ” the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4-6).

   In both cases external doom, irreparable and indescribable, falls upon the impenitent and ungodly who rejected Christ in this world and life.

Moreover, the judgement before the Great White Throne is expressly said to follow the thousand years: “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Rev 20:5). “The rest of the dead” include all who have no part in the first resurrection. Mr Russell labours vigorously to cast doubt on the genuineness of Rev. 20:5. He seeks to negate its witness, for it squarely contradicts his theory that all the dead who share not in the first resurrection will be raised at the beginning of the Thousand Years, and they will then be given the opportunity to repent and be saved. But as usual he is quite wrong. He stands alone in his rejection of the verse. Every critical Greek text from Griesbach to Nestle and Swate (1907) retains the words, nor does one of these scholars cherish the slightest suspicion of its integrity.

 

 

 

 


Have your say.....

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More Posts

Rebekah Vardy to host documentary on JWs
Footballer Wife, Rebekah Vardy to Host Documentary on JWs
Rebekah Vardy reinventing herself as a documentary host Wife of Footballer Jamie Vardy plans to host a documentary on her time as a Jehovah's Witness   TV fans will be able to see Ex-JW Rebekah investigating the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a new documentary series. The star will travel across the UK to meet […]
JW.org new Governing Body members announcement.
JWs Announce Two New Governing Body Members.
THIS week Jehovah's Witnesses learned that they have two new members of the Governing Body. In an announcement on Wednesday 18th January 2023, on the Jehovah's Witness website JW.org, it was announced that Gage Fleegle and Jeffrey Winder will be the 9th and 10th members of the Governing Body. Gage Fleegle   Jeffrey Winder   […]
Danger at Your Door Tract
Danger At Your Door
WITH the sound of the doorbell still ringing in their ears, thousands of people, all over the world, are talked into joining a cult that will eventually take total control of their lives.First & Last Ministries has launched its own initiative to give householders a fighting chance to repel “the danger at their door.”EVER since First […]
Rebekah Vardy to host documentary on JWs
Footballer Wife, Rebekah Vardy to Host Documentary on JWs
Rebekah Vardy reinventing herself as a documentary host Wife of Footballer Jamie Vardy plans to host a documentary on her time as a Jehovah's Witness   TV fans will be able to see Ex-JW Rebekah investigating the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a new documentary series. The star will travel across the UK to meet […]
JW.org new Governing Body members announcement.
JWs Announce Two New Governing Body Members.
THIS week Jehovah's Witnesses learned that they have two new members of the Governing Body. In an announcement on Wednesday 18th January 2023, on the Jehovah's Witness website JW.org, it was announced that Gage Fleegle and Jeffrey Winder will be the 9th and 10th members of the Governing Body. Gage Fleegle   Jeffrey Winder   […]
First & Last Ministries