C) Russell could not have met Christ in 1914 or 1919. He believed that Christ had already come in 1874. The book Proclaimers also speaks of this: "C. T. Russell was a man of strong convictions. Convinced that Christ's invisible presence had begun [in 1874], he was determined to tell others about it."20 It was not until 1943 that Jehovah's Witnesses began to teach that Jesus Christ had come into the world for the second time in 1914. In fact, this year (1914) Jehovah's Witnesses could not meet Jesus Christ. Why, at that time, they believed that He had already come in 1874. What did the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in a few years before the coming of Christ in 1914?

"Indeed, great things are expected to be said, which we are doing: within 26 years all existing governments will be overthrown and disappear: In accordance with the obvious certainty of what the Bible says about the Times of the Jew, we hold it to be an indisputable truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God will be completed by the end of A.D. 1914.

103. Galina: I told you about the principle of increasing light, set forth in Proverbs 4:18: "The path of the righteous is like a radiant light, which brightens more and more until the full day." All that you call "doctrinal changes" are really just more obvious truths that are better covered now than before. We understand things better now than we did then. For example, in Russell's time, Jehovah's Witnesses smoked, but then we saw that it was a sin, and Jehovah's Witnesses stopped smoking.

104. I remember that you have already spoken about this. With your permission, I will present another text from the "ancient" Jehovah's Witnesses: "If we follow a man without doubt, it will no longer be us; No doubt one human idea may contradict another, and one that was the Light a year or two or six years ago will now be considered darkness. But with God there is no such scope for variations, there is no shadow of change, which is why with him, therefore, with truth; any knowledge or light that comes from God must be the same as its author. A new view of the truth will never contradict the old truth. The 'new world' will never exclude the 'old', but will complement it."22 Do you agree with this formulation, which most likely belongs to the pen of Charles Russell?

105. Galina: Yes, I agree. I will give an example with a sailing ship. Let's say it goes from Kronstadt to Boston, that is, from east to west. At first, the wind was south and the ship went to the southwest, then the wind became north and the sailboat went northwest, then the wind became west and the ship moved due west. In navigation, this is called "escort". You see, the south and north winds contradict each other, but this does not prevent the ship from moving west.

106. Me: However, in order to come to Boston, two conditions must be met: A) Regardless of the wind, the ship must still move west.

In your example, it's first northwest, then southwest, and finally just west. The ship uses the wind when it is possible.

The course of the ship depends, first of all, on the captain. If the wind is opposite, for example, blowing to the east, then the ship does not obey it. The captain orders to hoist the sails and wait for a more convenient wind.

B) The final destination cannot be changed. If more and more new targets arise in the course of the ship's movement (Calcutta, Cape Town, etc.), the ship will never arrive at port. Do you agree with me? (I already knew this argument of the Jehovah's Witnesses.) 23