How did it all begin?

Much has been written about the origins of Jehovah's Witnesses, and I am unlikely to discover anything new here. I would also like to emphasize that this article does not claim the status of a scientific study. Therefore, to the best of my ability, I want to briefly summarize the history of Jehovah's Witnesses in order to highlight what I consider to be the most important and remarkable.

First of all, it should be noted that the founder of this organization, Charles Taze Russell, founded a new direction in Christianity, relying not on independent research, but by adopting all the main teachings of the Second Coming movement, which was popular in his time, as well as various trends of Adventism. The first of these is the doctrine of the invisible presence of Christ. This is the cornerstone of the entire doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses. It turns out that C. T. Russell accepted from Adventist Nelson Barber that this event began in 1874. Any Witness will say that this, i.e., the "invisible presence of Christ," was taught to him from the very beginning of his time in the organization as the "Witness teaching" itself. But please note these words of Russell: "I have therefore paid the expense of Mr. Barbar to come to meet me in the summer of 1876, and from the Scriptures (if he can) have revealed to me that the prophecies marking the date of the year 1874 are the date of the beginning of the Lord's presence and the beginning of the harvest. He arrived, and all his evidence fully satisfied me" (The Watchtower, 1916, 171 pages). Here is the beginning! When Russell, after accepting Barbar's chronology, became convinced that Christ had come invisibly in 1874, he immediately began to preach "the truth," and eventually the Watchtower organization was formed (which later became the worldwide organization of Jehovah's Witnesses). Today, most of Jehovah's Witnesses have no idea about the prophecies associated with 1874 and everything related to it. They know the organization's teaching about 1914 as the date of the beginning of "the invisible presence of Christ in the Tsar's power." In fact, most Jehovah's Witnesses now believe that the explanation pointing to 1914 is also more or less unique to their organization, and that it was originally published by the Society's first president, Russell. However, let us note this: Barbar's followers believed that 1874 marked the end of 6,000 years of human history, and they expected the coming of Christ in that year. When this year passed, they were disappointed. One of the supporters of the Second Coming movement, B. W. Keith at this time, noticed that in one of the translations of the New Testament ("The Emphatic Diaglott"), the verses about Christ's return used the word "presence" instead of the word "coming." Keith gave Barbar the idea that Christ had indeed returned in 1874, but invisibly, and that he was now invisibly "present" carrying out the work of judgment (by the way, this idea lasted until 1995, but we will talk about that below).

It was a "genius" idea, because the "invisible presence" is very difficult to disprove or prove. Now you could say whatever you wanted and attribute it all to the return of Christ. This "teaching" had great "potential" and emotional charge, as it allowed to keep fellow believers in constant tension and submission. Perhaps this attracted the attention of the then young Russell. Later, the beginning of Christ's presence was postponed to 1914, but no longer in connection with the end of 6000 years of human history, but on the basis of the chronology from the 4th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel, which speaks of 7 times, which were transformed first into 2520 days, and then into 2520 literal years. This theory is now also presented as the property of Jehovah's Witnesses, but in fact John Aquila Brown was the first to interpret the "seven times" of Daniel chapter 4 in such a way that the formula "year for day" resulted in 2520 years. Brown first published his interpretation in 1823, and his method reversed the "seven times" into 2,520 years in exactly the same way that it is done today in the literature of the Watch Tower Society. However, John Aquila Brown began counting 2,520 days from 604 B.C.E., and so he calculated them to end in 1917 C.E. He predicted that then "the full glory of the kingdom of Israel will find its perfection."

Therefore, it can be seen that neither the doctrine of the invisible presence of Christ, nor the interpretation of the prophecy in Daniel chapter 4 about the years 2520, by which Jehovah's Witnesses now come to the year 1914, is a consequence of God revealing it to them as his only truth of religion. These teachings are entirely borrowed from what Jehovah's Witnesses call "false" religions, such as Adventism. Therefore, there can be no question of any "channel" through which God now transmits an understanding of Bible truth in the person of the "faithful and discreet slave."

"The Faithful and Discreet Slave"

Now about this "faithful and discreet slave" himself. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that on the basis of Jesus Christ's parable at Matthew 24:42-47: "Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come.  But you know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have been awake and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.  Wherefore ye also be ready, for at an hour ye think not, the Son of man shall come. Who, then, is the faithful and discreet servant whom his master has set over his servants, to give them food in season?  Blessed is the servant whom his master finds, when he comes, doing so;  verily I say unto you, that he shall set him over all his possessions." And here I want to ask my dear brothers and sisters, for whose sake I am writing: "Please note this, where is it that says about any organization or structure that will be appointed by God? Is it not said here of each of us personally: "Watch! Be discreet servants of your Lord! Teach right, if you are set to do so, then Jesus will "come" and bless you with his trust." Probably, by "possessions" we should understand the Kingdom of God. That's it! This parable says "having come," but when did it happen in 1874, or in 1914, or maybe it is still in the future? The point is that in the first century this "slave" did not exist at all, since, according to the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses themselves, Jesus Christ "came" or became "present" only in 1874 or 1914, and the slave is appointed to his position and receives approval only after that. And before that, it simply does not exist! Although Jehovah's Witnesses teach that he was present in the first century in the person of the apostles and other Christians "anointed with holy spirit," this is an obvious confusion that is simply not explained to the Witnesses in magazines, conventions, or congregation talks and sermons. Perhaps a new "flash of light" from Jehovah is expected to explain this. In the meantime, almost every Jehovah's Witness, in fact, does not even suspect such a contradiction. So, let us repeat: this parable is about you and me, about our ministry and watchfulness, but not about something more, into which the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses turned this parable in order to subdue the masses of believers.

"The Governing Body"