When the time of Christ's appointed Coming (1874) had passed, Russell's companions were again faced with the question: When would the Second Coming come? Russell looked for the answer to the question almost everywhere... except the Bible. He was interested in the materials published by N. Barbour (the leader of the New York Adventists) in one of the magazines. It was Barbour who proved to Russell that the Greek word "parousia" could be translated as "presence" and "coming," and that Christ had been invisibly present since 1874.

The meeting between C. Russell and N. Barbour, who also shared the eschatological concept of D. Wendell, eventually united their groups into a single community. N. Barbour and like-minded people, who had previously joined the Adventists, later departed from their previous views, believing that the Second Coming should be spiritual and invisible.6 At the time of Russell's meeting with Barbour, the latter was editing the journal The Herald of the Morning, published in Rochester. In 1877, they published the book "The Three Worlds, or the Ways of Redemption", which asserted that in 1874 the Second Coming of Christ began, i.e. the forty-year harvest period began. Arguments were also given here according to which in 1914 the times of the pagans would expire.7 In 1878, Barbour and Russell were engaged in an uncompromising, intense search for new, increasingly precise, as it seemed to them, theological formulations, for the latter asserted that the grace-filled gifts of Christ's death extended not only to Adam (death for Adam), but to all mankind.

Soon (1879), together with like-minded people, the closest of whom was D. Peat, Russell began to publish the journal "The Tower of the Guard of Zion and the Herald of the Presence of Christ"9. Subsequently, the name changed more than once: "Zion's Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence," and then "The Watchtower," and finally, from 1966 to the present, the magazine is called "The Watchtower".10

But Pete soon left Russell, who became the owner of the magazine and headed the earlier religious movement.11 Russell declares his divergence from the teachings of the Protestant churches, which he accuses of betraying the principles of the Reformation. In all his speeches and articles, he seeks to prove that with his followers he remained the only successor to the traditions of early Christianity.

Similar tendencies are manifested in other religious movements, where the spiritual authoritarianism of the leaders prevails - the cult of self-reverence and self-worship. Charles Russell himself declared himself to be no less than the seventh messenger of God, about whom it is said in the Bible that he wears "the scribe's device" (Ezekiel 9:2). According to his periodization, the first six messengers were the apostles: Paul, John, followed by Arius, Wald, Wycliffe, Luther, the seventh, who completes the revelation of biblical truths, Russell, as he unequivocally states in the seventh volume of his work "Study of the Holy Scriptures"12 "The six volumes of my book "Study of the Scriptures," he writes, "are essentially the Bible, compiled according to themes, each of which is supported by biblical texts (there are very few of them. - I.E.). It can be called a thematic Bible. In other words, it is not just a commentary on the Bible, but the Bible itself. People cannot understand God's intentions without my book. Even if a person has studied the Study of the Scriptures for 10 years and has learned to understand the Bible properly, if he puts down my book and reads only the Bible, experience has shown that after two years he will again be in complete darkness. But it will be enough for him to read only the Studies in the Scriptures and the references contained in them. Thus, even without opening the Bible, my reader will be in the light, for the light of the Scriptures will be revealed to him."13

Unencumbered by Christian humility, Russell placed himself above the prophets and apostles. "This does not mean," he wrote, "that the prophets and apostles could understand the fate and plan of God better than we do, they simply served God as an instrument for communicating to us and to the whole church [meaning the church of the late nineteenth century - I.E.] truths concerning God's plan."14

In 1882, Charles Russell sold his store (he was the last son in the family) and founded his own company, which carried out intermediary contacts between private firms and state institutions, and also specialized in the publication of religious literature. The funds received were used for missionary activities, printing books and pamphlets, in which all religions and political organizations were declared Satanic. In them, Russell explained how, through politics, commerce, and religion, Satan keeps the world in chains. Such irreconcilably harsh judgments caused a storm of indignation in the ruling circles of the United States, and as a result, Russell's teachings were outlawed for more than ten years, which was facilitated by the scandalous lawsuits that were periodically initiated by the authorities against the Jehovah's Witnesses.15

In an attempt to get his like-minded people out of harm's way, Charles Russell repeatedly changed the name of his organization, now calling it the Watchtower and the Tract Society, now the Association of the Tribune of the People.

It was not until 1884 that the Jehovah's Witnesses won the right to freedom of activity, after which they finally defined themselves as the International Society of Bible Students and noticeably intensified their missionary work. At the same time, the Society bought a building in Aleden, Pennsylvania, where the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses had been located for 20 years. In 1909, the ruling corporation of Jehovah's Witnesses purchased a plot of land in Brooklyn, a suburb of New York, where it is located to this day.

In 1886, Russell published The Divine Plan of the Ages, the first book of a seven-volume work under the general title Studies in the Scriptures,16 in which he expounded in detail the doctrine of the "Bible Students." Soon the second and third volumes were published - "The Time Is Near" (1889) and "Thy Kingdom Come" (1891). The Day of Vengeance, the fourth volume, was published in 1897 and was later renamed The Battle of Armageddon. Then appeared: "The New Creation" (1899) and "Salvation" (1904). The last, seventh, volume, "The Completed Secret", was published in 1917 after the death of Charles Russell on the basis of his preparatory materials17.

Russell's theological heritage is not limited to this. He wrote the works "Food for Christians Who Think," "Old Theology," "The Photo-Drama of Creation," and others, in which the author tirelessly reminded the reader that it was better to leave the Bible unread than to ignore his commentary on this book.18 To make sense of the confusion of Russell's theological views, one must indeed read all of his books, but in brief they are as follows. The "beginning of the end" of this world dates back to 1799 (the date, as we have mentioned, is borrowed from the Adventists), and its end was scheduled for 1914. The countdown of the end of the world was associated with a specific historical event. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte carried out a coup d'état and came to power. In 1809, he deprived Pope Pius IX of his temporal supremacy and annexed the papal lands to France.20 Thus, the secular domination of the papacy ended, and the time of the end of this evil system of the world order began.

In the third volume of Studies in the Scriptures, developing his theological speculations, Russell wrote: "We present the biblical testimony which shows that from the creation of Adam to 1872 6,000 years elapsed, and from that time we have already entered the seventh thousand, i.e., the millennium of Christ." Here, with his characteristic assertiveness, as well as his lack of evidence, he declares that the Second Coming of Christ took place in October 1874.

It was further explained that in 1878 Christ invisibly came to His spiritual temple of Earth, located in heaven, and resurrected all the righteous who had died, out of the 144,000 who were numbered among the "heavenly class." "We consider it an established fact," wrote Russell, "that the end of the kingdoms of this world and the establishment of the kingdom of God (the millennial kingdom. - I.E.) on their ruins will be completed around 1915."23 "This kingdom will begin with the resurrection of the saints of the Old Testament, from John the Baptist to Abel... They were honored to be earthly ministers."24

From 1909 to 1914, Russell's prophecies were circulated in more than 3,000 different newspapers and magazines.25 This period was marked by increased active missionary activity of Russell, who visited many countries. Numerous editions of Scripture scholars of those years contain reports of Russell's triumphal journeys, which "captivated" the whole world. However, even in this noisy propaganda campaign, there was a swindle. "In many of the cities in question (in the Brooklyn editions of the Jehovah's Witnesses. - I.E.) no one heard any of Russell's sermons."26 For example, in 1912, a request was made from the United States to the city of Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands in order to obtain a recording of the pastor's widely advertised speech. To which the answer was received: "To your inquiry about Pastor Russell, who spent several hours in Honolulu with the Bible Student Committee for the Study of Foreign Missions, we inform you that he did not give any speeches."27 The answer became the property of the press and greatly undermined the authority of the restless eschatologist-Jehovah's Witness on the American continent. Likewise, the sermons in China and Japan turned out to be little more than a catchy publicity stunt.28