Bible Student Movement - Foundation

Foundation

In 1869 Russell viewed a presentation by Advent Christian preacher Jonas Wendell (influenced by the Millerites) and soon after began attending an Adventist Bible study group in Allegheny, Pennsylvania led by George Stetson. Russell acknowledged the influence of Adventist ministers including George Storrs, an old acquaintance of William Miller and semi-regular attendee at the Bible study group in Allegheny.

In early January 1876 he met independent Adventist preachers Nelson H. Barbour and John H. Paton, publishers of the Herald of the Morning. Barbour and Paton convinced Russell that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874. Russell provided financial backing for Barbour and became co-editor of Barbour's magazine, Herald of the Morning; the pair jointly issued Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World (1877), written mostly by Barbour. Various concepts in the book are still taught by the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, including a 2520-year period termed "the Gentile Times" predicted to end in 1914. Deviating from most Second Adventists the book taught that the earth would not be burned up when Christ returned, but that humankind since Adam would eventually be resurrected to the earth and given the opportunity to attain eternal perfect human life if obedient. It also revealed an expectation that all of the "saints" would be taken to heaven in April, 1878.

Russell continued to develop his interpretations of biblical chronology. In 1877, he published 50,000 copies of the pamphlet The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return, teaching that Christ would return invisibly before the battle of Armageddon. By 1878 he was teaching the Adventist view that the "time of the end" had begun in 1799, and that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874 and had been crowned in heaven as king in 1878. Russell believed that 1878 also marked the resurrection of the "sleeping saints" (all faithful Christians who had died up to that time) and the "fall of Babylon" which he taught to be God's final judgment of unfaithful Christendom. October 1914 was held as the end of a harvest period that would culminate in the beginning of Armageddon, manifested by the emergence of worldwide anarchy and the decline and destruction of civilized society.

Russell broke with Barbour in July 1879 over the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and began publishing his own monthly magazine, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence (now known as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom), and the pair competed through their rival publications for the minds of their readers. (Semi-monthly publication of the magazine began in 1892.)

In early 1881, he predicted that the churches ('Babylon') would begin to fall apart and that the rapture of the saints would take place that year, although they would remain on earth as materialized spirit beings. In 1882 he outlined his nontrinitarian views concluding that the doctrine is not taught in the Bible.

Readers of Zion's Watch Tower formed thirty Bible study groups in seven states in the United States in 1879–1880, with each congregation electing its own elders. In 1880 Russell visited the congregations to conduct six-hour study sessions, teaching each congregation how to carry out topical Bible study.