You know, one of the things people often say about C. T. Russell is that he started a new religion. They claim he was unhappy with Christianity or “the church” or whatever. But the truth is, Russell was actually one of the biggest champions of the Christian faith and Biblical teachings throughout history. While a lot of apologists were busy defending human traditions as part of Christianity, Charles Taze Russell went straight to the Bible. He dug into the scriptures to reveal the truth about the human soul, hell, the trinity, the atonement, and a bunch of other doctrines that people have twisted or added to the scriptures with their own ideas. Russell never said he was starting a new religion or church. What he really wanted was to bring back the original teachings of Christ and the apostles—the “faith once delivered to the saints,” as Jude 1:3 puts it. He believed in the one true church, with Jesus as its foundation. That’s the essence of the Bible Students movement.
But hey, wasn’t Russell the guy who started a new religion called “Jehovah’s Witnesses?” Actually, no, he wasn’t the founder of that group, and he didn’t believe in it either. The leadership of the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” has turned away from the core teachings of the scriptures about the “ransom for all,” swapping it out for a belief in a “ransom for some.” They also teach that billions of people who don’t believe, along with their kids, will face eternal destruction in the battle of Armageddon. Russell never promoted that idea, which really goes against the basic principles of atonement found in the Bible.
Now, unlike the JWs who claim to be the only true religion, Brother Russell, who didn’t see the Bible Students as a religion, never called them “the true religion.” He did talk about “the true church,” and here’s how he described it:
The one true Church, dear friends, is the church of the Bible. There never has been but that one true Church. All others are false, and if I built up another church I would be building up another false one. That is not our proposition at all. The I.B.S.A. holds out the proposition which the Bible stands for, namely, that all people who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and consecrated to follow in his steps, are of the church of the living God whose names are written in heaven. The I.B.S.A. recognizes no other church. It does not say that only those in the I.B.S.A. constitute the church. — What Pastor Russell Said, page 348.
Russell also stated:
No earthly organization can grant a passport to heavenly glory…. All are forced to admit that the true Church is the one whose record is kept in heaven, and not on earth. They deceive the people by claiming that it is needful to come to Christ through them – needful to become members of some sectarian body in order to become members of “the body of Christ,” the true Church. On the contrary, the Lord, while he has not refused any who came to him through sectarianism, and has turned no true seeker away empty, tells us that we need no such hindrances, but could much better have come to him direct…. When one joins a sect, his mind is supposed to be given up entirely to that sect, and henceforth not his own. The sect undertakes to decide for him what is truth and what is error; and he, to be a true, staunch, faithful member, must accept the decisions of his sect, future as well as past, on all religious matters, ignoring his own individual thought, and avoiding personal investigation, lest he grow in knowledge, and be lost as a member of such sect. This slavery of conscience to a sect and creed is often stated in so many words, when such a one declares that he “belongs” to such a sect….
They are ashamed to say that they are not in bondage to any sect or creed, but “belong” to Christ only. — Thy Kingdom Come, pages 185-187.
Concerning the Watch Tower Society of his day, Russell stated:
“Let it be borne in mind that the Society exercises no authority, makes no criticism, but merely gives advice; and that in the interest of the Lord’s Cause and the Lord’s people.” — Watch Tower, August 1916, page 248
You know, the “Jehovah’s Witnesses” today are kind of like the sectarianism that Russell was really against. They let their leaders do all the thinking for them, just like a lot of other groups out there. Honestly, they wouldn’t even think about doing any “personal investigation” unless it’s something their “governing body” has handed to them. The whole Jehovah’s Witness organization didn’t even exist back in Brother Russell’s time; it came about later on. After Russell passed away, Joseph Rutherford managed to take control of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society through some sneaky legal moves, and he used that to set up his new religion, which he called “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He pretty much built his organization by turning his back on the core teachings of Russell and the Bible Students. In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses totally reject the foundation of the atonement as Russell laid out in Volumes 1 and 5 of his Studies in the Scriptures. They dismiss almost everything Brother Russell put forward. They pretty much dismiss everything Brother Russell talked about when it comes to chronology, time prophecies, and parallels in Volumes 2 and 3 of his Studies in the Scriptures. And they also turn away from almost everything he said about Armageddon in Volume 4.
Russell never said he had any special revelation from God, aside from what the Bible already lays out. He thought that God’s spirit was helping him notice things in the Bible that traditionalists just couldn’t see, mainly because their own traditions and sectarian views were clouding their vision.