CHAPTER XCVIII
THE RUSSELLITES OR THE INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS
(Founded 1879)
The International Bible Student Movement was founded by Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916) with the object chiefly of attracting the lower middle class intelligentsia of Christian communities such as certain clerical workers, teachers, servants and persons not accessible to direct forms of propaganda. In America the movement has had great influence among the negro element. In 1879 Russell founded The Watch Tower of which he was the sole editor. The Russellite teaching, drawing its own arbitrary conclusions and proclaiming them as final, professes to prove from Biblical sources that all Christian churches are evil and corrupt, that the time of the Gentiles ended in 1914, and that the Jews must henceforth reign supreme over the world. It also elaborates an occult dogma alleged to be based on biblical precedents. It condemns the Roman Catholic Church, referring to Rome in true esoteric Masonic style as Babylon and disposes of the Pope and his entire hierarchy as agents of the Antichrist who are doomed to extinction according to the familiar Masonic formulas of Albert Pike, Mazzini and Co. We are further told on biblical authority, interpreting the following words in Rev. II. 24 " As they speak " that this means that " Satan is a name applicable to Rome as describing its characteristics. 1 The Protestant Episcopal and other Christian churches which in Russell's graphic language are " the Harlot daughters of the Romish Church " and " have committed fornication " which term he interprets as meaning the union of Church and State, so bitterly opposed by the Jews in all countries, fare no better at the pen of this prolific writer, who predicts that, under the visible rulership of the Ancient Worthies (The Jewish Sanhedrin), those Gentiles who still believe in Christ will acknowledge his reign as an invisible one while submitting as Christians to all the hardships these Jewish lords might choose to put upon them. Brother Russell gives us little hope for the time of tribulation which is upon us, for on page 122 of The Finished Mystery he wrecks any hopes we might still cherish with regard to benevolent brotherhoods in the following sentence — " As the trouble increases, men will seek, but in vain, for protection in the great rocks and fortresses of society (Freemasonry, Oddfellowship, and Trades Unions, Guilds, Trusts and all societies secular and ecclesiastical) and in the mountains (governments) of the earth ". The publications of The International Bible Students Association are interesting samples of political propaganda and seem well calculated to suppress possible instincts of revolt among such members of the Christian community as might object to the role allotted to them under the Jewish Super State. The present head of this movement is John Rutherford.
1. The International Bible Students Association, The Finished Mystery, p. 43, pub. 1918.
For the root of this movement see Chapter LXXVI.
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