(Much of the background to The Rainbow’s doctrinal position with its key players is taken from Edwin Le Roy Froom’s The Conditional Faith of Our Fathers, volume 2 (1956) starting on page 380.)
The
Rainbow
was a British monthly periodical which is of interest to those researching
Watch Tower history. Its first issue was in January 1864 and its final issue
was for December 1887. Its founding editor was William Leask (1812-1884). Leask
came from a Congregationalist background and had the pastorate of the
independent Maberly Chapel in London for the last twenty years of his life.
After his death Joseph Bryant Rotherham (1828-1910) took the editorial chair.
Rotherham came from a Church of Christ (Campbellite, Restoration Movement)
background and brought the paper to its conclusion.
The purpose of the magazine was stated clearly on its title page.
The subheading “with special reference
to the revealed future of the church and the world” remained with the magazine
throughout its history.
According to Froom (volume 2, page 381):
“Starting out as a forum for discussion of opinion, the journal soon became a
veritable battleground of effective debate.” So in its first year, for example,
you had contrasting articles side by side. From the April 1864 correspondence
section you had “COMING” AND “APPEARING,” DIFFERENT (pages 180-182) immediately
followed by (pages 182-184) “COMING” AND “APPEARING,” THE SAME. (pages
182-184).
The periodical fulfilled its brief with
a variety of articles. In its first three years, subjects included:
PLAN OF THE AGES
SCRIPTURAL DATES OF THE TIME OF THE END?
SECOND ADVENT –
PRE-MILLENNIAL
WILL THE RAPTURE BE VISIBLE OR SECRET?
WILL THERE BE A
SECRET PRESENCE?
The
concept of certain events being secret or invisible was frequently discussed and
when Matthew 24 v.3 was explained, “parousia” was often rendered as “presence.”
Here are a few examples:
July 1864
July 1866
December 1868
When Benjamin Keith showed Nelson
Barbour the Diaglott’s interlinear rendering “presence” in Matthew 24 v.3 in
the mid-1870s, leading to the invisible presence explanation for 1874, he could
perhaps have been a Rainbow reader.
We will return to this thought later.
The magazine soon settled into its most
identifying feature, promoting the tenet of conditional immortality. According
to this belief, man does have an immortal soul and there is no literal eternal
Hell fire; rather, immortality is only granted by God through Christ and is
conditional.
The catalyst that led to The Rainbow’s reputation for this
doctrine, was an article written by William Maude (1827-1883). Maude was a
contributor to the paper from its very first year on various subjects, but it
was his article on conditional immortality simply titled IMMORTALITY published
in March 1869 that cemented The Rainbow’s
position. Maude’s history and a detailed précis of this key article can be
found in Froom, volume 2, pages 383-389.
This caused a furore and around five
hundred promptly cancelled their subscriptions. But the die was cast. New
subscribers soon replaced those who had gone, and the follow-up articles included
(from 1870):
IS ENDLESS SUFFERING THE DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE?
LIFE AND
IMMORTALITY ONLY IN CHRIST
Various names were given to this position,
Life only in Christ, Immortality through Faith, Annihilationism,
Conditionalism, but Froom (page 451) credits Leask and The Rainbow for popularising the expression “Conditional
Immortality.”
In America writers like Henry Grew and
George Storrs promoted conditional immortality and now The Rainbow was doing the same in Britain. It is therefore not
surprising to find Rainbow readers in
America.
A number of American periodicals
mentioned The Rainbow. In the Advent
Christian Church fold, The World’s Crisis
called it “an able monthly” (1 April 1868) and offered to act as agent for
American subscribers. From the Crisis
for 13 October 1869:
Here it is called a “valuable monthly.”
These offers and descriptions were to be repeated and the Crisis also frequently republished material from The Rainbow; perhaps most notably when
William Maude’s key article on IMMORTALITY was serialised over three issues, 31
March, 7 and 14 April, 1869.
Confirming the connection, the Crisis editor Miles Grant had a letter
of support published in The Rainbow
for February 1870.
When an official agent was appointed in
New York to handle subscriptions, the Crisis
published the information and continued to make positive comments such as (19
February 1873) “The Rainbow contains valuable articles from able writers. We
commend it to our readers.”
Other Advent Christian papers followed
suit. The Advent Christian Times (9 January
1872) with typical verbosity called The
Rainbow “an invaluable arena for adventurers in the stupendous conflict of
religious thought” and frequently reprinted its articles.
The Advent
Christian Quarterly likewise reprinted material from The Rainbow’s pages.
For example, from Volume 1, number 3 (January 1870):
In the Church of God/Age to Come fold,
the Gospel Banner and Millennial Advocate
(edited by the Diaglott’s Benjamin Wilson) regularly re-cycled Rainbow articles. See the example below
from 15 May 1868.
The
Banner was succeeded by The
Restitution and that too used Rainbow
material. One of the earliest surviving issues is for 16 December 1874, where
an article is introduced:
The Life and Advent Union’s Herald of Life and of the Coming Kingdom
frequently raided The Rainbow’s pages
for copy. Under George Storrs’ stewardship, the Herald noted (March 29, 1871) that “The Rainbow is doing a
great work in (Britain).” When an accredited agent was appointed for American
subscribers in May 1871 (George W Young of New York) this was advertised in
each weekly issue until nearly the end of the year, and the paper probably used
Rainbow material more than any other
American paper at this time.
When Storrs went back to producing Bible Examiner it too praised The Rainbow. The February 1874 issue
described The Rainbow as being
“filled with good and interesting matter.”
Storrs advertised that George W Young
was still the American agent for subscriptions and articles continued to be
taken from its pages.
Joseph Seiss’ Prophetic Times was another supporter. The November 1865 issue
described the new periodical as a “sprightly and valuable English Magazine of
Christian Literature” and like others reprinted material from it. A further
testimonial from June 1867 read:
Looking at all of the above, if you were
a reader of Adventist or Millennialist periodicals in the United States in the
late 1860s and throughout the 1870s there was no way you could avoid The Rainbow.
We mentioned Benjamin Keith earlier. We
know he was a regular reader of The
World’s Crisis for a number of years.
This paper contained a feature where the names of those who requested
literature were listed. The name B W Keith occurs in this a number of times,
including the issue below for 30 September 1868.
Other examples are found in issues for
24 June 1868, 4 November 1868, 9 June 1869, 28 September 1870, 12 October 1870,
21 February 1872, 31 July 1872, and 2 April 1873. In addition Keith attended
New York State conferences at Springwater (including in June 1872) and wrote to
the paper, for example, in its issue for 2 April 1873. He is also mentioned as
a conference delegate in the Advent
Christian Times.
So with all these quotations and links,
the suggestion that Keith could also have been a Rainbow reader, and might therefore have partly absorbed the
“invisible presence” concept from that source, while unproven, is perfectly
feasible. But certainly the historical influence of this periodical was
considerable.
In view of all the above, it is not
surprising that the Rainbow had connections with certain key players in Watch
Tower history and pre-history.
Here now are some examples.
George
Stetson.
George Stetson (1814-1879) spoke at
different times at Quincy Hall, Allegheny[i],
and CTR credited him as an influence in Harvest
Gatherings and Siftings (ZWT May
1890 and several times reprinted)[ii]. When
Stetson died in 1879, CTR spoke at his funeral.[iii]
Stetson wrote a letter to The Rainbow in its issue for February 1873.
George
Storrs
Another American figure, already
mentioned, who features in Watch Tower pre-history is George Storrs. Storrs was
a champion of conditional immortality and after leaving The Herald of Life returned to publishing Bible Examiner. In 1874 he visited Allegheny for a series of
meetings, and specifically mentioned CTR’s father, Joseph Lytle Russell, as a friend
he made there.
We have already noted Storrs’
enthusiastic endorsement of The Rainbow
in Bible Examiner for February 1874 and
he often reprinted articles from it thereafter. The Rainbow in turn referred to Storrs in its February 1879 issue.
Nelson
Barbour
Barbour is mentioned several times. A
British writer, retired Baptist pastor Elias Helton Tuckett (1814-1891), wrote
for The Rainbow, and singled out
Barbour for special mention. In an article entitled “Probable Time of the
Second Advent” which ran in two parts over August and September 1877, Tuckett
highlighted the predictions of Joseph Seiss for 1870 and then those for Nelson Barbour
a little later. From the September 1877 issue, page 426, Tuckett wrote:
The article concludes with a summary
straight out of Barbour, featuring the dates 1874, 1878 and 1881.
A further article by Tuckett in the
November 1878 issue entitled “The Midnight Hour” also singles out Barbour:
These comments on Barbour were highly
favourable, although an earlier review of his book Three Worlds was less so. From July 1876, and we assume written by
editor Leask:
The review mentioned C F (sic) Russell
as publisher of Barbour’s work.
The Crisis
never deigned to review Barbour’s work, but in its issue for July 25, 1877 a
correspondent took issue with the above review; not the actual criticism of
Barbour – they fully agreed with that - but the statement: “The incurable
tendency of our American brethren to fix dates for the advent and the
resurrection is fatally exhibited in this pamphlet.” They felt this was unfair
to Americans, and some of the British were just as bad.
Charles
Taze Russell
CTR’s key work The Plan of the Ages (later re-titled The Divine Plan of the Ages) would be given a full-scale review by
Joseph Bryant Rotherham in 1886, who by then was the paper’s editor. From The Rainbow for December 1886:
Rotherham starts very positively:
“THIS is a
notable book—bold, broad, and breezy; very refreshing after the stereotyped
dogmas and platitudes which pass current in the theological world. It is a book
for men and not for children... “The Plan of the Ages” is a valuable
production, and is probably destined to furnish material assistance in shaking
down old walls and building up new.”
The review totals nearly ten pages. Rotherham
concluded with:
“Only those who
read dispassionately for themselves “The Plan of the Ages” will perhaps believe
us when we assure them that enough in any case remains that is unimpeachable to
render this volume such as is likely to repay abundantly any discreet man’s
perusal. The Chapter on “The Permission of Evil” is alone more than worth the
price of the whole volume, and is the fullest discussion of this great mystery,
and the nearest approximation to a probably correct solution of it, with which
we are acquainted.”
It should be noted that in the full
review, Rotherham questioned some of CTR’s views on the millennium,
dispensations, restitution, the person of Christ, judgment day and the nature
of man. However, it has also been observed that many of these reservations were
resolved by Rotherham in two detailed appendices in the 1902 edition of his Emphasized Bible.
Zion’s
Watch Tower articles
This positive view of CTR’s ministry was
reinforced when The Rainbow chose to
reprint three Zion’s Watch Tower articles,
all in the September 1887 issue. All three had been taken from Zion’s Watch Tower for July 1887. Pages
383-384 (Rainbow) carried the article
THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST NECESSARY TO SALVATION. This originally appeared in Zion’s Watch Tower as part of THE VIEWS
FROM THE TOWER. The Rainbow reprint concluded:
Then pages
401-403 carried the article “HOW CAN YE BELIEVE,” which was a complete article
from the July 1887 ZWT.
And finally, almost immediately
afterwards on pages 404-405 came the article REVEALED IT UNTO BABES which again
first appeared in the July 1887 ZWT.
End of the Rainbow
The magazine was struggling with its
circulation during 1887 and attempts were made to attract new subscribers. But
eventually in the December 1887 issue Rotherham announced that it would be the
last. Soundings were taken for a new replacement journal that would be half the
size and half the price. But this apparently never happened.
One possible reason for this was that back
in 1878 the Conditional Immortality Association was formed. Leask was one of
the founding members. They organised annual interdenominational conferences.
They also had their own journal The Bible
Standard which started the year before in 1877. Its masthead proclaimed that
it was “devoted to the doctrine of...Conditional Immortality.”
Other papers too promoted the same view
like The Bible Echo (1872>) and The Messenger (1876>).
The Rainbow had served its purpose for 24 years but
now it was time to call it a day.
[i]See for example, World’s Crisis, 9 October 1872 page 3, and Speaker’s Appointments from 20 November 1872 page 27, and several weeks thereafter, also Advent Christian Times, 11 November 1873, page 112.
[ii] ZWT May 1890 page 4, Harvest Gatherings and Siftings, reprinted in ZWT 15 July 1906 page 230. Also incorporated into A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings, special ZWT, 25 April 1894, page 96.
[iii]See Stetson’s
obituary in ZWT November 1879 page 2,
and World’s Crisis, 5 November 1879,
page 102.
