Wednesday, 9 October 2019

An Historical Resource


Graphic taken from Amazon

In connection with research, I have had occasion to correspond with people from the Church of God General Conference. One very useful source for information was their Encyclopedia pictured above. Those who take an interest in Watch Tower history and pre-history will know that there are connections between the Church of God/Abrahamic Faith/One Faith groups of the nineteenth century and some of the Russell family. This encyclopedia contains articles on several people who have a link with the history this blog highlights. These include Benjamin Wilson, Henry Grew, George Storrs, and George Stetson. Even lesser known people (to Watch Tower historians) like Andrew Eychaner, Peyton Bowman, John Foore, George Myers and John Corbaley (who baptised Hugh B Rice) can be of interest.

Charles Taze Russell is mentioned a number of times. Obviously the slant of the encyclopedia is to draw attention to the theological differences between ZWT and their own beliefs. Originally their paper, The Restitution, carried advertising for Barbour’s Three Worlds and gave away to all readers a copy of CTR’s Object and Manner of our Lord’s Return (which was published at CTR’s expense). But within not many years they were publishing material highly critical of ZWT and warning their flock about this heresy as they saw it. Others who once had a link with them, like John Thomas and the Christadelphians, come in for similar treatment.

Some of these issues have been discussed in earlier articles on this blog. See for example the following articles:

Charles Taze Russell and “The Restitution”
H B Rice – An Impecunious Man
Charles Taze Russell and Andrew Eychaner

However – whatever the reader’s theological position - for well-researched, factual, historical material this book has proved to be a mine of information. 

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting. Years ago I bought a reproduction of Three Worlds from a now-deceased JW on eBay. I treasure having that reproduction.

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  2. I probably had one of those same reproductions too. Nowadays you can download Three Worlds (and most other things) for free, or if you want a printed reproduction then companies like Lulu and abe.books will list those selling them. Because there are no copyright issues there are several who have done this. Of course, you could always spend a fortune and try and obtain one of the few surviving copies if they come up for auction. I've reached the stage where free download works best for me.

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