Guest post by Gary
First produced in July 1879 as Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of
Christ’s Presence, on January 1, 1909, the magazine’s title was changed
to The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. But why was
this?
The book Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers
of God’s Kingdom explained that the name of the magazine changed “in order
to focus attention more clearly on the objective of the magazine.”(1) But more
can be added which it was not necessary for the passing mention in the Proclaimers book to
include.
Popular religious ideas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century featured the thought, still held by many today, that the Jews who had
become dispersed throughout the nations would eventually return to the Holy
Land under the slogan of “Zionism.” Indeed, Pastor Russell shared such a belief
which is apparent in his writings and perhaps reflected in the name originally
chosen for the magazine he published. But it was not until the 1930s that
Jehovah’s Witnesses adjusted their perspective from the natural nation of
Israel to “Spiritual Israel.”(2) So why was it that reference to Zion was
dropped from the name of the magazine as early as 1909?
The answer is provided in the magazine’s last issue of 1908 which
explains that some members of the public were wrongly assuming the magazine was
related to John Alexander Dowie, who in 1900 had founded the city of Zion,
Illinois, 40 miles north of Chicago. To quote:
“With the New Year we expect to drop the word "Zion's" in the
title of our Journal, because many of the friends inform us that the word
is objectionable, having been so much used by Mr. Dowie and his followers. They
report that our Journal is frequently cast aside under the supposition that it
is published under Dowie's auspices, or in some manner affiliated with
Zion City, which he founded. The new name, THE WATCH TOWER, is the one by which
the Journal is usually mentioned.”(3)
So who was Dowie and why did Russell see need to distance from
him? Dowie was a Scottish-Australian immigrant who, like Russell,
believed in an end-times restoration of true worship. Unlike Russell, Dowie
believed this restoration necessitated a return to apostolic gifts including
faith healing. In contrast, Russell believed that “the necessity for miracles
as introductions to the Gospel message is no longer manifest” and that,
consequently, “We are inclined to look with suspicion upon miraculous healings
of the present time, whether done by Mormons or by Christian Scientists or by
Christian Alliance people or by Mr Dowie and his followers or others.”(4)
A charismatic figure, Dowie had settled in Chicago and in 1893 gained
considerable attention at the World’s Fair. He launched his own
publishing house, Zion Publishing, and started a weekly newsletter, Leaves
of Healing which ran until 1909. Between 1894 and 1901 Dowie founded
the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church which is said to have attracted some
6,000 adherents by the start of the twentieth century, some of whom were keen
to invest money in Dowie’s new city, founded in 1901, and its Zion Bank which,
of course, was controlled by Dowie. In 1899, Dowie claimed to be "God's
Messenger" and, by 1901, was considered by followers to be Elijah the
Restorer.
Dowie taught adherents to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, pork, doctors,
medicines and “apostate churches.”
Additionally he welcomed African-Americans into his new city which had
only one church. All seemed to be going well with this utopian city,
but as it grew in size and prosperity, Dowie adopted an increasingly lavish
lifestyle, building himself a 25-room mansion and adorning himself in ornate
ecclesiastical robes modeled after those worn by Aaron, the high priest of
Israel.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, Dowie proved spiritually and financially
untrustworthy as the entire structure of Zion soon fell into debt, and
eventually crashed with Dowie becoming unable to handle his affairs. By 1905,
he had suffered a stroke and left Zion to recuperate. While absent he was
deposed from his business affairs and religious leadership by a colleague whose
investigators claimed huge amounts of money were unaccounted for. A splinter
group rejected the new leadership and left Zion with some embracing the budding
Pentecostal movement. Meanwhile Dowie attempted to recover his
authority through litigation, but ultimately retired and accepted an allowance,
which was paid until his death in 1907.
Evidently therefore, the deletion of the word “Zion’s” shifted focus
away from a disreputable competitor, as Russell was keen to distance his
magazine from even the slightest semblance of Dowie. In so doing,
the magazine could “focus attention more clearly on its objective” as Herald
of Christ’s Presence.
References:
(1) Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom p.724
(2) In discussing Jeremiah 31:31-34, for instance, the book Jehovah,
published by Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1934, stated conclusively: “The new
covenant has nothing to do with the natural descendants of Israel and with
mankind in general, but . . . is limited to spiritual Israel.”
(3) Zion’s Watch Tower
December 1908, p.372, R4294. Another concern, at the time, was that African
churches and papers used the word ‘Zion’ extensively, which led some to inquire
whether the magazine was written for black people when, in fact, the Watch
Tower aimed for a multiracial audience.
(4) Zion’s Watch Tower January
1904 p.14, Reprints p. 3301.
(5) For further reading on Dowie, see From Sect to Cult to Sect: The Christian Catholic Church in Zion, Ph.D dissertation by Warren Jay Beaman, Iowa State University, 1990.
It is interesting that the word Zions was removed from the name of the Society as early as 1896. That is several years earlier. The state of Pennsylvania, which was the headquarters of the Watch Tower Society until 1908, is much closer to New York than the state of Illinois, where Mr. Dowie was headquartered. Pennsylvania is even closer to Illinois than New York. So if Mr. Dowie were to harm C. T. Russell, he would have done so before 1909 in his former pastoral environment.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, Mr. Dowie died in 1907, so he was no longer as important as before to damage the popularity of C. T. Russell, who was reported to have had his sermons published in thousands of newspapers some 20 years before the year 1916.
In fact C T Russell's Sermons were still being printed in "The Tasmanian Mail" in Tasmania up until 1920. July 15 being the last one.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the publishing of these sermons until 1920 was paid for privately by the brothers. The Society did not?
Delete*** kr pp. 69-70 ***
DeleteIn 1916, two key events caused those taking the lead to reassess the use of newspapers in spreading the good news. First, the Great War that was raging at the time made printing supplies difficult to obtain. In 1916, a report from our newspaper department in Britain highlighted the challenge, saying: “There are just over 30 papers publishing the Sermons at the present time. It is quite likely that this number will be greatly reduced shortly owing to the increasingly high price of paper.” The second event was the death of Brother Russell on October 31, 1916. Thus, The Watch Tower of December 15, 1916, announced: “Now that Brother Russell has passed beyond, the sermon feature [in the newspapers] will be discontinued entirely.” Although this avenue of preaching came to an end, other methods, such as the “Photo-Drama of Creation,” continued to have great success.
Do not know, but the first one was June 11 1914 until July 15, 1920. Very unusual I admit since it took me by surprise when I printed them off microfilm at the state library in the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteCTR in volume 6 (1904) on page 631 mentioned "Dowieites":
ReplyDelete"Mormons, Christian Scientists, Christian Alliancists, and Dowieites all use these arguments in a most telling manner, to mislead and captivate—"if it were possible the very elect," to turn their attention away from the truth".
I thought that maybe CTR did not want him to identify him directly with Zionism. Yes, he taught Zionism, but he wanted his movement to be identified with Christianity. The word Zions could mislead people by indicating Judaism or Zionist movement.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Article on the front page of The Fargo Forum And Daily Republican Newspaper, January 28, 1907. It refers to Zion City and Dowie and how Russell was experiencing considerable trouble being accused of trying to seize Zion City
ReplyDelete