Joseph Franklin Rutherford

Joseph F. Rutherford

Joseph Franklin Rutherford (born November 8, 1869 in Morgan County , Missouri , USA ; died January 8, 1942 in San Diego , California , USA) succeeded Charles Taze Russell as President of the Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society of Pennsylvania .

Life

Rutherford came from a Baptist family . He embarked on an academic career. On May 5, 1892, he was admitted to the bar. He then served four years as a Missouri district attorney. Occasionally, he also took on the role of judge. Therefore, he was later known as "Judge" Rutherford.

In 1894 he received three books from two women colporteurs of the Bible Students , which convinced him and his wife to be baptized as Bible Students in 1906 as well. The following year he became legal advisor to the Watch Tower Society . From January 1910 he was a member of the company's seven-member board.

Shortly before the death of second President Charles Taze Russell , the board formed an executive committee consisting of three members, one of whom was Rutherford. In accordance with Russell's will, a five-member editorial committee for Zion's Watch Tower magazine was also formed. Rutherford did not initially belong to him. However, since two of the members appointed by Russell resigned for personal reasons, they were replaced by two substitutes appointed by Russell in his will. One was Rutherford.

On January 6, 1917, Rutherford was elected President of the Watch Tower Society from among the board members. He initiated the seventh volume of Scripture Studies to be published in 1917 . The first six volumes were written by Russell. Since the USA had meanwhile entered the First World War , his opponents, such as Paul Samuel Leon Johnson , some of whom were still part of the headquarters at the time, accused him of publishing this volume. They were released from their duties by legal means.

The book itself became the occasion a few months later for the arrest warrant to be issued against him and seven other Watch Tower Society employees . You have been charged with having "illegally, maliciously and willfully" inciting "incitement to insubordination , infidelity and refusal to serve in the military and naval forces of the United States of America" through this book . Seven of them received four 20-year prison sentences, one four 10-year prison sentences. A bail was refused. After the war, they were fully rehabilitated. As a result, Rutherford was able to continue practicing law before the United States Supreme Court . The episode strengthened Rutherford's reputation within his religious community enormously, he was considered a martyr from then on.

After October 1914, the date announced by the founder Russell for the dawn of the Kingdom of Jehovah, had passed uneventfully, Rutherford reinterpreted his statement in the doctrine of today among Jehovah's Witnesses, according to which this year Christ's reign of Christ began invisibly in heaven The generation of believers living in 1914 would, however, experience their visible appearance: “Millions who live today will never die,” promised the title of his book published in 1920, in which Rutherford predicted the resurrection of the biblical patriarchs in 1925 as a sign of the beginning end times. The uneventful passing of this date too led to a crisis within Jehovah's Witnesses.

At a convention in 1919, he announced the publication of a new magazine, which is now called Awake! is known. Predictions in the Watchtower literature also date from this time that there would be a resurrection of the patriarchs of the Bible in 1925. In retrospect, Rutherford admitted that he had embarrassed himself with this expectation. Although this prophecy did not come true, Rutherford took the view until the 1930s that the patriarchs would return at any moment, for which he had the Villa Beth Sarim built in San Diego , which he then lived in and where he was awaiting the patriarchs also died. In 1926 he changed the organization of the "Pilgrim Brothers". While they had previously attended lectures at the meetings, they should now work with them to promote the field service. (Later they were called "circuit servants" by Jehovah's Witnesses, now "circuit overseers".)

In 1931, at a congress, he presented the new name of the religious community, previously known primarily as Bible Students . From then on they came to be known as Jehovah's Witnesses . He died on January 8, 1942 at the age of 72 after a long illness.

literature

• Helmut Obst: Apostles and prophets of the modern age: Founders of Christian religious communities in the 19th and 20th centuries , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen, 4th edition 2000, pp. 409–453 [esp. via Russell and Rutherford], ISBN 3-525-55438-9
• Kurt Hutten: seers, brooders, enthusiasts. The book of traditional sects and religious special movements , Quell: Stuttgart 12th edition 1982, pp. 80-138, ISBN 3-7918-2130-X

Web links

Commons : Joseph Franklin Rutherford  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rodney Stark , Laurence R. Iannaccone , Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow so Rapidly: A Theoretical Application. In: Journal of Contemporary Religion 12, No. 2 (1997), p. 135.
2. ↑ Hans-Diether Reimer: Jehovah's Witnesses . In Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon , Vol. 2. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1989, Sp. 805.
3. ↑ JF Rutherford: Millions now living will never die! International Bible Students Association, Brooklyn 1920, p. 80, quoted from Robert Crompton: Counting the Days to Armageddon. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Second Presence of Christ . James Clarke & Co., London 1996, p. 100.
4. ^ Robert J Martin: Golden Age . In: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (ed.)  . 1930, p. 405. “Martin was the manager of the Brooklyn office and printing plant (an office that was later held by NH Knorr in Rutherford's day). In October, 1929, I went to California and acquired the title to the ground in my name ... "
5. ^ Judge Awaits Next Coming of King David . In: Syracuse Herald Journal . March 23, 1930.