Don’t just share your struggles, and above all, don’t just commiserate with one another. Remember, we are to be ministers of grace to each other. We are to seek to be avenues of the Holy Spirit to help the other person appropriate the grace of God. Praying with and for one another, sharing applicable portions of Scripture, and helping each other submit to God’s providential dealings with us, must characterize our times together.
Jerry Bridges

Jehovah’s Witnesses: History

This entry is part 42 of 130 in the series CULT or NOT

CULT or NOT

Jehovah’s Witnesses: History

  • 1913 The Eagle wins its suit for libel
  • 1917 Russell dies and Joseph Franklin Rutherford becomes President
  • 1917 Rutherford begins aggressive attack on ‘traditional churches’ and grows organization from 3,000 – 50,000 He will claim to be the ‘mouthpiece of Jehovah for this age.’
  • 1917 Russell’s Seventh book, called ‘The Finished Mystery’ causes a split w/larger group following Rutherford and smaller group forming ‘The Dawn Bible Students’
  • 1918 Rutherford is imprisoned through 1919 because of his opposition to WWI.
  • 1931 Rutherford’s group takes the name ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses to avoid being confused for the other group
  • 1942 Rutherford dies having written over 100 books and pamphlets
  • 1942 – 1977 Nathan Knorr, President
  • 1977 – present Frederick Franz, President

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