From the unexplained to the mundane, come join us on a journey to the fringe.
Hello and welcome to Journey to the Fringe.
Kind of like how you can pickle most anything.
So too can you fringe up any topic.
We are your podcast and or pickling hosts, Taylor and Chelsea, sometimes it's hard to
remember which.
Here today, take somewhat of a mundane topic.
Chelsea, I think this is an interesting topic.
We're going to see how it goes.
Okay, I thought we were here to pickle.
Maybe later and in any event, pickling a lot of the time is sitting and waiting so you
could get your pickling done beforehand.
Okay.
But no, in fact, right now we're here to discuss people who have predicted the end of the world.
But unlike those cowards who give up on it after one attempt, I have strictly decided
to look at people who just kept on going and say, I'm sure second, third or onward times
the charm in predicting the end of the world.
I mean, are we talking end the world as we know it?
Like the earth?
Or are we talking like a mass extension event?
For the most part, we're usually talking about the ones that I found, they're raptures.
So the end of the Christian world, I guess would be a good way to put it.
Okay.
Well, I don't know that that's actually going to happen.
Well, that's not what everybody thinks Chelsea.
And in any event, I like to think that these guys get better with age and they just keep
going at it, not like those cowards with the 2012.
They kind of gave up on 2012.
As soon as it happened, they should have kept going.
I was thinking the earth exploding into like oblivion and the earth is no longer the world
is ending.
Oh, you know what?
I'm acting like I've never heard this before.
They don't predict that.
Anyhow, let's look at this.
We'll see if anybody got it right and we're just going to keep going from there.
So Chelsea,
There's got to be someone that gets it right.
I've got three different people we're going to look at.
The first one's kind of outside and there's not a lot of info on it.
I just had to include this story because it includes Chinese tourists and cowboy hats.
I love that.
And I have to ask, is one of them a pope?
You know what?
I didn't convert everything from Chinese and there's not enough information.
He may have ordained himself a pope.
Yeah, I was like, do the Pope speak Chinese?
Yeah, no, none of these pokes speak Chinese.
Some of them, the very concept of another language is confusing them.
None of them seem to know the guy.
So the first man we're going to look at his name is Hanming Chen.
He started a group called Chen Tao, which is the true way, also known as God's salvation
church.
He founded this in 1955 in Taiwan.
At first it was associated with UFOs, but later claimed that the group had been misrepresented
as a New Age UFO cult and it was later known as God's salvation church.
Oh, this sounds familiar.
Chen was a former professor who claimed to be an atheist until he joined a religious
cultivation group that dated back for two generations to the original female founder,
teacher, Yuxia Chen.
But he broke with the group headed by the third generation teacher in 1993.
Oh, sorry.
I said earlier that it was founded in 1955.
That's when he was born.
Okay, same thing.
So he broke with the group headed by the third generation teacher in 1993, created with another
fellow cultivator, Tao Hongma, their own groups.
It was later when he broke with Ma and decided to move to the United States that new elements
such as pseudoscientific information and cosmology and flying saucers as well as Christian
motifs of the prophecies of the end and the Great Tribulation were introduced to the group.
In Taiwan, the group was originally officially registered as the Chinese Soul Light Research
Association.
And when the group moved to the United States from Asia, it was registered in the U.S. as
God's Salvation Church.
It first relocated to San Dimas, California, and then it moved to Garland, Texas.
And I love it.
The reason they chose Garland, Texas is because it sounds like Godland.
That's as good as a reason as any.
And I found a way back machine copy of their website with a few of their key points.
And I actually love it.
They had contact information, including phone numbers for the people you can speak to about
this group.
I never actually phoned them.
My guess is the phone numbers don't work anymore, but I'm going to leave that out.
Just I don't want to have some people being harassed out there.
But anyhow, this is their website.
And it starts out with the topic, the headline, Chelsea, the supernatural power of God's
super high technology hyphenated, but not high technology, super dash high technology.
For the purposes of the salvation of human beings and witnessing the great power of God's
creation of the universe and planets, this is what their mission statement is.
To help exercising demons and suppressing devils and join with God in Buddha, the messengers
from the kingdom underground in the operating of devil sweeping.
Trindu's people to contact and meet the human great ancestors who are more than 8,000
years old, the Christ and Amitabha Buddha with physical body in the underground kingdom
of eternal life and the UFO.
To help construct super high tech equipment to eliminate various natural disasters and
diseases and reconstruct people's imperfect inheritance and physical disposition such
as the solar storms, typhoon, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, cancer, AIDS
and so on.
To use scientific and practical means that is the super high tech equipment to communicate
with the world of Buddha and God and the extra celestial beings in every planet of the solar
system to prepare for God's physical bodies dominance over the earth and recover the
egalitarian force of justice that all living beings are created equal.
People are urged to brave up the responsibility of self-salvation.
Weirdly, kind of sounds like some of the stuff we learned about the Falun Gong and very broken
English.
This couldn't have been Google Translate because it came from the year 2000.
Then it gives contact information for Professor Han Ming Chen, the one who prepares the way
for God.
I love that.
You think that's more of a cultural thing that it has similarities in that?
I do in fact because Christian cults in Asia are a specific thing that are fundamentally
different from Christian cults in the rest of the world.
At least from what I've learned about them.
I find them absolutely interesting because they always seem to fuse Buddha into it too.
But anyhow, this group that come to Garland, Texas in August of 97, Chen immediately predicts
when they get there.
March 31st, 1998, God would be seen on channel 18 all across North America.
At the time, the group had roughly 140 to 160 members and members purchased more than
20 homes in an upper middle class South Garland neighborhood.
Like those neighborhoods, these followers were white-collar professionals, some of whom
were reportedly wealthy and they dressed in white or cowboy hats and drove luxury cars
according to a Dallas Morning News article from the time.
Can you imagine living in that neighborhood?
The weirdest Chinese Christian cult.
The Garland Police Department understanding the potential gravity of the situation coordinated
resources including religious studies professor Lonnie Cleaver and were on standby when the
international media began arriving in what had previously been an upper middle class
section of the Dallas suburb.
One person stated, its presence unsettled many Garland residents.
Can you believe this?
Chinese people and cowboy hats just walking around.
No, I couldn't ever.
Fancy cars.
And the predicted appearance did not occur, so March 31st, 1998 comes and goes, nothing
happens.
Surprisingly, the group gets very confused.
The Chen Tao leader announced that he obviously had a misunderstanding with God's plan.
A lot of the members quietly return home.
Chen, however, offered to be stoned or crucified for the event.
Ah, got it wrong.
Nobody took him up on the offer though.
I think mostly because you know that would likely have to be charged with murder.
Oh yeah, in the United States for sure.
And the funny thing is with this as well, Chen Tao seems to have effectively fallen apart
after its leader's prophecies went unfulfilled.
Immediately after the failed prediction, many of the members had to return to Taiwan owing
to visa problems, which I think makes a lot of sense.
If you think the world's gonna end, you're not gonna go for a long term visa.
No, you're not.
So screwed up and they had to leave.
That's thinking about it logically.
Why would you pay more?
Exactly.
That's actually gonna come up in the, oh no, sorry.
That was on one of the ones I deleted.
There's one guy who wouldn't return the money because he said, well, for people who are
donating to advertise the end of the world, and he's like, well, it's gonna end later
anyway, so I'm gonna spend the money on that.
Exactly.
It's a sound reasoning.
So roughly two thirds of the people abandoned the group and later the remaining members moved
to Lockport, New York and continued to wear cowboy hats but began stating that a war between
China and Taiwan was going to lead to a nuclear holocaust that would result in much death.
Also God would arrive in a God plane, which is in quotation marks, to save the members
and then they originally state that this was going to occur in 1999.
But again, they revise it to a later date.
Unfortunately, I couldn't actually find anything about that though.
What is the significance of the cowboy hat?
I don't know, but I love it.
More cults should wear cowboy hats.
It's just stylish.
There doesn't need to be a reason.
I generally dislike cowboy hats because I feel they're a cultural appropriation of a group
who has a hard time farmers by upper middle class people for fun.
But no, this is perfectly fine in my mind.
Cult, take it.
It's fantastic.
Totally acceptable.
I just thought that's a fun story.
Cowboy hats.
Oh, that was a good one.
Willing to crucify.
That's where it goes.
No, I like that one.
Next one we're going to talk about is William Miller.
So William Miller is born on February 15th, 1782 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Holy crap, that's a long time ago.
In 1803, Miller married Lucy Smith.
These nets, too, were actually kind of connected.
It has some real world implications, these ones, actually.
And they moved to a nearby hometown of Pultney, where he took up farming.
While in Pultney, Miller was elected to a number of civil offices, starting with the
office of constable.
In 1809, he was elected the office of deputy sheriff and at unknown date was elected to
be the justice of the peace.
He was recently well off owning a house, land, and at least two horses.
I really liked that that was included in the Wikipedia for this guy.
Horses.
It's notable.
They couldn't get a square number, but they knew it was at least two.
Shortly after his move to Pultney, Miller rejected his Baptist heritage and became a
deist.
In his biography, Miller records his conversion.
A deist is basically there is a God, but they don't really interact with us.
So there's no point in having any religiousness.
Quote, I became acquainted with the principal men in the village, Pultney, Vermont, who
were professedly deists, but they were good citizens and of a moral and serious department.
They put into my hands the works of Voltaire, Hume, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, and other
deistical writers.
So he kind of gets this idea that there's no real reason to have a strong connection
with God.
However, then the war of 1812 breaks out.
He gets involved in this.
He gets transferred to the 30th Infantry Regiment in the regular army of the United States
in the rank Lieutenant.
He saw his first action at the Battle of Plattsburgh, where vastly outnumbered American
forces overcame the British.
This is a quote from him.
The fort I was in was exposed to every shot.
Bombs, rockets, shrapnel, shells fell as thick as hailstones.
One of these many shots exploded two feet from him, wounding three of his men and killing
another, but Miller survived without a scratch.
Miller came to view the outcome of his battle as miraculous and therefore, odds with his
deistic view of a distant God far removed from human affairs.
He later wrote, quote, it seemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over the
interests of this country in a special manner and delivered us from the hands of our enemy.
So surprising as a result, against such odds did seem to me like the work of a mightier
power than man, end quote.
So almost dies, doesn't get scratched at all, so becomes religious again.
After the war, Miller returned to Pultney.
Shortly after, moved with his family to Low Hampton, where he purchased a farm.
About this time period, Miller was deeply concerned with the question of death and an
afterlife.
This reflection opened upon his own mortality, followed his experience as a soldier in the
war, but also the recent deaths of his father and sister.
Miller apparently felt that there were only two options possible following death, annihilation
and accountability, neither of which he was comfortable with.
As soon as he moved to Low Hampton, Miller took a tentative step toward regaining his
Baptist faith.
At first he attempted to combine both publicly espousing deism, while simultaneously attending
his local Baptist church.
His attendance turned to participation when he was asked to read the Day's Sermon during
one of the local minister's frequent absences, and his participation changed to commitment
one Sunday when he was reading a sermon on the duties of parents and became choked with
emotion.
Following his conversion, Miller's deist friends soon challenged him to justify his
new faith.
He did so by examining the Bible closely, declaring to one friend, quote, if he would
give me time, I would harmonize all these apparent contradictions to my own satisfaction
or I will be a deist still, end quote.
Miller commenced with Genesis 1-1, studying each verse and not moving on until he felt
the meaning was clear.
In this way he became convinced that the time of Christ's second coming was revealed in
Bible prophecy.
Basing his calculations principally on Daniel 814, quote, unto 2300 days, then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed, end quote.
Miller assumed that the cleansing of the sanctuary represented the earth's purification by fire
at Christ's second coming, then using the interpretive analysis of the day-year principle.
Typically they think the day means year, so they can just substitute it.
Miller and others interpret a day in a prophecy to read not as 24-hour period, but rather
as a calendar year.
Further, Miller became convinced that the 2300 day period started in 457 BC with the
decree to rebuild Jerusalem by Arteserxes, one of Persia.
There's too many X's in that for me to be comfortable pronouncing it.
Simple calculations then revealed that this period would end in 1843.
Miller records quote, I was thus brought to the solemn conclusion that in about 25 years
from that time 1818 all the affairs of our present state would be wound up, end quote.
It's always really nice too when they can get it wrapped up in their lifetime so that
they can make another prediction if it fails.
That end, most people think they are living through the end times.
Like it is weird that every generation seems to have people like that.
Having it predicted within your lifetime has its pros and cons.
You got away with what you're going to go with obviously.
If you predict it for everybody that's following you at the time and you predict it for after
you're gone, you might be in the clear.
Whereas if it's within a couple years, you might be around still probably.
And then you're safe to make another prediction.
And that's what I always liked.
Isaac Newton did his own analysis of the Bible.
He was born in the 1700s, or sorry 1600s he lived in the 1700s.
But he predicted the end of the world from his reading of the Bible to be 2060.
So he's one of those people that's bold enough to say, yeah, I'm going to predict it out
here.
It's not during my life.
I'm with him on it.
If I was going to predict it, I mean, I might just put it out there by the end of this
episode.
I'm going to think on it while you're talking.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Please let the world go longer than the end of this episode.
Well, we'll see.
But yeah, so what do I think?
Am I going to go bold or am I going to go, oh, we'll see.
We'll see.
Okay.
So, as he was convinced of his calculations by 1818, he continued to study privately until
1823 to ensure his correctness of his interpretation.
In September of 1822, Miller formally stated his conclusion in a 20-point document, including
Article 15, quote, I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near even at the
door, even within 21 years, on or before 1843, end quote.
Miller did not, however, begin his public lecturing until first Sunday in August of
1831 in the town of Dresden.
In 1832, Miller submitted a series of 16 articles to the Vermont Telegraph, a Baptist newspaper.
The Telegraph published the first of these on May 15th, and Miller writes of the public's
response, quote, I began to be flooded with letters of inquiry, respecting my views and
visitors flocked to converse with me on the subject, end quote.
In 1834, unable to personally comply with many of the urgent requests for information
and the invitations to travel and preach that he received, Miller published a synopsis of
his teachings in a 64-page tract with the lengthy title Evidence from Scripture and
History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the year 1844, exhibited in a course of lectures.
And I also like, because he predicted 1843, but he also put in his title of the lecture
on or about the year 1844.
Like just plain and safe.
You gotta, if it's within your lifetime.
And it's getting closer, like he's been predicting this for 12 years now.
You gotta give it a little wiggle.
Like a, gotta, like a year at least in or about a year.
So this gives rise to a religious movement called Millerism, which is just his last name.
From 1840 onward, Millerism was transformed from an obscure regional movement into a national
campaign.
Despite the urging of his supporters, Miller never personally set an exact date for the
expected second advent.
However, in response to their urging, he did narrow down the time period to some time
in the Jewish year beginning in the Gregorian year 1843, stating, quote, my principles in
brief are that Jesus Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession
of the same with all the saints sometime between March 21st, 1843 and March 21st, 1844.
So Chelsea, I don't know if you know your history, but March 21st, 1844 passes and
the world does not end.
Hold on, it passed.
In fact, nothing really important happens in that time period.
It passed, you say?
Yes.
Okay.
Wow.
It wasn't prepared for that.
And further discussion and study resulted in the brief adoption of a new date.
And I love this.
His outside date was March 21st, 1844.
If you're going to amend your end of the world date, Chelsea, what are you going to go with?
I'm still thinking on it.
Feel like there needs to be a three in it.
Feel that's the end of the world type number.
I'm going to go like...
Okay, I'm going to stop you here.
He moved it three weeks, April 18th, 1844.
Okay.
He's done a different calendar and he's like, oh, just use the wrong calendar.
No, I would probably push it out another at least 20 years, at least.
He wanted to be around for it.
At this point, I know you probably don't remember this from history class all that
well, but April 18th, 1844 also two passes without much happening and most importantly,
no return of Christ as we are aware.
Yeah, this passes and Miller responds publicly by writing, quote, I confess my error and acknowledge
my disappointment.
Yes, I still believe that the day of the Lord is near even at the door and quote.
And I love just looking back at this guy who lived roughly 200 years ago that yeah, he's
he was not that close, but he was sure of it.
I love that he had such a fear of death.
Yeah, he like wanted it to be like, he wanted to take everyone with him.
Yeah.
Sorry guys, I didn't predict it right.
You're all still alive.
Hopefully it'll come in a few weeks.
Yeah, in August of 1844 at a camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, Samuel S. Snow presented
a message that became known as the seventh month message or the true midnight cry.
Don't know who this guy is, but it is important for the story.
And a discussion based on the scriptural typology.
Snow presented his conclusion still based on the calculations that came from Miller
that the date is actually the 10th day of the seventh month of the present year.
Or which he calls October 22nd, 1844.
Dave refused to even leave the year.
Like they're just keeping it tight.
We can't see that far.
After the failure of Miller's expectation of October 22nd, 1844.
And I, sorry, I should say that like this is in addition to what Miller has been talking
about.
So they come to the agreement of understanding under Millerism that October 22nd is going
to be.
You know, Chelsea again, October 22nd came and went.
This became known to the Millerites as the great disappointment.
Herem Edson recorded that quote, our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted and such
a spirit of weeping came over us and I never experienced before.
We wept and wept till the day dawn.
And quotes because they had to keep going on a living.
Following the great disappointment, most Millerites simply gave up their beliefs.
Some did not.
And viewpoints and explanations proliferated.
Miller initially seems to have thought that Christ's second coming was still going to
take place that quote, the year of expectation was according to prophecy, but that there
might be an error in Bible chronology, which was of human origin that could throw the dates
off somewhat and account for the discrepancy.
Miller never gave up his belief in the second coming of Christ.
You just get pushing it back two weeks.
Really?
Yeah.
He's like, maybe that's how far they were off.
Like there was just a miscommunication when they're writing.
They were pen pals and they didn't account for the time between.
I enjoyed that one.
That one was good.
And estimates of Miller's followers, they vary anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 during
kind of his like peak.
Wow.
Miller's legacy includes the Advent Christian church with 61,000 members today and the seventh
day Adventist church, which has over 19 million members.
So those are both offshoots of Millerites.
What?
I guess he was he like took he was a was a like, what do you call him?
Giving sermons.
Both these denominations have a direct connection with Millerite and the great disappointment
of 1844 and a number of other individuals who ties the Millerites founded various short
lived groups, which we don't really need to talk about.
But yeah, Miller died on December 20th, 1849, still to the end, so the second coming was
imminent.
Just kept going with it.
Love that.
You know what it was missing?
The end of the world.
Cowboy hat.
No, you know what the cowboy hat as we envision it wouldn't have been invented by that point.
We'd have to do some collective historical work for that.
But okay, I can live with it then.
We're going to move on from Miller to a man by the name of Charles Taze Russell.
He was born February 16th, 1852, as foretold by Miller.
Maybe maybe he did.
We didn't write it down.
Who knows in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
Now Russell lived for a time in Philadelphia before moving to Pittsburgh where they became
members of the Presbyterian Church.
When Charles was in his early teens, his father made him partner of his Pittsburgh based Haberdashery
store, which I looked up is really just like a sewing store.
A Haberdashery that needs to make a comeback for sure.
Never heard that word before.
Like where would you use that word though?
Oh, you need to make up some stuff from the Haberdashery because you've got a hole in
your shirt or something.
You would become an empty empty.
I'm pretty sure.
So yeah, he has brought in by age 12, Russell was writing business contracts for customers
and given charge of some of his father's other clothing stores.
In age 13, Russell left the Presbyterian Church to join the Congregational Church and in his
youth.
Then by the way, we talked about a lot of offshoots of Christianity.
We're not really going to talk about any of them.
There's just not enough time.
And like it's such minute details that separate a ton of these that it's not worth discussing
unless you have like a PhD in religious studies.
I also really like that the dad trusts a 12 year old to write up those contracts.
I mean, why not?
It takes the work off you.
Yeah, you're busy just trying to specify.
He's owning a Haberdashery.
He's owning 12 Haberdashery.
It's like the only Haberdashery ever, right?
Yeah, you know what?
I don't see the word after this finishes.
So I think it dies out with them.
I think it does.
Russell in his youth was known to chalk Bible verses on fenceboards and city sidewalks in
an attempt to convert unbelievers.
We particularly noted the punishment of hell awaiting the unfaithful.
I have a hard time calling him a rebel, but he is vandalizing things.
It's okay.
I love that.
At age 16, a discussion with a childhood friend on faults perceived in Christianity, such
as contradictions and creeds along with the medieval traditions led Russell to question
his faith.
He investigated various other religions, but concluded that they did not provide the answers
he was seeking.
At 1870 of age 18, he attends a presentation by Adventist minister, Jonas Wendell.
And you'll remember that the Adventist church is a direct offshoot of Millerites.
So Russell later said that although he had not entirely agreed with Wendell's arguments,
the presentation had inspired him with a renewed zeal and belief that the Bible is the word
of God.
So Russell, a charismatic figure, however, did not claim any special revelations or visions
for his teachings and no special authority on his own behalf.
He said that he did not seek to found a new denomination, but intended to gather together
those who were seeking the truth of God's words during this harvest time.
He wrote that clear unfolding of truth within his teachings were due to the simple fact
that God's due time has come and if I did not speak and no other agents could be found,
the very stones will cry out.
So in about 1870, Russell and his father established a group with a number of acquaintances to
undertake an analytical study of the Bible and the origins of Christian doctrine, creed,
and tradition.
The group strongly influenced by the writings of Millerite Adventist minister George Storrs
and George Stetson.
So yeah, there's two Russells here.
These people are also frequent attendees and concluded that many of the primary doctrines
of the established churches, including the Trinity, Hellfire, and the inherent immortality
of the soul, were not substantiated by the scriptures.
Around January of 1876, Russell received a copy of Nelson Barber's Carrold of the Morning
in the Mail.
Barber was an influential Adventist, writer, and publisher, and Russell telegraphed Barber
to set up a meeting.
Barber and John Henry Patton visited in Allahenny in March 1876 at Russell's expense so that
he could hear their arguments and compare the conclusions that each side had made in
their studies.
Russell sponsored a speech by Barber in St. George's Hall, Philadelphia in August of
1876 and attended other lectures by Barber.
Among the teachings Barber introduced was the view that Christians who had died would
be raised in April 1878, meaning the end of the world.
Russell was moved to vote his life to what he was convinced were now the last two years
before the invisible spiritual return of Christ, and he sold his five clothing stores for $300,000
at that time, which is roughly worth $8.5 million today.
With Russell's encouragement and financial backing, Barber wrote an outline of their
views in Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World, published in 1877.
A text Russell had previously written titled The Object Manor of Our Lord's Return was
published concurrently through the Office of the Herald of the Morning.
Russell was eager to lead a Christian revival and called to two separate meetings with the
Christian leaders in Pittsburgh.
Russell's ideas, particularly stressing the imminence of the rapture and the second advent
of Christ, were rejected both times.
When 1878 arrived, failure of the expected rapture brought great disappointment for Barber
and Russell, and their associates and readers, but one of Russell's associates claimed that
Russell was not upset.
This is a direct quote from Alexander Humick Millen.
While talking with Russell about the events of 1878, I told him that Pittsburgh Papers
had reported he was on the 6th Street Bridge dressed in a white robe on the night of the
Memorial of Christ's death, expecting to be taken to heaven together with many others.
I asked him, is that correct?
Russell laughed heartedly and said, I was in bed that night between 10.30 and 11.00
pm.
However, some of the more radical ones might have been there, but I was not.
Neither did I expect to be taken to heaven at that time, for I felt there was much work
to be done preaching the kingdom message to the peoples of the earth before the church
would be taken away.
Confused by what was perceived to be an error in calculation?
Russell then reexamined the doctrine to see if he could determine whether it was a biblical
origin or simply Christian tradition.
He concluded that the doctrine was Christian tradition.
Through the pages of the herald, he wrote about what he had concluded on the subject.
Barber, embarrassed by the failure of these expectations, rejects Russell's explanation
and they conducted a debate in successive issues of the journal from early 1878 to 1879.
Funny enough, the guy who actually came up with the original one, he's like, yeah, let's
just give this up.
But nope, Russell's in it to win it.
He's gonna get this right.
In a matter of months, Barber changed some of the views which he and Russell had previously
shared and no longer relied on the prophetic chronology.
They began a debate over the issues of Christ's ransom and who eventually separated because
of their disagreement.
Russell withdrew his financial support and started his own journal, Zion's Watchtower
and Herald of Christ's Presence.
Publishing his first issue in July of 1879, Barber formed the Church of the Strangers
that same year, continuing to publish Herald of the Morning.
At an 1881, Russell founded Zion's Watchtower Tract Society with William Henry Conley as
President and Russell as Secretary Treasurer.
They intended to disseminate tracts, papers, doctrinal treatises, and bibles.
Society was incorporated in 1884 with Russell as President and in 1886, its name was changed
to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
Chelsea, have you ever heard any of those words?
I don't think so.
Okay, they were in for a good surprise at the end here then.
Okay, I love the prize.
So, by 1881, Russell had found a biblical basis for extending the harvest to a new date.
Later that year, he explained, coming to the spring of 1878, we naturally and not unreasonably
expected some change for our condition and all were more or less disappointed when nothing
supernatural occurred.
But our disappointment was brief, for we noticed that the Jewish Church was the pattern of
ours and therefore we should not expel parallels to Pentecost or to anything which happened
in the beginning of this Church.
Russell wrote that the light upon our pathway still shines and is more and more glorious
and that since 1878, the light had glowed stronger.
Quote, we know not the day or hour but expect it during 1881, possibly near the autumn where
the parallels show the favor to Zion, complete and due to end, the door to the marriage to
shut and the high calling to be the bride of Christ to cease.
End quote.
So sometime near the end of 81, and I keep hitting spacebar, I hate this.
The second failure in 1881 precipitated a more serious crisis in the Bible student ranks
and for several years, Russell's followers waited for the belated translation to occur.
Russell's chronological timetable had already identified 1914 as the ultimate end of the
time of trouble.
And it's important because invisible Jesus shows up in 1881, but the world doesn't end
until 1914, that was kind of the whole prediction.
But Jesus didn't show up in 81.
So he basically just says, oh yeah, well then 1914's the new date.
Obviously, he got it a little bit backwards.
Yeah, but many members of his group found it inconceivable that their earthly departure
might be delayed that long, 33 years.
Maybe you got to make it a lot short.
Maybe that's why.
And I almost feel like that they took into account the age of Jesus when he was crucified
because he was in his 30s.
So maybe that's why he said 33 years or something like that.
Like he's got to get up to crucify an agent to take everybody up or something like that.
It's just an invisible baby Jesus for now.
So Russell consoled members with the news that 1881 had still marked the time when death
became a blessing in the sense that any saint who died would henceforth be instantaneously
changed into a spirit being.
The revised view provided comfort for the early believers who had held the view that
living faithful would never experience a physical death and yet had seen other members in fact
dying while they awaited their upward call.
After 1881, physical death was defined as one of the ways in which some of the saints
might undergo their translation.
Russell's studies in the scripture series had explicitly identified October of 1914
as the full end of the times for the Gentiles and consequently the farthest limit of human
rulership.
It would bring a beginning of Christ's millennial reign and all the followers expected the immediate
translation of the saints to rule with the revealed Christ that year.
Following the earth's tribulations and unrest the Jews would return to God's favor.
The nominal church would have fallen.
The final battle between Christ and Satan would have ended.
The kingdoms of the world would be overthrown.
Christ would have gathered his saints into heaven and they would reign and when the millennium
would begin.
That's incredible.
The belief was unequivocal based on his studies of the Bible and the Great Pyramid and satisfied
only upon the establishment of an earthly paradise.
Russell remarked that altering the prophecy by even one year would destroy the perfect
symmetry of its biblical chronology.
Which is a real big thing for a guy who's already been wrong twice to say you can't
change the state.
This one is perfect.
Those other two I didn't put my all into it.
If it's off or all fucked if it doesn't happen.
In the second book of his studies in the scripture series he described it as quote an established
truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world and the full establishment of the
kingdom of God will be accomplished at the end of AD 1914 end quote.
The result he wrote was that quote all present governments will be overthrown and dissolved
end quote along with the destruction of quote what God calls Babylon and what men call
Christendom end quote.
And in 1894 watchtower which is his newspaper responding to readers who questioned whether
because of recent political upheavals the world could last until 1914.
He wrote quote we see no reason for changing the figures nor could we change them if we
would.
They are we believe God's dates not ours but bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not
the date for the beginning but for the end of the time of the trouble end quote.
As 1914 approached excitement mounted over the expected change of anointed Christians
early that year some Bible students convinced that the end of the world had arrived began
distributing their material belongings abandoning their jobs and eagerly anticipating the future.
In May of 1914 five months from the expected end Russell warned followers against coming
to doubt quote there is absolutely no ground for Bible students to question the consummation
of this gospel age is now even at the door and that it will end as a scripture foretells
in a great time to trouble such as never was since there was a nation.
We see the participants in this great crisis banding together themselves the great crisis
the great clash that will consume the ecclesiastical heavens and the social earth is very near
end quote.
However by September Russell was pairing readers for the possibility that quote Armageddon
may begin next spring yet it is purely speculation to attempt to say just when end quote.
Yet the evidence he wrote still pointed to quote the year just before us particularly
the early months end quote when again nothing takes place predictions regressed to their
earlier short term orientation.
The watchtower wrote quote it may be that many of the Lord's people were expecting
more than they should have looked for to occur with the opening of the Jewish year 1915 which
began with September 21.
The human mind seems to have a natural tendency and one with which we should have sympathy
to expect matters to culminate more rapidly fulfillments to come more suddenly than they
ever do come.
Studying God's word we have measured the 2520 years the seven symbolic times from that
year 606 BC and have found that it reached down to October 1914 as nearly as we were
able to reckon we did not say positively that this would be the year we merely left
everyone to look at the facts of history and reckon for himself end quote I love that just
completely backs out of it.
Yeah he took the opportunity to remind readers of some cautionary pronouncements he had made
several years earlier in 1912 he had left open the possibility that nothing happened
in October of 1914 it could still happen in October of 1950.
He also pointed out that the period of transition could quote run a good many years.
In a lengthy article of consolation Russell wrote that it was a testing time for Christ
disciples and that some Bible students had unreal expectations and he said it was also
possible that God's kingdom on earth would be established gradually.
We find that some have one idea others another some think that just the next hour after midnight
would see a great great change everywhere evil blotted out in 60 minutes or in 60 seconds
but would it be a reasonable expectation that the Gentile Kingdom would be snuffed out inside
of an hour inside a day if God had said so it would be different.
We know that God has all power to do his will everywhere but are we in any sense of the word
to expect such a sudden transition that going to bed on the night of September 20th we
would find on the morning of the 21st all the kingdoms of the world destroyed in the
kingdom of Christ set up.
The saints in glory etc.
Such would be a lightning change we do not think that and he would have been justified
in so thinking if any such expectations it was unwarranted despite the fact he said that
like three years before.
I love how he gaslights everybody.
Yet on October 2nd 1914 he entered the staff dining room at the Watchtower Society headquarters
and declared that the Gentile times had ended and that their kings have had their day.
It signaled that God had withdrawn his benevolent disposition towards the Christian nations.
The statement implied that the legitimacy of earthly governments had been downgraded
in the eyes of God which sociologist Joseph Zygman suggested may have contributed to the
subsequent adoption of bolder tactics and condemning global political systems.
Russell viewed the outbreak of World War I as the beginning of Armageddon which would
soon descend into a world wide revolution and in 1916 shortly after his death he reaffirmed
his conviction that the end was close and the harvest of saints was going on.
Quote, some of us were quite strongly convinced that the harvest would be ended by now but
our expectations must not be allowed to weigh anything as against the facts.
We see no reason for doubting therefore that the times of the Gentiles ended in October
of 1914 and that in a few more years we'll witness this utter collapse of the full establishment
of God's kingdom in the hands of Messiah.
In post-humus editions of the studies of the scriptures entire sections were rewritten
to accommodate the failures of the anticipated events in 1914 now identified as the beginning
of the end of the Gentile times.
The outbreak of World War I was taken to be its confirmation, sociologist James Bechford
claimed that Russell's sometimes ingenious ex-post facto rationalization events in 1914
contributed to the survival of the Bible student movement.
None are doctrinal changes introduced by his successor Joseph Franklin Rutherford.
It was later decided that the millennium would come within the generation of those who saw
the events of 1914.
The years of 1799 and 1874 until then significant dates in Russell's millennial chronology
were also abandoned.
So yeah, he dies, they come up with a new date of 1918, this is running long so I'm just
gonna...
Chelsea, this is still around, you want to take a guess at who this is?
One of the popes.
Not quite, it's the Jehovah's Witnesses.
What?
Yes.
And are they still just like running it on like a couple of...
Not only that, they're still guessing the end of days.
Is that the whole thing of the...
The guest?
They move it to 1918.
The Jehovah's Witness.
They move it to 1920.
They move it to 1921, 25, 32, 35, 40s, 51, 75, 80, 86 and 2000.
And now they're at 2033.
So...
233, hey?
That's a good guess, that's not a bad guess, 2033.
That's a good even number.
Oh, an even number.
That was the twist I didn't think you'd see coming.
But their writings are called the Watchtower and it comes from Russell.
He started it all.
Really?
Interesting.
I love that for them.
They're still going strong and they're still...
I guess technically his predictions are still going strong and wrong.
I love that.
Steeped in tradition.
He can't just stop predicting.
No, he can't.
Not like that towered at the beginning of the Russell story.
He was like, no, I'm done.
I was wrong.
Or David Wilcock.
I can throw him under the bus too, because he was one of the 2012 people.
Sure was.
He just...
He went another way with it though, I don't think he ever acknowledged it.
No, he kind of says that while I was never predicting like the end of the world, it was
a spiritual change that did definitely happen.
Oh yeah, I was thinking that while I was going on, I was like, hold on.
I remember a lot of people from 2012 saying that it was just like a gradual change that
has happened.
Does that not follow Russell exactly?
Where he just doesn't throw away 1914?
And like, no, all these things, the world did end.
You can tell from all the things that happened.
Exactly.
But yeah, that's I think where I'm going to end off.
I did not expect in my research to end up with, and the Jehovah's Witnesses are still
continuing this tradition today.
They're still predicting it, and they keep moving it up.
They'll never stop, because I assume they'll never stop, because it's steeped in tradition.
And everybody should look at this, because I find it really interesting.
There's the Wikipedia article called the Unfulfilled Watchtower Society Predictions, and there's
a specific section in it called Adherence Responses to the Failed Predictions, which
kind of gives you an idea of the psyche of the people who continue to follow it, despite
the fact that they've been wrong so many times.
I'd like to take a look at the article as well, but here I'm going to have my say on
things that I haven't looked at.
If somebody believes it, and it's a core belief of theirs, they're just going to accept anything
for continuing to believe that the end of days are coming.
Yeah, and that's one of those things where too, it kind of just isolates you.
If you continue to follow something like this, the normal people in your life are going to
believe, and you're just going to end up with this group, and you're just going to continue
to believe what they're saying even more so because they're more people you have than
you need it.
Because you all hold the same beliefs.
Yeah, but bleak.
At least add cowboy hats.
And yeah, if Joe Hope is with us, if you learned nothing else from this episode, please just
add cowboy hats to the story.
Thanks for listening, Joe Hope, with Witnesses.
Yeah, and I think with that, I have been Taylor.
Here with Chelsea.
We are Journey to the Fringe.
We'll see you all for listening and we'll see you next week.
Goodbye.
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