Bible Student movement

The Bible Student movement is a Millennialist Restorationist Christian movement. It emerged in the United States from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell (1852–1916), also known as Pastor Russell, and his founding of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881. Members of the movement have variously referred to themselves as Bible Students, International Bible Students, Associated Bible Students, or Independent Bible Students.

A number of schisms developed within the congregations of Bible Students associated with the Watch Tower Society between 1909 and 1932. The most significant split began in 1917 following the election of Joseph Franklin Rutherford as president of the Watch Tower Society two months after Russell's death. The schism began with Rutherford's controversial replacement of four of the Society's board of directors and publication of The Finished Mystery in July 1917.

Thousands of members left congregations of Bible Students associated with the Watch Tower Society during the 1920s, prompted in part by Rutherford's failed predictions for the year 1925, increasing disillusionment with his ongoing doctrinal and organizational changes, and his campaign for centralized control of the movement. William Schnell, author, and former Jehovah's Witness, claims that three-quarters of the original Bible Students who had been associating with the Watch Tower Society in 1919 had left by 1931. In 1930, Rutherford stated that "the total number of those who have withdrawn from the Society... is comparatively large."

Between 1918 and 1929, several factions formed their own independent groups, including the Stand Fast Movement, the Pastoral Bible Institute, the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement founded by Paul Johnson, and the Dawn Bible Students Association. These groups range from conservative (claiming to be Russell's true followers) to more liberal (claiming that Russell's role is not as important as once believed). Rutherford's faction of the movement retained control of the Watch Tower Society and adopted the name "Jehovah's witnesses" in July 1931. By the end of the 20th century, Jehovah's Witnesses claimed a membership of 6 million, while other independent Bible Student groups had an estimated total of less than 75,000.

In 1869, Charles Russell viewed a presentation by Advent Christian preacher Jonas Wendell (influenced by the Millerites) and soon after began attending an Adventist Bible study group in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, led by George Stetson. Russell acknowledged the influence of Adventist ministers including George Storrs, an old acquaintance of William Miller and semi-regular attendee at the Bible study group in Allegheny.

In early January 1876, Russell met independent Adventist preachers Nelson H. Barbour and John H. Paton, publishers of the Herald of the Morning, who convinced him that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874. Russell provided financial backing for Barbour and became co-editor of Herald of the Morning; the pair jointly issued Three Worlds and the Harvest of This World (1877), written mostly by Barbour. Various concepts in the book are still taught by the Bible Student movement and Jehovah's Witnesses, including a 2520-year period termed "the Gentile Times" predicted to end in 1914. Deviating from most Second Adventists, the book taught that the earth would not be burned up when Christ returned, but that humankind since Adam would eventually be resurrected to the earth and given the opportunity to attain eternal perfect human life if obedient. It also revealed an expectation that all of the "saints" would be taken to heaven in April 1878.

Russell continued to develop his interpretations of biblical chronology. In 1877, he published 50,000 copies of the pamphlet The Object and Manner of Our Lord's Return, teaching that Christ would return invisibly before the battle of Armageddon. By 1878, he was teaching the Adventist view that the "time of the end" had begun in 1799, and that Christ had returned invisibly in 1874 and had been crowned in heaven as king in 1878. Russell believed that 1878 also marked the resurrection of the "sleeping saints" (all faithful Christians who had died up to that time) and the "fall of Babylon" which he taught to be God's final judgment of unfaithful Christendom. October 1914 was held as the end of a harvest period that would culminate in the beginning of Armageddon, manifested by the emergence of worldwide anarchy and the decline and destruction of civilized society.

Russell broke with Barbour in July 1879 over the doctrine of substitutionary atonement and began publishing his own monthly magazine, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence (now known as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom), and the pair competed through their rival publications for the minds of their readers. (Semi-monthly publication of the magazine began in 1892.)