Divine Purpose and Russell's Biography

-->

Today’s post is a very important lesson for all wannabe opposers of Jehovah’s Witnesses out there: do your verification and research before simply parroting what other opposers have said! Otherwise, you may end up having to stick your foot in your mouth!

One overly eager opposer wrote:

In 1959 Watchtower writes:

“Lois:… But, is it true you have never published a biography of Pastor Russell? John: That's right.”—(Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, published by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1959 p. 63)

For readers interested in the topic, Pastor Russell’s biography published by Watchtower can be found in the December 1, 1916 issue of The Watchtower journal. The opening article is titled "Biography".

So much for that.

The questions to be considered regarding this quote are: What exactly did the WTS mean when it had John say that the WTBTS "never published a biography of Pastor Russell"? Did they mean that the WT publications never wrote anything about the life of Russell in any of their publications? Or did they mean something else? What does the evidence really reveal?

If John meant and the WT was trying to say that nothing of Russell's life had ever been written about in the WT publications of a biographical nature, then we have to wonder why this very book, Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose, give us a 'biography' of Brother Russell's life on pages 16 and 17, parts of which also appeared in the Dec. 1, 1916 WT and in the 1927 edition of the Finished Mystery? How can the WTS be trying to mislead by saying they never published a biography of Pastor Russell and at the same time provide a 'biography' of Russell in the self same book? Doesn't make much sense at all does it? In fact, let’s note exactly what the WTS states through John on those pages.

Beginning on page 16 'John' states:

Here's something from the opening paragraphs of his BIOGRAPHY as published in the Foreword of a later edition of his popular book, The Divine Plan of the Ages" [Then John continues quoting from the biography in that book].

Wow, can you believe the WTS slipped up and called the Foreword in that book a biography. Not very good at deceiving are they?

Furthermore take a look at the index in the back of the Divine Purpose book. On page 308 under Russell we find this:

-->

The Society sure is horrible at all this misleading business. Here side by side in the index they first show where to find Russell's biography and then show where to find that they stated they never published a biography of his life. They just as well might say, 'Hey look here everybody. We are trying to deceive you. We wrote a biography but we're saying we didn't write a biography'. If they were trying to mislead then they sure were totally ignorant about how to deceive.

Take note also of the fact that the WBTS is not the only voice speaking on these pages. The legendary Pittsburg historian George Swetnam is also quoted in the same book (Divine Purpose p. 63) as saying, “the publishing house which he founded has never published a biography of Pastor Russell” [1] Are we really supposed to assume that such a renowned and experienced writer is either completely ignorant of his facts or just an outright liar? Absurd!

The truth is that the WT publications contain hundreds of mini, or 'brief' biographies about different individuals who served Jehovah including Russell. Quite naturally, any book written about the history of Jehovah's Witnesses will contain a biography of Brother Russell's life to some extent, as there is no minimum amount of information required for a written piece to count as a “biography”—a single sentence providing details about a person’s life could be considered biographical in nature. The implied distinction is that the WBTS has never written an entire BOOK dedicated solely to the life of anyone in this millennium. It is this type of lengthy, meticulously detailed biography in book form that both the WBTS and historian George Swetnam were no doubt referring to. Take note of this glossary [2] which supports the general idea that a biography often refers to an entire BOOK dedicated solely to the life of a person: "Biography - a BOOK written about an individual" (Capitals mine).

And so you will not find a book published by the WTBTS entitled, The Life and Times of Pastor Russell etc.

References

[1] Where Else but Pittsburgh! by George Swetnam (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1958: Davis & Warde, Inc), pp. 110, 116.

[2] http://define.com/?cx=partner-pub-5814847160595685%3A5fzpwi8pyp3&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=define%3ABiography&wotd=Biography#1057