What Russellism, or Millennial Dawnism, Teaches (1915)
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Haldeman
hat Russellism, or Millennial Dawnism, Teaches
Haldeman
hat Russellism,
or Millennial Dawnism,
Teaches
BX8526
.H15 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
JUL 195
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
JUL 195
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY What Russellism,
or
Millennial Dawnism, Teaches
I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D.
Pastor First Baptist Church, New York City
LIBRARY OF PRINCETON
NOV 20 1914
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
What Russellism Teaches
USSELLISM teaches that death is non-existence.
All who have died, have ceased to exist.
They have been utterly destroyed— body and soul.
God created the Archangel Michael.
He was the beginning of the creation of God.
In obedience to the will of God, Michael gave up his spirit being, and was born of the virgin Mary as a human being.
He who was known on earth as Jesus, was, according to Russellism, none other than the Archangel Michael.
He had but one nature—an animal, human nature.
He was precisely like Adam before Adam fell.
He came into the world to be a substitute for man, die in his stead, and redeem the whole race from death.
As death is the extinction of being, when Jesus died on the cross, He ceased to exist.
His humanity was destroyed forever.
On the third day God caused Him to be created again as an invisible spirit, he was then, for the first time, made a partaker of the divine nature.
The body in which He died was never raised from the dead.
Russellism does not know what became of it.
Russellism says it may have been dissolved into gases.
The body in which Jesus appeared to His disciples after His death was a body created by Him for the occasion.
The clothes He wore on that body were manufactured by Him for the occasion.
When He was done with the specially created body, it dissolved into thin air.
The clothes also dissolved into the air.
Jesus Christ is no longer a man.
He is an invisible spirit.
Although He is an invisible spirit, He is called the Second Adam, and will be the father of mankind during the Millennial Age.
This is the age of election.
Through the Gospel God is now calling out a select number to be members of the "Body" of Christ.
They are justified by faith and "reckoned" as Adam was before he sinned.
They become members of the body of Christ only as they devote the Adam nature to death.
4 WHAT RUSSELLISM TEACHES.
They devote it to death by crucifying self.
Those who deny self will be given "inherent" life—that is—the divine nature.
Attainment to this divine nature is purely a matter of personal merit and human perfection.
Those who break their consecration will not be lost.
They will cease to be members of the Body. They will no longer be elect, but in the Millennium they will be permitted to live forever by eating food.
The seventh thousand year of the world began in 1872.
Jesus Himself came back to the world in 1874.
He has been invisibly present in the world ever since.
In 1878 all the Apostles, and all the dead who had consecrated their human nature to the Lord and lived the perfect Adam life, were raised from the dead and changed into spirit beings like the Lord.
Russellism agrees perfectly with Hymenaeus and Philetus.
Hymenaeus and Philetus taught that "the resurrection is past already." (2 Timothy 2:17, 18.)
The call to the elect ended in 1881.
But as some of the elect have fallen by the way, and others no doubt will, people may go on consecrating themselves in the hope that they shall be allowed to take the places of those who have failed.
"The Times of the Gentiles" will end in 1914.
The prayer, "Thy Kingdom Come," will be fulfilled in October, 1914.
In October, 1914, the Lord will set up His kingdom in power.
In October, 1914, the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdom of this invisible, spirit Lord.
The inauguration of the kingdom will take place in the midst of national, political, social, and financial storms.
These storms will be the proof that the kingdom in power has begun.
These will be the Lord's judgments in the earth by which the nations are to learn righteousness.
The invisible Lord and His invisible Church will be at work regulating the affairs of the world.
Abraham and the patriarchs will be raised from the dead as visible, glorified men.
They will be the "princes in the earth."
They will act as the intermediaries between the invisible Church and the world.
They will be the agents of the invisible Church to carry on the work of righteousness.
In 1914, the Jews will be restored to their own land and be the head of the nations.
Jerusalem will be the capital of the world.
Every living person will be on trial for everlasting life.
Those who accept the Lord and own Him, will be given at least one hundred years in which to make progress backward to the State of Adam before he fell to become perfect in Adam nature.
If at the end of the hundred years they have made no progress they will die and be blotted out of existence.
Those who conform "outwardly" to the laws of the kingdom, may continue to live till the end of the thousand years.
At the end of the thousand years they will be tested.
The test will be "heart loyalty" to the Lord.
If they can stand this test, they can go on living forever.
They will live forever, not by virtue of "inherent" life (that belongs only to the elect of this age) but by eating food.
All the dead who have died since the beginning of the world (and Russellism estimates them at fifty thousand millions) will be brought to life again.
Each will be given a certain measure of health and strength. This resurrection will not be simultaneons. It will occur continuously through the Millennium.
It is true—they have been, some of them, non-existent for thousands of years, body, soul, and personality, destroyed.
This presents no difficulty to Russellism.
Not even the total destruction of personality.
All who shall be made alive again, will be brought to know the Lord.
All shall know Him from the least into the greatest.
Each will be given an opportunity to live the perfect Adam life.
Like the living, they will have an opportunity for, at least, one hundred years in which to make this effort.
If they see fit to conform "outwardly" to the laws of the kingdom, they may live on to the end of the thousand years.
At the end of the thousand years, they may choose eternal non-existence, or live forever.
Russellism illustrates this doctrine of the dead who are called to life by citing Nero, Emperor of Rome.
Russellism quotes a passage in Daniel twelfth, wherein it is stated that the time is coming when many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, "some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
Although, according to Russellism, Nero has been dead and utterly annihilated for two thousand years, yet he will be "awakened."
He will be awakened from the dead with exactly the same character in which he died.
He will be given a measure of health and strength.
All will have read or heard of his poison contracts with Locusta, his reported incest, and the unspeakably abominable and brutal murder of his mother.
He will find himself, in this new era of righteousness, covered with shame, and the object of contempt.
But the experience he has had in sin and wickedness will be a "valuable asset" to turn him in the direction of righteousness.
If Nero sincerely seeks to make progress toward human perfection; if he do nothing more than keep his life "outwardly" decent, he can live in good health and comfort for a hundred years.
Then, if he wish, he can go back into non-existence.
If he prefer, he can go on living till the end of the thousand years, growing every day in favor with the world.
At the end of the thousand years, if he is willing to surrender himself to the will of the Lord, he can go on living forever by eating food.
He will then enjoy Life just as he did in the old days when he feasted sumptuously at the banquets in his royal palace, or ate and drank in his splendid villa at Baiae; but, this time, in cleanness and righteousness, honored in heaven and in earth.
Thus, Nero will be awakened to shame and everlasting contempt; just long enough to prove that neither the shame nor the contempt are everlasting, and that Daniel made a mistake when he said so.
That is Russellism.
The Dominican monk, John Tetzel, in the days of Luther, offered indulgences of the Pope to all who would buy them.
For a certain sum of money you could buy forgiveness of any sin you wished to commit.
With the Pope's indulgence in your pocket you could commit your sin, look at the indulgence in your pocket, and be assured you were forgiven—your sin wiped out.
With all his offered premium on sin, Tetzel did not offer it on nearly so large and generous a scale as Russellism.
Russellism teaches that you can live like Nero, commit all his crimes, die, and meet no greater punishment than the extinction of being. After that you will be brought again to life. You will come forth in health and strength. You will be permitted to live a hundred years; that is, if you are careful not to commit "outward" sin. If, after living a hundred years, you prefer to be annihilated, you can have your wish fulfilled in the second death. If you would live forever, you need only come out fully for the Lord. You will then be permitted to live in a world where Christ is ruling; where all evil is restrained; where every man has his own vine and fig tree.
You can maintain this life by eating food.
Your daily meal will be the guaranty of your eternal life.
Russellism is the message that brings glad tidings of great joy to every criminal, to every robber, every murderer. It takes away the fear of the hangman's rope and the dread of the electric chair. The criminal can afford to laugh at them.
Even if he should suffer death by either of these means, he would not suffer afterwards.To him there will be the peace of non-existence till brought to life again; and if, then, he is tired of sinning, he may turn over a new leaf, and live forever in that age of ages where he shall have nothing to do but eat to live and live to eat.
Here is a religion that offers a premium on every crime in the calendar, guarantees eternal life and felicity to every wicked man who ever lived, and assures the wicked of to-day that his very wickedness will be a great advantage, a "valuable asset" to help him to live a life of joy and peace forever.
All this is offered in the name of our Holy Bible, and in the sacred name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
No better way to encourage the elements of crime in human nature could be found than by circulating the books and preaching the doctrine of Russellism.
Lest any should doubt the Nero illustration, I would state it may be found in Vol. 6, pages 712-718 of "Studies in the Scriptures," published by the "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society," Brooklyn, N.Y.
CHARLES C. COOK, 150 Nassau Street, New York Four Pamphlets on Pastor Russell and Millennial Dawn
"ALL ABOUT ONE RUSSELL" By Charles C. Cook
THE AUTHOR has collated a number of interesting facts, and has interwoven them with argu- and conclusions that cannot be refuted. There are quotations from the best writers Russell and Millennial Dawnism, the most valuable of which are long extracts from the articles by MR. W. T. ELLIIS, which appeared in The Continent under the title "AN INVESTI INVESTIGATED." These give a realistic view of Russell and his tactics. Neatly bound. 20th t.
"Some Facts and More Facts About the Self-styled 'Pastor' Charles T. Russell of Millennial Dawn Fame", by REV. J. J. ROSS, the Pastor of James Street Baptist Church, Hamilton, Ont., Can. of the Libel Case. Additional Charges Made
The author is the minister at Hamilton, Ont., whom "Pastor Russell" sued for slander, and Mr. Ross has, in his pamphlet, given an account of the trial, and added "more facts" about Russell, that will hold the reader's attention, 48 pages. 10 Cents 22nd thousand
Millennial Dawnism, or the Blasphemous Religion which Teaches the Annihilation of Jesus Christ
A comprehensive and effective answer to the modern popular heresy of Millennia dawn, convincing every unprejudiced mind of the fallacy of this destructive delusion. 10 Cents 90th thousand Date Due
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MY 27'52
AP 23'55
BX8526.H15 What Russellism, or, Millennial dawnism,
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