Jehovah's Witnesses splinter groups

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Jehovah's Witnesses have known several schisms throughout their history. While the legal entities founded by Charles Taze Russell (the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the International Bible Students Association, etc.) have always remained grouped, many congregations in the Bible Student movement have rejected their leadership.

Note that all of these groups split before Rutherford’s movement adopted the name “Jehovah's Witnesses” in 1931. Due to the schism, Rutherford believed that his new movement should be distinguished from the ‘unfaithful’ that had left the Society. Those who broke away continue to call themselves Bible Students.

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[edit] First splits : 1909

In 1907, Pastor Russell more pointedly expressed that Christians were not developed under the New Covenant, but that the New Covenant was future, and made between God and the nation of Israel for the purpose of teaching the world his plan.

This, and controversy over other doctrines, led some to leave in 1909, leading to the formation of New Covenant Bible Students.

M.L. McPhail, Pilgrim member of the Chicago Bible Students, also disassociated himself from Russell's movement at that time and led the New Covenant Bible Students in the United States, founding the New Covenant Believers in 1909.

[edit] Second crisis : Pastor Russell's death

After Charles Taze Russell's death in 1916, Joseph Franklin Rutherford was elected second president of the Watchtower Society and immediately started an intensive work of restructuring the movement which, by 1928, led to nearly three-quarters of the membership departing association with the Society. One of Rutherford's most controversial moves was the expulsion of four members (R. H. Hirsh, I. F. Haskins, A. I. Ritchie, and J. D. Wright) of the seven-member Board of Directors appointed by Pastor Russell, with his own appointees in July 1917. After their expulsion, these four members eventually formed the Pastoral Bible Institute, and started publishing The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, edited by R. E. Streeter.

The Australian Berean Bible Institute also formally separated from the Watchtower society in 1918.

In December 1918, Charles E. Heard and some others, considered Rutherford's recommendation to buy war bonds to be a perversion of Russell's pacifist teachings, and founded the Stand Fast Bible Students Association in Portland, Oregon.

In 1917, Alexander F.L. Freytag, Branch manager of the Swiss Watchtower Society since 1898, founded the Angel of Jehovah Bible and Tract Society (also known as the Philanthropic Assembly of the Friends of Man and The Church of the Kingdom of God, Philanthropic Assembly) and started publishing his views; he was ousted from the Watchtower Society by Rutherford in 1919.

Paul S. L. Johnson founded the Layman's Home Missionary Movement in 1919.

In Germany, Ewald Vorsteher was disfellowshipped in the early 1920s after refusing to follow instructions from the Watchtower Society. He published "Wahr­heitsfreund" ("Friend of Truth"). His home was searched by the Gestapo in 1933 and the discovery of papers critical of the Nazi regime was used as a justification the persecution of both Bible Students, and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

[edit] Later departures

In 1928, Norman Woodworth left the Watchtower society to create the radio program Frank and Earnest with the help of the Brooklyn congregation of Bible Students. This eventually led to the founding of the “Dawn Bible Students Association” for the purpose of printing and distributing the Studies in the Scriptures series that the Watchtower Society had officially ceased publication of in 1927.

In 1928, the Italian Bible Students Association in Hartford, Connecticut also withdrew its support from the Watchtower Society and changed its name to the Millennial Bible Students Church, then to Christian Millennial Fellowship, Inc..

Jesse Hemery, one of the most prominent Bible Students of England, had been appointed president of the International Bible Students Association by Pastor Russell in 1901, and held that post until 1946. In 1951, he was disfellowshipped by N.H. Knorr and founded the Goshen Fellowship.

In 1942, Jehovah's Witnesses changed the date of Christ's Second Coming in their doctrine from 1874 to 1914, which again led to the departure of several groups who kept the original date.

The German Bible Students Association had stayed affiliated to the Watchtower Society but had no contact under Hitler's regime, who persecuted them severely. However, when the contact was re-established, they disagreed with the changes that had occurred in the meantime, and disassociated themselves with the Watchtower Society.[citation needed]


[edit] Dissensions

Throughout Watchtower history, there are numerous Jehovah's Witness groups and inviduals that have left and formed their own religious communities. The Internet made it possible for more Jehovah's Witnesses around the world to leave the Watchtower Organization. Many formed their own local or online groups while others joined already established associations. This moved the Watchtower to warn their members about the dangers of the Internet.


[edit] Other Groups

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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