History of Jehovah's Witnesses

In 1870, Charles Taze Russell and others formed a group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to study the Bible. During his ministry, Russell disputed many of mainstream Christianity's tenets, including immortality of the soul, hellfire, predestination, the fleshly return of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the burning up of the world. In 1876, he met Nelson H. Barbour. Later that year they jointly produced the book *Three Worlds,* which combined restitutionist views with end time prophecy.

Since its incorporation in 1884, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania has been directed by a president and board of directors. Until January 1976, the president exercised complete control of doctrines, publications and activities of the Watch Tower Society and the religious denominations with which it was connected—the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses. When the Society's second president, J. F. Rutherford, encountered opposition from directors in 1917, he dismissed them. In 1925, he overruled the Watch Tower Society's editorial committee when it opposed publication of an article about disputed doctrines regarding the year 1914. In 1931, the editorial committee was dissolved.

In 1943, The Watchtower described the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as the "legal governing body" of anointed Jehovah's Witnesses. A year later, in an article opposing the democratic election of congregation elders, the magazine said the appointment of such ones was the duty of "a visible governing body under Jehovah God and his Christ". For several years, the role and specific identity of the governing body remained otherwise undefined. A 1955 organizational handbook stated that "the visible governing body has been closely identified with the board of directors of this corporation."
the board of directors of this corporation."

Referring to events related to their 1957 convention, a 1959 publication said "the spiritual governing body of Jehovah's witnesses watched the developments [then] the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society [acted]." The 1970 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses noted that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania was the organization used to plan the activity of Jehovah's Witnesses and provide them with "spiritual food", then declared: "So really the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses is the board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania."
Frederick Franz at Watch Tower Society headquarters in Brooklyn.

On October 1, 1971, Watch Tower Society vice-president Frederick Franz addressed the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania corporation in Buckingham, Pennsylvania, stating that the legal corporation of the Watch Tower Society was an "agency" or "temporary instrument" used by the Governing Body on behalf of the "faithful and discreet slave". Three weeks later, on October 20, four additional men joined the seven members of the Society's board of directors on what became known as a separate, expanded Governing Body.

The board of directors had until then met only sporadically, usually to discuss the purchase of property or new equipment, leaving decisions about Watch Tower Society literature to the president and vice-president, Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz. The Watchtower of December 15, 1971, was the first to unambiguously capitalize the term "Governing Body of Jehovah's witnesses" as the defined group leading the denomination, with a series of articles explaining its role and its relationship with the Watch Tower Society.

The focus on the new concept of "theocratic" leadership was accompanied by statements that the structure was not actually new: The Watch Tower declared that "a governing body made its appearance" some time after the formation of Zion's Watch Tower Society in 1884, though it had not been referred to as such at the time. The article stated that Watch Tower Society president Charles Taze Russell had been a member of the governing body.

The 1972 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses stated that following Rutherford's death in 1942 "one of the first things that the governing body decided upon was the inauguration of the Theocratic Ministry School" and added that the "governing body" had published millions of books and Bibles in the previous thirty years. Former member of the Governing Body , Raymond Franz, stated that the actions of presidents Russell, Rutherford and Knorr in overriding and failing to consult with directors proved the Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses had been under a monarchical rule until 1976, leaving no decisions to any "governing body".

In 1972, a "Question From Readers" article in The Watchtower further reinforced the concept of the "Governing Body"; the magazine said the term referred to an agency that administers policy and provides organizational direction, guidance and regulation and was therefore "appropriate, fitting and Scriptural". Organizational changes at the highest levels of the Watch Tower Society in 1976 significantly increased the powers and authority of the Governing Body . The body has never had a legal corporate existence and operates through the Watch Tower Society and its board of directors.
Substantial organizational changes continued as congregations and teaching programs worldwide came under centralized control. Further changes of its doctrines led to the prohibition of blood transfusions by members, abandonment of the cross in worship, rejection of Christmas and birthday celebrations and the view of the biblical Armageddon as a global war by God that will destroy the wicked and restore peace on earth. In 1945, the Watch Tower Society, which Russell had founded as a publishing house, amended its charter to state that its purposes included preaching about God's Kingdom, acting as a servant and governing agency of Jehovah's Witnesses and sending out missionaries and teachers for the public worship of God and Jesus.
The denomination was banned in Canada in World War I, and in Germany, the Soviet Union, Canada and Australia during World War II. Members suffered widespread persecution and mob violence in some of those countries and in the United States. The group initiated dozens of high-profile legal actions in the United States and Canada between 1938 and 1955 to establish the right of members to sell literature from door to door, abstain from flag salute ceremonies and gain legal recognition as wartime conscientious objectors. Members of the denomination suffered persecution in some African countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Since 2004 the group has suffered a series of official bans in Russia.

## See also

* Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses