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Joseph Franklin Rutherford (8 November 1869—8 January 1942), best known as Judge Rutherford, was the third president of the Watchtower Society, the legal entity used by Bible Students and subsequently Jehovah's Witnesses. His predesessor Charles Taze Russell was actually the second president of the Society, not the first as commonly assumed. The first president of the Society was William H. Conley. Very little is known about him.
During Rutherford's tenure as president (1916—1942), the Bible Students experienced a widespread schism between 1918 and 1928. Those remaining ones adopted the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1931.
Biography
Early life
Rutherford was born to a Baptist farm family in Morgan County, Missouri on November 8, 1869. Harboring an interest in law for many years, his father initially opposed his interests in law studies, but eventually relented and allowed him to go to college,provided Joseph pay for someone to work for him on his father's farm. After completing his education, he worked as a court reporter and was admitted to the bar at Boonville, Missouri. Later he became a special, or substitute judge in the same Fourteenth Judicial District of Missouri. Because of this background in law he was often referred to as "Judge Rutherford", a name he carried with him for the rest of his life.
Bible Students
He became interested in the teachings of The Bible Students in 1894, after he and his wife had seen three of the volumes of Charles Taze Russell's textbook series entitled Millennial Dawn (later renamed Studies in the Scriptures).
Rutherford explained that at the time he planned to marry, his religious views were those of the Baptist denomination, but those of his wife-to-be were Presbyterian. When Rutherford’s pastor said that “she was going to hell fire because she had not been immersed and that he was going straight to heaven because he had been, his logical mind revolted and he became an atheist.”
It took Rutherford several years of careful research to rebuild his faith in a personal God. He worked, he said, from the premise that “that which cannot satisfy the mind has no right to satisfy the heart.”
He was baptized as a Bible Student in 1906, and in 1907 was selected by Russell to be the official legal adviser to the Watch Tower Society. He served as an elder and traveling speaker in the following years. He was elected President of the Watch Tower Society in January 1917, two months after Russell's death. The election process was questioned by some Bible Students, including four members of the Board of Directors. These differences between Rutherford and the Board were the first in a long line of controversial actions which led to a widespread schism that peaked by 1928. In Pastor Russell's 1910 version of his Last Will and Testament he named Rutherford as one that he considered suitable to be chosen as an initial member of a rotating editorial committee of five elders who were to oversee what material was to appear in the Watch Tower magazine following Russell's death. The committee was to see to it that the Watch Tower magazine contain only material written by Russell during his lifetime.
Imprisonment
Although Pastor Russell's expected seventh volume to his Studies in the Scriptures textbook series was not written during his lifetime, a seventh volume was published in 1917, and was advertised by the Watch Tower Society as his posthumous work. It was received with great skepticism by many Bible Students who felt that the tone and spirit of the book was overly harsh, as well as contrary to the spirit in which Russell had wrote during his ministry. Questions were also raised regarding predictions made in the book for the years 1918, 1919, and 1925. This seventh volume (entitled The Finished Mystery) included strong criticism of the Papacy and the existing Christian religious system and hierarchy. This prompted clergy pressure for government censure and in 1918 he served an imprisonment together with seven other associates in Atlanta, Georgia, for allegedly opposing the Selective Service Act of 1917 and the Espionage Act of 1917. However, on May 14, 1919, the U.S. circuit court of appeals in New York ruled: “The defendants in this case did not have the temperate and impartial trial to which they were entitled, and for that reason the judgment is reversed.” The prosecution did not pursue a retrial of the case, and the charges were dismissed by action of nolle prosequi. Jehovah's Witnesses consider the literal number of years he and his associates spent in prison, as well as their release, to be a literal fulfillment of Biblical time prophecy found in the book of Daniel chapter 12.
While in prison, poor air circulation in his cell contributed to his developing a lung condition from which he never fully recovered. Following his release, his weakened condition contributed to his contracting pneumonia. Thereafter, under doctor's advice, he spent much of his time in San Diego, California, especially during the winter months.
Rutherford's exoneration allowed him to remain a member of the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court which he joined in 1909. From 1939-1942, he served as an attorney in 14 cases before that court, presenting oral arguments in two of those cases, Schneider v. State of New Jersey (1939), and Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940).
Presidency
Rutherford served as President of the Watch Tower Society until his death in 1942 was known as a forceful preacher, and often spoke in his public discourses with a loud, booming voice. Starting in 1919 he began a lecture series entitled "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" which became the focus of the movement for the next 6 years. His personal interpretations and calculations of the ancient "Jubilee cycles" from the Old Testament led him to predict that the earth would become a paradise in 1925, based upon using the year 1874. This view was controversial, and not supported by most Bible Students. The lecture was also distributed in book form by the same title.
The period that followed 1918 brought significant changes in the thinking and activity of the Watch Tower Society. Rutherford's significant changes in the doctrinal platform, along with disbanding of congregational autonomy and other controversial moves led to the great majority of Bible Students ceasing fellowship with the Society. By 1928 numbers had fallen by nearly 75%. Rutherford's advertising efforts eventually lead to great growth in the Society's membership by individuals who had no knowledge of the previous schism or its causes. In 1931 a new name, Jehovah's Witnesses, was selected in order to better identify the organization and its members, based on Isaiah 43:10-12.
Death
About age 70, he went through several medical treatments for intestinal cancer. He went through more than one operation in 1941, but never fully recovered. He died in San Diego, California on January 8th, 1942 at the age of 72. His funeral was attended by four people, none of whom were related to him. The official coroner's records on file with the State of California state that he had been dead for several days before being discovered at the bottom of a stairwell, and that when found rat bites were observed on his face and hands.
Contributions to Jehovah's Witnesses
Rutherford's presidency is noteworthy for increasing the drive to "advertise the King and His Kingdom". The advertising work has become the prime hallmark for which Jehovah's Witnesses are recognized today. In 1931 at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, Rutherford delivered a public discourse adopting the new name of "Jehovah's Witnesses"..
Rutherford predicted that the current world political order would end in 1925. In his view Jesus had been enthroned as King and Satan's rule ended in 1914.
In San Diego, California in the 1920s, the Watch Tower Society built a house in California called Beth Sarim. The Hebrew words Beth Sarim mean 'House of the Princes'. It was funded by specific donations for the stated purpose of "housing the prophets and godly men of old", who were expected to be physically resurrected in 1925 before Armageddon to help with Christ's Millennial reign over the earth. Rutherford resided at the villa in his last years of ill health until his death in 1942. In 1948 the villa was sold. Soon after, the The Watchtower, November 1, 1950, pages 414-17 published a changed understanding of the aforementioned teaching to one where the "earthly forefathers of Jesus Christ would be resurrected after Armageddon."
After his death Rutherford's burial was delayed for three and a half months due to legal proceedings arising from his desire to be buried at Beth Sarim. Consolation 1942 May 27 explained that "Judge Rutherford looked for the early triumph of "the King of the East", Christ Jesus, now leading the host of heaven, and he desired to be buried at dawn facing the rising sun, in an isolated part of the ground which would be administered by the princes, who should return from their graves." Despite official denials by the Watchtower Society there is evidence that Rutherford was buried on a plot of land at Beth Sarim.
Rutherford was succeeded by Nathan Homer Knorr as President of the Watchtower Society.
References
- Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, p. 75
- Current Biography 1940
- http://jwfacts.com/index_files/1925.htm
- Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom, p. 76 "House of Princes" picture/box footnote
External links
- Rutherford and associates 1919 Application for Executive Clemency
- Original schism documents 1917 to 1929
- Online collection of Rutherford's writings
- Works by Joseph Franklin Rutherford at Project Gutenberg
- News clippings relating to Judge Rutherford
- News clippings from Rutherford's "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" campaign
| Preceded byCharles T. Russell | President of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania January 6, 1917-January 8, 1942 |
Succeeded byNathan H. Knorr |