Joseph Franklin Rutherford (8 November 1869—8 January 1942), often referred to as "Judge" Rutherford, was the second president of the legal corporation Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the primary corporate body of the Bible Students, and subsequently by Jehovah's Witnesses. He and six other Watch Tower executives were jailed in 1918 after charges were laid over the publication of The Finished Mystery, a book deemed "seditious" for its anti-war comments.
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- Joseph Franklin Rutherford
- Joseph Franklin Rutherford
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| - Joseph Franklin Rutherford (8 November 1869—8 January 1942), often referred to as "Judge" Rutherford, was the second president of the legal corporation Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the primary corporate body of the Bible Students, and subsequently by Jehovah's Witnesses. He and six other Watch Tower executives were jailed in 1918 after charges were laid over the publication of The Finished Mystery, a book deemed "seditious" for its anti-war comments.
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| - President of Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society
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| - Joseph Franklin Rutherford (8 November 1869—8 January 1942), often referred to as "Judge" Rutherford, was the second president of the legal corporation Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the primary corporate body of the Bible Students, and subsequently by Jehovah's Witnesses. Rutherford took up a career in law, working as a court stenographer, trial lawyer and prosecutor and developed an interest in the doctrines of Watch Tower Society president Charles Taze Russell, which led him to become a baptized Bible Student in 1906. He became legal counsel for the Watch Tower Society in 1907 and a traveling representative until his election as president in 1917. Biographers describe Rutherford as a powerful orator with a blunt and forthright manner. His early presidency was marked by a bitter battle with the Society's board of directors, with four of its seven members accusing him of autocratic behavior and seeking to reduce his powers. Rutherford overcame the challenge by gaining a legal opinion that his four opposers were not legally directors and replaced them with four new sympathetic directors. Twelve legal opinions subsequently obtained by the four ousted directors claimed Rutherford's actions were "wholly unlawful". The leadership crisis divided the Bible Student community and helped contribute to the loss of one-seventh of the Watch Tower adherents by 1919. He and six other Watch Tower executives were jailed in 1918 after charges were laid over the publication of The Finished Mystery, a book deemed "seditious" for its anti-war comments. Rutherford introduced many organizational and doctrinal changes that helped shape the beliefs and practices of today's Jehovah's Witnesses. He imposed on the worldwide Bible Student movement a centralized administrative structure he later called a theocracy, required all members of the religion to distribute literature and preach door to door and provide regular reports of their activity and instituted public speaking training programs as part of their weekly worship meetings. He established 1914 as the date of Christ's invisible return, asserted that Christ died on a tree rather than a cross, formulated the current Witness concept of Armageddon as God's war on the wicked and reinforced the belief that the start of Christ's millennial reign was imminent. He directed that adherents not celebrate customs such as Christmas and birthdays, salute national flags or sing national anthems and in his last years directed that hymns not be sung at meetings. He introduced the name "Jehovah's witnesses" in 1931 and coined the name "Kingdom Hall" for houses of worship in 1935. He wrote 21 books and was credited by the Society in 1942 with having put almost 400 million books and booklets in the hands of individuals. The number of adherents increased more than sixfold during Rutherford's 25 years as president. Authors William Whalen and James Penton have claimed that Rutherford was to Russell what Brigham Young was to Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. Penton contends that both Russell and Smith were capable religious leaders but naive visionaries, while Rutherford and Young were "hard-bitten pragmatists who gave a degree of permanency to the movements they dominated".
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