ABSTRACT
The religious group currently known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses emerged in the 1870s as a loosely organized Adventist movement lead by the former haberdasher and autodidact, Charles Taze Russell (1852-1916). From their inception, Witnesses have preached millenarianism, with the year 1914 of special significance. Over the nearly 130 years of its existence, the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has evolved from an informal, loosely organized group of “Bible Students” under Russell’s leadership into a significant international religious organization. Originally known as “Bible Students,” “Millennial Dawnists,” or “Russellites,” the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society was legally incorporated in the United States in 1884; the group officially adopted the name Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931.
