Table of Contents
Part I: The Founder and His World: Charles Taze Russell and 19th-Century American Religion
The Crucible of the Second Great Awakening and the Burnt-Over District
The emergence of the religious movement that would become Jehovah’s Witnesses is inseparable from the unique spiritual landscape of 19th-century America.
The nation was in the throes of the Second Great Awakening, a period of intense religious revivalism that fundamentally reshaped its Protestant character.1
This era marked a decisive shift away from the stern, predestinarian theology of Calvinism, which held that salvation was dispensed solely by God’s sovereign will.
In its place rose a dynamic, activist evangelicalism that emphasized human free will and the power of individual choice in achieving salvation.1
Preachers like Charles Grandison Finney championed the idea that “religion is the work of man, it is something for man to do,” transforming faith from a state of passive acceptance into an active pursuit.2
This new religious ethos democratized spiritual authority.
The core of 19th-century evangelicalism was the intensely personal and emotional experience of conversion, a psychological transformation that individuals could actively seek.1
Revivalism, embodied in camp meetings and Finney’s “protracted meetings,” became a form of social theater designed to provoke these conversions, often led by charismatic lay preachers who spoke in an approachable, entertaining manner.1
This cultural shift eroded the authority of established clergy and traditional church creeds, creating a vibrant and often bewildering “marketplace of religion”.3
Nowhere was this spiritual ferment more potent than in western New York, a region so frequently swept by waves of revivalism that it became known as the “burnt-over district”.1
This area became a veritable laboratory for religious innovation, giving rise to a host of new movements, including Mormonism, the Holiness movement, and, critically, Adventism.3
These groups shared a restorationist impulse—a desire to restore Christianity to its “primitive” first-century form, uncorrupted by what they saw as centuries of human tradition and doctrinal error.3
This environment, characterized by a suspicion of established religious hierarchies and an elevation of personal Bible interpretation, created the necessary preconditions for a figure like Charles Taze Russell to emerge.
His movement was not an anomaly but a quintessential product of an age that empowered charismatic laymen to challenge orthodoxy and build a following based on claims of rediscovered truth.
Charles Taze Russell: A Crisis of Faith and a New Calling
Charles Taze Russell was born in 1852 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, into a devout Scotch-Irish Presbyterian family.7
He displayed an early religious fervor, even chalking Bible verses about damnation in public places as a teenager.8
However, his faith was soon plunged into crisis.
He found himself unable to reconcile the doctrine of eternal torment in hell with his conception of a merciful and loving God.7
This internal conflict was compounded when a debate with a skeptical friend left him questioning the authority and reliability of the Bible itself.10
These doubts led him to leave his family’s Presbyterian church, then a more liberal Congregational church, and ultimately to abandon Christianity altogether for a time.7
Parallel to his spiritual searching, Russell was a highly successful businessman.
Joining his father’s haberdashery business as a boy, he quickly became a partner and eventually owned several stores himself.8
This commercial success provided him with significant personal wealth and, crucially, the financial independence to later underwrite his entire religious enterprise.7
Russell’s faith was rekindled not by a mystical vision but by a chance encounter in 1870 with an Adventist preacher named Jonas Wendell.7
What impressed the 18-year-old Russell was not an emotional appeal but Wendell’s “application of logical thinking to the Bible”.7
This encounter suggests that Russell’s primary motivation was a quest for theological consistency.
His movement was born not from a prophetic revelation, but from a rationalist’s desire to construct a coherent, internally consistent belief system that could resolve the doctrinal contradictions that had so troubled his youth.
He never claimed to receive new, extra-biblical visions; instead, his entire system was presented as the product of careful, logical, and systematic Bible study, a method that would appeal to others who, like him, sought a faith seemingly free from the paradoxes of mainstream orthodoxy.8
The Adventist Influence and the Power of Prophecy
Having had his faith restored, Russell immersed himself in the intellectual world of Adventism, a movement that had grown out of the Millerite revival of the 1830s and 1840s.3
Led by Baptist lay preacher William Miller, the Millerites had used complex biblical chronology to predict Christ’s return around 1843-1844.3
When the final date of October 22, 1844, passed without Christ’s visible return, the event became known as the “Great Disappointment,” causing the movement to fracture.6
However, several splinter groups survived, developing a key theological innovation to cope with the failed prophecy: reinterpreting a predicted visible event as an
invisible spiritual one.16
Russell was a direct intellectual heir to this tradition.
From the Adventist preacher George Storrs, he adopted the doctrine of conditional immortality—the belief that the soul is not inherently immortal but “sleeps” in death, with the wicked ultimately being annihilated rather than suffering eternal torment.11
This doctrine directly resolved the theological problem of hell that had first caused his crisis of faith.
His most consequential association was with another Millerite descendant, Nelson H.
Barbour.7
From Barbour, Russell absorbed a specific eschatological timeline.
This chronology identified 1874 as the year of Christ’s invisible return, or
parousia (presence), and pinpointed 1914 as the future date for the cataclysmic end of the “Gentile Times” and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth.7
Convinced of the urgency of this timeline, Russell sold his five clothing stores for a substantial sum (nearly $300,000 at the time) and poured his wealth into the ministry, first by funding the publication of Barbour’s book
Three Worlds.7
Russell’s success relative to his many Adventist contemporaries stemmed not from doctrinal originality—as he borrowed heavily from them—but from his unique combination of business acumen and financial resources.19
While other preachers led small, fragmented sects, Russell used his capital to create a sophisticated publishing and distribution network.
After splitting with Barbour in 1879 over a doctrinal dispute concerning the atonement, Russell launched his own journal,
Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, effectively creating a religious brand and a media empire that would far outstrip his rivals.8
He was not just a preacher; he was a religious entrepreneur who successfully packaged, financed, and mass-marketed a coherent version of Adventist theology for a global audience.
Forging a New Theology: A Restorationist Creed
Russell’s stated goal was to restore Christianity to its “primitive origins,” before it was corrupted by what he viewed as pagan doctrines embedded in post-apostolic church councils and creeds.7
His theology, therefore, was defined by its sharp departures from mainstream Christian orthodoxy.
It was a syncretic system, a “bricolage” that selectively assembled doctrines from various sources—taking justification by faith from Lutherans, an appreciation for God’s love from Methodists, and eschatology from Adventists—to form a new whole that addressed his personal theological objections.13
The claim of “restoration” served as a powerful legitimizing narrative, framing this modern synthesis as a return to an ancient ideal.
The core tenets of his new creed included:
- Rejection of the Trinity: Russell taught that the Trinity was an unscriptural, pagan-derived doctrine. Jehovah, he argued, was the one true Almighty God.7
- Arian Christology: Jesus was not God, but God’s first and highest created being, a divine entity known in his pre-human existence as Michael the Archangel.8 After his sacrificial death, God awarded him divinity. Critically, Russell’s view differed from that of modern Jehovah’s Witnesses in that he believed it was proper and scriptural to offer worship to this exalted Christ.21
- Impersonal Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit was not a person or a member of a Godhead, but rather God’s impersonal “active force” used to accomplish His will.8
- Annihilation of the Wicked: Rejecting hellfire, Russell taught that the human soul is mortal and ceases to exist at death. The righteous would be resurrected to life, while the unrepentant wicked would be permanently annihilated, a doctrine known as conditionalism.7
- Prophetic Chronology: His eschatology was built around the dates inherited from Barbour. 1874 marked the beginning of Christ’s invisible parousia and a “harvest” period. 1914 was the pivotal date marking the end of the “Gentile Times,” which he expected to culminate in the battle of Armageddon and the overthrow of all human governments.11 He controversially used measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which he believed was “God’s witness in stone,” to support these biblical calculations.19
Building the Movement: The Watch Tower Society and the Bible Students
To propagate this new theology, Russell built a formidable organization centered on publishing.
In 1879, he began publishing his journal, Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.9
In 1881, he established the Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1884), which became the legal and financial engine of the movement.7
This society’s primary chartered purpose was the dissemination of religious literature.9
The cornerstone of his publishing empire was a six-volume series of books titled Studies in the Scriptures (originally Millennial Dawn).7
These books systematically laid out his entire theological framework.
Russell controversially claimed they were “practically the Bible topically arranged” and asserted that reading the Bible without the aid of his
Studies would lead a person into spiritual “darkness” within two years.7
This effectively elevated his own writings to the status of an indispensable interpretive key to scripture, making the literature itself the primary locus of authority within the movement.
The followers, who came to be known as “Bible Students,” were organized into a network of largely independent congregations, or “ecclesias”.8
These groups voluntarily looked to Russell as their “Pastor,” connected not by a rigid hierarchy but by their shared reliance on the Watch Tower Society’s publications and the visits of traveling preachers known as “pilgrims”.9
The movement was, in essence, a para-church organization that functioned as a publishing house with a dedicated, voluntary network for study and distribution.
Its structure was perfectly designed for its primary function: to mass-produce and disseminate the theological “product” created by its founder.
By 1909, the operation had grown so large that Russell moved its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn, New York, to better facilitate its international expansion.8
He also embraced new media, producing the “Photo-Drama of Creation” in 1914, an innovative eight-hour presentation of slides and motion pictures with sound that was seen by millions.9
Part II: The Transformation: Joseph F. Rutherford and the Making of the Modern Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Succession Crisis and the Consolidation of Power
Charles Taze Russell died in 1916, leaving behind a thriving but vulnerable movement centered entirely on his personal charismatic authority.27
His death triggered an inevitable power vacuum and a succession crisis that would permanently alter the organization’s trajectory.
Russell’s will had provided for power to be shared among a board of directors and an editorial committee.20
However, the Society’s ambitious and forceful legal counsel, Joseph “Judge” Rutherford, moved swiftly and decisively to consolidate all authority in his own hands.27
Elected president in January 1917, Rutherford immediately faced opposition from four of the seven board members, who accused him of autocratic behavior and sought to curtail his newly expanded powers.28
Rutherford, a skilled lawyer, responded not with theological debate but with corporate and legal maneuvering.
He obtained a legal opinion that his opponents were not legally directors of the society and, in July 1917, summarily replaced them with his own loyalists, effectively staging a corporate takeover.28
This conflict culminated in a major schism.
Thousands of Bible Students, loyal to the memory and teachings of Pastor Russell, left the organization to form rival groups that continued to follow his original doctrines.7
Those who remained did so under Rutherford’s undisputed and absolute control.
This crisis represented a classic case of the “routinization of charisma,” the process by which the fluid, personal authority of a movement’s founder is transferred into stable, hierarchical offices.
Rutherford’s victory was a necessary, if brutal, transition that transformed the Bible Student movement from a personality-driven fellowship into a durable, bureaucratic institution capable of surviving its founder.
The schism was the price of this evolution, separating those loyal to Russell’s person from those who would become loyal to Rutherford’s office and the organization itself.
From Bible Students to a Theocratic Organization
With power secured, Rutherford initiated a radical restructuring of the movement.
He dismantled Russell’s relatively open and decentralized network and replaced it with a rigid, top-down hierarchy that he termed a “theocracy,” in which all direction flowed from the Brooklyn headquarters.28
This new structure was designed to create a high-commitment, high-control group identity and ensure absolute uniformity.
Key organizational changes included:
- Centralized Authority: In 1932, Rutherford abolished the system of locally elected elders, which had been a feature of Russell’s era. Henceforth, all congregational leaders were to be appointed directly by the Watch Tower Society, ensuring top-down control.18
- Mandatory Evangelism: He instituted the requirement that every member engage in mandatory door-to-door preaching and submit weekly reports of their activity.18 This transformed the identity of every follower from a “student” into an active proselytizer and provided the leadership with a powerful tool for monitoring and enforcing commitment.
- A Wall of Separation: Rutherford introduced a series of prohibitions designed to create a high wall of separation between his followers and the outside world, which he increasingly defined as “Satan’s organization”.30 He banned the celebration of Christmas, birthdays, and other holidays as pagan in origin.32 He also forbade members from saluting the flag, singing national anthems, or serving in the military, acts which brought the group into frequent conflict with governments but reinforced their sense of separateness.18
These new requirements functioned as “costly signals” of commitment.
The high demands in terms of time, behavior, and social stigma filtered out casual adherents and forged a powerful sense of solidarity among those who remained.
This created a self-reinforcing dynamic: the group’s increased isolation from the world confirmed their “us versus them” worldview, which in turn justified the costly demands of membership.
This was a form of social engineering that forged a disciplined, resilient, and unified organization.
A New Name for a New Identity: The Adoption of Jehovah’s Witnesses
The capstone of Rutherford’s transformation of the movement came at a 1931 convention in Columbus, Ohio.
There, he introduced a resolution to adopt a new, distinctive name: Jehovah’s Witnesses.33
This rebranding was a strategic masterstroke with multiple motivations.
First, it provided a clear theological mandate.
The name was drawn from the scripture at Isaiah 43:10: “‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even my servant whom I have chosen'”.35
This grounded the group’s identity in the Bible and elevated the act of “witnessing” for God’s personal name, Jehovah, to their central purpose.18
As one associate later recalled, “that title there told the world what we were doing and what our business was”.37
Second, it was an organizational necessity.
By 1931, numerous schismatic groups, still calling themselves “Bible Students” or “Russellites,” continued to operate.31
The new name created a clear and unmistakable brand, definitively separating Rutherford’s followers from all rival factions and cementing his organization as the sole legitimate successor to the original movement.18
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the name change resolved a looming crisis of purpose.
The spectacular failure of Rutherford’s 1925 prophecy—which predicted the resurrection of ancient Hebrew patriarchs to rule from a San Diego mansion called Beth Sarim—had caused a massive loss of followers.30
The group’s identity as “Bible Students,” focused on chronological study and waiting for a specific date, had proven unreliable.
The new name, “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” shifted the focus from a passive state of
studying to an active mission of witnessing.
This gave the organization a perpetual, self-perpetuating goal that was not contingent on any particular date.
Armageddon could be imminent or decades away; the work of witnessing remained the same.
This institutionalized the mission and ensured the organization’s long-term viability, solving the existential problem of repeated prophetic failure.
Doctrinal Evolution and Prophetic Readjustment
Alongside his organizational overhaul, Rutherford enacted significant doctrinal changes, often justified as “new light” or “progressive revelation” from God.39
The most critical of these was a reinterpretation of the year 1914.
While Russell had anticipated 1914 as the end of the Gentile Times and the start of Armageddon, Rutherford, after the date had passed without the expected cataclysm, cleverly redefined its significance.9
Under Rutherford’s “new light,” 1914 became the year that Christ had been invisibly enthroned as King in heaven and had cast Satan down to the earth, thus inaugurating the “last days”.18
This posthumous reinterpretation gave profound prophetic meaning to a date that had already passed and became the new cornerstone of the group’s eschatology.
Rutherford also formalized a two-tiered salvation doctrine that had been nascent in Russell’s writings.
He taught that only a “little flock” of 144,000 anointed Christians would go to heaven to rule with Christ.
The vast majority of faithful followers, a “great crowd,” would not go to heaven but would instead inherit eternal life on a paradise earth after Armageddon.18
This doctrine was essential for managing the expectations of a growing movement that had long surpassed 144,000 members.
The following table illustrates the profound transformation of the movement from Russell’s era to Rutherford’s.
| Feature | The Russell Era (Bible Students, c. 1879-1916) | The Rutherford Era (Jehovah’s Witnesses, c. 1917-1942) |
| Leadership Style | Charismatic “Pastor,” decentralized influence, tolerant of some disagreement.26 | Autocratic “Judge,” centralized control, demand for absolute loyalty.28 |
| Organizational Structure | Loose federation of “ecclesias,” locally elected elders.26 | Rigid “Theocracy,” centrally appointed leaders, no local elections.18 |
| Primary Identity | “Bible Students,” “Russellites,” focused on study and waiting.8 | “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” focused on active, public witnessing.32 |
| Member Obligation | Voluntary study and evangelism. | Mandatory door-to-door preaching with weekly reports.18 |
| View of 1914 | The expected end of the “Gentile Times,” start of Armageddon.9 | The beginning of Christ’s invisible heavenly rule and the “last days”.11 |
| Christology | Jesus is Michael, a created being, but worthy of worship.21 | Jesus is Michael, a created being; worship is directed only to Jehovah.21 |
| Social Integration | Pietistic but less formally separated; celebrated Christmas in early years. | Strict separation from “Satan’s world”; holidays, birthdays, flag salute banned.30 |
Part III: Conclusion: Answering “Who” and “Why”
Synthesis and Legacy
The question of who started the Jehovah’s Witnesses invites a dual answer, for the movement had, in effect, two distinct foundings.
The organization was initiated by Charles Taze Russell, a charismatic 19th-century layman and religious entrepreneur.
The “why” behind his work was a deeply personal quest to construct a logical and consistent form of Christianity, one that he believed restored the faith to its primitive purity by excising the “pagan” corruptions of hellfire, the Trinity, and the immortal soul.
His movement was animated by the urgent apocalypticism he inherited from the Adventist tradition and was fueled by his considerable personal wealth and business acumen, which allowed him to build a publishing empire that spread his message worldwide.
However, the organization known today as Jehovah’s Witnesses, with its rigid structure, distinct social identity, and perpetual missionary zeal, was forged by Joseph F.
Rutherford.
The “why” of his work was existential: to rescue a fractured, personality-driven movement from the brink of collapse following the death of its founder and a series of devastating prophetic failures.
He accomplished this by dismantling Russell’s looser federation and imposing a centralized, authoritarian theocracy.
He demanded absolute loyalty, created a new, high-commitment identity for his followers through the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” and redefined their mission from one of eschatological waiting to one of perpetual evangelism.
The legacy of this two-stage founding is a global organization that carries the theological DNA of Russell—his anti-Trinitarianism, his unique Christology, and his focus on biblical prophecy—but is built upon the unyielding organizational and sociological skeleton constructed by Rutherford.
The history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is a powerful case study in how religious movements are born and how they must evolve to survive, transforming from a founder’s charismatic vision into a durable, bureaucratic institution.
Works cited
- Religion In Nineteenth-Century America – Social Welfare History Project, accessed August 6, 2025, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/religious/religion-nineteenth-century-america/
- Evangelicalism, Revivalism, and the Second Great Awakening, The …, accessed August 6, 2025, https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nevanrev.htm
- Christianity in the 19th century – Wikipedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_19th_century
- Roman Catholics and Immigration in Nineteenth-Century America – National Humanities Center, accessed August 6, 2025, https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nromcath.htm
- Adventism and its Impact on the Cults – Reachout Trust, accessed August 6, 2025, https://reachouttrust.org/adventism-cults/
- Adventist Origins | An open letter to questioning Seventh-day Adventists, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.sdaletter.org/adventist-origins
- Entry | Timelines | US Religion, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/history/timelines/entry?etype=5&eid=120
- The False Teachers: Charles Taze Russell | Tim Challies, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.challies.com/false-teachers/the-false-teachers-charles-taze-russell/
- Charles Russell | Pennsylvania Center for the Book, accessed August 6, 2025, https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/bios/russell__charles_taze
- Who was Charles Taze Russell? | GotQuestions.org, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.gotquestions.org/Charles-Taze-Russell.html
- Charles Taze Russell | EWTN, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/charles-taze-russell-1143
- Who was Charles Taze Russell? – Compelling Truth, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.compellingtruth.org/Charles-Taze-Russell.html
- Jehovah’s Witnesses – Cambridge University Press, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/jehovahs-witnesses/605AED05C9FA13DC68BB74FE3D2C651D
- Jehovah’s Witnesses – Knowing The Bible.net, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.knowingthebible.net/comparative-religions/jehovahs-witnesses
- SECT-STATE RELATIONS: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories …, accessed August 6, 2025, https://ronaldlawson.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/sect-state-relations-in-jws-and-sdas-1.pdf
- This view some minor differences — was also adopted by Charles Taze Russell and his followers. And it is still prevalent among the Seventh‒Day Adventists., The Gentile Times Reconsidered – Carl Olof Jonsson | часть 6 из 15 – Азбука веры, accessed August 6, 2025, https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/world/the-gentile-times-reconsidered/6
- Who are the Jehovah’s Witnesses and how do they differ from Christianity? | Article, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.premierunbelievable.com/articles/who-are-the-jehovahs-witnesses-and-how-do-they-differ-from-christianity/17234.article
- Jehovah’s Witnesses – Wikipedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses
- William Miller and Jehovah’s Witnesses : r/exjw – Reddit, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/hqyxk4/william_miller_and_jehovahs_witnesses/
- A Short History of the Watchtower Organization – Bible.ca, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.bible.ca/jw-history.htm
- The founder of Zion’s Watch Tower Charles Taze Russell made the following statements and now directly contradict new information by the organization, accessed August 6, 2025, https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/77680/the-founder-of-zions-watch-tower-charles-taze-russell-made-the-following-statem
- Anyone else find Charles Taze Russell sketchy? Personally, I was always off put by the JWs founding story. : r/exjw – Reddit, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/zfv3pv/anyone_else_find_charles_taze_russell_sketchy/
- www.ebsco.com, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/watch-tower-bible-and-tract-society#:~:text=In%201881%2C%20Zion’s%20Watch%20Tower,name%20Jehovah’s%20Witnesses%20was%20adopted.
- Their Modern Development and Growth – Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY – JW.ORG, accessed August 6, 2025, https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1102000101
- What Is the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society? – JW.ORG, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/watchtower-society/
- When do you guys think JWs became such a closed-minded and outwardly hostile organization in everything? : r/exjw – Reddit, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/1iq2q0i/when_do_you_guys_think_jws_became_such_a/
- The Successor Problem. A focused biography of Joseph… | by Jan Haugland – Medium, accessed August 6, 2025, https://medium.com/@janhaugland/the-successor-problem-ed79df215f80
- Joseph Franklin Rutherford – Wikipedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Franklin_Rutherford
- Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania – Wikipedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watch_Tower_Bible_and_Tract_Society_of_Pennsylvania
- The Two Hopes Teaching of Joseph Rutherford and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, accessed August 6, 2025, https://reachouttrust.org/two-hopes/
- How the Name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was Chosen, accessed August 6, 2025, https://storage1.snappages.site/TWFM45/assets/files/1-How-the-Name-Jehovah-Witness-was-chose-65.pdf
- Who was Joseph Franklin Rutherford? | GotQuestions.org, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.gotquestions.org/Joseph-Franklin-Rutherford.html
- Jehovah’s Witnesses – New Georgia Encyclopedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/jehovahs-witnesses/
- International Bible Students Association Becomes Jehovah’s Witnesses – EBSCO, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/religion-and-philosophy/international-bible-students-association-becomes-jehovahs
- How We Came to Be Known as Jehovah’s Witnesses – Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY, accessed August 6, 2025, https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101993013
- Unmasking the Witnesses: Putting the JW’s on the stand – Biblically Shaped Ministries, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.biblicallyshaped.com/blogs/2009/11/unmasking-the-witnesses
- Ninety Years Embracing the Name Jehovah’s Witnesses – JW.ORG, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/global/Ninety-Years-Embracing-the-Name-Jehovahs-Witnesses/
- The Beginning Of The End Of Jehovah’s Witnesses? – Jews for Judaism, accessed August 6, 2025, https://jewsforjudaism.org/knowledge/articles/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-jehovahs-witnesses
- Development of Jehovah’s Witnesses doctrine – Wikipedia, accessed August 6, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_doctrine
- Jehovah’s Witness | History, Beliefs, & Facts – Britannica, accessed August 6, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Jehovahs-Witnesses
