Church Please Who Is The Founder Of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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The Jehovah's Witnesses were founded in 1931 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford. He served as the second president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
Charles Taze Russell founded the Watch Tower magazine in July 1879. In 1884, he incorporated the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in Pennsylvania. In 1909, he founded the People's Pulpit Association in Brooklyn, NY, and in 1914, he founded the International Bible Students Association in the UK.
Under the leadership of Russell the Watch Tower Society was just a business, it published a bi-monthly journal and various tracts and booklets and books and organized conventions. Those who rallied around it, simply called themselves "Bible Students". They weren't trying to create a new church, just a gathering of like-minded individuals studying the scriptures. They met in private homes and rented halls. The association grew international, each group was autonomous, they governed themselves, electing their own elders and deacons, and deciding what to study. The Society did NOT dictate to them what they should do, they simply provided Bible study material.
In October 1916, Russell died and there was a schism in the organization. Rutherford became president and immediately began to take control, changing everything from beliefs to organizational functions. Bible Students began to abandon the Society, some stayed for a period to see what would happen, and eventually left. By 1930, 75% of the original Bible Students had defected to function independently of the Society, forming publishing houses of their own.
By 1931, the Society no longer resembled what Russell had envisioned, those who stayed or joined after his death eventually gave up their Christian freedom and took all direction from the Society, later that year to differentiate themselves from the Bible Students, they took the name JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.