The Use of the Name - Title - Label
"JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES"
in 1800s and early 1900s
Christian - Jewish Theology
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"Prior to 1918 A. D. even those in 'present truth' used the name [Jehovah] meagerly, and its full significance and glory was not understood by them." -- Frederick Franz, future WatchTower Society President, in 1928.
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The WatchTower Cult teaches its own version of "replacement theology", which asserts that YHWH ultimately rejected the Jews as His "chosen people", and replaced the Jewish people with the followers of the WatchTower Cult. The WatchTower Cult teaches that present-day natural Jews are YHWH's enemies, and that all of YHWH's Biblical promises of restoration for the Jewish people now belong to the followers of the WatchTower Cult.
The descriptive title "Jehovah's Witnesses", or "***Witnesses of Jehovah", was originally applied to the Jewish people by the Prophet Isaiah approximately 2700 years ago. Since 1931, the WatchTower Cult, in calling its own members -- "JEhovah's WitnesseS" -- has effectively stolen that descriptive Biblical designation away from the Jewish people.
To maintain this ongoing "identity theft", the WatchTower Cult has had a corporate department dedicated to making certain that every single Holocaust remembrance of any size or type -- newspaper article, book, speech, museum, etc -- anywhere in the world, publicize the fact that the WatchTower Cult's own "Jehovah's Witnesses" were equally persecuted alongside "natural" Jews. This is the WatchTower Cult's way of claiming that "Satan" and his human supporters hate "JEhovah'sWitnesseS"as much or more than they hate natural Jews --- thus attempting to prevent the Jewish people from laying claim to any spiritual or prophetic significance that might be interpreted from the Holocaust experience of the 1930s and 1940s.
*** Few if any of today's 21th century Jehovah's Witnesses know that the name/label "Jehovah's Witnesses" was disliked by a significant percentage of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" living during the 1931s - 1960s. This Editor's own great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents most often introduced themselves to non-JWs as "Witnesses of Jehovah", rather than"Jehovah's Witnesses". Even through the 1950s, pre-selected and pre-prepared WatchTower Convention spokespersons sometimes used "Witnesses of Jehovah", rather than "Jehovah's Witnesses", when promoting conventions during assigned interviews with local reporters.
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The following 80 examples of theologians using variations of the name "Jehovah's Witnesses" back in the 1800s, plus 23 examples from 1900 to 1923, should not be considered as exhaustive. It's simply the examples which we have thus far located. Readers should also consider that many of these commentaries were republished for many decades.
The label "Jehovah's Witnesses" was not new nor innovative back in 1931, and neither was the name "Jehovah". Both names quickly fell into notoriety and disuse after a non-christian book and magazine publishing and distribution company co-opted them for their own evil purposes. The WatchTower Cult was NOT responsible for reviving the use of the name "Jehovah", as they have falsely alleged for decades. Rather, the WatchTower Cult was responsible for its notoriety and disuse.
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A Preservative Against the Errors of Socinianism, Page 284.
1814
"Abram ... was called from the house of idolatry to become a witness of Jehovah."
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God's Witnesses, Page 8.
1820
"... Christ is ... servant and witness of Jehovah."
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The Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, page 779.
1823
"... Jehovah's witnesses; ... ye ministers of His ... ."
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Devotional Comments, Page 150.
1824
"... Moses ... ambassador from the court of heaven, and a witness of Jehovah's name."
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The Methodist Magazine, Vol 10, No 3, Instability in Religion, Page 89.
1826
"The Jews were Jehovah's witnesses to surrounding nations."
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Works. Vol 1, Page 548.
1826
"... the Lord Jesus Christ ... is Jehovah's 'witness also to the people', ... ."
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The Authenticity and Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, Page 74.
1827
"The Jews were constituted the "witnesses" of Jehovah."
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Writings of the Late John M. Mason, page 266.
1832
"We (Christianity) profess to be Jehovah's witnesses, ... ."
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Investigator and Expositor of Prophecy, Volume 2, Page 137.
1832
"... the two tribes ... were the two witnesses of Jehovah ... ."
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Messiah's Kingdom, Page 48.
1833
"... thy Holy Record stands Jehovah's witness to remotest lands ... ."
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The Cottager's Monthly Visitor, Page 297.
1836
"Jehovah's witness never lies."
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Doctrines of the Christian Church, Page 342.
1836
"The Jews .... are Jehovah's witnesses, ... . They have indeed ever been Jehovah's witnesses."
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Love, Law, and Liberty, Page 6.
1838
"... Christ's elect ... JEHOVAH'S witnesses ... ."
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The Religious Monitor, Page 506.
1840
"... the church of Jesus Christ ... is Jehovah's witness for all revealed truth."
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The London and Edinburgh Magazine, Page 297.
1841
"... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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Universal History on Scriptural Principles, Page 23.
1842
"... the chosen witnesses of Jehovah should be separated ... ."
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Poems and Essays of Robert Bixsby, Page 309.
1842
"... Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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Claims of the Divine Government, Page 3.
1843
"... children of Israel ... appointed as Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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The Evil To Come, Page 17.
1843
"Even now that false prophet mimicks with perfect success the Witnesses of Jehovah in bringing fire down from heaven. Rev xiii. 13 ..."
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Providence, Prophecy and Popery, Page 187.
1845
"... Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ... stood up alone ... as Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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The Jew, Jehovah's "Witnesses", A. M. Myers. Page 53.
1848 edition.
"Israel ... Jehovah's special "witness" among the nations of the earth!"
1852 edition, "The Jew", page vi.
"Jehovah's Witnesses"
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God's Dealings with Israel, Page 330.
1850
"The Jews are Jehovah's witnesses."
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The American Whig Review, Vols 13-14, Page 411.
1851
"Behold! These are Jehovah's witnesses, ... ."
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Academical Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiquities, Page 471.
1852
"... so the Jews, having the Law, could not help being Jehovah's witness to an idolatrous world."
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Sermons, Chiefly on Old Testament Histories, The Unfailing Store, Page 183.
1856
"... Elijah ... Jehovah's witness, ... "
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Notes on the Book of Genesis, Page 104.
1857
"... when Israel had utterly failed, as Jehovah's witness, 'the king of Babylon broke his bones,' and swallowed him up."
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Dialogues on the Essays and Reviews, John Nelson Darby, Page 409.
1862
"Israel is first presented as Jehovah's witness in the earth, ... ."
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Rhymes of the Watchman, Page 246.
1862
"... Jehovah's Witness ... ."
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Times of Succession, Page 8.
1863
"... Issac ... is Jehovah's witness ... ."
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National Idolatry, Page 130.
1864
"... the church, Jehovah's witness ... ."
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Notes on Daniel, page 202.
1865
"Judea ... chosen as a site for Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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The Bible Treasury, Volume 6, Page 115.
1866
"The Jews by their idol-loving were the blind people that had eyes and the deaf that had ears. Yet were they alone of all nations Jehovah's witness and His servant."
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The Evangelist, Vol 1, Page 103.
1867
"... Elisha, ... Jehovah's witness upon the earth that day."
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Primary Truths of Religion, Page 42.
1869
"... brought to bear upon the Jews, by which they were constantly led back to the recognition of the One only living and true God; until at last every idol in Palestine was dethroned, and she stood alone as Jehovah's witness in the earth."
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Good Words, Volume 10, Page 126.
1869
"The double portion of the Tishbite's spirit was needed by him quite as much to uphold Jehovah's witness in the greater temptations to which his easier life exposed him, as it was to enable him to work the larger abundance of miracles which ..."
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The Leading Events in Sacred and Profane History, Page 82.
1869
"... the reward of Jehovah's witnesses (2 Chron. xxiv. 20)."
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Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Page 65.
1869
"The tablets were Jehovah's witness to His people."
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Chimes from Heaven's Belfry, Page 226.
1870
"... boldly stand forth as Jehovah's witnesses."
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The Christian Miscellany, and Family Visiter, Vol 16, Page 186.
1870
"... Martin Luther ... -- Jehovah's witness -- ... ."
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The Theological Review, Volume 7, Page 17.
1870
"They represent the whole, being Jehovah's witnesses whom He rewards and exalts after their sufferings have wrought out the salutary ends they were destined to effect. Thus the servant of Jehovah has a collective aspect, ..."
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Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Volume 2, Page 288.
1870
"... would fain have been but a happy unit in the mighty congregation of Jehovah's witnesses and worshippers, but found himself in his worship and his witness alone."
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Heroes of Hebrew History, Pages 335, 360.
1870
"Such never are Jehovah's witnesses."
"But to force upon them the conviction that one who lived amongst them, apparently just as they lived, was yet as truly Jehovah's witness, needed that perpetual display of more than human power which was so exceptionally exuberant ... ."
"witness for Jehovah" -- Pages 202, 303.
"witness of Jehovah" -- Page 356.
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Memorials of the late Rev. William M. Bunting, Page 382.
1870
"... Jehovah's witnesses; ... ye ministers of His, ... ."
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Authorized Version of the Holy Bible -- Commentary on Isaiah, page 10.
1872
"... Jewish people, ... Jerusalem, ... Temple, ... were ... "Jehovah's witnesses" ... ."
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The Sabbath and the Lord's Day, Page 8.
1874
"... Israel ... will be Jehovah's witnesses."
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Judgement of the Judges of Jehovah, Pages xiv and 8.
1875
"... I was, as Jehovah's witness, bound to testify ... ."
"... it is the province of every faithful witness of Jehovah to denounce ... ."
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Christian Treasury, Vol 32, The Jew, Jehovah's Witness, Pages 361,386.
1876
"'Ye are my witnesses' -- Isaiah xliii. 10."
"... Israel is Jehovah's witness-bearer."
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The Servant of Jehovah, Page 54.
1877
"Prophetism ... exists in a number of messengers and witnesses of Jehovah ... ."
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The Sabbath Recorder, June 28, 1877, Page 1.
1877
"... Israelites ... chosen Witnesses of Jehovah."
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The Northern Witness, Page 130.
1878
"... yet when Elijah stood forth as Jehovah's witness at the very darkest hour, when he lamented that he alone was left a servant of the Lord, ... ."
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A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Isaiah, Page 599.
1878
"... Israel is repeatedly called directly the"witness of Jehovah" (xliii. 10; xliv. 8)."
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The Christian Miscellany, and Family Visiter, Page 14.
1878
"Trusted, as Jehovah's witness; ..."
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The Literary World, Vol 22, Orelli On The Holy Land, Page 231.
1880
"... yonder is Carmel, Jehovah's witness, lying like a high altar ... ."
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The Banner of Israel, Vol 5, Jehovah's Witnesses, by John T. Gott, Pages 213-15.
1881
"... Jews ... are Jehovah's living witnesses, ... God's inanimate witnesses are Noah's Ark and the Great Pyramid. His animate witnesses are British Israel and the Jews."
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Record of Christian Work, Volume 17, Page 79.
1881
"The Jewish people, Jerusalem, the Temple, were now by their very existence Jehovah's witnesses."
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Commentary on the Book of Jeremiah, Vol 221, Page 150.
1882
"... Preachers ... as Jehovah's witness ... ."
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A Commentary on the International Lessons, Page 202.
1883
"Israel was not to realize its vocation to the world in the guise of a conquering secular state, but as Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Second Book of Samuel, Page 238.
1881
"... state, but as Jehovah's witness among the nations."
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The Prophecies of Isaiah, Page 281.
1882
"... as opposed to Jehovah's witnesses -- the Jews (v. 8)."
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Servant of Jehovah, Page 73.
1884
"... 'witnesses' of Jehovah (xliii.10) ... ."
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The Church School Journal, Vol 17, Page 265.
1885
"Elijah ... had stood alone as Jehovah's witness."
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Elijah the Reformer, page 39.
1885
"Jehovah's witnesses, still speak his praise ... ."
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The Holy Land, Page 45.
1885
"... Israel ... a living witness of Jehovah ... ."
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God's Revelations of Himself To Men, Page 67.
1886
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness among the nations."
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Scriptures Hebrew and Christian, The Witnesses of Jehovah, Page 351.
1888
"Ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, ... ."
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Gideon and the Judges, Page 12.
1890
"... the Judges ... are only the servants and witnesses of Jehovah, ... ."
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Judges and Ruth, Page 61.
1890
"was Israel to reach its glory and become Jehovah's witness, ... ."
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The Expository Times, Page 236.
1890
"... jehovah's witnesses and martyrs, His prophets ... ."
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Our Race, Page 142.
1891
"... Israel and Judah ( who are Jehovah's "witnesses in the whole earth') ... ."
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An Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, Page 219.
1891
"But Israel is Jehovah's witness, 43, 8-13; ... .
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Millennial Dawn: Thy Kingdom Come, Charles Taze Russell, Page 320.
1891
"... the Great Pyramid is Jehovah's "Witness", ... ."
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Sermon by Baptist Evangelist William Cullis.
1894
"To this day, Israel/Jews are the 'witnesses of Jehovah', as He declared, ... ."
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The Psalms, Page 69.
1894
"... Israel is, indeed, Jehovah's witness, ... ."
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Christ in Type and Prophecy, Page 75.
1895
"Israel is Jehovah's witness."
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Prophecies in Course of Fulfillment, page 30.
1896
"The House of Israel and the House of Judah are Jehovah's witnesses in the whole earth."
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The Exodus
1897
"... Balaam ... chosen ... to be Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Pages xii, xxxii, 37.
1898
"... Israel ... is Jehovah's witness ... ."
"... Israel ... is Jehovah's witness ... ."
"... Israel appears as Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The American Journal of Theology, Vol 3, No 1, Page 70.
1899
"Israel is Jehovah's witness, ... ."
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The Messages of the Prophets, Pages 344-346.
1899
"... Jews ... forgot their high calling to be Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
"... Jews ... were Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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A PATRIOTIC DISCOURSE: The Nation's Conscience and World Responsibility,
By R. H. Beattie
July 1899
"... 'Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen,' ... the nation has a place as a holy thing; ... its responsibility to Jehovah, ...
"For there are certain things which even Jehovah wants done in this world, and can only have done through the activity of nations. ... Jehovah called a little nation ... Israel wrought this service to the world before Christ, ... so in the providence of God our nation has been teaching certain lessons to the world and has more lessons to teach them if she is willing to act as the witness, the servant of Jehovah, and to carry light to the nations. ... so we shall be the witness of Jehovah ... ."
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The Expositor's Bible, Vol 17, Page 69.
1900
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Book of Proverbs, Page 69.
1903
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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Presbyterian Banner, Vol 90, Page, 815.
1903
"... Israel was to be Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Biblical Encyclopedia, Page 283.
1903
"... Israel appears as Jehovah's witness ... ."***
The Power of the Holy Spirit For Witnessing, Page 3.
1904
"... Jeremiah ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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Introduction to the Old Testament, Pages 131-133.
1905
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Servant of Jehovah, George C. Workman, Pages, 109, 149, 165.
1907
"... he appeals to the witnesses of Jehovah, his Servant Israel, ... ."
"... Israel ... ... as the Servant of Jehovah, they are to bear witness ... ."
"As worshippers of Jehovah, they were witnesses wherever they happened to be ... ."
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An Exposition of the Bible, Page 249.
1907
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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A Commentary On the Holy Bible, Page 441-442.
1909
"... Israelites ... are Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
"... Jehovah's witnesses (the Jews) ... ."***
The Sermons, Epistles, and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, Pages 32, 350.
1910
"... Jews ... called to be Jehovah's witnesses, ... ."
"... Jehovah's witnesses, the Israelites ... ."
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Prophecies of Isaiah, Page 351.
1910
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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The Great Texts of the Bible, Page 15.
1911
"... Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, ... . ... Israel ... no longer Jehovah's witnesses ... . The Apostles ... the new Israel of God, are ... Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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Our Modern Debt To Israel, Pages 84-85.
1913
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witnesses to the nations ... ."
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witnesses to heathendom ... ."
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Lectures On Daniel the Prophet, H. A. Ironside, Page 63.
1911
"These shall be Jehovah's witnesses, ... ."
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The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Page 42.
1917
"Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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Homiletic Review, Vol 74, Page 55.
1917
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witness ... ."
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A Guidebook to the Biblical Literature, Pages 313, 316, 320, 422.
1919
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
"... Israel ... Jehovah's one true and enlightened witness ... ."
"... Jeremiah ... witness of Jehovah ... ."
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The New Lessons Explained, Page 41.
1920
"... Israel ... Jehovah's witnesses ... ."
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The Student's Old Testament, Pages xviii, 346, 347.
1921
"Israel ... Jehovah's Witness ... "
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Education For Christian Service, Page 80.
1922
"Israel ... Jehovah's Witness ... "
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The Continent, Vol 54, Page 1202.
1923
"... Israel ... called to be Jehovah's witnesses, ... . ... 'Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah', ... ."
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Sunday School Lesson, Newspapers throughout U.S. and Canada.
"... Judah ... witness of Jehovah."
"Jehovah" appears 14 times.
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Sunday School Lesson, Newspapers throughout U.S. and Canada.
April 28, 1929
"... he shall be Jehovah's witness to the nations ... ."
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In December 1934, newspapers reported that there was an adult African-American male living in Alabama who was named "Jehovah Witnesses".
ASSOCIATED PRESS. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 21, 1934. -- A Negro approached a window in the license inspector's office today to buy a tag. As the prospective purchaser gave his name the clerk's pencil stopped; he glanced up in surprise. "Is that your name, or the. name of some church organization?" Jenkins asked. "It's my own personal name," the Negro replied, displaying a bill of sale to prove it. Jenkins passed over the tag. It was issued to "Jehovah Witnesses".
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A Pentecostal cult founded and led by Joshua Sykes, whose members were known as "JEHOVITES", or JEHOVAHITES", or "JEHOVISTS", or "JEHOVAHISTS", came to the attention of "Judge Rutherford". Joshua W. Sykes was an early anti-trinitarian Pentecostal Preacher who taught that he had "the only true religion", because he had been specially chosen by "Jehovah" to gather together and prepare "a people" for the imminent Second Advent of Jesus Christ. Sykes had his Berkeley, California "Church of the Living God" burned down during World War I. Joshua Sykes and his staff were forced into hiding for their personal safety. Sykes and four associates eventually were also criminally prosecuted for obstructing the draft in violation of the Espionage Act of 1917. While Rutherford and his WatchTower gang served less than 9 months in prison, J. W. Sykes served 15 months in federal prison, and three of his associates served 10 months in prison.
"The charges that I am in any way antagonistic to the United States government are false. I stand squarely with President Wilson in this great crisis and have no sympathy with anyone who does otherwise." -- J.F. Rutherford via April 1918 press release.
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"JEHOVAH'S BAND"
A Sect of Puffing, Blowing, Whistling, Shouting, Jumping, Wrestling, Rolling, and Kicking Religionists in New York.
May 1870
Great religious excitement exists in Macopin, twelve miles from Paterson. A new religions society, called "Jehovah's Band," has been started, supplanting a favorite station of the Methodist Church. The Methodists sent their best preachers to combat the heresy, but they are repudiated. Each in turn is forced to leave.
The peculiar form of worship develops itself in puffing, blowing, whistling, shouting, jumping, wrestling, falling to the floor, and rolling over and kicking. Both women and men engage in the exercises. Baptism is by immersion in the village mill-pond, in the dead hour of the night. On Sunday they hold continuous service, and take a recess for meats only, refusing to read a newspaper, or even to receive a letter on that day.
Every Thursday evening they held their meetings in the school house, until a difficulty about the candles used led them to leave it, and now they meet at any house in the neighborhood where the spirit manifests itself.
John Rhinesmith, a wealthy and well-to-do farmer of the neighborhood, is the chief man of the band, and recently had his house rebuilt especially to accommodate the brethren ; one room resting on strong beams; it stands the jumping. But about a month ago an ardent member, in a paroxysm of fanaticism, declared that when filled with the Holy Ghost he felt as light as air, and even though they jumped upon a looking-glass they would not so much as bruise it with a scratch; whereupon he began to leap upon the stove hearth, and broke it off, and then, leaping on the top, broke in full covers, and finally smashed a big rocking chair before he subsided.
Recently Rhinesmith baptised Mr. Gilbert B. Speaker; a man of family and a convert to the new faith, the baptism taking place in Rhinesmith's mill-pood, before the members of the band and amid shoots and cries, the whole gang at one time shouting fire, to the alarm of others in the neighborhood, it being then after midnight.
One of tbe band told a reporter that as he was at work in his barn he got the spirit, and that he ran one mile over ditches and fences before the spirit left him, and all this time he was so elated that he thought he was flying.
When jumping in ecstasy of the Holy Ghost, they say their spirits rise above their bodies.
They permit no person, excepting those belonging to the band, to join with them in jumping or singing, or any other of their exercises, although no objection is made to the attendance of outsiders at the meetings of the band. A dozen will share the floor at once, pounding and kicking, and the whole crowd seems worked up to a fearful state of excitement -- some jumping until they fall, the women shrieking in the wildest manner, and others praying, whistling or puffing, as if for a wager.
They permit no levity on the part of the young folks during their proceedings. Mr. Coob, one of the band, us thought to be growing insane under the excitement of this frenzy. There is no doubt that the members of the band are sincere enthusiasts. The society now numbers over five hundred members.
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RECOMMENDED READING:
Short BIBLE TOPIC Readings Selected For Those With Jehovah's Witnesses Backgrounds
Wifely Subjection: Mental Health Issues in Jehovah's Witness Women
Jehovah's Witnesses and the Problem of Mental Illness
The Theocratic War Doctrine: Why Jehovah's Witnesses Lie In Court
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