Rutherford, Joseph Franklin

(1869–1941)

   Sect Founder.

   Rutherford succeeded russell as head of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. A lawyer by profession, he was a native of Missouri in the United States of America. When Jesus failed to return as predicted in 1914, he argued that he had come back invisibly and that the last battle between Satan and Jehovah was to take place in the near future. Under his leadership the sect took the name of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He taught that the Elect owed allegiance only to the Messianic Kingdom and that all other commitments to Church or country should be abandoned. When the sect grew to number more than the promised 144,000 Chosen, he decided that a second class of ‘other sheep’ would also be saved. He was the author of many books and tracts and, like Russell, he was the subject of considerable scandal. For example, in 1918 he was sent to prison for propaganda against military service and on several occasions he was accused of fraudulent practice. None the less there are groups of Jehovah’s Witnesses in many countries.

   A. Rogerson, Millions Now Living Will Never Die: A Study of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1989);

   H.Thurston, ‘Judge’ Rutherford (1940).