Pastor Russell, founder of the Watchtower Society, was a Zionist. He was strongly against converting Jews to Christianity and actively involved in encouraging the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, the ninth prime minister of Israel, when he was the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations stated, "A recognition of Pastor Russell's important role as an early American Christian advocate of Zionism is long overdue."1
Russell wrote:
"There are now in the world more than ten million Jews, about
three-quarters of whom are in Russia, Poland, the Balkan States, and Turkey. If
the movement toward Palestine should get the impulse that the Hirsch committee
is able to give it, an imaginative person can conceive of the country's doubling
or trebling its Jewish population before the close of our century, and of its
having a larger Jewish population fifty years hence than it had in ancient
times, when its census ran up to three millions. Should the restoration be
accomplished, all hail to the New Jerusalem!" Watchtower 1892 November 1
p.329
"The more closely we investigate the New Covenant, the more we must be convinced
of this fact - that it belongs to Israel alone." Watch Tower 1909 Jan 15
p.28
"Although the Jews are gradually flowing into Palestine, gradually obtaining
control of the land of Canaan, and although reports say that already nineteen
millionaires are there, nevertheless, prophecy requires an evidently larger
number of wealthy Hebrews to be there before the Armageddon crisis be reached.
Indeed, we understand that "Jacob's trouble" in the Holy Land will come at the
very close of Armageddon. Then Messiah's Kingdom will begin to be manifested.
Thenceforth Israel in the Land of Promise will gradually rise from the ashes of
the past to the grandeur of prophecy." Studies In the Scriptures Series IV -
The Day of Vengeance - Forward pp. xviii, xix
"… expected the year 1914 to mark a significant turning point for Jerusalem."
Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom p.135
In reference to the prophecy of Amos 9:11-15, Thy Kingdom Come stated:
"That the re-establishment of Israel in the land of Palestine is one of the events to be expected in this Day of the Lord, we are fully assured by the above expression of the Prophet. Notice, particularly, that the prophecy cannot be interpreted in any symbolic sense." Studies in the Scriptures Series III - Thy Kingdom Come p.244
Modern day Bible Students still have a Zionist view of Jews. As stated on www.agsconsulting.com (April 20, 2005), a website run by modern day Bible Students:
"Bible Students were the first to appreciate and act upon the commission of Isaiah 40:1: "Comfort, oh comfort My people." (TANAKH, Jewish Publication Society) And they took this commission very seriously. In 1891 Charles Russell, the Pastor of Bible Students congregations around the world, proposed to Baron Rothschild and Baron Hirsch a practical plan for Zionism that involved the purchasing of all government lands (lands not held by private owners) in Palestine from the impoverished Ottoman Empire of Turkey. (Years later Herzl made similar proposals). Pastor Russell prefaced his proposal with the prediction of a massive exodus of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe. As he predicted, history records over 3 million Jews emigrated from Russia and Eastern Europe by 1924."
Rutherford continued with this concept until 1932, upholding Russell's ideal that the Jews and Jerusalem had a special place in prophecy. It was believed that the Jews had remained as God's special people and Jerusalem was to be restored. The Finished Mystery, on pages 536 and 555 was also openly Zionist, as was Comfort for the Jews p.55
"The promise, time and again repeated, that the Lord would regather them and bless them in the land and keep them there and bless them for ever is conclusive proof that the promise must be fulfilled ... Behold, that time is now at hand!"
On 17th October 1920, Rutherford delivered a lecture in Jerusalem in which he is quoted in The Golden Age 1921 Easter pp.369-382 'Zionism Certain to Succeed' as saying;
"Israel is absolutely certain to be fully established as a nation and the Jews again as a specially favored people of God The zealous workers in Zionism today are fulfilling prophecy Zionism is one of the steps in the great divine program."
This was more than just an expectation as the Proclaimers book puts it, it was "absolutely certain". Up until the 1930's, the events happening to the Jews in the 19th and 20th century were even considered to be proof that this is the time of the end.
"(The) regathering of Israel to Palestine would be one of the
most conclusive proofs of his presence." The Harp of God (1921) p.256
"In the spring of 1918, the Jews began to rebuild Palestine; … This is another
physical fact or circumstantial proof of the Lord's presence at the end of the
world" Creation (1927) p.306-307
Anti-Semitic comments crept into the Golden Age during the late 1920's, and in 1934 Zionism was renounced by Rutherford.
"Be it known once and for all that those profiteering,
conscienceless, selfish men who call themselves Jews, and who control the
greater portion of the finances of the world and the business of the world, will
never be the rulers in this new earth. God would not risk such selfish men with
such an important position" The Golden Age 1927 February 23 p.343
"The Journal of the A.M.A. is the vilest sheet that passes the United States
mail. Nothing new and useful in therapeutics escapes its unqualified
condemnation. Its attacks are generally ad hominem. Its editorial columns are
largely devoted to character assassination. Its editor (Morris Fishbein) is of
the type of Jew that crucified Jesus Christ." The Golden Age 1934
September 26 p.807
Rutherford contradicted his previous views when renouncing them in the 1932 book Vindication - Book II, pages 257 to 258.
"Jews [are] no longer important to God.. the Balfour Declaration, sponsored by the heathen governments of Satan's organization, came forth, recognized the Jews, and bestowed upon them great favors.. The Jews have received more attention at their hands than they really deserved."
The Zionist teachings, once of absolute certainty, was henceforth said to have no Scriptural support.
"Nothing in the modern return of Jews to Palestine and the setting up of the Israeli republic corresponds with the Bible prophecies concerning the restoration of Jehovah's name- people to his favor and organization .... The remnant of spiritual Israelites, as Jehovah's Witnesses, have proclaimed world-wide the establishment of God's kingdom in 1914" Let God Be True second ed. pp.217-218
This change is discussed in the Watchtower 1955 May 15 p.296, and labelled as a teaching of Satan:
"By the publication of Volume 2 of the book Vindication that year, Jehovah's witnesses came to see that such a "back to Palestine" movement was by the spirit of Jehovah's archfoe, Satan, who has deceived the entire inhabited earth."
How astonishing for the Watchtower to denounce Zionist teachings as from Satan, after the Organization had spent the previous 60 years actively preaching it. Is this saying Satan had been influencing Russell and Rutherford? If Satan was behind this prominent Watchtower teaching, how many other prominent Watchtower teachings is Satan influencing? At what point did the reasonings of Satan stop being promoted by the Watchtower Organization?
1 David Horowitz, Pastor Charles Taze Russell: An Early American Christian Zionist (New York: Philosophical Library, 1986) Back Jacket