Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Joseph Franklin Rutherford (November 8, 1869- January 8 1942), sometimes known as Judge Rutherford, is best known as the second president of the Watch Tower Society, the legal organization used by Jehovah's Witnesses. He was preceded by Charles Taze Russell, and followed by Nathan H. Knorr.
Rutherford was born to a farm family in Morgan County, Missouri, his parents being Baptists. His father opposed his interests in law studies,but allowed him in the end to go to college. After completing his education, he worked as a court reporter and was admitted to the bar at Boonville, Missouri. Still later he became a special - or substitute - judge in the same Fourteenth Judicial District of Missouri. Hence, he was often referred to as "Judge Rutherford".
He became interested in the teachings of The Bible Students in 1894, after he and his wife had seen three of the books of Russell's work Millennial Dawn. He was baptized as a Bible Student in 1906, and in 1907 he became their juridical councelor. He served as a travelling overseer in the following years. He was elected President of the Watch Tower Society in 1916, after Russell's death.
1916 Joseph Franklin Rutherford, assumes control of the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society. (Jehovah's Witnesses) In Rutherford's (The Finished Mystery), published in 1917, they said that Armageddon would really break loose in 1918 with the destruction of "Christendom" and all the church members and by 1920 all kingdoms of the earth would pass away. In 1918 the "little flock" would pass beyond the veil and 1921 would be the last year to make it to heaven and would see the death of all in the "great multitude" class. The Finished Mystery claimed, as did other Watchtower material in 1917, that they were directed and supervised by the spirit of the dead "Pastor" Russell and others of the deceased "anointed" class. This is necromancy, or communicating with the dead, which the modern day Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has called spiritism and demonism. (But yet they still use and teach his doctrines, and their Bible inspired by demons) Was Rutherford a Spirit Medium? In relating to friends he could be despotic; in dealing with enemies, ruthless. He was moody and sometimes blunt to the point of rudeness with an explosive temper that could occasionally excite him to physical violence. He also had a streak of self-righteousness, which caused him to regard anyone who opposed him as of the Devil. But most curious was the fact that while in some ways he was a Puritan of Puritans, in others he was thoroughly dissolute. He used vulgar language, suffered from alcoholism, and was once publicly accused by one of his closest associates of attending a nude burlesque show with two fellow elders." (Apocalypse Delayed, University of Toronto Press, 1985, p. 47-48)
Rutherford was cited for contempt of court on at least three occasions. Proof of this is found in Morgan County Book 13, page 251 for August 8, 1894 and Cooper County Book 2, page 376 on May 15,1895. His worst known impropriety in law during the Missouri years was recorded in Permanent File #5113 of the Cooper County Circuit Court dated February 4, 1896 and involved a case heard by Judge Dorsey W. Shackleford. Rutherford was representing the National Cash Register Company against David Nicholson of Boonville.
After Nicholson had levied a writ of attachment on a cash register machine that had been used at the saloon of Charley Merstetter, a deputy constable named Wright went to seize the machine but Rutherford met him at the saloon, held papers before Wright and told him that if Wright would go to see William Muir Williams the attorney representing Nicholson and who later became a state supreme court judge, then Williams would confirm that Rutherford held possession of the machine. Wright left the machine to speak with attorney Williams and upon returning found that machine gone. Rutherford then lied that the machine had been sent on to Sedalia, Missouri, for deputy Wright found it "concealed" in a second office of Rutherford beneath some papers.
In 1918 he served a year's imprisonment together with seven other men in Atlanta, Georgia, for opposing Selective Draft Act and the Espionage Law, charges that were later dismissed.
His writings were widely distributed among Witnesses in the United States and abroad. In 1931 at a convention, Rutherford delivered a talk proposing the adoption of a new name for the group, known as International Bible Students or Bible Students. They all adopted the name of Jehovah's Witnesses there.
J.F. Rutherford served as President of the Watch Tower Society until his death in 1942 in San Diego, California.
