Charles Taze Russell, confused by what was…

Charles Taze Russell, confused by what was perceived to be an error in calculation following the failure of the expected rapture of the saints in 1878, had reexamined the doctrine to see if he could determine whether it had biblical origins or was simply Christian tradition.

His conclusion that it was tradition that had led him to begin teaching, through the pages of the Herald of the Morning, what he believed to have discovered on the subject.

Nelson Barbour, embarrassed by the failure of their expectations, had rejected Russell's explanation and a debate had ensued in successive issues of the journal from early 1878 to mid-1879.

In a matter of months, Barbour's embarrassment had led to a recanting of some of the views he and Russell had previously shared, including any reliance upon prophetic chronology.

Their disagreements had turned into a debate over Christ's ransom, resulting in a split between the two.

Russell removed his financial support and started his own journal, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, with the first issue published in July 1879.

Barbour formed The Church of the Strangers that same year, continuing to publish Herald of the Morning.

In 1881, Russell had founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society, with William Henry Conley as president and Russell as secretary-treasurer, for the purpose of disseminating tracts, papers, doctrinal treatises and Bibles.

All materials were printed and bound by Russell's privately owned Tower Publishing Company for an agreed price, then distributed by "colporteurs" (persons who travel to sell or publicize Bibles, religious tracts, etc.).

Using donated funds amounting to approximately forty thousand dollrars (current value nine hundred sixty-three thousand three hundred and ten dollars), he had published his first prominent work, a one hundred and sixty-two-page "pamphlet" entitled Food for Thinking Christians.

It had enjoyed a vast circulation of nearly one and a half million copies over a period of four months distributed throughout the United States, Canada and Great Britain by various channels.

During the same year, he had published Tabernacle and its Teachings, which was quickly expanded and reissued as Tabernacle Shadows of the "Better Sacrifices", outlining his interpretation of the various animal sacrifices and Tabernacle ceremonies instituted by Moses.

The distribution of these works and other tracts by the Watch Tower Society during 1881 was claimed to have exceeded by eight times that of the American Tract Society for the year 1880.

Russell had devoted nearly a tenth of his fortune, along with contributed funds, in publishing and distributing Food for Thinking Christians in 1881.

In 1886, after reportedly not making back most of the money spent publishing these three titles, he had begun publication of what is intended to be a seven-volume series.

The volumes will collectively be called Millennial Dawn, later renamed Studies in the Scriptures to clarify that they are not novels.

Russell will publish six volumes in the series, the first being The Plan of the Ages —later renamed The Divine Plan of the Ages (1886).

The Watch Tower Society had been officially chartered in 1884, with Russell as President, and in 1886 its name had been changed to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

Russell's ministry intensifies with the formation of the Society.

His Bible study group has grown to hundreds of local members, with followers throughout New England, the Virginias, Ohio, and elsewhere, who will annually reelect him "Pastor", and commonly refer to him as "Pastor Russell".