Russell gave a summation of his beliefs, what he stood for, in the January 15, 1912 issue of the Watch Tower, page 28:
I. We affirm the humanity of Jesus and the deity of Christ.
Many make the claim that Russell rejected the deity of Christ, but this shows that did believe in Christ's deity. He did not believe that Christ's deity meant that Jesus is Jehovah. See: Did Charles Taze Russell Deny the Deity of Christ? For some of our own studies related to Christ's diety, see our Deity of Christ resource page.
II. We acknowledge that the personality of the Holy Spirit is the Father and the Son; that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, and in turn from all who are begotten by it.
Some claim that Brother Russell did not believe in the Holy Spirit. Here Brother Russell attributes personality to God's Holy Spirit, but not as being a person of God to whom the Holy Spirit belongs. Brother Russell devoted at least 137 pages to discussing God's Holy Spirit in Studies 8 - 10 in Volume 5 of his Studies in the Scriptures.
III. We affirm the resurrection of Christ–that He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit. We deny that He was raised in the flesh, and challenge any statement to that effect as being unscriptural.
Again, many claim that Russell denied Christ's resurrection. They evidently would assume that his resurrection with a heavenly, spiritual body is not actually a resurrection, probably due to the traditional idea associated with man's creeds that "resurrection" must refer to the raising of up of one's former body. Russell, however, accepted the scriptures that tell us that Jesus sacrificed his body of flesh for our sins, and that Jesus was not raised up with his former body of flesh, but rather with a heavenly, spiritual body. See links to our own studies related to this, see: Jesus' Resurrection Body.
IV. We affirm, with the Scriptures, that God alone possessed immortality, “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” We affirm that this Divine quality has already been granted to the Lord Jesus and is to be the portion of the elect Bride, the “Body of Christ.” As for mankind, we affirm the Divine provision for these and for angels to be everlasting life for the obedient. This, by many, is mistermed immortality. We follow the Scriptures strictly.
Here Brother Russell affirms the Biblical teaching concerning immortality. Russell did not accept man's teaching that man has an immortal soul that continues to be alive after the person's body dies. No such thought is found in the Bible. If this were true, then there would be no need for a resurrection, since everybody is already immortal. Indeed, there would have been no need for Christ to die to release man from the condemnation of death, since it would actually mean that one's hope for future life is not due to Christ's sacrifice, but because of the alleged inherent immortality of the soul (or spirit) doctrine that many like to imagine, assume, add to, and read into the Bible. For links to some of our own related studies, see our resource page on: The Human Soul.
V. We hold that the entire race lost life with Father Adam, as a result of his failure in Eden; and that Christ died to secure a second chance for Adam and an individual chance for all of his race, who lost their first chance in Adam when he sinned. “As all in Adam die, even so all in Christ shall be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21,22.) A few of us, comparatively, having eyes of faith and ears of understanding, have had this second chance in the present life. Adam and the great mass of his posterity must get their second chance after being awakened from the tomb. But NOBODY IS TO GET A THIRD CHANCE!
This is actually the gospel message of God's Kingdom! This is what the angel referred to as glad tidings of great joy that will be for all the people! Often the message that the Jehovah's Witnesses present is attributed to Russell. This actually shows that the Gospel that Brother Russell believed in is not the same "Gospel" (Good News) that Rutherford later preached, and which is still preached by Jehovah's Witnesses today! What do we mean? Rutherford, in effect, claimed that all had to join the organization he created or else they would go into the second death at Armageddon. This meant that millions, even billions, of men, women and children would be eternally destroyed in Armageddon, and never receive any benefit at all from Christ's sacrifice for them. This is essentially what the JWs continue to preach to this day. This is a "gospel" that is almost the very opposite of what Brother Russell taught. See our studies related to The Ransom and the JWs
VI. We believe that the soul was condemned to death. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” We believe that this death would have been eternal, everlasting destruction, had it not been for God’s mercy in and through our Lord’s redemptive work. By reason of His death our souls do not die in this full sense of the word, but are Scripturally said to “fall asleep,” “asleep in Jesus.” The awakening will be in the resurrection morning; and the interim will be a period of unconsciousness, beautifully symbolized by a restful sleep.
Obviously, if the soul dies, it is not immortal. Brother Russell presented many scriptures that do show that the soul dies. It is the soul that sins, and it is the soul that dies, and it is the soul that is raised back to life. See Russell's study: The Subject of the Atonement - Man. One point many may overlook is that the condemnation of man through Adam would have been eternal had not the man Christ Jesus, given himself in sacrifice to God to offset what Adam had done. The price needed to offset the condemnation was not God Almighty, but another human being who, unlike Adam, was sinless and obedient to God, who would offer up his human soul, his human existence for eternity in sacrifice to buy back Adam and all who are condemned in Adam.
VII. We believe in the “hell” of the Bible, sheol. This, the only word used for hell for four thousand years, is translated more than one-half the time grave in our Common Version, and should always be thus translated. “Hades,” in the New Testament, is its equivalent. “Gehenna fire,” of the New Testament, is a symbolical picture declared to signify the Second Death.
Many say that Russell "denied hell". This is not actually so. Rusell presented what the Bible itself says about the Bible hell. He did deny the kind of hell described by such men as Jonathan Edwards and John Milton. Russell saw that a study of the Bible hell (hades and sheol) from the Bible itself, without the influence of man's traditional ideas about hell, revealed hell to be the oblivious condition of death, as described in Ecclesiastes 9:5,10. All mankind are condemned to death and thus end up in the condition of sheol/hades. Jesus died and went into the oblivious condition of sheol/hades to redeem all in sheol/hades. Brother Russell's study on sheol and hades may be found in his book, The Atonement Between God and Man, Study 12, The Subject of the Atonement - Man. See also "What Saith the Scriptures About Hell?" Some of our own studies related to Sheol and Hades see our resource pages: Sheol * Hades.
VIII. We believe that God is able to destroy “both soul and body” in Gehenna–the Second Death. We consider it much more sane to believe thus, as it is more Scriptural, than to believe that in creating man God did a work which He could not undo; much more reasonable also than to believe He prefers to have the incorrigible suffer eternally, when their sufferings could do neither themselves nor others any good.
Gehenna is a transliteration from the Greek word that a few translations render as "hell-fire." Literally speaking, Gehenna refers to the Valley of Hinnom located just south of Jerusalem. Jesus made use of the literal fires that were perpetually kept burning by brimstone, and the worms in that valley to give an illustration of destruction. He never spoke of any alleged human soul suffering for eternity in that valley, although many have read such a thought into what Jesus said. Brother Russell gave an explanation of Gehenna in the study spoken of earlier, "What Saith the Scriptures About Hell?" For links to some of our own studies, see our Gehenna resource page.
IX. We believe that, like the Father and the holy angels, our Lord is a spirit being. We are convinced that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” We do not believe that our Lord has a flesh and blood body, a “little lower than the angels,” and has thus been out of harmony with His heavenly environment for nearly two thousand years. We believe the Apostle’s statement, “Now the Lord is that Spirit.” This is the Jesus who will “so come, in like manner,” quietly and unknown to the world, as He went away. We do not affirm, dogmatically, that He came in 1874, but we say that to us it is the evident teaching of the Scriptures. Our Lord warned us not to expect Him in the flesh; that men might say “Lo, here” or “Lo, there.” The Harvest work in the universal Church Nominal, the Laodicean period of the Church, well corroborates our expectations of what His work will be, as outlined in His parables, etc.
As we have shown elsewhere, Russell came to an understanding of what Jesus had sacrificed sometime before 1874. This was before 1876 when he accepted Barbour's view that Christ had already returned invisibly in 1874. Russell realized that Jesus had given his body of flesh in sacrifice to God for sin, and thus that Jesus' resurrection was not back in the flesh, but rather that he was raised in the spirit. (2 Peter 3:13) Contrary to what many claim, Russell was not denying the resurrection of Jesus, but he did realize, in harmony with the scriptures, that Jesus was raised with a celestial, spiritual body, not back into his former body of flesh. Our own views about Jesus' appearances with a body of flesh, however, are not the same as that which Brother Russell had. For links to our related studies, see our resource page on Jesus' resurrection body.
Russell, throughout his public ministry, disclaimed that he was dogmatic about the chronology of the Bible and his understanding of the Bible's time prophecies. He affirms his belief that Christ had returned in 1874, but he again says that he does so without being dogmatic about this. Nevertheless, Russell did not consider the chronology or his understanding of time prophecies to be fundamental doctrines, and he never sought to claim anyone was not a Christian because they did not accept his beliefs concerning this.
We should note that Russell mentioned nothing about any belief that one should come to him or to any organization here on earth for salvation, as is taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses. He made no mention of acceptance of belief in a sole channel of communication between God and man here on earth today, to which one had to come to be saved from any kind of eternal doom. None of this was part of his beliefs.
Please note that while we are in general agreement with what Russell presented, our views do not necessarily agree with every detail of his statements.
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