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The Jehovah Witness started in 1870 by Charles Taze Russels. He formed a group in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
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In 1876 Russel met Nelson Barbour. They jointly produced the book Three Worlds. The book taught that God's dealings with humanity were divided dispensational, each ending with a harvest that Christ had returned as an invisible spirit being in 1874.
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This was autonomous congregations who came to study the Bible. Russell incorporated the society as a nonprofit Bussiness so that he could hand out bibles and tracts
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Russell moved the Watch Tower Society's headquarters to Brooklyn, New York, in 1909. Volunteers were housed in a nearby residence he named Bethel. He identified the religious movement as "Bible Students."
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50,000 people are associated with this movement and the congregations re-elect Russell as their pastor.
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In 1931 Jehovah Witnesses name is introduced and it is based on Isaiah 43:10. This name was chosen to distinguish bible students from other independent groups
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From 1966, Witness publications and convention talks built anticipation of the possibility that Christ's thousand-year reign might begin in late 1975.
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The number of baptisms increased significantly to 297,000 in 1974. By 1975, the number of active members exceeded two million. Membership did decline during the late 1970s after expectations for 1975 were proved wrong.
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In 1995, Jehovah's Witnesses abandoned the idea that Armageddon must happen during the lives of the generation that was alive in 1914 and in 2010 changed the teaching on the generation.