• Testing and Sifting From Within
    Jehovah’s Witnesses—Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom

    • In the August 1878 issue of Herald of the Morning, Barbour wrote an article in which he brushed aside such scriptures as 1 Peter 3:18 and Isaiah 53:5, 6, also Hebrews 9:22, and declared that the whole idea that Christ died to atone for our sins was obnoxious. Russell later wrote: “To our painful surprise, Mr. Barbour . . . wrote an article for the Herald denying the doctrine of the atonement—denying that the death of Christ was the ransom-price of Adam and his race, saying that Christ’s death was no more a settlement of the penalty of man’s sins than would the sticking of a pin through the body of a fly and causing it suffering and death be considered by an earthly parent as a just settlement for misdemeanor in his child.”a

      This was a crucial matter. Would Brother Russell hold loyally to what the Bible clearly said regarding God’s provision for the salvation of humankind? Or would he fall prey to human philosophy? Although Russell was only 26 years old at the time and Barbour was a much older man, Russell courageously wrote an article for the very next issue of the Herald in which he strongly defended the sin-atoning value of Christ’s blood, which he referred to as “one of the most important teachings of God’s word.”

      Next, he invited J. H. Paton, the other assistant editor of the Herald, to write an article in support of faith in the blood of Christ as the basis for atonement for sin. Paton did write the article, and it was published in the December issue.