The religious system, currently known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, was originally known as Russellism and was conceived by Charles Taze Russell. Russell was born of godly parents and as a lad was possessed of a soul- haunting fear of hell. Russell was a self- styled pastor, who warned people to attend church and escape hell. The […]

The Adventist movement originated with William Miller, a converted deist, who became a Baptist minister. He became a close student of the Scriptures, especially of the prophetic portions. He became convinced that Christ’s second coining was to be personal, premillennial, and that it was near at hand. The outstanding feature of his teaching was that […]

  Since Beacon Lights intends to publish a series of essays on Cults and Sects, the purpose of this article is to introduce the subject, so that we may make our acquaintance with those groups that appear round about us as cults or sects.  We face the question:  What are cults?  And what are sects. […]

Dear Editor: I would like to make a few comments about the recent article in the Beacon Lights entitled “Ists and Isms.”  I wish to make a few comments on the definition of sect and the relationship of provincial tendencies to a sect. First of all, the author does mention that there are many definitions […]

What are these? Where would they be found? The answer to these questions is simple:  they are people, people found everywhere.  By the former we refer to conformists and extremists, by the latter sectarianism and pharisaism.  Of course you could add an almost infinite number of terms to this list all of which end in […]

“Small Sects in America” by Elmer T. Clark. This book is the result of a lengthy and extensive investigation covering a period of fifteen years, in which the author studied the official literature and doctrinal pronouncements of the sects about which he writes, and even paid personal visits to the headquarters of some of these […]