In 1876 Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Bible Students, met Nelson Barbour and accepted Barbour's end-times chronology, which asserted that Christ had been present invisibly since 1874, that their fellowship would be taken to heaven in 1878, and that Jesus' millennial kingdom would be established on earth in 1914. They suffered persecution under Nazism and Communism, have been banned in many countries, and were mobbed repeatedly in the United States from 1940 through 1943. The Witnesses have frequently been in conflict with other religions and secular governments. Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Trinity, believe that hell is the grave, teach that only 144,000 elect will receive heavenly immortality, and assert that the rest of saved humanity will live eternally on earth. Later Russell drew most of his "end-times" teachings from Nelson Barbour (1824–1906), a former disciple of William Miller. Russell was influenced by members of the Advent Christian Church and an independent Second Adventist, George Storrs (1796–1879). In 1870 their founder, Charles Taze Russell, an Allegheny, Pennsylvania, businessman, had started a study group that became a congregation. Jehovah's Witnesses were known as Bible Students until 1931. RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 0.24 OVERVIEW
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