was drilled into us from earliest in fancy . . . nobody would give it a moment’s serious consideration . . . How the great adversary ever suc ceeded in fostering it upon the Lord’s people . . . is a mystery” (p. 166, Series V, Studies in the Scriptures). Rutherford, with his “me-tooism” echoes: “ The doctrine of the ‘trinity’ finds no support whatsoever in the Bible” (p. 88, Riches). But do not make the mistake of supposing, my friends, that this ter rible heresy passed out of the teach ings of Jehovah’s Witnesses with Rus sell and Rutherford. On page 31 of the book The Truth Shall Make You Free published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1943, I quote: “ There are no three persons Jehovah; only one” ; and from Theocratic Aids to Kingdom Publishers published by the same company in 1945, referring to the Unitarians, it is stated: “ rightly re jecting the ‘Trinity’ fable” (p. 354); and on page 206 of the same volume we read: “ One might show that the doctrines of the ‘trinity,’ ‘immortality of the soul,’ etc. are the devil’s lies; that these doctrines are the snare of the devil, and since religion teaches them, it is a snare. Thus by induc tive reasoning it is proved that ‘re ligion is a snare.’ ” On the street corners of almost any city you can get their tract The Trinity — Divine M ystery or Pagan M yth?” which states clearly the re jection of the Trinity by Jehovah’s Witnesses of this day. I need only quote two of the hun dreds of verses in the Word of God to prove, the clear, unmis takable teaching of a Holy Trin ity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit— Three Persons in one God— co-equal, co-eternal: “ And I [Jesus] will pray the Fath er, and he [the Father] shall give you another Comforter [the Holy Spirit], that he [the Holy Spirit] may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). “ Arid straightway coming up out of the water, he [Jesus] saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descendirig upon h im : [Jesus]: And there .came a voice from heaven [the Father’s], saying, Thou art my be loved- Son, .in whom I am well pleased” .(Mark 1:10,11). Jehovah's Witnesses and Hell Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that an everlasting place of torment is the invention of the clergy. Thus they utterly reject the very words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 25:41, 46: “Then shall he say also . ^ unto them on the A A O R E W
Whether it was dissolved into gases or whether it is still preserved some where as the grand memorial of God’s love . . . no one knows ” [ital. are mine] (p. 129, Series IV, Studies in the Scriptures ). By this time you have come to the conclusion that there were a great many things he did not know. He repeated this on page 131 of the same volume: “ Our Lord Jesus . . . is no longer a man but a spirit being, whom no man hath seen or can see.” This is one of his most outrageous lies, for we know from the Scrip tures exactly what became of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that it is not preserved in some heavenly museum. It was resurrected, clothed with immortality and was completely recognizable to the dis ciples after His resurrection. For one of the most blessed and reassuring events ever recorded in the Scrip tures we have but to turn to Luke 24:36-43. They saw Him. They han dled Him. He ate in their presence. Could anyone’s body be more real than that? Jehovah's Witnesses and the Trinity The teachings of Jehovah’s Wit nesses in regard to the Trinity logic ally follow their utter rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, co-equal with the Father. Russell blamed the trinitarian teaching on the Catholics: “This doc trine of three Gods in one God . . . is a strongly entrenched doctrine among Christians . . . Why is this? . . . It is one of the dark mysteries by which Satan, through the Papacy, has beclouded the Word and char acter and plan of God” (p. 60, Series V, Studies in the Scriptures). “ This view suited well the Dark Ages it helped to produce . . . This theory is as unscriptural as it is un reasonable . . . If it were not for the fact that this trinitarian nonsense Your Prayer Requests Each morning at nine the editor ial staff of King's Business maga zine gathers for prayer. Over the years God has answered the heart- cry of thousands. Should you have a request we would count it a privi lege to take it to the throne of grace. Your request will be held in the strictest confidence. Address: The Editors, King's Business, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 17, Calif.
modification, or mental reservation: complete destruction and annihila tion. Rutherford stated in The Harp of God: “Another of Satan’s decep tions by which he has blinded the people is the teaching that the dead are still conscious after death . . . Those who die are never conscious again . . . Man was made out of dust. He was sentenced to return to the dust.” We turn to John 5:28, 29 to refute this terrible lie: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resur rection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” N aturally, with such a view how it could be that Jesus would say in His dying moments: “ Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Rutherford comes up with this ex planation: “The thief will never be in heaven, because of the promise to him that if he is on the side of Christ he will be in paradise. It is certain that the thief did not go to heaven or paradise that day that he died. If he did, then he got there long be fore Jesus did . . . The thief died and was put in the grave and is still in the grave . . . the words of Jesus to the thief were these: ‘Today I say unto thee (that is, I am saying it now, this day), Shalt thou be with me in paradise’ ?” (p. 183, Riches ). Of course, this is a completely dis honest double-dealing with the Greek language. But Russell and Ruther ford did not hesitate to stoop to these methods to prove a point. For their “ translations” they rely upon a pri vate translation, an interlinear Greek publication called The Emphatic Di- aglott, which does not enjoy the re spect of masters of the Greek lan guage. Now we come to the important matter of how Jehovah’s Witnesses deal with the matter of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. What happened to the body of our Lord which was laid in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea after His crucifixion? Well, Russell has that all figured out. “Our Lord’s human body was, h ow eve r, supematurally removed from the tomb; because had it re mained there it would have been an insurmountable obstacle to the faith of the disciples . . . We know noth ing about what became of it . . .
of death, their teaching in regard to the thief on the cross is utterly fantastic. They have labored hard to explain
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NOV EMB E R , 1954
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