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Under date ol March 4 , 1 0 0 4 , our Managing Editor received the following letter from a read er in Toledo, Oregon: "Dear Mr. Sanders, Can you help me? I need some infor mation about the television program, FAITH FOR TODAY. I have completed seven lessons on their Bible Correspond ence course which they offered. I have just begun to read Dr. Louis T. Talbot's booklet published in 1957 en titled, 'What's Wrong with Jehovah's W it nesses?' On page 18 he discusses their claim that Jesus existed as a spirit being before he was made flesh and that his name was Michael. This sounds to me just
what the Bible Lesson No. 3 that FAITH FOR TODAY puts out claim. Are they Jehovah's Witnesses? Enclosed is the lesson sheet, test quiz and the letter answering my question on this subject that I received from them. I only recently sent for a junior cor respondence course for my nine-year-old son, so you must see how terribly impor tant it is that I know if this is put out by that sect. Please help me, if you can. If this is put out by Jehovah's Witnesses, I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for your Dr. Talbot.
by Betty Bruechert
I N reply , we hasten to inform Mrs. Parks that while this literature was not from the Jehovah’s Wit nesses, whose teaching on Michael it did indeed resemble, it was from the Seventh-day Adventists, who, char acteristically, do not identify them selves in the Bible courses offered to listeners of their radio broadcast. The question is often asked: “ How much alike are Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists?” Their teaching is similar in some instanc.es as, for instance, the denial o f a lit- eral, everlasting hell (as taught by Christ Himself) and in the belief in soul-sleeping and annihilation, which it is said the Jehovah’s Witnesses borrowed from the Seventh-day Ad ventists. Evidently the Witnesses al so borrowed the teaching about Michael from the Adventists. How ever, the Witnesses carried it far ther, calling Christ a “ created an gel.” The Adventists do not deny the Trinity (as JWs do) nor are they anti-government and anti-organized religion (as are the JWs) although they do believe themselves to be “ the Remnant Church” and that all other “ Sunday-keeping” churches are apos tate. Recently an Adventist writer explained in the SDA trade paper, (Review and Herald of 4-9-64) that a splinter group of the Millerite movement, called the Second Adven tists, and headed by an N. H. Bar- bour, eventually had linked up with Russell and his followers, but not the SDAs. Now in regard to the archangel Michael: the similarity of the teach ing o f the SDAs and JWs on this subject lies in the fact that both insist upon the strange interpreta tion that the Michael archangel was
Thanking you for your time. Sincerely, Mrs. Betty Parks
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Above is the photostatic copy of the letter Mrs. Parks received from the F A I T H FOR T O D A Y broadcast director.
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THE KING 'S BUSINESS
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