Did JWs believe in trinity and immortality of the soul before they got their own Bible?
score:8
The very early Jehovah's Witnesses (then called Bible Students) already believed that trinity and immortality of the soul were unscriptural.
As the book God’s Kingdom Rules! on page 24 says:
For centuries, the world of Christendom had been enveloped in spiritual darkness; many of its teachings were rooted in paganism. A prime example is the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. During the 1800’s, though, a few sincere students of the Bible scrutinized that teaching and saw that it had no support in God’s Word. Henry Grew, George Stetson, and George Storrs wrote and lectured boldly, exposing that satanic lie. Their work, in turn, had a profound impact on C. T. Russell and his close associates.
The little group of Bible Students found that other doctrines linked to the immortality of the soul were likewise confusing and false—for example, the teaching that all good people go to heaven or that God torments the immortal souls of the wicked in eternal hellfire. Russell and his close associates boldly exposed those lies in numerous articles, books, pamphlets, tracts, and published sermons.
Russell started his work in the late 19th century, so what was decades before.
Their stance on the trinity doctrine was already very clear in that period too as this article writes:
Through the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, Russell and his associates courageously denounced false religious doctrines that misrepresented God. They discerned that—contrary to popular religious opinion—the soul is mortal, that at death we go to the grave, and that Jehovah is the only true God and therefore not part of a Trinity.
Upvote:2
A problem with JW denial of the Trinity doctrine is that they present a warped version of what the Trinity supposedly teaches. In 'Thy Kingdom Come' published in 1891, p119, their first president, Russell, wrote that they "were guarded against the unscriptural as well as the unreasonable theory that Jehovah is his own Son and our Lord Jesus is his own Father". Well, that is not what the Trinity doctrine teaches! That is Russell's misunderstanding of the doctrine!
On the second topic you ask about, Russell immediately followed the quote above with: "and they began to see that eternal life and immortality are not present possessions, but are to be expected only as the gifts of God through Christ in the resurrection." However, bear in mind that Russell did not have the belief of soul annihilation that came later, and he taught that millions would also be in heaven in addition to the special 144,000 class.
Before the NWT came out, JWs did not have had a recognisably orthodox Trinitarian belief, yet for over 50 years they had advocated worshipping Jesus Christ as God, which is absolutely Trinitarian! It wasn't until 1954 that JWs were told they should no longer worship Jesus. Yet the Society’s Charter was not changed until 1999, removing the bit about the purpose of the Society being the worship of Jehovah AND Jesus Christ. They left it just as for the worship of Jehovah.
They were worshipping Jesus in the 1930s as these quotes show: "During the Millennium, "the princes will lead the people in their worship of Jehovah and of Christ." (Vindication Volume 3, p295, J. F. Rutherford, 1932) “Jehovah God commands all to worship Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah’s purpose (Heb.3-6).” Watchtower 1939 Nov. 15 p.339 click for scan http://www.jwfacts.com/images/watchtower-1939-nov-15-p339 [Read Only]
They were still worshipping Jesus in 1945 as this 15 October 1945 Watchtower shows: “Now, at Christ’s coming to reign as king in Jehovah’s capital organization Zion, to bring in a righteous new world, Jehovah makes him infinitely higher than the godly angels or messengers and accordingly commands them to worship him... Since Jehovah God now reigns as King by means of his capital organization Zion, then whosoever would worship Him must also worship and bow down to Jehovah’s Chief One in that capital organization, namely, Jesus Christ, his Co-regent on the throne of The Theocracy.”
Their 1945 Yearbook includes the Charter in full. Part of the then current charter stated as follows: “…maintain and send out to various parts of the world Christian missionaries, teachers and instructors in the Bible and Bible literature and for public Christian worship of Almighty God and Christ Jesus; to arrange for and hold local and world-wide assemblies for such worship...” Click here to scan http://jwfacts.com/images/watchtower-yearbook-1945-page-32.jpg
But the first clear statement that Jesus must not be worshipped was in 1954, as far as I can tell. The 1 January Watchtower, page 31 said: “Should we worship Jesus? ...Consequently, since the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is not a trinitarian co-person [sic] with God the Father, but is a distinct person [which the Trinity agrees with!] the Son of God, the answer to the above question must be that no distinct worship is to be rendered to Jesus Christ now glorified in heaven. Our worship is to go to Jehovah God.” Yet it wasn’t till 1999 that the Charter was changed, to confine worship to Jehovah alone, according to this link! http://www.jwfacts.mobi/watchtower/worship-jesus.php
I have majored in answering your query about their rejection of the Trinity doctrine, to show that despite later claims that they dropped it in the far past of their history, there is a clear contradiction in the way they did not drop the worship of Jesus as God until 1954. They were far quicker to move on to soul annihilation. Both those doctrines were accepted before their NWT was published at the end of the 1950s.
More post
- 📝 Is there any Denomination which think that the "serpent" at the beginning of his existence in Eden is not a bad being?
- 📝 What is the background of the words "notitia," "fiducia," and "assensus" and how do they relate to the biblical notion of "faith"?
- 📝 Does the act of sex constitute marriage in God's eyes?
- 📝 Is "There's more sanctity in a dog's loyalty than there is in all your human laws." a quote from the Holy Bible?
- 📝 On Images of God the Father According to Catholicism?
- 📝 What is the origin of the Evil Eye in Christianity?
- 📝 In what sense was Mary born without original sin in Roman Catholic dogma?
- 📝 What does "proceeds" mean to Eastern Orthodox?
- 📝 Almond branch or watcher?
- 📝 Who are the lambs in John 21:15?
- 📝 Do Jehovah's Witnesses object to praying with other Christians?
- 📝 Could Jesus have refused to go to the cross?
- 📝 How do Christians who reject the idea of purgatory deal with the fact that most people don't repent of every sin before they die?
- 📝 What sort of Christians are proponents of just war?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Lent used to be a 3 day observance?
- 📝 How did Reformed Theologians view works-based "Heavenly Rewards"?
- 📝 Does ex opere operato apply to infants?
- 📝 What is the "gospel" in OT according to the Calvinist?
- 📝 Why would God allow man to test Him?
- 📝 Is God's name Yahweh or Jehovah?
- 📝 Are Catholics allowed to believe that the EF or OF is objectively more reverent than the other?
- 📝 How do Catholics view the role of conscience in determing morals?
- 📝 The Explosion of Thera 1642–1540 BCE
- 📝 What is the weight of authority behind a teaching of the Papal Magisterium?
- 📝 How do Protestants Receive forgiveness for post-Baptismal Sins?
- 📝 Who was the first person on record who was killed by a Christian or group of Christians for religious disagreements?
- 📝 What bible translation did the Unitarians use in 19th century America?
- 📝 Could parts of the bible have been lost over time?
- 📝 Did God forgive sins based on Jesus' future sacrifice?
- 📝 What do Christians against state recognition of same-sex marriage think of the fourteenth amendment in US law?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did JWs believe in trinity and immortality of the soul before they got their own Bible?
- 📝 Did the experts and authorities behind the King James Version believe that their work was divine, inspired and inerrant?
- 📝 Do JWs believe the water canopy theory and do they think it will be restored?
- 📝 Can someone atone for the sins of another, in the life after death, if they asked this grace from Our Lord before their own death in this life?
- 📝 What did the Early Christians Believe About the Trinity Before the Gospel of John?
- 📝 Did anyone before Jesus go to Heaven and Will They Be Raised Up On the Last Day? (John 6)
- 📝 Did Jesus exist before his life, and if not could the Trinity be added to?
- 📝 What were the Nephilim, and what role did they play in the Bible beyond just being mentioned?
- 📝 Where did Baptists get their name and what do they believe?
- 📝 How did Cain and Abel know to offer sacrifices before the Law of Moses?
- 📝 Did Martin Luther believe the Church needed to be reformed before the Great Schism of 1054AD, or after?
- 📝 How did Christians cultivate their knowledge of the Bible before mass-printing of the Bible?
- 📝 Why did the Western and Eastern churches react to their respective states so differently?
- 📝 Do Young Earth Creationists believe that insects, microorganisms, and animal cells died before the Fall?
- 📝 Did adherents of apocatastasis in the early church believe that the devil and his demons would be restored?
- 📝 Did Baptist and Methodists ever believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel?
- 📝 What traditions believe that a woman's relationship with God must go through some man and how do they support it from the Bible?
- 📝 What is the corruption Mormons believe will infect their church before the second coming?
- 📝 Did Jacob Arminius and/or the remonstrants believe they were in agreement with John Calvin?
- 📝 Did Jesus and the repentant thief reunite in heaven on the very day they died?(Catholic view)
- 📝 How did the early Christians and Apostles Get into the temple? Shouldn't they have been stoned by the Jews for preaching Jesus as God?
- 📝 What did the Apostolic and ante-Nicene Fathers believe about Sheol/Hades?
- 📝 Do Lutherans believe that the sacraments are necessary for salvation (similar to Catholics), and if so, how do they reconcile this with Sola Fide?
- 📝 God and Satan in the book of Job: how did they know about this conversation?
- 📝 Are there published testimonies from Christians who independently discovered the doctrine of the Trinity on their own by just reading the Bible?
- 📝 What did the Apostolic Fathers believe regarding the state of the dead and the afterlife?
- 📝 How do those who believe in the immortality of the soul explain Leviticus 21:11?
- 📝 Why do Catholics have to go to regular confession to have their sins forgiven if they pray The Lord's Prayer and ask for forgiveness daily?
- 📝 How did people know that their visions of God were not false before the Bible was as a book compiled?
- 📝 What did the Early Church (ante-Nicene period) believe about Gehenna and the Second Death?