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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
 Posted - 08/15/2008 : 07:35:29
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[size=2]If you are Eastern Orthodox, your sect separated from Roman Catholicism in the 9th century, an action that led to the "Greek Schism". This separation was initiated by Photius, a high ranking official in the civil service of the Byzantine government, distinguished for his learning and literary taste. In A.D 858, on the deposition of Ignatius, Photius was fast-tracked through all the ecclesiastical degrees and installed by the Emperor Michael III as Patriarch of Constantinople. Pope Nicholas I objected to the irregularities of Photius’ elevation, and convoked a council at Rome which deposed and excommunicated him. Photius then gave the conflict a doctrinal turn and brought about conditions that precipitated the Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. The Orthodox Eastern Church denies the supremacy of the Pope; holds that the Catholic Church erred in prescribing celibacy for the clergy, and teaches that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone.
If you are Lutheran, your faith was started in 1517 by Martin Luther, an apostate catholic monk of the Augustinian order. He denied tradition; the divine authority of the Papacy; that councils were infallible; that original justice was a supernatural gift; that human nature remained essentially the same in its powers after the fall of Adam; that man, after the fall, can produce any good works; held that man sins in whatever he does; that the sins of the just are covered by faith and not done away with; maintained that all works of sinners are sins; denied free-will; all the Sacraments except Baptism and the Eucharist; transubstantiation; the Sacrifice of the Mass; purgatory and the utility of praying to the Saints; he maintained that vows are made to the devil; that concupiscence is invincible; that the sensual instincts are irrepressible, and held that the gratification of sexual propensities is as natural and inexorable as the performance of any of the physiological necessities of our being, thus paving the way for adultery, which, among protestants, ss the rule rather than the exception.
If you are Anglican, your faith was started by King Henry VIII in 1534 because the pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry Ann Boleyn, a maid to his wife Catharine of Aragon. By an act of Parliament, in 1534, Henry VIII set up Anglicanism as the national church of England. Anglicans believe in justification by faith alone ; hold that the Bible is sufficient for salvation and that it is to be interpreted privately; deny the supremacy of the Pope and hold the King supreme in spiritual matters; deny the doctrine of Transubstantiation, purgatory, and condemn the Veneration of the Saints.
If you are Presbyterian, your faith was started by John Knox, an apostate catholic priest, when he brought the teachings of Calvin to Scotland. In 1542 he joined the protestant rebellion, and thereafter, until his death at Edinburgh in 1572, was most active in attacking the Catholic Church.
If you are Unitarian, your faith was started by Martin Cellarius, a friend of Martin Luther. He differed from Luther on the fundamental position of the authority of Scripture. Unitarians deny the divinity of Christ; accept or reject the Bible according to private judgment; deny the doctrine of Atonement and original sin; reject all but two of the Sacraments and deny the grace-conferring power and necessity even of these.
If you are Congregationalist, your religion is a spin off from Puritanism in the early 17th Century in England. It is believed to have been started by Robert Browne, of Rutlandshire, England. In 1580 he initiated propaganda against the Anglican State Church, which brought him many followers but compelled him to migrate to Holland.
If you are Anabaptist your faith was started by Nicholas Stork, a weaver, and Thomas Munzer, a Lutheran preacher and priest, during the reformation. Anabaptists launched their faith by attacking infant baptism whose validity they deny; practiced a form of communism and polygamy; and condemned oaths and warfare as unlawful.
If you are Baptist, your faith was started in England by John Smyth, one time pastor of a church at Gainsborough, that separated from the Church of England. About 1606, to escape persecution, he and his flock emigrated to Amsterdam. Smith preached only baptism of immersion to be valid; predestination; denied free-will, good works, purgatory, the Sacraments, and forgiveness of sin.
If you are Methodist, your faith was started by John Wesley,an anglican clergyman born at Epworth in Lincolnshire. He came into contact with Moravian doctrines while visiting Savannah, Georgia. In 1739, he organized the first Methodist Society, and quit the Anglican Communion, shortly after, in order to start his own church. Methodist doctrine borrows heavily from Anglicans and Calvinists, and like them, hold Scripture to be the sole and sufficient rule of faith and practice; teach justification by faith alone, although the practice of good works is commended; condemn works of supererogation; admit only two sacraments; condemn the invocation of the Saints and the veneration of sacred images and relics; and deny purgatory.
If you are Universalist, then probably Samuel Gorton, a New England mystic, who aired his views as early as 1636, kick started your faith. The belief did not receive definite organization, however until 1750, when James Relly organized a Universalist church in London, to which he ministered until his death, some thirty years later. Universalists deny the divinity of Christ; believe in the universal salvation of all; deny the Sacraments; free-will; good works, and the doctrine of the Trinity.
If you are Quaker, then George Fox, of Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire, England, started your faith. He was apprenticed to a shoe-maker at an early age and received very little education. Disgusted with the vanity of the world, he cut himself off from it, brooded for years, and while in this melancholy state conceived the imaginings of his own distorted mind to be new revelations, which he began to preach in 1647. He believed every man to have an "inner light" which was his only guide; rejected almost everything external in religion; condemned oaths, art, music, the drama, the bearing of arms, etc.
If you are Adventist, then you belong to a number of related Protestant denominations that stress the doctrine of the imminent second coming of Christ. Your faith was started by an American Baptist preacher, William Miller, who proclaimed that the second coming would occur between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. The failure of this prediction was called the First Disappointment, and many left the movement. Following this, a second date, Oct. 22, 1844, was set, and many Adventists disposed of their property in anticipation of the event. The movement was widely ridiculed after the day passed uneventfully. Thereafter many Adventists lost faith and returned to their former churches. Those remaining split into four main bodies, which still continue even to this day.
If you are Episcopalian, your faith was brought over from anglican England to the American colonies and formed a separate congregation founded by Samuel Seabury in 1789.
If you are Mormon, Joseph Smith started your sect, not in Salt Lake City, but Palmyra, New York in 1829.
If you are with the Salvation Army (yes, it’s a religious group, not just an organization that collects money in kettles on Christmas and serves dinners to the homeless), William Booth started your sect in London in 1865.
If you are Christian Scientist, your faith was started by Mary Baker Eddy, in 1879.
If you are Jehovah’s Witness, your sect was founded by Charles Taze Russell in Pennsylvania in the 1870s.
If you are a member of one "Pentecostal", "Gospel" "Holiness Church," "Pilgrim Holiness Church," your sect is one of the thousand of new sects founded by men during the late 19th century, which saw the advent of the so-called Holiness Movement in the United States. In 1901, the Holiness preacher Charles Fox Parham began preaching to his Topeka congregation that speaking in tongues was objective evidence of baptism in the Spirit. After the Los Angeles mission of Parham's Apostolic Faith sect became the center of a great revival, the movement quickly spread around the world. Over the next two decades the movement split along doctrinal and racial lines. Pentecostalist denominations in the United States today are characterized by belief in the experience of holiness or Christian perfection. This perfection is climaxed by an "infilling of the Holy Spirit," as evidenced by "speaking in tongues," ecstatic utterances frequently unintelligible to listeners.
If you are United Unitarian Universalist, then your sect was formed in USA in 1961 by the merger of the American Unitarian Association and the Unitarian Universalist Church of America. Having shared some common concerns and positions throughout the 19th and 20th century, the two churches formed a Council of Liberal Churches in 1953 as a preliminary step to merger.
One quickly observes that all the sects share certain traits namely,
i) They are started by men
ii) None of them can be traced to any point in time earlier than the 16th century (they are not apostalic)
iii) they continuously disintegrate into more sects, resulting in an endless multiplication of sects.
Nowadays, there are millions of “evangelic” sects, every one of them offering a different interpretation of the sacred text, and all proclaim themselves to be right.
However, Scripture teaches that the Church of Christ is and must only be ONE (Rom. 12:5, 1 Cor. 10:17, 12:13). Jesus established only ONE Church, and not a collection of differing, dissenting, and mutually hostile churches (Lutheran, Anglican, Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist,...etc). Unity is an attribute of God, and He cannot be the author of disunity and confusion. Therefore, the sects cannot be of God, but of the devil.
But if you are Roman Catholic, your Faith was established in A.D. 33 by Jesus Christ, the Son of The Living God. Therefore, unlike the sects which were founded by men, the Catholic Church was founded by God Himself.
Scripture also says that the Church is the bride of Christ (Eph. 5:23 – 32). It, therefore, stands to reason that Christ can have only ONE spouse, and this spouse is the Church He founded. Having more than one spouse is adultery.
Moreover, the Church established by Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, because He solemnly pledged that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (2 Matt 16). And He solemnly promised that after His Ascension into Heaven He would send His Church "The Paraclete... the Spirit of Truth," to dwell with His Church forever (John 14:16-17). He inspired the Apostle Paul to describe His Church as "the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15).
If the Catholic Church (which Protestants admit was the true Church of Jesus Christ before Luther's revolt) became doctrinally corrupt as alleged, it would mean that the gates of Hell prevailed against Her; it would mean that Christ has deceived. Believing Christ to be the very essence of truth and integrity, one cannot in conscience believe that Christ could deceive.
Besides, how can the division of Christianity into thousands of rival denominations and doctrinal variations be a "reformation". To a rational mind, thousands of conflicting interpretations of Scripture does not add up to a true interpretation of Christ's teachings.
The Church established by Christ teaches only ONE set of doctrines. This set of doctrines must be identical to that taught by the Apostles (Jude 3) and Church Fathers. This is the UNITY of belief to which Scripture calls us (Phil. 1:27, 2:2). [/size=1]
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2008 : 05:41:36
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JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES: Founded in 1872 by Charles Taze Russell, Former Congregationalist. Succeeded by Judge Rutherford, a Missouri lawyer in 1916. The witnesses deny the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and the Immortality of the Human Soul. Satan is Master on Earth, where he organized the visible part of his empire by founding churches, the great capitalistic organization and civil societies. Characteristics practices flow naturally from their doctrines, such as refusing to bear arms, salute the flag, and participate in the affairs of the secular governments.
CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST: Protestant, Holiness denomination organized by two Baptists, C. P. Jones (1865–1949) and C. H. Mason (1866–1961), in Arkansas in 1895 and incorporated in 1897. It is one of the Pentecostal churches. Like other Holiness and Pentecostal groups, the church emphasizes sanctification, or holiness, which is deemed essential to salvation. The theology of the church is Trinitarian; the Bible is the chief religious authority and is interpreted literally. Ordinances include baptism by immersion, the Lord’s Supper, and foot washing. Speaking in tongues is considered the sign of baptism by the Holy Ghost.
CHURCH OF CHRIST: any of several Pentecostal churches that developed in the U.S. South from the late 19th- and early 20th-century Latter Rain revival, based on a belief that a second rain of the gifts of the Holy Spirit would occur similar to that of the first Christian Pentecost. They adhere to an ultraconservative theology, by which they regard the state of holiness as a work of grace subsequent to conversion or justification, and practice "speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance."The revival began in the Great Smoky Mountains (northwest Georgia and eastern Tennessee) in 1886 under the leadership of R.G. Spurling and his son, who were Baptists, and W.F. Bryant, a Methodist. Members of the revival were organized into the Christian Union, changed their name to the Holiness Church (1902) and later to the Church of God (1907). In 1909 A.J. Tomlinson, an American Bible Society agent, was elected general overseer.Splits began to occur in 1917, when the Chattanooga congregation seceded and took the name of the Original Church of God, Inc. Other divisions followed and numerous independent groups were formed.
HOLINESS CHURCHES: fundamentalist Protestant bodies that developed from Methodism and hold as their distinguishing feature the doctrine that holiness, or sanctification of the individual, occurs by a second act of grace that follows justification and is supplementary to it. The experience of holiness is also referred to as the second blessing. The National Holiness Movement came into being shortly after the American Civil War. Originally a protest movement within Methodism, it opposed the Methodist falling away from the emphasis on sanctification that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had developed. He had stressed original sin and justification by faith and added that the individual may be assured of forgiveness by a direct experience of the spirit, called sanctification, which he regarded as the step leading to Christian perfection.The major representatives of the Holiness movement (excluding Pentecostal denominations) are the Church of the Nazarene and the Church of God (Anderson, Ind.).
CHURCH OF GOD: name of more than 200 independent religious bodies in the U.S. The majority of them are Adventist, Holiness, or Pentecostal denominations. originated about 1880 as a movement within existing churches to promote Christian unity. The founders were interested in relieving the church at large of what they believed was over-ecclesiasticism and restrictive organization and in reaffirming the New Testament as the true standard of faith and life. |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2008 : 05:57:25
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It's amazing how everything fits together if one is prepared to dig deep enough because, in reality, the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses are the Same Organization.
The people and religious sects that attack and abuse each other in public, or appear to be in competition, turn out over and over to be different masks on the same face. Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses are a good example, and so are the different sects within the Baptists.
We are told they are different organizations which stand for different "beliefs" and the followers of both would be aghast at the thought that they could be connected in any way. But then the mass of unthinking followers in any religion are merely the fodder and the screen behind which the real business goes on.
The founders of both "faiths", the Mormons and JWs, were of the Illuminati bloodline. Charles Taze Russell, who founded the Watchtower Society (JWs), was of the Illuminati Russell bloodline, which also founded the infamous Skull and Bones Society at Yale University. Charles Taze Russell was a Satanist, a pedophile according to his wife, and a friend of the satanic Rothschilds. Indeed it was the Rothschilds who funded the Jehovah's Witness operation into being, along with other Illuminati bankers, through "contributions" by organizations like the Rothschild-controlled B'nai B'rith. This was proved in a court of law in 1922. One of the key people involved in this was Frank Goldman who later became President of B'nai B'rith. Why would an organization set up (in theory) to help Jewish people and promote the Jewish faith, be funding into existence the Jehovah's Witnesses?? I think the name Rothschild answers the question. Russell was also a high degree Freemason and Knights Templar. He promoted Zionism, another Rothschild creation (Hitler was a Rothschild creation), on behalf of his friends and backers.
Joseph Smith, along with Hiram Smith and Brigham Young, were the key figures behind the creation of the Mormon religion. They were of the elite of the elite Illuminati bloodline, the Merovingian or "Holy Grail" line, and were all high degree Freemasons. They were also Satanists and formed their "church" as a front for Satanic activity which very much still goes on today. Why wouldn't it, that is what it is there for. The Mormon empire was funded into existence by the Rothschilds through their Kuhn, Loeb, bank which also funded the Russian Revolution and Adolf Hitler, and yet again B'nai Brith, the Rothschild intelligence arm and defamer of genuine researchers, was involved.
Notice any similarities between the last two paragraphs??
Again the followers of these mind control cults would be shocked to think that the upper levels of these "religions" would engage in Satanic activity and human sacrifice of children, but it is about time they knew.
Russell's family was formerly known as Roessel and went to Scotland from Germany. Germany is a massive occult center, from which the Rothschilds emerged, and Scotland is one of the key areas of the world for Illuminati bloodlines. From the start, Charles Taze Russell used his new Watchtower Society, based at Bethel, Brooklyn, New York, as a front for black magic, or Enochian magic as his brand of Satanism was called. He put the flying Sun disk on the front of his books, an ancient Illuminati symbol going back to Egypt and Babylon. The Watchtower magazine has always been a mass of subliminal and less subliminal occult symbolism and the very name, Watchtower, is part of Illuminati and Freemasonry legend and code. To them watchtowers are areas of the "magical universe". The unseen realms. Russell was buried under a pyramid in the United States after being ritually killed on Halloween 1917. These leading Satanists of the Illuminati are ritually killed when their time comes in line with their obsession with ritual. To them, everything is ritual. Again and again the Jehovah's Witness church is named by survivors of trauma-based mind control as being involved in these unspeakable mind control projects.
The Mormons were also created as a front for Satanism and, like the Watchtower Society, Enochian magic. The book by William J. Schnoebelen called Mormonism's Temple of Doom, reveals a lot about Mormonism. Schnoebelen was initiated into the Wicca religion, then into Freemasonry, before going through the Mormon initiation in the Salt Lake temple. He shows in great detail that all three initiations were the same. The same oaths, secret handshakes, and garb. This is a case of one face hidden by many masks. The Salt Lake temple is covered with Illuminati symbols, like the All Seeing Eye, and it is built with granite, a rock which has been used throughout the ages for temples on earth power centers and for esoteric initiation. The Mormons also use the bee symbol, a classic symbol of the Merovingian bloodline which people like the author, Sir Laurence Gardner, want to kid us goes back to "Jesus" when in fact it is the "Holy Grail" bloodline of the Illuminati, the "purest" reptilian line. Joseph Smith carried a dove medallion given to him by an English masonic lodge. The dove is Illuminati symbolism for Queen Semiramis, the female deity in their Babylonian trinity. The Mormon Church, like the Watchtower Society, is also a front for trauma-based mind control. Many survivors have told of their horrific torture in Salt Lake City in Mormon buildings and centers. The Mormon genealogy operation is also a front behind which the Illuminati keep track of the reptilian bloodline, who has it to a "pure" enough level and who has not.
You won't be surprised to know, therefore, that the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses are the same organization at the top level where the Elders of the Mormons and the leaders of the Watchtower Society operate a very different agenda to the one their followers believe. But what chance have you got of knowing what is happening within your "church" when you refuse to think or question? "Have faith", the mantra of these religious con-men through the ages, really means "Don't think and don't question." I was taken around the Mormon temple site (not the temple which is only for initiates) by two lovely girls from Thailand and Hong Kong. They had worked their asses off for years to pay their own fare to America and to pay for their own accommodation and living expenses for the privilege of serving this unbelievably wealthy organization, as "guides" (recruiters) for the faith. On the way round, I asked them what they thought the significance was of the founders of the Mormon church all being high degree Freemasons. They looked at each other for a moment in bewilderment and then one said: "What's Freemasonry?"
Narrated by David Icke |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2008 : 08:50:23
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For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid down, which is Jesus Christ (1Cor 3:11).
The Old Testament verse that complements 1Cor 3:11 is:
Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain....(Psalms 127:1)
Now, the Lord's house is defined in 1Timothy 3:15:
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1Timothy 3:15).
And the Lord speaks of actually building the house:
And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.(Matthew 16:18)
Dear reader, notice that these verses, refer to a house, not houses, and the church, or My Church, not churches.
Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it. - Matthew 7:24-27
Notice that the wise man built, not several houses, but a single house upon the rock, .
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:17-22)
In order to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, a religious denomination must demonstrate apostolic succession.
About 33 A.D., the foundation of the Catholic Church was laid down by Jesus Christ(See Matthew 16:18,18:15-18,28:20, Eph 5:23, and Psalms 127:1). That the Catholic Church is the one, and only, true Church founded by Jesus Christ, is easily proven from holy Scripture, apostolic succession, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and common sense and reason. Founded with the Apostle Peter as its head, the Catholic Church can trace its leadership from this Apostle in an unbroken and documented chain of successors to Pope Benedict XVI today. The writings of Christian Church fathers beginning in the 1st century show distinctive Catholic doctrine. For over 1000 years the history of the Catholic Church is the history of Christianity.
In a sermon for the Sunday after Ascension (John 15:26-16:4, 2nd sermon, page 265, paragraph 28, A.D 1522), even Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, had this to say regarding the Church founded by Jesus Christ:
"Accordingly, we concede to the papacy that they sit in the true Church, possessing the office instituted by Christ and inherited from the apostles, to teach, baptize, administer the sacrament, absolve, ordain, etc.,"
Several years later, in a sermon on the gospel of St. John (A.D 1537, LUTHER'S WORKS, Chap. 14 - 16, vol. 24, St. Louis, Mo., Concordia, 1961, 304), Luther remarked:
"We concede - as we must - that so much of what they [the Catholic Church] say is true: that the papacy has God's word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received Holy Scriptures, Baptism, the Sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?"
However, almost 1500 years after Jesus Christ founded His Church, all hell broke lose; chaos and confusion entered the picture. 1Cor 3:11 and several other verses were ignored by many, as mere human men and women had other ideas. Not GOD, but mere human creatures would begin to lay their own foundations. However, they could not lay them on rock, since the rock supports only the one Church which Jesus Christ founded. Thus were the teachings of Holy Scripture ignored by those who claimed to believe in, and follow the Bible.
GOD is not the author of confusion, but of peace... (1Cor 14:33), and we are commanded to obey GOD rather than men (Acts 5:29).
Here is a list of some sects, and their human founders, and founding dates.
1521. The foundation of the Lutherans, the beginning of Protestantism, was laid down by Martin Luther.
1522. The foundation of the Anabaptists was laid down by Conrad Grebel, Menno Simons, Thomas Munzer and others.
1525. The foundation of the Mennonites was laid down by Menno Simons in a split from Anabaptists.
1534. The foundation of the Anglican Church of England, was laid down by King Henry VIII.
1536. The foundation of the Calvinists was laid down by John Calvin, as he taught predestination.
1560. The foundation of the Presbyterians was laid down by John Knox, who studied under Luther.
1582. The foundation of the Congregationalists was laid down by Robert Brown, a branch from Puritanism.
1609. The foundation of the Baptists in Holland was laid down by John Smyth.
1639. The foundation of the Baptists in America was laid down by Roger Williams.
1647. The foundation of the Quakers was laid down by George Fox in England.
1693. The foundation of the Amish was laid down by men in a split from the Mennonites.
1708. The foundation of the Church of the Brethren was laid down by five men and three women.
1739. The foundation of the Methodists was laid down by John and Charles Wesley.
1770. The foundation of the Universalists was laid down by John Murray in New Jersey.
1774. The foundation of the Unitarians was laid down by Theophilus Lindley.
1789. The foundation of the Episcopalians was laid down by Samuel Seabury. It is the American branch of Anglicans.
1792. The foundation of the Reformed Church in America was laid down by many who broke from the Dutch Reformed Church.
1802. The foundation of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference was laid down by Stephen and Ann Mumford.
1803. The foundation of the Evangelicals was laid down by Jacob Albright.
1820. The foundation of the Fundamentalist-Bible was laid down by John Darby, Cyrus Scofield, and others.
1827. The foundation of the Christian Church (Stone-Campbell) was laid down by Alexander Campbell.
1827. The foundation of the Primitive Baptist was laid down by men. It is considered the strictest of all Baptists.
1830. The foundation of the Mormons was laid down by Joseph Smith in Palmyra New York. (Galatians 1:6-10)
1832. The foundation of the Disciples of Christ was laid down by a presbyterian schism called "The Stone-Campbell Movement".
1840. The foundation of the Primitive Methodist Church was laid down by Hugh Borne and William Clowes.
1843. The foundation of the Wesleyan Church was laid down by Orange Scott.
1844. The foundation of the Christadelphians was laid down by John Thomas from Stone-Campbell movement.
1845. The foundation of the American Baptist Churches was laid down by several men.
1845. The foundation of the Religious Society of Friends was laid down by Joseph Gurney, and John Wilbur.
1845. The foundation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest non-Catholic denomination, was laid down by several men.
1847. The foundation of the Apostolic Christian Church of America was laid down by Benedict Weyeneth.
1852. The foundation of the Baptist General Conference was laid down by Gustaf Palmquist.
1858. The foundation of the Bible Fellowship Church was laid down by Mennonite leaders.
1860. The foundation of the Adventists was laid down by William Miller.
1860. The foundation of the Advent Christian Church was laid down by George Storrs and Charles Hudsen.
1863. The foundation of the Seventh-Day Adventists was laid down by Ellen Gould White.
1863. The foundation of the Church of GOD (7th Day) was laid down by Gilbert Cranner.
1865. The foundation of the Salvation Army was laid down by William Booth.
1865. The foundation of the North American Baptist Conference, was laid down by German immigrants.
1867. The foundation of the Church of Christ Temple was laid down by Granville Hedrick in a split from Mormonism.
1870. The foundation of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was laid down by many members.
1873. The foundation of the Reformed Episcopal Church was laid down by George Cummins.
1874. The foundation of the Jehovah's Witnesses was laid down by Charles Taze Russell.
1875. The foundation of the New Age movement was laid down by Helena Blavatsky. (Colossians 2:8)
1879. The foundation of the Christian Scientists was laid down by Mary Baker Eddy.
1882. The foundation of the Brethren Church was laid down by expelled Church of the Brethren members.
1886. The foundation of the Church of GOD was laid down by former Methodists.
1894. The foundation of the Church of Christ Holiness was laid down by C.P. Jones.
1895. The foundation of the Modernism movement was laid down by Alfred Loisy, and George Tyrrell.
1895. The foundation of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., was laid down by many black Baptists.
1896. The foundation of the Christian Catholic Church was laid down by Alexander Dowie.
1897. The foundation of the Church of GOD in Christ was laid down by Charles Mason and Charles Jones.
1901. The foundation of the Pentecostalism was laid down by Charles Fox Parham and William Seymour.
1903. The foundation of the Church of GOD was laid down by AJ Tomlinson.
1903. The foundation of the House of GOD was laid down by Mary Magdalena Tate.
1906. The foundation of the Church of Christ was laid down by men out of the Stone-Campbell movement of 1832.
1907. The foundation of the Apostolic Faith Church was laid down by Florence Crawford.
1908. The foundation of the Church of the Nazarine was laid down by Phineas F. Bresee.
1909. The foundation of the Church of Christ in Christian Union was laid down by several union members.
1914. The foundation of the Iglesia ni Cristo was laid down by Felix Manalo.
1914. The foundation of the General Council of the Assemblies of GOD was laid down by former pastors.
1917. The foundation of the Four Square Gospel was laid down by Aimee Semple McPherson.
1918. The foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod was laid down by immigrants.
1920. The foundation of the Churches of Christ was laid down as one of several split from Church of Christ.
1923. The foundation of the Church of GOD of Prophecy was laid down by AJ Tomlinson.
1926. The foundation of the Protestant Reformed Churches was laid down by Herman Hoeksema and others.
1930. The foundation of the Branch Davidians was laid down by Victor Houteff in a split from Seventh-Day Adventists.
1930. The foundation of the Independent Churches of America (IFCA), was laid down by a consortium of churches.
1932. The foundation of the General Association of General Baptists was laid down by Benoni Stinson, when he broke from the American Baptist Convention.
1934. The foundation of the Evangelical Reformed was laid down by a union at a General Assembly.
1935. The foundation of the National Association of Free Will Baptists was laid down by those united from former splits.
1935. The foundation of the Open Bible Standard Churches was laid down by Fred Hornshuh and John Richey.
1938. The foundation of the Bible Presbyterian Church was laid down by Gresham Machen.
1939. The foundation of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches was laid down by many split from the Brethren Church.
1939. The foundation of the Southern Methodist Church was laid down by those who split from Methodist Episcopal.
1946. The foundation of the Evangelical Methodist Conference was laid down by W.W. Breckbill.
1947. The foundation of the Berean Fundamental Church was laid down by Dr. Ivan E. Olsen.
1952. The foundation of the Church of Scientology was laid down by L. Ron Hubbard.
1957. The foundation of the United Church of Christ was laid down by an ecumenical union of Congregationalists, Evangelicals, Reformed, Calvinists, and Lutherans.
1961. The foundation of the Progressive National Baptist Convention was laid down by Martin Luther King Jr.
1962. The foundation of the Southern Episcopal Church was laid down by B. H. Webster in a split from Episcopalians.
1964. The foundation of the Lutheran Churches of Reformation was laid down by many in a split from the Lutheran Missouri synod.
1965. The foundation of the Calvary Chapel was laid down by Chuck Smith.
1966. The foundation of the Assemblies of Yahweh was laid down by Jacob Meyer.
1968. The foundation of the Disciples of Christ was laid down by those who separated from Churches of Christ.
1968. The foundation of the United Methodist Church was laid down by a merger of parts of other sects.
1970. The foundation of the Church of GOD International was laid down by Garner Armstrond.
1972. The foundation of the Harvest Christian was laid down by Greg Laurie.
1973. The foundation of the Presbyterian Church in America was laid down in a split from Presbyterian liberals.
1974. The foundation of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship was laid down by Ken Gullickson.
1977. The foundation of the Anglican Catholic was laid down by several persons who broke away from Episcopalians.
1978. The foundation of the Association of Vineyard Churches was laid down by John Wimber.
1981. The foundation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church was laid down by Presbyterian Elders.
1982. The foundation of the Full Gospel Evangelistic Association was laid down by Clarence Robinson.
1982. The foundation of the Saddleback Church was laid down by Risk Warren.
1987. The foundation of the Alliance of Baptist Churches was laid down by many, separated from Southern Baptists.
1991. The foundation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was laid down by a group that broke from Southern Baptists.
1992. The foundation of the Charismatic Episcopal Church was laid down by the Chicago Hall.
1992. The foundation of the Traditional Episcopal was laid down by Richard Melli who split from Episcopalians.
2000. The foundation of the Lords Witnesses was laid down by Gordon Ritchie as he split off from Jehovah Witnesses.
This list is by no means comprehensive, it is but a minuscule proportion of the 37,000 non-Catholic sects which, according to World Christian Database, a Protestant publication, existed as of 2004.
At the present rate of growth there will be 63,000 sects by 2025, an increase of 26,000 from the 37,000 of 2004. That amounts to 1238 new foundations projected to be laid down by mere humans every year, or slightly more than an average of 3 each and every day. In 100 years there will be at least 123,800 additional sects at the present rate of growth. There will no doubt be many more than that figure since the rate of growth of the sects has been accelerating every year.
For a very good listing of many hundreds more of existing Christian sects than I have included in this writing, please visit http://conglomination.com/cg/default.asp. One cannot help but acknowledge the sheer insanity of mankind.
Not a single one of the thousands of sects can show that it was founded by GOD. None can trace its history before the 16th century. By the time the first protestant appeared, the Catholic Church was already approaching 1500 years of age. The sects can only trace their heritage back to mere human founders, and never back to Jesus Christ.
The plan put forth by Jesus Christ called for unity when He said: And there shall be one fold and one shepherd (John 10:16).
The Apostle Paul reiterates this plan, by admonishing us to have only one faith. But having one faith means being of one mind as we are admonished to be by the same Apostle in Philippians 1:27, and 2:2. And having one mind requires that there be only one authority. It, therefore, stands to reason that by having only one faith, everyone would be teaching and hearing the same truth. Therefore there could not be any other but the one Church which Jesus Christ founded. Also, by having only the one Church, would not the commands of Psalms 127:1, 1Corinthians 3:11, and 1Peter 4:17 be obeyed?
In his letter to the Ephesians Paul says:
And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles (Eph 4:11-15)
Since Jesus Christ is truth, that means truth is one. It stands to reason that if each of the thousands of individual sects teach something different to distinguish themselves from the others, then which one, if any, teaches the one truth?
One sect preaches infant Baptism, another bans it. Another worships only on Saturday, whereas another on Sunday. One ordains female ministers, another dismisses such a practice as unbiblical. One teaches that the Eucharist is the Body of Christ, another says it is only a symbol, while another dismisses it as idolatry. Some teach universal salvation, another confuses Christ for the archangel Michael, while some even deny his divinity altogether.
Except for the existence of GOD, every doctrine taught by one is denied by another. Some sects even teach a "feel good" theology, if it feels good for you, then it must be the truth. What is the ending for this chaos? They cannot agree on anything; they are characterized by dissensions, jarring contradictions, and mutual hatred. The only thing that just about unites them is their hatred for the Catholic Church and Her doctrines.
However, at the end of the day, protestant denominations are guided by mere human personal opinions, even though they claim to be guided by the Holy Spirit. How can that possibly be? How could The Holy Spirit teach such variances of doctrine? The answer is that He could not, for the Church which Jesus Christ founded is not governed by mere human opinions, but by GOD given doctrinal truth, and that truth, like GOD, is one.
Moreover, the Apostle has already warned us:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths (2Timothy 4:3-4)
Dear reader, am sure that even you are compelled to acknowledge the hand of Lucifer, that archenemy of God, in all the countless sects that have risen since Luther's rebellion. For a house is divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25), and divide and conquer is Satan's plan.
The question of which is the true Faith/Religion, is a very serious one, that all should heed if they are truly serious about their salvation. After all, one cannot afford to play Russian Roulette with one's immortal soul. It is a fact, whether we like it or not, that all of us will spend eternity either in heaven, or in hell. We make that choice ourselves with our own free will. We only have this one life in which to make the right choice. Who knows when that life will end? It might be in the next minute or two. And there is no second chance.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2009 : 11:16:06
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The Incredible Creed of the Jehovah's Witnesses
By Rev. Dr. Rumble, M.S.C.
The Witnesses of Jehovah constitute one of the most vigorous and spectacular religious propagandist bodies of the present day. Throughout the world an army of persistent enthusiasts tramp from door to door, urging people to adopt their teachings as a matter of life and death. They claim to have made over a million converts in recent years, chiefly in America; and they have been written up in the "Saturday Evening Post", "Collier's Weekly" and the "Reader's Digest" as a phenomenon of both national and international importance.
This new sect originated in the U.S.A., to which the world owes Mormonism, Christian Science, Seventh Day Adventists, Father Divine, and so many other strange religious outbreaks. Charles Taze Russell, a draper of Pittsburgh, afterward known as "Pastor" Russell, was the founder of the movement in 1872. Nathan Homer Knorr, its present head, prefers to say, "We broke in on the history of Jehovah's Witnesses" in 1872. And that leads us to the question of names.
EVOLUTION OF A NAME
No modern movement, in its efforts to establish itself, save perhaps that of the Communists, can rival the Witnesses of Jehovah in the technique of masquerading under ever-changing titles.
Russell began by preaching what he termed the "Millennial Dawn," and his followers soon became known as "Millennial Dawnists." Before long, however, Russell had adopted the title, "Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society." In 1896 this was changed to "The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society." In 1909 he thought the "People's Pulpit Association" sounded better, the headquarters of which he established at Brooklyn, New York. In 1909 he resumed the title "Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society." In 1914 the work was being carried on as the "International Bible Students' Association."
The same tactics were adopted in the publishing of literature. In 1919 a magazine, "The Golden Age," appeared. In 1937 this same magazine was appearing as "Consolation." In 1946 its name was changed to "Awake." These constant changes compelled those who had refuted the movement under one name to begin all over again; and whilst they were catching up with current fashions, the Russellites were enabled to gain enough recruits to get firmly established.
At last came their present and apparently permanent name. In 1931 Judge Rutherford decided that henceforth the "Millennial Dawnists" would be known as the "Witnesses of Jehovah."
Nathan Knorr now tells us that "Jehovah God is the Founder and Organizer of the Witnesses on this earth," and that He Himself indicated this as "the appropriate designation of His earthly ministers." Surely it is strange that Russell himself, the founder of the movement, had no notion of that!" For Russell died in 1916, fifteen years before this discovery was made. And whence came the discovery? In 1931, Judge Rutherford came across the text in Isaiah 43:10, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."
That Isaiah the prophet had the Russellites in mind over 700 years before Christ is an absurd supposition for which not an atom of proof exists. Anticipating that difficulty, Nathan Knorr protests, "We have not arbitrarily assumed this God-given name." Why not? "Well, we are witnessing, aren't we!" is his reply. "What we are doing proves that the name is applicable to us." But to what are these people witnessing? Certainly not to the truth revealed by God, as we shall see. If merely witnessing, no matter to what one witnesses, makes one a messenger of God, then Communists, who are witnesses par excellence with their world-wide propaganda on behalf of Marxian Socialism, have more right than the Russellites to pretend to a divine commission. But Nathan Knorr just by-passes these difficulties. "God," he writes, "has always had His witnesses. Abel first; then a long line through from Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah to John the Baptist. Taking pre-eminence over all is Christ 'the faithful and true Witness,' Who designated others. "Ye shall be witnesses to Me unto the uttermost parts of the earth." (Acts 1:8) Jehovah's Witnesses are merely the last of this long line of God's earthly servants."
There is, of course, no proof whatever that the Witnesses of Jehovah have any connection with the previous witnesses mentioned. Moreover, their doctrines are a flagrant contradiction of the teachings of those previous witnesses.
CHARLES TAZE RUSSELL
Charles Taze Russell was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1852, the son of a draper who later established his business in Allegheny. Charles became an earnest worker in the local Congregational Church, but was soon obsessed with an overwhelming horror of hell and the gloomy prospects of the Calvinist theology of that time held out the mass of humanity. Charles went about chalking up in all kinds of places warnings of hell for unbelievers; and in 1869, at the age of 17, tried to convert an atheist whom he happened to meet. But the atheist destroyed Russell's own faith, and he became an infidel also. Never again would he believe in hell!
Russell, however, although he had given up attending church, could not leave his Bible alone, and soon he discovered that he could believe in the Bible without believing in hell for the simple reason, he says, that the Bible does not teach the existence of hell at all.
At the age of 20 he began preaching this "good news," and with "no hell" as a most attractive plank in his platform, soon gained followers. He sold the draper's business he had inherited from his father, and in 1878 assumed the title of "Pastor Russell," founding a new religion of his own.
He became a prolific writer, at first borrowing his ideas from the works of J. H. Paton, of Michigan, USA, published under the title of "Day Dawn". Russell proclaimed these ideas as his own divinely-inspired doctrines, merely substituting the title "Millennial Dawn" for "Day Dawn" to distinguish his system from Paton's. Later he changed to the less recognizable Studies in the Scriptures.
Russell claimed to have written more explanatory books on the Bible than the combined writings of Paul, John, Arius, Waldo, Wycliffe, and Martin Luther, whom he said to have been the six great messengers of the Church preceding himself. He began, as did the founders of so many other Adventist sects, with the idea that the Second Coming of Christ and the Final Judgment were near at hand; and then ranged over the whole of Sacred Scripture, claiming an infallibility far beyond that claimed by any Pope, as an interpreter of God's revelation. His followers accepted him as the "Seventh Messenger" or "Angel" referred to in Ezekiel 9, and held that he would rank next after St. Paul in the "gallery of fame" as an exponent of the Gospel of Christ, the Great Master.
Yet, what kind of a man was this Charles Taze Russell? He was certainly an expert at making money, whether in the drapery business until he sold it, or by investments in mines and real estate, or by the selling of his books, and of "miracle wheat." Unfortunately, he was legally compelled to restore to the purchases the money he had obtained for his miracle wheat, on the score that it had been dishonestly extracted from them. But honesty was not Pastor Russell's predominant virtue. Under oath in court at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1913, he declared in support of his claims to be an expert Scripture scholar that he knew Greek. Handed a Greek New Testament, he was forced to admit that he did not know even the Greek alphabet; and that he knew nothing of Hebrew or of Latin, despite his pretensions to a knowledge of those languages also. Not to know such languages is no crime, of course. But to make lying pretensions to a knowledge of them is scarcely in keeping with claims to be a prophet of God; whilst to do so under oath is the still worse sin of perjury.
Not less unbecoming in this self-styled prophet was the fact that his wife divorced him in 1897 on charges of adultery with two different women, a stenographer and a housemaid; and that the judge flayed him, after granting the divorce, for his general ill-treatment of his wife. To avoid payment of the alimony ordered by the court, Russell promptly transferred his property, worth over $240,000, to the "Watch Tower Bible" and "Tract Society."
Russell died on October 31, 1916, in a Santa Fe train near Pampa, TX on his way to Kansas City; and he is now seldom mentioned by the Witnesses of Jehovah. This man, once held by his followers to rank next after St. Paul in the "gallery of fame," has been practically forgotten by the later generation dominated by his successor.
JUDGE J.F. RUTHERFORD
At the time of Russell's death there was a man named Joseph Franklin Rutherford serving a prison sentence in Atlanta on a charge of sedition during the first world war then raging." This man, on his release from prison, took over control of the Russellite organization.
Rutherford was born in 1869, and became a lawyer in 1892. Chosen as attorney for the organization, he was shrewd enough to see its possibilities, and threw in his lot with it. As president, he wished to be known by the impressive title of "Judge Rutherford," though he was never officially appointed as a judge. His forceful personality set the movement definitely on its feet. He poured out unending books and pamphlets to keep the publishing business going, teaching new doctrines of which Russell had never heard and often quite opposed to what Russell himself had taught. It was he, as we have seen, who devised in 1931 the new title "Witnesses of Jehovah." The prominence he gave to the slogan, "Millions now living will never die," brought crowds flocking to hear him wherever he was billed to speak. But, alas, he was not one of the millions fated not to die.
On January 8, 1942, Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford bade goodbye to this world in the palatial villa he had built at San Diego, CA, as an official residence pending the return of the Lord to judge the living and the dead.
NATHAN HOMER KNORR
On Rutherford's death, Nathan Homer Knorr was elected as president of the Watch Tower Organization. Born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1905, he was converted to the Russellites at the age of 16 through reading some Watch Tower publications. In 1923, aged 18, he became a full-time preacher on Sundays, working as a packer and shipper at the Brooklyn headquarters on week-days and devoting his evenings to the study of the Bible as interpreted by Russell and Rutherford. In 1932 he became general manager of the Brooklyn publishing offices; in 1934 was elected to the Board of Directors; and in 1942 was chosen as successor of Judge Rutherford, in whose place he still reigns supreme.
"THE NEW CHRISTIANITY"
The Witnesses of Jehovah conceive it to be their first duty to denounce all other religious bodies. Rutherford declared that "religion was introduced into the world by the Devil." "For more than three years," he declaimed, "Jesus continued to proclaim the truth and to warn the people against the practice of religion." "For religion," declared Rutherford, "dishonors and reproaches the name of Jehovah God, whilst Christianity honors and vindicates the name of Almighty God. This is why true Christians are always persecuted by religionists."
It is clear from this that Rutherford uses the word religion in a sense all his own. Asked to define it on one occasion, he said, "Religion is any form of worship practiced by creatures in recognition of some real or supposed 'higher power,' and which practice finds support or authority only in the teaching handed down by tradition." That the doctrines of Russell and Rutherford are but the teachings of men, to be handed down amongst the Witnesses of Jehovah by tradition does not seem to have occurred to him!
Asked to define Christianity he replies, "Christianity means the worship of Almighty God in spirit and in truth, in accord with the commands of God and teachings of Jesus Christ. None other are Christians. There is no such thing as "Christian religion," because religion and Christianity are exactly opposite and diametrically opposed one to the other." Which, of course, is absurd.
Christianity is religion, and is the true religion as opposed to all false religions including that of the Witnesses of Jehovah, as will be seen in the course of this document.
HATRED OF OTHER CHURCHES
One of the main duties of the Witnesses of Jehovah seems to be to pour out a torrent of abuse against all Christian Churches, particularly against the Catholic Church. This, of course, is not a new trick. Every would-be founder of a new religion has had to commence by denouncing all previous religions, else how justify his new departure at all? In 1860, just 12 years before Russell thought of it, the Seventh Day Adventists had declared that all Churches except that of the Seventh Day Adventists have been deceived by Satan through the agency of the Papacy into the observance of Sunday. All of them constitute "Babylon," and are rejected by God. But this is particularly true of the Catholic Church, presided over by "Antichrist" or the "Beast" in the person of the Pope.
Following this same line, Russell had said that, in 1878, God had rejected all existing Churches, constituting the Russellites as His only spokesmen thenceforward. But Rutherford did not like the implied admission that the Churches were all right till Russell appeared on the scene. He declared that, after the resurrection of Christ, the Devil at once set to work and built a great empire, the Papacy. Later, the Devil inspired the creation of various Protestant Churches all of them, including even the Seventh Day Adventists. All priests and all Protestant clergymen are of the Devil, said Rutherford. They are enemies of God, and are simply "Antichrist." Nathan Knorr tells us that "by 1881 growing differences in basic beliefs had created an immense chasm between the Witnesses and the orthodox Churches." The "growing" differences were due to the Russellites inventing new and unheard-of doctrines manufactured by themselves during the period from 1878 to 1881.
If, however, all Churches are to branded as evil, what of the Witnesses themselves? They meet this difficulty by denying that they are a "Church" or a "Denomination." They say they can find no justification for a "Church" or a "Hierarchy" of any kind in the Bible. That will impress nobody who has any real knowledge and understanding of the contents of the Bible. For much is there which the Witnesses of Jehovah say they cannot find, whilst much that they claim to find there is not there at all. But let us see what they have to say of themselves.
They claim to be but the precursors sent by God to warn men of a "Theocratic Kingdom" at present in the making. And they alone, of all men in this world, belong to that Theocratic Kingdom.
CIVIC DISLOYALTY
Insisting that they owe their sole loyalty to this Theocratic Kingdom, Witnesses of Jehovah refuse the duties of earthly citizenship. The world, they say, is divided into tow opposed groups, that of the "Theocratic Kingdom," and that of "Satan's Organization." "Satan's Organization" includes all Churches and Governments. And just as amongst the Churches the Papacy is the "Beast" par excellence, so amongst the nations are America and Great Britain.
"In the formation of the Hague World Court of the League of Nations," wrote Judge Rutherford, "Great Britain and America took the lead, and this is proof that the Anglo-American Empire is the two-horned beast." (Light, Vol. II, p. 98) The "British Israelites" won't like that, for they claim to have proved from the Bible that Britain and America form between them the chosen people of God! But we can leave the British Israelites and the Witnesses of Jehovah to settle that matter between themselves.
In the meantime, consistently with their false principles, the Witnesses refuse to salute the flag of any earthly nation, are conscientious objectors to all forms of military service, and say they will fight only for Jehovah and His people which means for their own opinions against all who oppose them.
As a consequence of their refusal to fulfill the New Testament admonition, "Be ye subject, therefore, to every human creature for God's sake; whether to the king as excelling, or to governors sent by him. Fear God. Honor the king" (1st Peter 2:13-17), many Witnesses of Jehovah have been fined or jailed, whilst in Australia and New Zealand during 1940 their organization was declared illegal. The New Zealand Attorney-General said at the time that they were devoting themselves to "vilification of religion, of their fellow-citizens, of the State and of the Government."
PERSECUTION COMPLEX
The Witnesses complain that they are persecuted for their religious beliefs, quite inconsistently with their denial that their system constitutes a religion. But in any case their complaint is unjustified. Small sects get into trouble only when their practices transgress common decency. If the Witnesses are constantly running afoul of their communities, it is because they themselves make vile and insulting onslaughts on the religion of others, and delight in utterances of the most outrageous civic disloyalty.
"For conscientious cussedness on the grand scale," wrote America's Saturday Evening Post, when dealing with this subject, "no other aggregation of Americans is a match for Jehovah's Witnesses. Defiance of what others cherish is their daily meat. They hate all religions and say so from the house-tops. They hate all Governments with an enthusiasm that is equally unconcealed . . . . For being generally offensive they have been getting their heads cracked, their meetings broken up, their meeting-houses pillaged and themselves thrown in jail.
Nathan Knorr argues that the persistence of the Witnesses in spite of severest persecution, mobbings, beatings, tar and feather outrages, imprisonment and even death, is nothing less than miraculous and a sure proof of their divine mission. That the fanaticism and obstinacy by which he himself would explain the reckless zeal of Mahomet's followers could apply to the Witnesses themselves does not seem to have occurred to him. Certainly the same inducements have been held out to them, a deadly fear of a greater evil happening to them should they quail before lesser fears, and magnificent promises of temporal rewards should they die in the cause of the prophets Russell and Rutherford!
A RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
Strangely at variance with their denunciation of all "organized religion," "Churches," "hierarchies" and "clergy," is their own formation of a highly organized and hierarchal religious society by the Witnesses of Jehovah!
Nathan Knorr, in his official contribution to "Religion in the Twentieth Century", begins the exposition of his system by asserting that no man is leader of Jehovah's Witnesses, since "Jehovah God has appointed Christ Jesus as their Leader and commander." But he declares that Christ directs affairs through a "visible organization" with headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
The visible head on earth of this visible organization is Nathan Knorr himself. He is surrounded by a Board of Directors, as the Pope is surrounded by a College of Cardinals. Throughout the world there are local congregations called "Companies," which meet in "Kingdom Halls." But each "Company" has "organizational servants" to oversee all activities. Full time field-workers, aided financially by the Society, are called "Pioneers," and there are over 6500 of these. Every active Witness of Jehovah, however, is regarded as "a minister ordained and commissioned by God, not by man," and must go from house to house selling books in the territory assigned to him by his superior officers.
But if all are ordained, consecrated and commissioned by God, what is this but a hierarchy or an organized sacred body of men with a divinely-given and graded authority? And how can Witnesses of Jehovah pour scorn on religion and on the clergy of other Churches, yet claim exemption from military service on the plea that they are all "ministers of religion," as they do? As for "organized religion," no Church has a more concentrated government than they. The Year Book for 1940, page 47, lays down the law:
"Every thirty days each and every branch office in operation on the earth . . . makes a report in writing to the president of the Society, setting forth in detail the work accomplished during the month. At the end of the fiscal year all branch office . . . will submit to the president in writing a report covering the activities of the Society during the year.
...to be continued
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 04/22/2009 : 08:37:38
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BIG BUSINESS
Mention of the "fiscal year" leads to a consideration of the organization's business activities.
The attack on "organized religion" comes badly from one of the most highly organized religious societies in the world. In the same way, never was there such a religious racket as that of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which declares all other Churches to be "rackets," engaged in "big business."
Pastor Russell founded that Society as a worldwide publishing and distributing agency for his own writings; and Judge Rutherford kept it going for the same purpose. It has become a great money-making concern. The publishing house at Brooklyn pours out an amazing stream of books, pamphlets and periodicals. Since World War I, they have distributed more than 485 millions of these in over 80 different languages.
Judge Rutherford said that these books and pamphlets are sold at "a little more than cost price," and that the "negligible profits" go to the International Bible Students' Association. At an average of a penny profit per sale, over two million pounds would have been raked in. As the average profit would be fourpence or even perhaps sixpence, 10 million pounds profit over the period mentioned would be nearer the mark. Wisely, the Year Book says that no financial statements are published, as enemies would use them "to hinder the work of the Society."
One thing is certain. Despite its vast income, the Society devotes none of its resources to any public works of charity. Challenged at the American Radio Commission's inquiry, Secretary Goux, of the Russellites, admitted that their New York property alone was worth over a million dollars, and that he could not say how much the general holdings of the Corporation were worth. When Mr. Sirovich, assisting the Commission, asked, "Outside of preaching, have you done anything for the poor devils who find themselves economically deprived of a living, and in starvation and hunger, or penury and want? Have you taken any of that money to help them?" Goux replied, "That is not the purpose of this activity. That is not the purpose of this Association. The commission entrusted to Jehovah's Witnesses is to bear testimony among the people.
Bearing this testimony, which means distributing Rutherford's booklets, are 22,304 traveling salesmen called "Publishers," going from house to house in their assigned districts. These people, for the most part, work for nothing, being engaged during the week in ordinary secular employment and devoting all their free time to "field service." Nathan Knorr explains, "Sincere persons, converted by literature, engage in the work of distribution.
New converts, on becoming active workers, are given a card of identification to show they are recognized as "ministers of God." It's a psychological phenomenon that so many credulous people can be so duped and conditioned into becoming voluntary agents in such an enterprise. But nothing succeeds like success. In 1919, at Cedar Point, Ohio, USA, 8000 Witnesses met in Convention and "girded themselves for publishing work." At the same place, 1921, 20,000 Witnesses acclaimed the slogan, "Advertise, Advertise, Advertise the King and the Kingdom." In more prosaic words that meant, "Propagate Rutherford's teachings and sell his books." In 1946, at Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 80,000 Witnesses were filled with similar enthusiasm.
In all this, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society never stands to lose. Voluntary distributors pay for the books they receive; and if they give them away, do so at their own expense. Many such distributors return, not only the full price of the books, but additional donations from their own earnings in their secular jobs.
A further technical factor contributing to wide sales is that, as the books are offered for a "donation," and not "sold," no hawker's license is necessary, sales are not taxable, and business may be done on Sundays. It has all been very shrewdly devised.
Of course people have first to be converted to the new religion before they will work for it with such devotedness; and the religion to which they have been converted we must now examine more closely.
"BIBLE-CHRISTIANS"
The Witnesses of Jehovah claim to be "Bible-Christians." Nathan Knorr tells us that "the Bible is God's inspired Word, handed down for those now living in the last days." How he knows it to be God's Word, who handed it down, and why it is for those now living in the "last days" any more than for those who lived in previous ages, are subjects he prefers not to discuss. All he says is that Charles Taze Russell found "no Christian denomination teaching what the Bible contains," and therefore "began a thorough study of the Bible, particularly concerning Christ's Second Coming and Millennial Reign."
Unfortunately, Pastor Russell, inspired by God if we can believe his first followers, does not seem to have been very successful. After his death in 1916, Judge Rutherford took over and promptly began to teach doctrines very different from those of Russell. Internal dissension in the movement followed. But, writes Nathan Knorr, "Rutherford and the Directors were overwhelmingly supported. The beaten and disgruntled opposition force withdrew and set up an independent organization," splitting up "into many little groups of no consequence."
Judge Rutherford, then, remains the supreme prophet of the movement, and his interpretations of the Bible have become the Witness dogmas. Whilst the Witnesses say that they rely on what the Bible says, they rely on what Judge Rutherford tells them it says. To the Broadcasting Commission of 1934 Secretary Goux said, on behalf of the organization, that Rutherford's explanations of the Bible are not human opinions, but inspired by God. Papal claims to infallibility are indeed mild in comparison with that!
In his explanations of the Bible, Rutherford followed no accepted principles of interpretation, whilst of critical scholarship he knew absolutely nothing. To support his theories he took any text he pleased, almost at random, and made it mean whatever he wished!
Still, his disciples insist that they are "Bible-Christians." They say that, whilst they do not believe in the "Christian Religion," they do believe in "Christianity." They have a way of speaking all their own, which is very difficult to follow; but it will be enough to show that their system contradicts almost every basic Christian teaching.
"JEHOVAH GOD"
One of the first peculiarities met with in this new religion is the strange use of the expression "Jehovah God." Nathan Knorr complains that "the masses of Christendom do not even appreciate the fact that "Jehovah" is God's name."
But God certainly has not got a name to distinguish Him from other "gods," as Nathan Knorr himself is distinguished by his first name from others with the same surname! Nor is even the word "Jehovah" truly Biblical. The original authors of the Sacred Book knew nothing of it. They wrote in Hebrew the word Yahweh, which meant literally He who is. Yahweh, therefore, was an alternative name for God, not a kind of "Christian name" to identify God from among other divinities. "Jehovah God" is an expression found nowhere in the Bible, and is a combination of words grotesque in the extreme.
Again, Judge Rutherford tells us in his book, "Reconciliation," that the "constellation of the seven stars forming the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God – the dwelling place of Jehovah." What kind of a God is Rutherford's who dwells on a star? And how can the Pleiades, themselves not eternal, constitute the eternal throne?
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity Rutherford categorically denies. "Never was there a more deceptive doctrine advanced" he writes, "than that of the Trinity. It could have originated only in one mind, and that the mind of Satan the Devil." "Reconciliation," (p. 101). That Christ Himself commissioned His followers to "baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" carries no weight with Rutherford and his disciples. They have abandoned Christianity for Unitarianism. Christ for them is not the Eternal Son of God, nor is the Holy Spirit a Divine Person. Rutherford says that the Holy Spirit is any power or influence exercised by God. But Christ spoke of the Holy Spirit as Personal. "The Holy Ghost," He said, "whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things." (John 16:26)
But let us look a little more closely at Rutherford's doctrine about Christ.
CHRIST
One of the most vital questions in the Gospels is, "What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?" (Matthew 22:42) Christians have ever replied to that with the unhesitating proclamation of faith, "Son of the Living God." But not so the Witnesses of Jehovah.
These Witnesses agree that Christ existed before He was born into this world, but say that He was himself only a creature – the first creature made by God and used as an instrument for the creation of all else. Russell tells us that he was "Michael the Archangel"! When, millennia after his creation, this creature became man, his nature was completely changed from angelic and spiritual to material and human. "In obedience to God, he gave up his spirit-being and was born of Mary as a wholly-human being." Apparently that was the end of Michael the Archangel, a fact St. John unfortunately forgot when writing his Apocalypse, for there he has Michael still existing side by side with the Christ into whom Russell declared him to have been transformed!
But let us go on. When Christ died on the Cross, according to the Witnesses, he was merely a man, and his death was the end of him; completely and absolutely the end. But a "spirit-being" emerged from the tomb to become "a" god, not "the" God; which apparently was better than being merely Michael the Archangel who had existed in the first place.
This doctrine that Christ was three successive and independent beings: Michael the Archangel, the man Jesus, and the semi-divine king of the new world, is certainly not the Christian doctrine, whatever else it may be. Most intelligent people will rightly estimate it as fantastic nonsense.
And what becomes of the basic fact in the Christian religion – the resurrection of Christ? "If Christ be not risen," says St. Paul, "then is your faith in vain." (1st Corinthians 15:17) The Witnesses of Jehovah deny that he is risen. "The man Christ," they say, "is dead forever." "The Person who died," Russell tells us, "remained dead, and he will never be seen again in his human nature." What became of his body? Russell says that no one knows. He suggests that possibly it was dissolved into gases, or super-naturally removed by God to be preserved until He chooses to produce it as a grand memorial or trophy of Christ's work. But it will be only a material corpse.
But we are told not to worry. If Christ is not risen in the long-accepted Christian sense of the word, he was raised a "spirit-being," receiving immortality and divinity as a gift from God. It is all very baffling. If the "person who died remained dead," who was the person receiving immortality and divinity? If God created a new being to enjoy those privileges, then that new being wasn't Christ but somebody else! Yet Russell goes on to say that Christ, despite his remaining dead, returned to his disciples after the resurrection in separate "body-appearances" specially created for each occasion!
At the ascension, Russell tells us that Jesus, no longer human, was exalted as a "spirit-being" to the divine nature; and that he remains an invisible spirit, having no longer any connection with our human nature. But if "the person who died remained dead," Jesus is not merely no longer human – he is no longer in existence! Russell may be able to think in such queer ways, but he has no right to pretend that he is giving to his followers anything like the genuine New Testament doctrine.
...to be continued
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2009 : 11:14:54
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"THE SECOND COMING"
Let us turn now to what is really the starting-point of the Russellite system. It is not without significance that it begins at the end and works backways from that, instead of attempting to follow divine revelation in the order in which God gave it. For Russell, as we have seen, began by concentrating on Christ's Second Coming and His "Millennial Reign." A theory having been decided upon in that regard, all else had to be distorted to fit in with it.
Russell took over from the Adventists the idea that the end of the world was very near at hand. By a mysterious process of mathematical calculation from the prophecies, he "discovered" that the Second Coming of Christ actually took place in 1874. If people had not the slightest idea of this, it was because they had been led astray by Acts 1:11: "This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come, as you have seen Him going." Russell says that the Apostles did not see Him going, for He went invisibly as a spirit. And, in 1874, He returned invisibly as a spirit. But not yet to this earth. He returned only to the "upper air." In 1878, Russell further discovered, the apostles and other members of the "little flock," a favored few, were raised to meet the Lord, and they are hovering about with Him also in the "upper air."
In 1914, because that was 2520 years after the defeat of Zedekiah in 606 B.C., there came the "end of the times of the Gentiles." In that year, we are told, Satan began to wage a ferocious war against Christ and the saints in the "upper air," and simultaneously "nation rose against nation" on earth in the first world-war.
Russell firmly believed that 1914 would mean the great final battle of Armageddon, the end of the world as we know it, the descent of Christ from the "upper air," and His enthronement as King on earth for a Millennium after which thousand years the Final Judgment would take place.
When that did not happen, the Witnesses of Jehovah, undismayed by failure, moved the event up several times to 1916, 1918, 1924, 1928, etc., until Judge Rutherford hit on the ingenious explanation that the Second Coming (to the "upper air") took place as Russell had said in 1874. Christ was enthroned as King (in the "upper air") in 1914; and in that year, juridically at least, the world as we know it came to an end. In fact, and literally, the final destruction of all earthly kingdoms and Churches in the great final battle of Armageddon has been postponed until the Witnesses of Jehovah have completed their work of proclaiming the good news of Christ's enthronement and of warning all nations of the impending catastrophe!
Here we see again almost the same tactics as those adopted by the Seventh Day Adventists. William Miller, the Adventist, had calculated that the Second Coming of Christ would occur on 21 March 1843. When that failed, he said that 21 March 1844 was the correct date. He had merely made a slight mistake in his calculations. When that also failed, he moved the date forward to 22 October 1844. But, alas, nothing happened. Then there arose an Adventist named Hiram Edson, who had it "divinely revealed" to him that Christ did come on the last date after all, but not by returning to this world. On that date, He entered a "heavenly sanctuary" to begin investigating the records of all mankind, to find out who were good and who were evil. Mrs. Ellen G. White, the accepted prophetess of the movement, then discovered that as soon as Christ has finished auditing the books in the "heavenly sanctuary," He will descend to earth to execute judgment and that will take place any moment now!
Rutherford working on the same lines, refuses to say just when God will decide that the Witnesses of Jehovah have completed their witness-work but it will be any moment now! He even went so far as to insist that it would be within the lifetime of his own generation. Hence his slogan, "Millions now Living will never Die."
It is of little use to draw the attention of Witnesses of Jehovah to the series of failures in the predictions of their inspired prophets. When the end of the world did not come on schedule, and Russell died in 1916 instead of living to see it, as he expected, Rutherford offered his followers the consoling thought that, as Ezekiel was dumb for a year, five month and twenty-six days, so a similar period after the dumbness of Russell in death might elapse before the end. Twenty-six years elapsed, and then Rutherford himself died in 1942, instead of remaining among the millions who would live to see the end.
But petty details like that cannot avail with the Witnesses of Jehovah against the whole magnificent scheme in which all others are to receive a fearful drubbing whilst they themselves are to be preserved from harm and elevated to eternal bliss as co-rulers of the world with Christ!
ARMAGEDDON
The battle of Armageddon, which Witnesses of Jehovah interpret literally with no allowance for apocalyptic symbolism, will begin any moment now, despite its having been unaccountably delayed for nearly forty years. The trouble is, apparently, that Satan has not yet had sufficient time to increase all the woes to the intense degree predicted by Scripture for the transition period.
However, the signs of the times obviously indicate that the full measure has been practically attained. Christ, with His hosts, will soon descend from the "upper air," and in a great cataclysms the whole world will be cleansed of all wickedness and evil-doers, safety from which will be found only in God's organization that of the Witnesses of Jehovah. And what then?
THE MILLENNIUM
In the Book of the Revelation (Apocalypse) 20:6, St. John speaks of Christ reigning for "a thousand years." The true interpretation of that expression, in keeping with the whole character of the Book, must be symbolically and not literal or numerical. It means simply "for a long period," and refers to the whole interval between the birth of Christ into this world and His Second Coming to judge the living and the dead.
Russell and Rutherford, however, won't have that. They take the Millennium literally, and declare that the Second Coming of Christ will precede it. When Christ comes again, it will be reign for exactly a thousand years on this earth; and then will come the Final Judgment. There is a slight confusion as to dates. Some Witnesses say that since Christ came again in 1874, the Final Judgment will be in the year 2874; but other say no, and that the period will be from 1914 till 2914.
Russell apparently held that there are to be seven millennia. The year 1874, according to him, was the exact 6000th year from Adam's creation. That geologists have discovered human remains belonging to the Neolithic and Paleolithic Ages, dating back to at least 20,000 years ago, was unknown to him, and would not have worried him had he known of it. For he allowed no evidence of any kind to interfere with his theories. There had to be six millennia to correspond with the six "working-days" of creation; and there had to be a seventh as the "Sabbath" of millennia, and the last of them.
Since the Lord has already returned "invisibly" He is even now ruling the world in the "Millennial Reign," and using the Witnesses to publish the fact. The "Theocratic Kingdom" has arrived. But the fullness of Christ's reign cannot come until after Armageddon, the battle between Christ and His enemies, which has been so unaccountably delayed.
After Armageddon, according to Russell, all the dead who have ever lived will be raised to life and be given a second probationary period under much more favorable conditions, with Satan bound and a continual evangelistic campaign to help them to make the right choice.
Even on the basis of 6000 years of history wrongly held by Russell, this would mean over 250 million millions of people on this earth simultaneously, covering it so thickly that not all would be able to sit down together! Russell's successors, having had their attention drawn to the absurdity of this, now say that not all who have ever lived will return, but only those "faithful ones" who were not so incorrigibly wicked as to forfeit any claim to a second chance. The latter will just remain in their state of annihilation
DENIAL OF IMMORTALITY
The doctrine of annihilation at death leads to the problem of the nature of the human soul. According to Russell and his followers, man has not "got" a soul; he "is" a soul. And his soul is his body. When a man's body dies, his soul just ceases to be. There is no spiritual soul, immortal of its very nature. "Death," says Russell, "means total annihilation. There are no souls anywhere awaiting a resurrection. No human being who has ever lived and died exists any longer.
Russell was not impressed by any of the references in Scripture to the living reality of the Patriarchs and Prophets after death, such as Abraham, Moses, Elias, Samuel and others. When confronted with the words of Christ to the dying thief, "Amen, I say to thee this day thou shalt be with me in paradise," he said that the proper Greek reading of the text is, "Amen, I say to thee this day, thou shalt be with me in paradise." With all the Greek scholars of the world against him, this man who did not know even the Greek alphabet, tells us that the Greek meant that!
But on Russell's own principles, how can he hold that there will ever be a resurrection of anybody? There's nobody to resurrect! Resurrection does not mean extinction and re-creation. Completely non-existent beings cannot receive bodies as before. If the dead are completely out of existence, any newly existent beings will be completely different beings, and not those who previously lived at all!
Yet Nathan Knorr, instead of saying, "Since Jehovah's Witnesses believe in resurrection, they believe man possess an immortal soul," inconsequently says just the opposite. He argues that precisely because they believe in resurrection, they do not believe man possess an immortal soul! However, though we won't exist to come back, according to the doctrines of the Witnesses of Jehovah, we are all going to come back to have our second chance during the Millennium unless, of course, we are among the "millions now living who will never die."
THE SECOND CHANCE
During the "Millennium," then, in the "Theocratic Kingdom," men will again be offered eternal life, on the terms of the New Covenant. This life is not our only probation. Despite the fact that nowhere in the Bible is hope held out for any further probation after death; despite the express teaching of Scripture that "it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27); despite the evident finality of Our Lord's warning, "This night thy soul will be required of thee" (Luke 12:20), the Witnesses tell us that we are to have our lives all over again, and that nothing that took place in this life is going to count. All will depend on the way we behave under the much better millennial conditions.
As the "Millennium" has already commenced, one would think we should be living under those conditions now! But things haven't been running to timetable. However, as soon as the Witnesses of Jehovah have sufficiently witnessed, Armageddon will be upon us, the resurrection of the dead will take place, and all men will be able to try again.
...to be continued |
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 07:33:28
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JUDGMENT
At the end of the Millennium, in 2874 or 2914, will come the Final Judgment. God will then establish His new world of righteousness, and completely vindicate His name. Satan, who has been imprisoned for the thousand years, will be let out to spread evil by crafty means. All will then be tempted and tested.
Those who survive successfully this final testing will be divided into two classes.
The first class, called the "Consecrated Class," or the "Overcoming Class," will be a "little flock," limited to 144,000, as declared in the Book of Revelation. These will go as spirit-beings to the upper air, to live and reign with Christ the divine in a kingdom not of this world. They will have "inherent" life, eternal, and emancipated from the necessity of all food and nourishment. Needless to say, these will all be Witnesses of Jehovah, though which Witnesses of Jehovah will share this "heavenly glory" with Christ is an anxiety to the more than a million present members of the organization!
The second class will consist of all the rest of the saved. These will be left in that flesh and blood which cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This earth will be their eternal home. "The righteous rule of the heavenly Kingdom," writes Nathan Knorr, "will descend earthward and effect the answer to the prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." The saved on earth will constitute the "other sheep" as opposed to the "little flock" in the heavenly places. They will fulfill God's plan to extend Edenic conditions earth-wide, and have it inhabited by a righteous race of men and women; and in them will be fulfilled God's promise of the earth to the meek, to be their inheritance. These will not have "inherent" life, but will live on earth's food supply in everlasting peace, free from war, oppression, sickness and death. And they will increase and multiply and populate the earth. What will result from a constant multiplication of human beings in this world, with no one ever dying, can only be left to the reader's imagination!
And what of those who do not survive successfully their final testing? They will be annihilated, together with the Devil and all his angels. The Witnesses of Jehovah deny all suffering in another life. The dead, they say, are non-existent; therefore there is no purgatory. At the Final Judgment, the willfully wicked will be exterminated; therefore there's no hell. When the Bible speaks of hell, according to them, it merely means the grave. Any hell of eternal punishment is just a myth.
SECRET OF SUCCESS
This brief glance at the inconsistent and almost incoherent system of religion invented by Pastor Russell and amplified and altered in many ways by Judge Rutherford, leaves on wondering how it manages to thrive. Witnesses of Jehovah will say that the fact of its growth surely argues to its truth. But other sects with totally different doctrines, yet of similar expansion, would have to be admitted as true on that score. So we must look elsewhere for an explanation.
Firstly, it must not be overlooked that the Witnesses of Jehovah make their appeal chiefly to professing Christians who have drifted from their churches, especially the Catholic Church, and who know little or nothing of Christian doctrine. When these people hear the Churches they have forsaken denounced, they find quite a consolation in the thought that, not they themselves, but the "Churches" are to blame for their neglect of religion. Their lingering attachment to a vague Christian sentiment then makes then listen sympathetically to claims by agents of the "International Bible Students' Association" that what is needed is a return to Bible Christianity. And they know so little of their religion that they fail to realize how opposed to the teachings of Christ is the mockery of the Bible put before them by the Witnesses in the name of "truth."
Secondly, among such lapsed Christians, besides ignorance, credulity and superstition are very prevalent. Figures from the Department of Justice in USA indicate that less than one per cent of the Witnesses of Jehovah have had a secondary education, whilst fifteen per cent have had less than a normal primary education. Credulity and superstition have moved them to accept on the authority of Charles Taze Russell and Judge Joseph Franklin Rutherford what has been put before them.
Thirdly, for this they were disposed by world conditions, their own uneasy conscience, and their innate pride. One of the greatest assets of the Witnesses of Jehovah has been the failure of scientific progress to produce Utopia. The world's poverty and insecurity have made many of the poorer classes clutch at the idea of the early return of Christ, with an ensuing peace and security. Their own uneasy conscience over the neglect of their duties to God has been consoled by the new doctrine that there is no hell. Ingersoll, it is true, had denounced the idea of hell. But he was an infidel, and could scarcely be trusted. Yet here were teachers from God assuring them in the name of religion that hell does not exist. Such an assurance could not fail to appeal to such people.
Meantime, the constant repetition of extravagant threats about the fearful fate soon to overtake Christendom, to escape which one had only to become a Witness of Jehovah and devote oneself to selling booklets, had an additional effect. It is a fact that the atom-bomb scare in America has given a new boost to the Witnesses of Jehovah, many people imagining the end of the world and Armageddon to be really at hand.
Nor must we overlook the subtle appeal to pride and covetousness(a common trait among the founders of protestant sects); the pride of knowing, like the Gnostics of old, esoteric and occult doctrines which the greatest of Christian theologians have failed to grasp; the pride of becoming masters of the world, triumphing like a kind of religious proletariat over the religious capitalists who remained faithful to the spiritual treasures they themselves have forsaken.
These and many other reasons account for conversion to the Witnesses of Jehovah. Truth certainly does not.
ESTIMATE
What must be our estimate, then, of this new religion? Can we regard it as other than an absurd, false, blasphemous and extremely dangerous travesty of Christianity?
The absurdity of the whole sorry scheme, so utterly unworthy of an infinitely wise Creator, is surely self-evident. The predications of Russell and Rutherford, the self-appointed prophets of the movement, have been proved false over and over again, compelling them to have recourse to subterfuge after subterfuge. For the Creeds of Christendom, embodying the "faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3), we are given a new creed, one of deadly novelties and fallacies. The doctrines of the Holy Trinity, of the Divinity of Christ, of the Personality of the Holy Spirit, of the bodily resurrection of Christ, and of the Church as established by Him are all blatantly denied. The New Testament teaching about the Eucharist and the Sacraments is ignored as if it did not so much as exist. The immortality of the human soul is rejected.
The positive doctrines of this freak religion – for thus only can it be rightly described – are ridiculous in the extreme. What reasonable person could believe that Christ, though He did not rise from the dead, was supplanted by some newly created "spirit-being" who as "a" god, but not "the" God, and who returned to the "upper air" of this world, there to be enthroned as King, in 1874! Who could believe that there He – or this substitute being – is waiting until the Jehovah's Witnesses have witnessed sufficiently to His plans, when he will descend for the great final battle of Armageddon and for a millennial reign of a thousand years on this earth, after which He will turn this earth into an eternal, material paradise!
Spiritually, the whole system is utterly bankrupt. One will read through the whole flood of literature published by this Russell-Rutherford organization without finding any inculcation of the basic Christian virtues of humility, of repentance of sin, or of charity. No genuine love of God or of one's neighbor finds expression there. There is no emphasis on character-building, on self-conquest, on the necessity of taking up one's cross and following Christ Our Lord. The supreme message of this caricature of Christianity is "Read, believe, and sell Russell's and Rutherford's books, speak of God as 'Jehovah' and of all Churches and Governments as 'Antichrist' – this do, and thou shalt be saved!"
The very doctrine of this system, that people can sin with impunity in this life (somewhat similar to the Baptists' "believe and you are saved" doctine), cannot but encourage wickedness, immorality and depravity. "God never punishes, either in this life nor in the next," declared Russell; despite the fact that the law of retribution is insisted upon all through Sacred Scripture. However badly people behave in this life, according to the Witnesses of Jehovah, it does not really matter, since our moral choices now have no effect whatever upon our eternal future. All are annihilated at death, and there's no purgatory, no hell. If, as Russell says, all are to be raised again and given a second chance, everything will depend on how we behave then, not on how we behave now. Witnesses of Jehovah even say that the more wicked a man has been in this life, the more likely he is to make good in the next! And even if he doesn't, he will merely be put painlessly out of existence, to experience no future evil consequences whatever of his contemptuous defiance of God.
No one who retains any real respect for Holy Scripture, for God, for Christ, for his own eternal salvation, for his fellow-men, for his own human dignity and intelligence, can do anything but reject utterly this counterfeit religion invented by Russell and Rutherford, and so pathetically propagated by their deluded Witnesses of Jehovah.
THE END
Originally published by Fathers Rumble and Carty Radio Replies Press, Inc. St. Paul, Minn., U.S.A.
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 09/18/2009 : 09:49:40
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ORIGIN OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH
by David Goldstein, 1956
"It is not correct to say that the Baptist church is of 17th century origin. We Baptists know that our church dates back to John the Baptist. That is one of the reasons for its name."
The above declaration was made by a gentleman who had been given a copy of The Pilot by his Catholic friend. It was one of the issues in which the attention of Rev. Moses H. Gitlin, the "Jewish (Baptist) Christian" minister, was called to the fact that the first one of the 22 now existing Baptist denominations came into existence about 16 centuries after the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles, and the public work of Christ's Church, the Catholic Church, began.
If what the gentleman said were so, then does his church date back to a man, and not to our Lord, Who is true God as well as true man. His church may go back to John for its method of baptizing by immersion, but not for its origin. John the Baptist was a faithful Jew and not a Christian, though he, by God's grace, recognized Jesus to be the Jewish looked-for Messiah. John's Jewish baptism was infinitely different from the Baptism Christ administered, which Christ instituted as the first of His seven Sacraments (Matthew 28:19-20). This was recognized by John, who said, "I have baptized you with water, but He will Baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (St. Mark 1:8).
John did not attempt to establish a Church, for he was a member of the one and only Church of God then existing, the Church of the Children of Israel. That Church functioned with Divine authority until the Veil in the Temple was rent. This was prior to the First Pentecost Day, when the Christ-instituted Catholic Church began to function.
The gentleman's claim, which is entirely unhistoric, ... The declaration that the Baptist church is of John the Baptist origin is refuted by Baptists themselves in the U.S. Report of Religious Bodies. While the unwarranted claim is made therein that the founder, authority and creed of the Baptist churches can be traced "back to the New Testament," it is asserted that the first definitely known group of "persons holding Baptist doctrines" were the Anabaptists (re-baptizers). Their organizer and leader was Thomas Munzer (1521), who revolted against Luther (dissension, a defining hallmark of protestantism already clearly manifested itself early). He opposed infant Baptism, holding that persons Baptized in infancy, should be re-baptized upon becoming adults. Driven by Luther from Germany to the Low countries, some Anabaptists were gathered together by Menno Simons (a defrocked Catholic priest) into groups known as Mennonites. "To their influence," the Report says, "in all probability, the English Baptists owe their churches, established in Amsterdam in 1608 and London in 1611." The English minister of the first Baptist church was John Smyth, a former Anglican minister. So while the Baptists, if they desire, may trace their Baptism by immersion to the Jewish baptism of John the Baptist, they cannot legitimately trace their origin as a distinct religious denomination further back than 1608 and 1611, even though they claim to have been "influenced, in all probability," by the Anabaptists, as they say in the Report of Religious Bodies.
The Baptists are convicted of error "out of their own mouth" in the Report of Religious Bodies. Therein they prove themselves to have been of the 17th century origin as a distinctive Protestant congregation. Whereas the Church that Christ established dates from the Year 33 A. D., which is 1575 years before John Smyth organized the first Baptist church congregation.
Our insistence upon the historic fact of the Apostolic origin of the Catholic Church, and her unbroken record of organic existence throughout the Christian ages, is, and will continue to be resented by the Baptists. They repudiate submission to a living authority in religion. Yet declare that their "cardinal principle is implicit obedience to the plain Word of God", which Word of God evidences the institution by Christ of the authority they repudiate.
What, but an erroneous concept of the Word of God, prompted Dr. Edward Hughes Pruden, pastor of the First Baptist church of Washington, which President Truman attends, to repudiate the suggestion of Pope Pius XII, that all Christians be united in one Church, on the ground that "it seems to me utterly foreign to the spirit of the New Testament?" Surely there are numerous texts in the New Testament that call for a unified belief, and unification of spiritual authority, such as exist in the Catholic Church. In fact, the oneness, doctrinally and authoritatively, in the Catholic Church, is a New Testament credential that proves her to be of Christ.
Here are a few of many such texts. St. John 10:16-17 tells of the readiness of Christ to lay down His life to have all His sheep in "one fold":
St. Paul identifies the members of Christ's Church, the "body of Christ," with members of the human body in 1 Cor. 12, and not a hundred kind of bodies, such as make up Protestantism.
St. Matthew 16:18 plainly declares that Christ would build a Church, not churches, as He did, against which the "gates of Hell" would endeavor to prevail, as they have against the Catholic Church throughout the Christian ages, but without success.
St. Matthew 18:17 contains the command to "hear the Church" and Romans 15:6 calls upon Christians to "glorify God with one mind and one mouth." This last named text alone proves that "it is utterly foreign to the spirit of the New Testament" to assume that the will of Christ can be expressed through the minds and mouths of 22 different kinds of Baptist churches, and a couple of hundred kinds of other Protestant churches.
If Dr. Pruden and his fellow-Baptists were to follow "the spirit of the New Testament" texts named in the above paragraph, they would graduate from their 17th century Baptist churches, into the Church Catholic, that is of first century origin. We hope a copy of the issue of The Pilot, in which this answer to the Baptist gentleman appears, will be passed on to him for consideration.
Wholesale Baptisms at ponds, rivers and seashores are like picnics, in that they disarrange and clutter up the places where they are held. They caused the following advertisement to be inserted in The Cape Cod Guide: "Positively no more baptizing in my pasture. Twice in the last two months my gate has been left open by religious people, and before I chase my heifers all over the country again, all sinners can go to Purgatory."
THE GOLDSTEIN LETTERS
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spaxx
Junior Member
205 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2009 : 04:00:41
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"WHAT IS A BAPTIST?"
Rev. William B. Lipphard
American Baptist Convention
New York City
Sir:---Your What Is a Baptist? reprinted from LOOK magazine, is so far off the line of intellectual and historical soundness, that it causes one who reasons rightly to stand aghast.
One of your basic misconceptions is the Protestant assumption that "the Bible is the sole authority" in matters of Christian import; that it is "infallible." Pray, tell me, by what feat of intellectual legerdemain do you, and your fellow-Baptist ministers, find warrant for such a conclusion? If you were to ask me, or any other Catholic layman acquainted with the principles and history of Christianity, regarding religious authority, the answer would be that the Bible, though of basic import, is second in standing to the Church to which Christ delegated His authority; the Church that gave the New Testament Bible to the world.
Surely you must agree that the basic principle of Christian judgment must be the same today as it was during the first few centuries of the Christian era. That being so, pray tell me, how could the early Christians have been guided by your Protestant rule of faith, when they did not have a New Testament Bible? This is historically substantiated by the indisputable fact that no New Testament Bible existed until the Bishops of the Catholic Church, in Council assembled by authority of the Pope, collected, selected, and formulated the Canon of New Testament Scripture, that the Catholic Church called The Bible. This did not take place until the year 397 A.D. If the Bible is the sole rule of faith, how was it possible for the early Christians, individually or collectively, to abide by it, considering that there were no printed Bibles until the 15th century, after Johann Gutenburg produced a Catholic Bible from movable type?
Of course, I know fully well that you will question the above declarations, as acceptance of them "knocks the stuffins" out of the Baptist guiding principle. Yet the historic fact remains that the Church Our Lord established, the Catholic Church, the Church Christ commanded to be heard, was the Christian rule of faith prior to the existence of the Bible; and has remained the primary rule of faith ever since.
Infallibility, the exemption of liability to err, is as I understand it, a supernatural prerogative conferred, through the Holy Ghost indwelling in the Catholic Church, and not in the Bible.
Yet the faith and morals in the Bible, which are devoid of error, have an infallible status when defined by the Catholic Church.
The Church that you, My Dear Sir, and I, and all other persons who claim to be Christians are morally obligated to obey, is the Church established during the first century, and not the 17th century Baptist church, which owes its existence primarily to John Smyth. The Church we are obligated to obey is, as Christ said it would be, a visible kingdom, with delegated power to bind men to its teachings (St. Matt. 18-18): It was to be, and is as Christ said it would be, a visible theocracy, to take the place of the Jewish theocracy (St. Matt. 21:43): It was to be Catholic, i.e. Universal (St. Matt. 28:19-20): Its duration was to be until time is no more (St. Matt. 28:20), as the gates of Hell would never succeed in prevailing against it (St. Matt. 16:18-19).
That Church was to be, and still is, an indestructible self-perpetuating Spiritual Corporation, made up in the beginning of the Twelve Apostles, with Apostle Peter as Ambassador Plenipotentiary of Christ. This was recognized and proclaimed by the foremost Christian authorities. For instance, St. Clement, the fourth occupant of the Chair of St. Peter, instituted by Christ, who reigned during the first Christian century, said: "Christ was sent by God, the Apostles by Christ. They appointed bishops and deacons, and they made orders that when (the bishops and deacons) died other men of tried virtue would succeed to the ministry" (Adv. Haer. Book 3, c. 3).
Catholics believe, as you say Baptists do, that religion is a personal relation between the human soul and God. BUT, and it is a big BUT, it must be a relation according to the will of Christ, the Son of God. Hence to declare, as you do for the Baptists, that an "ecclesiastical system," a "sacrament," "any preacher or priest" is an "intrusion"; that it is a repudiation of Christ as set forth in the New Testament Bible, is a denial of the declaration of St. Clement, and others as well who rank high in Christian history. With such a negative, unbiblical standard, is it any wonder that "a substantial minority of Baptists do not accept the doctrine of the Virgin Birth," as you say; which Virgin Birth was foretold by Isaiah (7:14), and proclaimed to have taken place by St. Matthew in the Bible that your sect claims to be the sole norm of Christian Judgment.
Interpretation of law, be it in the Bible or on our Statute Books, is dependent upon authority for judgment, for reliability. Without such authority how can Baptists know, for instance, the spiritual effects of Baptism with certainty? Or the real nature of other Divine truths? The Socialist doctrinaires hold to your anti-authoritarian principle, though they apply it to the civil sphere. Frederich Engels, co-author with Karl Marx of the Communist Manifesto, said: "All Socialists are agreed that the State, and with it political authority, will vanish as a result of the future revolution."
If the teachings of Christ, proclaimed through the Catholic Church and the Bible, do not awaken in you the consciousness of the falsity of the principles proclaimed in your What Is a Baptist? then ought the separativeness of Baptists into Regular Baptists, Primative Baptists, United Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Separate Baptists, Duck River Baptists, Two Seed-in-the-Spirit Baptists, Independent Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, and a half dozen other Baptist sects, bring you to the realization of the anti-Christian result of your Protestant standard, first proclaimed by ex-priest Martin Luther, which was furthered by John Smyth and other Baptist leaders.
May the blessedness of right Christian understanding be yours.
DAVID GOLDSTEIN |
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How Old Is Your Church?
