Championing Bible Truth!
AS HE traveled in his chariot southward, the official did what you probably have done on a train, a bus or an airplane. He read. He was reading the Bible and faced a problem that you may have had.
The account, found in the Bible book of Acts, says that the evangelist Philip approached and asked the Ethiopian traveler: “Do you actually know what you are reading?” The reply: “Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?”—Acts 8:27-31.
Most persons who read the Bible today have felt a need for guidance. This is intensified by the fact that churches using the Bible have so many conflicting doctrines. Surely not all these differing teachings can be Bible truth. (1 Cor. 14:33) But where can a person get valuable aid in finding and knowing Bible truth?
It was to provide just such needed help that the Watch Tower magazine began to be published in 1879. It would champion the vital truths of God’s Word. The front page of its first issue clearly showed that it was devoted not to propagating conflicting church doctrines but to spreading truths from the Scriptures, which are beneficial “for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17, Authorized Version) For example, there is the meaningful question:
ARE YOU IMMORTAL, OR NOT?
When it comes to what is in the Bible, most persons think first of all about what it may say concerning them and their future. What often comes to mind is something they may have heard from childhood on, that each person has within him an immortal soul; most churches teach that. Thus many people hope that when they die their soul will go to heaven to be with God.
Would the Watch Tower endorse these popular beliefs? To the contrary, it championed the truth of God’s Word on the matter. As early as April 1881, the article “The Resurrection” said:
“Any being is properly called a soul or person. This is the Scriptural sense and usage of the word soul. . . . We read of the creation of Adam—‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (ruach—the same breath said to be given to beasts, birds and fishes) and the man became a living soul,’ (being.) Gen. 2-7.”—P. 1.
With ample Biblical support the article showed that at death the soul—the person—dies. (Ps. 33:19; Isa. 53:10-12; Ezek. 18:4) Biblically, when a person (a soul) dies he is in an unconscious, sleeplike condition until the future time of resurrection. Through the miracle of resurrection one may be given immortal life in heaven, as occurred with Jesus, or the prospect of perfect life on a paradise earth.—Eccl. 9:5, 10; 1 Cor. 15:12-16, 50-53.
Some who have read such truths in the pages of this magazine over the last century may have been shocked, for their church leaders had not taught these things. But times are changing. An increasing number of clergymen and theologians world wide are admitting these Biblical truths long championed in The Watchtower. Note these examples:
Oscar Cullmann, professor of the Theological Faculty of the University of Basel and of Paris’ Sorbonne, writes:
“If we were to ask an ordinary Christian today . . . what he conceives to be the New Testament teaching concerning the fate of man after death, with few exceptions we should get the answer: ‘The immortality of the soul.’ Yet this widely accepted idea is one of the greatest misunderstandings of Christianity.”—Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead (1958), p. 15.
Baptist theologian Dr. Robert Laurin explains:
“The New Testament does not teach immortality of the disembodied ‘soul’ of Platonic thought. The ultimate destiny of man is in a body in an earthly locale.”—The Expository Times, February 1961, p. 132.
Robert Koch, Catholic professor of Old Testament in Rome, writes:
“The soul does not exist as an independent mass in the body, as though in a prison, from which it would be liberated at death. The ‘soul’ is the man in his totality. Man does not have a soul, he is a soul.”—Teologia della redenzione in Genesi 1-11 (1966), p. 69.
“Friar” Pierre Pascal writes in France’s La Vie Catholique:
“The Bible teaches that when a man dies, his entire person dies. However, he does have the promise of emerging from death’s nothingness and of being restored to life at the end of time by a resurrection.”—July 1975, p. 37.
Some persons may be surprised that clergymen admit such things. However, these are Biblical truths that this magazine has championed for 100 years.
HOW IT HAS A BEARING ON HELL
Let us take the matter a step farther. If the soul is not immortal and the dead are unconscious, awaiting resurrection, how could the church doctrine be true that God sends wicked persons to suffer torment in hell? The fact is that the Bible does not teach such a thing. The Watchtower has often championed the Scriptural truth on this matter; here is but one example:
“We find that [hell] is the translation of the Hebrew word sheol, which simply means the state or condition of death. There is not in it the remotest idea of either life or torment; . . . But still [the clergy] go on preaching this false idea of hell, which is nothing short of a slander against the character of God.”—November 1883, p. 4.
Do clergymen now accept the Biblical position about hell? Though some may be reluctant to say it directly, when leaders admit what the Bible says about “soul,” they are showing that “hellfire” is without Scriptural foundation. For example, Danish pastor Kai Jensen acknowledged the resulting situation:
“The talk of everlasting perdition is crazy. It is not Christianity. It was only in times past that there were hell preachers who from the pulpit thundered about the devil and the inextinguishable fire. But that time is over.”—Hvor gaar vi hen (Where Do We Go?), p. 119.
Though most persons may not hear much about hellfire at their church anymore, likely neither do they learn there what the Bible says on the matter. Many are like the secretary of a Presbyterian Church official in Australia who said: “We steer clear of heaven and hell as it upsets too many people. In fact, I wouldn’t mind talking to someone myself to get it straight in my own mind.”
WHOM DO YOU WORSHIP?
Another Bible truth championed in The Watchtower has to do with the identity of the true God whom we worship. Millions have repeated what is called the “Lord’s Prayer,” taught by Jesus. (Matt. 6:9-13) But have they thought about the meaning of the phrase, “Hallowed be thy name,” or noted the importance that Jesus put on honoring God’s name? (John 12:28; 17:6) Or is that name unknown to them because the clergy avoid it and translators substitute “Lord” and “God” for it?
Many scholars now admit the name’s importance. Catholic theologian John L. McKenzie writes in the Bible Dictionary (1965):
“The God of Israel is called by His personal name more frequently than by all other titles combined; the name not only identified the person, but revealed his character.”—P. 316.
J. A. Motyer, principal of Trinity College, England, adds:
“Much is lost in Bible reading if we forget to look beyond the substitute word [Lord or God] to the personal, intimate name of God himself. By telling his people his name, God intended to reveal to them his inmost character.”—The Lion Handbook to the Bible (1973), p. 157.
The Watchtower has consistently used the Divine Name. For example, after explaining that the Hebrew word el means “god,” the issue of October 1881 (p. 9) went on to state:
“Jehovah is the chief ‘el’ and ruleth over all other el—powerful ones. And it should be known to all, that JEHOVAH is the name applied to none other than the Supreme Being—our Father, and him whom Jesus called Father and God.”
And the January 1, 1926, issue developed the important theme “Who Will Honor Jehovah?” This championing of God’s name continues. Since the appearance of the New World Translation (1950-1961), it has been the version most often quoted herein, for it uses God’s name even in the “New Testament” where evidence favors that. Professor G. Howard recently discussed using God’s name in the “New Testament.” Interestingly, he pointed out:
“It is reasonable to believe that the N[ew] T[estament] writers, when quoting from Scripture, preserved the Tetragram [God’s name in Hebrew] within the Biblical text.”—Journal of Biblical Literature, 1977, pp. 63-83.
The Watchtower had made this very point years before.
Professor Howard also said that when later God’s name was removed and “Lord” substituted it likely created confusion in distinguishing between the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jehovah; this contributed to the now widely believed doctrine of the Trinity.
A TRIUNE GOD?
The formula “God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit” easily rolls off the tongue of many. It summarizes their view that there are three coequal and coeternal persons in God.
Yet for a century The Watchtower has urged readers to examine what God’s Word actually says on the matter, such as that Jesus repeatedly is shown to be, not equal to his Father, but a lesser one subject to Jehovah. (John 14:28; 17:3; 1 Cor. 11:3) As an example, this appeared, along with supporting texts, in 1882:
“We believe then in one God and Father, and also in one Lord Jesus Christ. . . . But these are two and not one being. . . . We reject as totally unscriptural, the teaching that [Jehovah, Jesus and God’s spirit or active force] are three Gods in one person, . . . The doctrine of the Trinity had its rise in the third century.”
That the Trinity is not set out in the Bible but is a later church development is being admitted more and more. In Switzerland the Vocabulaire biblique (1954, p. 72) stated: “No New Testament writings supply explicit assurance of a triune God.” Ian Henderson, University of Glasgow, writes in the Encyclopedia International (1969):
“The doctrine of the Trinity did not form part of the apostles’ preaching, as this is reported in the New Testament.”—P. 226.
Then the London Observer reported on December 3, 1978:
“One of Britain’s leading Anglican theologians, the Rev. Dr Geoffrey Lampe, . . . has come out with a strong challenge to the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity. . . . He said the Trinity doctrine—God consisting of three ‘Persons’—has ‘not much’ future.”
When theologians confine themselves to what the Bible, rather than later church doctrine, says about God and Christ, often the result is what this magazine has long been championing. From Berlin, Germany, Doctor of Theology J. Schneider writes:
“Jesus Christ does not usurp the place of God. His oneness with the Father does not mean absolute identity of being. Although the Son of God in his preexistent being was in the form of God, he resisted the temptation to be equal with God (Phil. 2:6). . . . Although completely co-ordinated with God, he remains subordinate to him.”—Theologisches Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament (1965), Vol. 2, p. 606.
THE VITAL RETURN OF CHRIST
Tied in with God’s resurrecting Jesus is an event of the greatest importance to all Christians. That is Christ’s return, or second coming. Jesus kept this vital subject before his followers, and they eagerly awaited this return. Shortly before his death, they implored: “Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence [Greek, parousia] and of the conclusion of the system of things?” (Matt. 24:3; Acts 1:6) The Bible concludes with Jesus’ exciting words: “Yes; I am coming quickly,” to which the apostle John fervently responded: “Come, Lord Jesus.”—Rev. 22:20; 1:7.
A Lutheran encyclopedia mentioned how vital this teaching is:
“All expectations for the future were dominated by the certainty that the Lord would return and be forever with his congregation, . . . This hope gave the early Christians the unshakable confidence that all powers and all changes in this world are only temporary: Christ is coming!”—The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, Vol. III, p. 2149.
What a shocking contrast there is, though, in the influential beliefs of modern theologians! For example, recently Dr. A. C. Thiselton, of the University of Sheffield, England, summarized the main ones:
Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin “has little to say about the parousia [or, presence].” Paul Tillich provides “a theology of the future in which the parousia plays virtually no part.” Rudolf Bultmann “regards the parousia as eschatological myth.” And J. A. T. Robinson claims that ‘Jesus himself did not expect that there should be a second coming.’—Tyndale Bulletin, 1976, pp. 27-53.
Because of the clergy’s deemphasizing Christ’s return, this major truth has little meaning in the lives of most churchgoers. As just one example of the seriousness of this, consider: The return of Christ involves the ultimate triumph of righteousness over wickedness, so what happens to people’s concern for righteousness when spiritual leaders imply that Jesus may never return?
However, consistent with the Scriptures and the pattern of the early Christians, from its first issue in 1879 Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence (as it was originally named) has heralded and championed the return and presence of Christ.
Furthermore, what we have seen in our lifetime—wars, famine, earthquakes, lawlessness on a global scale—is ample proof that we NOW are witnessing the ‘sign of Christ’s presence’ that Jesus prophesied. (Matt. 24:3-14) That means that the end of the system of things is near. Certainly this and other Bible truths that we have considered deserve to be championed. That is especially so because Jesus said that those who please God “must worship with spirit and truth.”—John 4:24.
[Picture on page 13]
HEAVEN
HELL
SOUL
RESURRECTION
JESUS
RETURN OF CHRIST
TRINITY
DIVINE NAME