Decepto-Meter

Satanic Quote: Christianity Trasher

Trashes whole of Core Christianity

• Trinity "is a corruption borrowed from the heathen religions, and ingrafted on the Christian faith." (A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, Lyman Abbott, p944, as quoted in, Should you believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication)
• "Precisely what the doctrine is, or precisely how it is to be explained, Trinitarians are not agreed among themselves." (A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge", Lyman Abbott, 1875, p. 944, as quoted in, Should you believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication)
• "Trinity is a very marked feature in Hindooism, and is discernible in Persian, Egyptian, Roman, Japanese, Indian and the most ancient Grecian mythologies." (Religious Dictionary, Lyman Abbott, p944, as quoted in by anti-Trinitarians)

(Blue is Jw quote from booklet, Should you believe the Trinity?)

"It is certain, however, that from the apostolic times they paid worship to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, addressed to them their prayers, and included them in their doxologies." ... "Precisely what the doctrine is, or precisely how it is to be explained, Trinitarians are not agreed among themselves." ... "It is not possible for the human intellect to comprehend fully the divine nature. The Bible represents God to us as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It represents them as equally entitled to our highest reverence, affection, and allegiance." (A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge", Lyman Abbott, 1875, p. 944, as quoted in, Should you believe the Trinity?, Watchtower publication)

What else did they fail to tell about Abbott's religious views?

• But when I came to study the teachings of Jesus with my fellow students in this Congregational Bible Class, I found that he never mentioned vicarious atonement or the Fall of Adam or the Trinity" ("What Christianity Means to me, A spiritual autobiography by Lyman Abbott, about himself, 1922, p16)
• "The notion that Jesus organized a Christian church to take the place of the decaying Jewish church has very little evidence to support it." ... "That he prescribed baptism and the Lord's Supper as permanent ordinances appears to me to rest on an equally slight foundation." ("What Christianity Means to me, A spiritual autobiography by Lyman Abbott, about himself, 1922, p20,21)
• "Christianity converted paganism, but paganism changed Christianity." ... "Christian thought could not affect pagan thought without being in turn affected" ("What Christianity Means to me, A spiritual autobiography by Lyman Abbott, about himself, 1922, p26,27)
• My realization of the fact that Jesus Christ does not promise remission of penalty but does promise remission of sin revolutionized my theology because it revolutionized my religious experience. Let me here in five definitions briefly define that revolution. Salvation no longer means to me deliverance from Hell and admission to Heaven; it means deliverance from Sin. Exemption from penalty without deliverance from sin would not be salvation. If a good man were to go to Hell and retain his goodness he would be saved. If a bad man were to go to Heaven and retain his evil nature, he would be lost. Heaven must be in us - Hell is in some. The gospel is not the good news that guilty men may be saved from punishment, but the good news that guilty men may be made virtuous. In one word, Salvation is character. Justification by faith no longer means to me that Christ has suffered the penalties of my sins and therefore if I accept his sacrifice God will treat me as though I were innocent although I am guilty; it means that Jesus Christ offers himself to me as my divine companion and if I accept his companionship I can be made virtuous although I have been guilty. Atonement no longer means to me that Christ has made a reparation to God for the wrong I have done and therefore God is reconciled to me. It means that Christ has by his life and teaching interpreted God to me and by his personal presence inspires in me the will to do my Father's w ill and so has reconciled me to God. Regeneration does not mean to me a new faculty miraculously given to man by some magic formula, as baptism, or by some supernatural experience for which man must wait. In every normal man is the capacity for goodness and truth, for love and service, for hope and joy. But this sleeping capacity is naught unless it is awakened into life. It is a seed, but a lifeless seed until it is given life by a divine power above itself. So I might say to the seeds in my garden bed, You can never come into the kingdom of light and life and beauty until you are born from above, and all the while God's sun, which shines alike on the evil and the good, is waiting to give them life. Incarnation means to me more than that the Spirit of God dwelt unrecognized by the world centuries ago for a few years in Jesus of Nazareth; it also .means to me that the-, same Spirit still dwells in the world, carrying on now with the followers of Jesus the work of serving and saving men which the same Spirit carried on with Jesus then. Incarnation to me is not merely an historical episode; it is an eternal fact. "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man will hear my voice and open the door I will come unto him and will sup with him and he with me." This figure interprets to me the spiritual aspirations of mankind. God is love. Where God is, love is. And love is every-where: a universal presence, a mighty though not resistless power in human life. ("What Christianity Means to me, A spiritual autobiography by Lyman Abbott, about himself, 1922, p139-141)

Our comment

1. Abbott not only says that Trinity is of pagan origin, but also most of what Jw's believe, including all church organization (Oops! Goodbye Brooklyn!), baptism, the Lord's supper and the doctrine of blood atonement. Abbott is an ultra liberal.
2. "Abbott, Lyman: His theological position is that of a Congregationalist of the Liberal Evangelical type." (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, Abbott, Lyman, Vol 1, p7)
3. But not content that he is a Liberal, they even practice deceptive "selective quoting" by failing to note that Abbott says that early Christians worshipped Jesus (Abbott had to get one thing right!)
4. Even a Liberal like Abbott admits that Jesus was considered God and worshipped as God by the earliest Christians, even though he likely doesn't believe it himself. But Jw's won't tell you this!

Deception Exposed

1. Jehovah's Witnesses project the impression that their view of trinity being of pagan origin, is the majority view of theologians! In fact, the only one's who will affirm this are liberals like Abbott who trashes much of the Bible, but not all, or Athiests and modernists who trash the whole of Christianity. (like Arthur trinity-Weigall.htm, whom Jw's also love to quote!)
2. It is dishonest for the Watchtower to say, Trinity "is a corruption borrowed from the heathen religions, and ingrafted on the Christian faith", but not tell you the author also trashes all church organization, baptism, the Lord's supper and the doctrine of blood atonement in the same breath!