Who did Russell get his anti Trinity doctrine from?

by jwfacts 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  barry

  
  Gday Oroborus21,

  The SDA church has been teaching the trinity doctrine since about the 1920s however when Barnhouse and Martin studied SDAism in the 1950s they confronted the scholars of the church with a case of literature with articals all with the church logo but with differing positions such as the one mentioned here trinity v arianism. Of course the leaders were shoched at the revelation but it does represent the SDA church a small number are still Arian.

  In the 1950s the SDA book Questions on Doctrine was printed while at the same time the book The truth about SDAs was printed by walter Martin both books were sold in christian bookshops both books were sold extensively to SDAs by the church. The books were as a result of the meetings by walter Martin and scholars of the SDA church.

  Some SDAs even today beleive Questions on Doctrine by the SDA church is damable herecy. These are the more cultic members of the church
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  LittleToe

  Long time no see Barry. How ya doing?

  (for those who don't know, Barry is SDA, and a really nice chap)
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  Oroborus21

  thanks for the clarification Barry,
  

  I found Dr. Martin's observations interesting in that he sees the SDA splitting into possibly three different veins. One along regular protestant orthodoxy, one that is taking on an evangelical perspective and one vein remaining sectarian (and in his words "cultic") (I presume for the non-trinitarianism).
  
  I can just say that while most anti-SDA literature and even just regular folk, speak negatively of Ellen White, I was quite surprised of the extent and length that Martin went to "justify" her or to diminish the views regarding her, rather "pooh-poohing" those SDAists who hold her as a prophet.
  
  I found it very odd that other such significant leader's in the various groups he discussed in his book, he had no problem with crucifying as a cult leader and false prophet, etc.
  
  by the way, his treatment of the Church of Scientology in that book is a complete joke and the extent to which he goes about avoiding the cult label with reference to the CoS is laughable. Quite telling is his very first sentence of the chapter:
  "The Church of Scientology is the most litigious religion in the history of churches founded in the United States."
  But in fairness, since I was reading the latest edition, I don't know whether the original 1965 edition capitulated in such a way.
  -Eduardo
  (Martin died in 1989 and the latest edition seems to have been heavily edited and "updated" but supposedly remains true to Martin's writings and views.)
• 

  greendawn

  Even though the JWs are an adventist offshoot they later turned against their adventist roots calling them part of Babylon the Great, that's how unique they are even their spiritual roots are in error. As for the trinity arianism has been around for a long time.
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  RR

  A lot of Russell's doctrines were taken from the Adventists. However, Seventh Day Adventists worship the Trinity, so I am wondering who Russell took his Anti Trinity doctrine from. Christadelphians started in the mid 1800's, was it from them?

  I didn't bother to read all the postings. So forgive if I repeat what was already stated. Some of the early contributors of the Watch Tower Journal were trinitarians, like John Paton, his articled had trinitarian tones throught out. Nelson Barbour was a trinitarian as well as George Storrs. In fact Russell didn't write his first anti-trinitarian articles till his 5th volume of Studies in the Scriptures in 1899. Most Second Adventist were non-trinitarian, although even within some of those denominations, there wre sme individuals and copngregations who were trinitarian. For example the Advent Christian Church where Russell and his father were affilited, some of their congregations are trinitarian, however the organization itself is not. Many of the early 7th day Adventist were not trinitarian. In fact Ellen White herself was not. The organization under the leadership of Edwin Froom became trinitarian in the 1930s. From whom did he get his thoughts from? Hard to say. This was a hot topic in his day. It is probable that Russell was trinitarian at one time, and decided to tackle the issue by looking at all the arguments, and study led him to publish his results in "The Atonement Between God and Man", volume 5 of his Scripture Studies. RR