Russell on prayer to Jesus & WTS charter? refers to worship of Jesus

yaddayadda

Help needed.

I believe that in one of the oldest Watchtower issues someone asked CT Russell whether praying to Jesus was allowed and Russell published his response to the effect that it was ok and Russell said he sometimes prayed to Jesus.

I'd just love it if someone could dig up the actual article for me as I want to show it to someone who doesn't believe me.

Also, can someone please post the statement made by the Society in it's charter/mission statement? produced in the 1950's I think, where reference is made to worship of both Jehovah and Jesus!!

Would really appreciate your help.

Cheers
Yadda

timetochange

What Russell taught is no longer of interest to most JWs.

blondie

Unless you can find a place in WTS history accounts that deny he taught it and he did.

timetochange

Blondie,

Russell is a non-entity in the JW religion. He is reduced to the few comments in the Proclaimers book which support the JW dogma. Young and active JWs have no interest in him other than his name in Watchtower history. No one cares what he wrote or what he believed. He is virtually just as relevant as Moses...old law.

yaddayadda

Whatever. Can I just have the quotes please!

onacruse

Hello yadda

This was the earliest I could find about the prayer issue:

W 1/15/26 23
Would it not be proper to pray to Jesus? This would not be improper for a Christian to do...

There were several references in the Watchtowers to "praying to the Lord," but those seemed to be somewhat ambivalent as to whether it was the "Lord Jesus" or the "Lord God."

You might try p/m-ing RR about this.

As for the charter...I'll see what I can find.

Craig

jwfacts

This is from http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/worshipjesus.htm

We must Worship Jesus

Initially Russell strongly promoted the Worship of Jesus and prayer to him because he is our God.

Watch Tower 1880 Oct “He was the object of unreproved worship even when a babe by the wise men who came to see the new born king .... He never reproved any for acts of worship offered to himself .... Had Christ not been more than a man the same reason would have prevented Him from receiving worship....”

Watch Tower 1898 July 15 “Interesting Queries,” “Question. The fact that our Lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was God the Father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man. Was he really worshiped, or is the translation faulty? Answer. Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus while on earth was really worshiped, and properly so. … It was proper for our Lord to receive worship in view of his having been the only begotten of the Father and his agent in the creation of all things, including man”

Watch Tower 1906 January 1 “Gifts to Our King” “In one respect many of Christendom could learn numerous important lessons from these wise Gentiles....They worshiped him in three senses of the word: (1) They fell before him, prostrated themselves, thus physically expressing their reverence. (2) They worshiped him in their hearts and with the tongue gave expression to their rejoicing and confidence. (3) They opened their treasure-box and presented to him three gifts appropriate to royalty: the myrrh representing submission, frankincense representing praise, gold representing obedience”

Watch Tower 1892 May 15 “To Whom Should We Pray?” “It is undoubtedly proper enough for us to address petitions to our Redeemer and Advocate, who loved us and gave himself for us....Although we are nowhere instructed to make petitions to him, it evidently could not be improper so to do; for such a course is nowhere prohibited, and the disciples worshiped him. — Matt. 28: 9, 17.”

Rutherford continued this teaching.

Watchtower 1939 November 15 p.339. “Jehovah God commands all to worship Christ Jesus because Christ Jesus is the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah’s purpose (Heb. 1:3–6).”

Vindication, vol. 3 p.295 “During the Millennium, “the princes will lead the people in their worship of Jehovah and of Christ.”

Salvation p.151 “The people of all nations who obtain salvation must come to the house of the Lord to worship there; that is to say, they must believe on and worship Jehovah God and the Lord Jesus Christ, his chief instrument (Philippians 2:10, 11).”

Knorr continued to teach we should worship Jesus and the 1940’s Watchtower articles still stated that Jesus was to be worshipped.

Watchtower 1945 October 15 “Now, at Christ’s coming to reign as king in Jehovah’s capital organization Zion, to bring in a righteous new world, Jehovah makes him infinitely higher than the godly angels or messengers and accordingly commands them to worship him.... “

In 1945 Knorr amended the Watchtower Charter. Included within the new Charter is the statement that the purpose of the Watchtower Society is to promote the worship of Jehovah and Jesus. This charter is a legal document that continues to be the Watchtower Charter to this day. The 1945 Yearbook includes the Charter in full for anyone that would like to read it in the Society’s own publications. Part of the current charter states as follows;

“The purposes of this Society are: To act as the servant of and the legal world-wide governing agency for that body of Christian persons known as Jehovah's Witnesses to preach the gospel of God's kingdom under Christ Jesus unto all nations as a witness to the name, word and supremacy of Almighty Good JEHOVAH; to print and distribute Bibles and to disseminate Bible truths in various languages by means of making and publishing literature containing information and comment explaining Bible truths and prophecy concerning establishment of Jehovah's kingdom under Christ Jesus to authorize and appoint agents, servants, employees, teachers, instructors, evangelists, missionaries and ministers to go forth to all the world publicly and from house to house to preach and teach Bible truths to persons willing to listen by leaving with such persons said literature and by conducting Bible studies thereon to improve men, women and children mentally and morally by Christian missionary work and by charitable and benevolent instruction of the people on the Bible and incidental scientific, historical and literary subjects to establish and maintain private Bible schools and classes for gratuitous instruction of men and women in the Bible, Bible literature and Bible history; to teach, train, prepare and equip men and women as ministers, missionaries, evangelists, preachers, teachers and lecturers to provide and maintain homes, places and buildings for gratuitous housing of such students, lecturers, teachers and minister; to furnish gratuitously to such students, lecturers, teachers, educators and ministers suitable meals and lodging and to prepare, support, maintain and send out to various parts of the world Christian missionaries, teachers and instructors in the Bible and Bible literature and for public Christian worship of Almighty God and Christ Jesus; to arrange for and hold local and world-wide assemblies for such worship to use or operate radio broadcasting stations for preaching this gospel of the kingdom; and to do any and all other lawful things that its Board of Directors shall deem expedient for the purposes stated."

Worship of Jesus is Idolatry

In the 1950’s the Watchtower changed the doctrine. This was to coincide with the release of the New World Translation bible. Contrary to most other translations, this new bible for Jehovah’s Witnesses translated the word proskuneo as obesience rather than worship whenever it refers to Jesus. This is despite the fact that in almost every other place the New World Translation translates proskuneo as worship when used in reference to angels, Satan, humans and Jehovah. Why this unusual stance in connection with Jesus? This is because the teaching about Jesus was to change.

The first time that it was clearly stated that Jesus must not be worshipped was in 1954. From that time forward a new belief in the position of Jesus was given.

Watchtower 1954 January 1 p.31 “Should we worship Jesus?—G. B., Ethiopia.Consequently, since the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is not a trinitarian co-person with God the Father, but is a distinct person, the Son of God, the answer to the above question must be that no distinct worship is to be rendered to Jesus Christ now glorified in heaven. Our worship is to go to Jehovah God. However, we show the proper regard for God’s only-begotten Son by rendering our worship to God through and in the name of Jesus Christ. Even now when we kneel in prayer, as Paul did according to Ephesians 3:14-19, we offer prayer in the name of Jesus Christ in obedience to his own directions (John 15:16; 16:23-26), but the prayer itself is addressed, not to Jesus, but to God his Father. In this way we keep things in their relative positions.”

Watchtower 1964 November 1 “Trinitarians who believe that Jesus is God, or at least the second person of the triune God, do not like to have Jehovah’s witnesses say that it is unscriptural for worshipers of the living and true God to render worship to the Son of God, Jesus Christ”

Awake! 2000 April 8 “Reverent adoration should be expressed only to God. To render worship to anyone or anything else would be a form of idolatry.” It concludes that “true Christians do well to direct their worship only to Jehovah God, the Almighty.”

Insight on the Scriptures, vol. 2 p.667 “Prayer” “Though some claim that prayer may properly be addressed to others, such as to

God’s Son, the evidence is emphatically to the contrary”

Watchtower Charter Unchanged

Though the Witnesses are bluntly told that Jesus is not to be worshipped the Charter has not been amended to reflect this new doctrine. This is despite the fact that worshipping and praying to Jesus is considered idolatry and leads to a Witness being disfellowshipped.

This is where we see the first area that proves the Organisation is not guided by Gods Holy Spirit. Significant teachings have changed. The teaching in regards to worship of Jesus is the most significant doctrine that it has, and yet this doctrine was not changed until late in the history of the religion.

Misquotes
The second area that proves the Watchtower wrong is the way in which it uses misquotes to hide its history or prove doctrines. For example, look at the way in which the charter is quoted since the doctrine was changed.

The charter is considered vitally important, in fact its creation is supposedly part of the fulfilment of bible prophecy in Daniel.

Yearbook 1975 p.246 “September 30 to October 2, 1944, were highly significant days for God’s people. … Of principal importance was the passing of six resolutions proposing changes in the Watch Tower Society’s charter by amendments. The first amending resolution proposed the enlarging of the Society’s purposes so as to assume properly the great worldwide work ahead. Among other things, it put the divine name “Jehovah” in the charter. The third eliminated entirely the charter’s provision that fixed membership on the basis of monetary contributions made to the Society. Upon its becoming effective, membership would be limited to not more than 500 men, all chosen on the basis of their active service to God. As The Watchtower of November 1, 1944, put it: “This amendment will have the effect of bringing the charter as near to Theocratic arrangements as the law of the land permits.” All six amendment resolutions (involving Articles 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10) were adopted.

Though Jehovah’s people did not then realize it, what they did organizationally in 1944 evidently had Biblical significance. Daniel’s prophecy had foretold that for 2,300 “evenings and mornings,’ or days, a symbolic ‘small horn’ (the Anglo-American World Power) would trample Jehovah’s theocratic “holy place” as represented by Jesus’ anointed followers on earth. (Dan. 8:9-14) This occurred during World War II.”

The Society claims that this charter fulfilled Daniels prophecy and that it brought Jehovah’s holy place into the ‘right condition’. How can it be said to be the ‘right condition’ when it promotes worship of Jesus, something so critically wrong by today’s teachings?

It is interesting to see how the Watchtower currently deals with having in its charter that Jesus is to be worshipped. They either misquote it or leave it out completely. The above section of the charter is quoted almost in full in the footnote of the 1971 Watchtower on page 760. The quote in the 1971 Watchtower only changes one word, but this is significant as it hides the true meaning of the sentence. It correctly puts the word in brackets, but certainly leads the reader to a incorrect impression.

Watchtower 1971 December 15 p.760 “…for public Christian worship of Almighty God [through] Christ Jesus: to arrange for...”

The Yearbook of 1969 p.50 leaves the words ‘and Christ Jesus’ out altogether, cheekily replacing them with dots. “for public Christian worship of Almighty God …; to arrange for”

In usual fashion the Proclaimers book fails to even admit to what is in the Charter, preferring to keep the average Witness member in the dark as to full history and set up of the Organisation.

yaddayadda

Thank you very much JWfacts. Tremendous.

Just one thing. The article starts of saying: "Initially Russell strongly promoted the Worship of Jesus and prayer to him because he is our God."

On the evidence you've presented, "because he is our God" is not the reason at all for why Russell felt it was ok to worship Jesus.

Russell was a firm non-trinitarian and I'm quite certain you won't find any anything to support your assertion that Russell viewed Jesus as 'God'.

Otherwise, thanks.

Lady Liberty

Dear Yadday...

Thank you for bringing this topic up. It has been a long time since I have read this and forgot about it. I will print it for my files. It is all so bizarre. They claim that Jesus the "Master", was directing the then "Slave", and this is what the "Slave" said?? Amazing that later the "Slave" would reject what the "Master" approved! Things that make you go hmmmm!!

Sincerely,

Lady Liberty

Death to the Pixies

Hi Jwfacts,

Would you say there is any functional difference between the Wts doctrine of Jesus? That is by the use of the word "worship" as compared to their use of "obesiance"? After reading on this issue it just seems to be a needed change in semantics. Also you did not give the "facts" below, in regards the NWT use of "worship" when giving to "angels" "satan".. etc..

This is despite the fact that in almost every other place the New World Translation translates proskuneo as worship when used in reference to angels, Satan, humans and Jehovah. Why this unusual stance in connection with Jesus? This is because the teaching about Jesus was to change.

There is no "unusual" stance, when given to Jesus. Do not those other references where "worship" is applied to "angels" "Humans" and others have a negative application? You are aware that when it is done positivley (ie, to to the honor of Jehovah) the NWT translates it as "obesiance" like they do in Rev 3:7-9, but you do not give these facts. Fact is the NWT uses "obesiance" when done positively, consistently for Gods representatives regardless if it is Jesus. You give a misleading presentation IMO. (see Rev 3:9, 1 Chron 29:20, 1 Kings 2:15..etc) I think you should amend your page to include these thoughts..

As far as the actual issue itself, one only has to turn to Matthew 28:16-17 to see that "worship" is not always the most accurate english translation. It says "When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted"(NAB) Obviously if they "doubted" they could not have been giving "worship", but merely an act of prostration. "proskyneo" is at it's core an act of honor to an authority, or just a gesture of respect.

Russell on prayer to Jesus & WTS charter? refers to worship of Jesus

Share this