Spirit medium/KIT/John S. Thompson-by request!
Request from researcher:
A favor please! I have not been able to find a copy of the 1830 American Quarterly Review to verify these statements by "John S. Thompson," and was wondering if you had a copy of it.
I got my information from a cult-awareness website that said this:
In 1985, the Society published a new edition of their Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. In Appendix 2A they added another “translation” to their list - that of John S. Thompson of Baltimore, entitled The Monotessaron; or, the Gospel History, According to the Four Evangelists. This rendition, dated at 1829, is quoted as, “and the Logos was a god.”
In their new book entitled Witnesses of Jehovah, Leonard and Marjorie Chretien give us new information on just who John Thompson was. They quote The American Quarterly Review of September, 1830. Here we read Thompson saying, “I shall rejoice in having been the happy instrument, in the hand of God, of having done fourfold as much for mankind, as all the professed commentators of the last fifteen centuries!” Aside from a lack of humility, it seems Thompson was “moved about by every wind of doctrine” as well, moving from being a Calvinist to an Arminian Methodist preacher, to being a Restorationist, then on to an Arian Restorationist, until finally being a Unitarian Universalist (should sound familiar by now!) The Chretiens also record that Thompson admits to having experiences with - yup, you guessed it - spirit beings who instruct him to “be careful to represent Jesus as only the instrument of God in all he does.” The reader is directed to the Chretiens’ book for further details.
http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=431&Itemid=8&limit=1&limitstart=1
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My comments:
Thank you for your request! I will post a download link with those quotes for you in about an hour!
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Why don't we bypass the 1830 American Quarterly Review and go right to the source! A JW could claim that the American Quarterly Review misquoted Thompson, so if we have our information right from Thompson himself, then we will have a more accurate document.
Why don't we go back four years earlier than the article in the 1830 American Quarterly Review, and go to 1826, and read John Samuel Thompson's memoirs he wrote himself. (1826 The Christian Guide To A Right Understanding Of The Sacred Scriptures, Designed As A Select Commentary Of The Four Evangelists).
There, we will find both statements in their most accurate form.
Here is page 6 where Thompson states:
“I shall rejoice in having been the happy instrument, in the hand of God, of having done fourfold as much for mankind, as all the professed commentators of the last fifteen centuries!”
At the bottom of paragraph 3 Thompson writes: "Jehovah being the father of all his intelligent offspring, etc., shows that while Thompson was using and writing the name "Jehovah," this did not stop the "spirits" from the "spirit world" from seizing his body forcefully! Unlike the claims the Watchtower publishes that using the name "Jehovah" will scare away demons.
And, here on page 33 Thompson states:
I heard a voice very distinctly saying:--"In all your writings, be careful to represent Jesus as only the instrument of God in all he does.”
Thompson states that he had "several conflicts to painful to describe," so these "spirit being" events happened more than once! Thompson also says, that he was "sorry" he had interrupted the dictation.
If you would like to download Thompson's book dated 1826 with these quotes for your records, then click the download link by the red arrow at the bottom of the next page.
Bookmarked and Searchable:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/em2iiq
The 1985 Kingdom Interlinear Translation lists Thompson on page 1139 here:
The KIT lists: "The Monotessaron; or, the Gospel History, According to the Four Evangelists." This rendition, dated 1829 is quoted as, “and the Logos was a god.” You can download Thompson's earlier rendition of this book dated one year earlier in 1828 here:
Bookmarked and Searchable: (Same download instructions as above)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/dge8bw
What the Watchtower fails to mention in their KIT Appendix, is the fact that not only was "Thompson" hearing voices from the "spirit world," but he couldn't make up his mind what to believe.
As mentioned above, Thompson was “moved about by every wind of doctrine," moving from being a Calvinist to an Arminian Methodist preacher, to being a Restorationist, then on to an Arian Restorationist, until finally being a Unitarian Universalist.
In 1833, three years after the 1830 American Quarterly Review article was published, Thompson no longer believed that Jesus was "a" god and published a pamphlet "defending" the Trinity doctrine.
(A Defence of the Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity, in Answer to the Letters Addressed to Captain Thomas Thrush Harrogate John Howard Esq. Ripon ).
His "full" name is listed in the url.
http://books.google.com/books?id=W35DGwAACAAJ&dq=John+Samuel+Thompson&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
by John SamuelThompson- 1833
So, if the Watchtower Society wants to pride themselves on using "spirit medium-wack-jobs" like Johannes Greber, and John Samuel Thompson as a reference to defend their beliefs, then they can go right ahead and do so.
I hope this will help in your research.
N.