Vindication 1 (1931) p. 72: Heretofore the mighty and the rich have been able to buy their way through. When they get into a difficult situation money is freely used. It was Satan who invented the slogan, ?Money talks?; and his agents use this slogan and prove its effectiveness. They have freely resorted to briberies and have been able to buy their way through times of distress, but the wrath of Jehovah God will not be placated nor his hand be held back by their filthy lucre.
Preservation (1932) p. 85 (compare w6/15/31 p. 183): Evidently the Devil invented the slogan, ?Money talks,? because he was there attempting to use it to persuade the ruler to act. It was he who showed the clergy the propriety of bribing Judas to betray Jesus into their hands. He also induced them to take up a collection with which to bribe the soldiers to be concerning the resurrection of Jesus. (Matthew 26:14-16; 28:11-15)
Religion (1940) p. 125: ?religion is what they [politicians] insist upon, which [religion] is wholly an invention of the Devil.
W6/15/40 p. 183: ?Christendom? trusts wholly in human influence brought forth by the Devil for the purpose of deceiving: such inventions as peace pacts, protective associations, armies and navies, Papal concordats, traditional lies, the power of money, the assurance of dictators, the words of the pope or others of the Hierarchy; and then continues to howl before the people and harangue them, saying, ?Give us more religion.? All of these things are the result of the influence and power of the demons upon those who practice religion.
Children (1941) p. 53: It is the soul that is dead. (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) The doctrine of the ?immortality of all souls? was invented and taught for the very purpose of deceiving men and reproaching Almighty God, and this was where lying began. The Devil is the author of that lie and the other doctrines springing out of it.
Children (1941) p. 344: Because Satan knows that such children will be a vindication of and forever a praise to Jehovah?s name Satan desperately tries to keep the children away from God. He invents all kinds of ceremonies and schemes to turn them away from God.
w4/15/43 p. 123: There is no record that they [the ?materialized angels? of Genesis 6] were sentenced to death for their misguided course, but they were punished with imprisonment. By whom? By the inventor of prisons, jails and torture chambers and concentration camps, namely, Satan, ?the prince of the demons.?
The Truth Shall Make You Free (1943) p. 85: Almighty God allowed Lucifer the liberty to take this course, but that wicked one became wrapped up in the toils of lies and religion, of which he became the author and inventor.
w7/1/44 p. 204: By imprisoning consecrated Christians, who are in the world but not of it, the Devil is casting them into an invention of his own. The first prison observed in Holy Writ is mentioned as a part of the Devil?s visible system of things or organization, namely, demon-worshiping Egypt.
w7/15/44 p. 223: For an outward show many have insisted that a Christian should be diplomatic. But let it be remembered that diplomacy was invented and is carried on by the Devil, and not by the Lord.
w10/15/44 p. 309-10: In order to further blind and deceive them, Satan must invent and devise the super-scheme, the masterscheme, of all his iniquitous career and fairly hypnotize the people with it. [In reference to the United Nations]
w10/15/44 p. 316: Witchcraft is of the Devil and is the fruit of his rebellion against Jehovah God. Satan the rebel invented witchcraft, and he and his wicked spiritual allies employ and foster witchcraft to deceive human creatures.
w4/15/45 p. 120: Satan the Devil, the sly inventor of religion, aimed at bringing irremovable reproach upon Jehovah?s name by turning the entire nation of Israel completely away from Jehovah God.
The 30s and early 40s WTS literature is rife with overt statements about how the demons directly control the minds of unfaithful men, especially the politicians, religionists, and the "evil servant" class, putting ideas directly into their brains and motivating them to act accordingly.
Granted, this strikes most people today as bordering on paranoid delusion, but it's such a common theme of that era of the Society that, in context, "Jehovah invented the radio" would most properly be taken to mean that Rutherford believed God actually 'inspired' its invention.
