Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A Source of the God Family Doctrine?

Earlier I commented that Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, seemed to believe at one time that believers are able to become God beings. This doctrine seems rather similar to HWA's God Family doctrine. The Watch Tower Society today does not teach this doctrine.

Here is more information on this topic courtesy of this article by Mr. Ken Raines. (Bolding mine.)

On theology, [Nelson Barbour, an early and important influence upon C. T. Russell,] taught in the book [Three Worlds and The Harvest of This World (1877)], as Russell would later in The Watch Tower, that the Church and Jesus together constituted The Christ (pp. 5-6). Jesus and His bride, the Church, constituted the "Second Adam and Eve" (p. 11). The church will become Gods, in fact, they would "become part of the Godhead" (p. 13)... These 144,000 "spiritual beings" would "materialize" as men on earth at will during their Millennial reign...thereby keeping tabs on the spiritual development of mankind during this period (pp. 43 47). Mankind's worship would in part consist of serving and obeying these "rulers" or "instructors" in the Millennium (p. 68).

So not only did the Mormons teach this God Family doctrine but also the early Watch Tower Society. Maybe HWA actually stole this idea from the Watchtower Society.

2 comments:

  1. Isn’t it just possible that HWA actually ‘plagiarized’ this doctrine from reading the Bible?

    After all it is a theme which permeates the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

    Personally I find it absolutely wonderful that God has such great love for all of mankind that He is offering such a fantastic potential destiny to EVERY individual on the planet.

    HWA stumbling on something that happens to be Biblically correct doesn’t somehow suddenly make it incorrect.

    Or are you suggesting that God is so limited that it is not possible that God Himself could have children?

    Just my thoughts.

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