Why does "Should you believe in the Trinity " by the Watchtower have so many misquotes?

Question

for example:

The Catholic Encyclopedia: "Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person." (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15, Trinity, p 47-49, As quoted in "Should you believe in the trinity?", Watchtower booklet)

For nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any clear indication of a Third Person. ...The matter seems to be correctly summed up by Epiphanius, when he says: "The One Godhead is above all declared by Moses, and the twofold personality (of Father and Son) is strenuously asserted by the Prophets. The Trinity is made known by the Gospel" (The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Vol. 15)

It seems the Watchtower took the part they liked and left the rest out.

Answer 1

I can not answer as to why the Witnesses deny the Trinity. They drive me crazy when they do.

Psalm 2 is a perfect example of a dialog between the three persons of the Trinity. It is not difficult to see who is doing the talking. There are of course numerous other examples.

I believe that Father sent the Son to do his work of redemption and that the Holy Spirit is witness to the whole thing.

The Holy Spirit is the one telling the story in the bible no matter who is actually doing the writing. This is why all the books of the bible fit together so perfectly. It was the same mind behind them all.

I subscribe to the school of thought that Melchizedek was a physical embodiment of the Holy Spirit. I do not believe he was Shem according to Jewish traditions. After all, he was not the Father or the Son but he did have the same titles as Christ.

He is said to have no mother or father and that he was also a King and a Priest.

The title of “Priest of the God Most High” sure seems like a forever title to me. God is eternal and I would think that God would always need a High Priest, even before he made all of this.

The Holy Spirit did appear at the baptism of Jesus in the form of a dove so physical incarnation is certainly plausible.

The good news is that you do not have to understand the nature of the Holy Trinity to be saved. Jesus does say that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin.

Answer 2

the uncomplicated answer on your Q is, "No. There at the instant are no misquotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia interior the JW booklet, "must you think interior the Trinity". (even nonetheless, the Asker did no longer let us know what pages interior the 31 web site "Trinity" e book those expenses are to be got here upon on!) yet, seem out for the dots... in all such expenses. they are there to advise an element that has been ommitted with the aid of the quoter. it must be some words interior of a sentence that have been edited out, or some sentences interior of a paragraph, or some paragraphs interior of a financial disaster. If all JWs took the hardship to make certain what those lacking bits stated, and suss out why they have been de-chosen with the aid of their leaders, there could be a dashed sight fewer JWs around. regrettably, their leaders infrequently furnish adequate special references for their readers to do such checking. How extraordinary. with connection with the Trinity doctrine, Wt.Soc literature instruments up a straw guy, which it then demolishes comfortably. The Wt.Soc the two fails to understand what the Trinity teaches or (worse) does know it yet provides a distortion of it. it rather is the reason the aforementioned e book partly expenses historical "Church Fathers" like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian etc to furnish the impact those worthies did no longer have faith Jesus became God. the coolest opposite is real. only fill interior the lacking dots... The Wt.Soc additionally introduces pink herrings into the arguments, mutually with Roman Catholic adoration of Mary, to point Mary is, a approach or the different, in touch interior the Trinity doctrine. returned, this would not misquote, or maybe misrepresent Roman Catholicism, even nonetheless it DOES misrepresent the Trinity doctrine. permit the unwary pay attention!

Answer 3

Try reading about the "Nicene Creed". This will show you at the very least that some strong attempts were made to twist Christianity to be more acceptable to the pagan masses. Some were quite successful.

Portraying Jesus as a Carpeneter when he was a general laborer.
Portraying Mary as sacred to appease the pagans need for a sacred chalice.
Portraying the need for a powerful church when christianity is a personal relationship with God and any Big powerful Organization would water down Jesus's message.

Overstating the wrath of God and understating his Love to gain the fear of the masses. They people were pagan. Jesus did not come to undue anything in the old testement but to fufill it. All us Christians should basically be Jews who believe in John 3:16

They didn't change any words.....just they're meanings....You can do that quite easily if you want. Newspapers do that all the time.

PS

If you are ever in doubt about the Bible and it's message. Avoid for a moment what the aposles say and focus in directly on what Jesus himself says. Everything that came out of his mouth will answer any question you have about what you believe. After that go read what the others said.

Answer 4

May I recommend dictionary.com, since "misquote" apparently means something different than you think.

A quote, taken word for word, is just that... A quote. Not a misquote.

The encyclopedia did infact state that the OT does not "clearly indicate" a third person.

I suppose the real question is, why do people who criticize the Watchtower ask so many purposely misleading and/or ignorant questions?

Answer 5

The Watchtower magazine did not misquote.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia states:"The formulation'one God
in three persons' was not solidly established,certainly not fully
assimilated into Christian life and its professions of faith,prior to
the end of the fourth century.But is precisely this formulation that
has first claim to the title(the Trinitarian dogma).Among the Apostolic
fathers,there had been nothing even remotely approaching such
a mentality or perspective."--(1967),Vol.XIV,p.299.
This is where emperor Constantine merged the apostate Christianity with pagen religious beliefs.And we now have the
false doctrine of the trinity.(Mt.26:29-39)(Mark.13:32)Mt.20:20,23) John.18:17,18)(Col.1:15,16)(1Cor.8:5)(Matt.24:36)Or my
favorite:John.14:28,"You heard that I said to you,I am going away
and I am coming [back]to you,If you loved me, you would rejoice
that I am going my way to the Father,because the Father is
GREATER THAT I AM."

Answer 6

That certainly would be a misleading quote on the Watchtowers part. At face value I would suspect the Catholics dont see any support for the Trinity. However when looking at the complete quote, one comes away with a different perspective

Odds are any Jehovah Witness will just ignore it and if there are any others misquotes or out of context quotes or whatever. Pitty but its their choice.

Answer 7

I am a born again Christian and I don't know if Jesus is the Father. He said He is the Son, even after He rose and the reason there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in the Old Test. is because it hadn't been sent to us yet. It was given to us after Jesus ascended into heaven so they wouldn't have known what it was. All I know is I honor Jesus as God and I don't pray to the Holy Spirit like I do to Jesus and the Father.

Answer 8

That is not a misquote.

I have thoroughly examined the brochure, and the so-called "misquotes" presented by opposers, and have found there really are none.

Read "Should You Believe in the Trinity?" for yourself at the first link below. Related information at other links below that.

Answer 9

That would be because they follow in the footsteps of their founder, Charles Taze Russell, who was a notorious liar and fraud, as proven in his testimony before Congress where it was established that contrary to his claims of being expert in the ancient Biblical languages he could not successfully identify a single letter of the Greek or Hebrew alphabets. To this day JW's imagine themselves as an intellectual movement based in uniquely expert exegesis of scripture when in fact they are characterized by extreme ignorance of the most basic facts of doctrine, language and history.

While the specific word Trinitas is not used in scripture, scripturally establishing that the Bible speaks of Father, Son and Holy Spirit all as being God and also says "The Lord is One" is simplicity itself. Explaining how that isn't the most irrational nonsense you've ever heard, that's a little tougher.

Answer 10

In a simple answer, Dan...

Because the watchtower witnesses reject it. They also reject the Deity of Jesus Christ. To them...there can't be a 3 in 1.....but yet in the NWT (their bible)....John 1:1 says "and the word was a god"....which would imply more than one God...which we know they denounce as it is.

Too many inconsistancies with their faith. Too many man-made rules and quotas.

A faith without Christ is no faith at all.