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1951 Rfm E.Pdf What Has Religion Done for Mankind? "There is not a fine tree producing rotten fruit; again there is not a rotten tree producing fine fruit . For each tree is known by its own fruit ." Luke 6 :43,44, NW. PUBLISHERS WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, INC . INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASsoCIATION Brooklyn, New York, U. S. A. 2,000,000 Edition COPYRIGHT, 1951 by WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY Made in the United States of America DEDicATED to the peace and unity of all people of good will of what- ever race or nation, by the ex- posure of the false religion and the vindication of the true . Abbreviations of Bible versions quoted or cited in this book AS -American Standard Version, by the American Committee of Revision AT -An American Translation, by J . M . P. Smith and E. J . Goodspeed CB - The Holy Bible, translated by the Catholic Biblical Asso- ciation of America Da - The 'Holy Scriptures', a New Translation, by J . N. Darby Dy - Translation of the Latin Vulgate made at Douay and Rheims Fn - The Holy Bible in Modern English, by Ferrar Fenton Xx -The Holy Bible, translated by Monsignor Ronald A . Knox LXX - The Septuagint Version of the Hebrew Scriptures, trans- lation published by S . Bagster and Sons Limited Ly - The New Testament in the Westminster Version, by Cuthbert Lattey, S .J. Mo -A New Translation of The Bible, by James Moffatt Mk - The Syriac New Testament, by James Murdock NW -New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, 2d edition Ro -The Emphasised Bible, a New Translation, by J . B. Rotherham RS -Revised Standard Version of the New Testament, by the International Council of Religious Education Sp - The New Testament, a New Translation, by Francis A . Spencer, O .P. Yg - The Holy Bible, translated by Robert Young Any quotation not followed by any specific abbreviation should be understood to be made from the Authorized or King James Version . CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGE 1 What Has Religion Done for Mankind? . 7 2 The Standard for Judging Religion 19 3 When There Was One Religion 33 4 How the False Kind Began 48 5 Development of the False Before the Flood . 58 6 Apostasy After the Deluge, with Variety . 74 7 Further Revelation on the Sacred Secret . 91 8 Egyptian Cult Menaces the True Worship . 106 9 Establishing a National Worship Under Theocracy 120 10 Prophetic Patterns 135 11 Compromise with Demonism a Snare 152 12 Kingship and Priesthood-Why Separate . 164 13 Fall to Idolatry and Recovery 177 14 The Spread of Hinduism 191 15 Buddhism, a Salvation by Psychology 203 16 Confucianism, a System of Morality 214 17 The Sacred Secret of the Seed Solved 225 18 World Religion and the Seed of Mystery . 236 19 The Poor Transferred to Abraham's Bosom . 246 20 The "Sacred Secret of This Godly Devotion" . 257 21 The Falling Away from Christianity 266 22 Islam, Mohammed's Religion of Submission . 278 23 Christendom Rejects the Kingdom of the Seed 291 24 The Remnant Restored from Mystic Babylon . 302 25 Red Religion and the "Man of Lawlessness" . 313 26 Pure Religion Alone Survives the World's End 323 27 New World Unity Under Theocratic Worship . 333 What Has Religion Done for Mankind? CHAPTER I ELIGION or no religion-what shall it be for me? That is the question every full- grown, intelligent person must decide today. UponR each one's personal decision depends his everlasting destiny . It is as serious as all that. We have to face the question and answer it, be- cause religion, all religion, is on judgment in this most trying time . 2 Now, for the first time in human history, all the civilizations that have survived till today are in turmoil at the same time . This is most unusual. It must be very significant . Religion cannot be divorced from responsibility for the situation, for from the beginning religion has been connected with every civilization that has arisen on the face of the earth. That is why it is sorely feeling the effects of the worsening situation . That is why it is under judgment . Is history now overtaking religion? Are its sins, long indulged in, catching up with it and finding it out while the whole world looks on? Is it now reaping the fruitage of what it has sown for centuries? As we endeavor to an- swer all these vital questions we cannot escape 1. What question must we now answer? Why is it so serious? 2. Why is the world situation so unusual, and why must we investigate what religion has done for mankind? 7 8 WHAT HAS RELIGION DONE FOR MANKIND? investigating the question, What has religion done for mankind? We must be honest with ourselves and courageously face the facts . The truth may hurt but will be beneficial. The grand climax of testing is certain to come shortly, and only the truth will endure . s This word "religion" has a broad meaning . There is much that is called by this name, and we want to know whether the truth, the pure, abso- lute truth, is associated with religion . So it be- comes necessary for us at the start to set out the meaning of the term as here used, in order to understand what we are talking about and to come to right conclusions. In various languages this word has some equivalent . The word the He- brews used for it literally meant "service" . The Germans have long called it "Gottesdienst", which means "service of God". The Russian Communists, following the German Socialist Karl Marx, call it "the opium of the people" . But the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians, whose languages are drawn largely from the Latin of the Roman empire, use the term "religion". In Latin it is religio. This word, says the great Roman orator and author Cicero, is made up of two words re and legere, which, together, mean "to read over again", to reflect upon or to study the sacred books in which religion is delivered .* So he called it the "pious worship of God". But according to a later Latin author Lactantius it * De Divinatione, Book 4, by Cicero. 3. From what comes the word "religion", and how has it been defined? WHAT HAS RELIGION DONE FOR MANKIND? 9 comes from re-ligare, meaning "to bind back", be- cause it reveals to us the obligation which binds us to a higher power.* The word occurs in the Latin Vulgate Bible . There it is applied to the Jewish religion, to wor- ship of angels, and to Christianity. Testifying be- fore a Roman law court, the Christian apostle Paul tells of when he was a Jewish Pharisee and says : "According to the strictest sect of our re- ligion I lived a Pharisee." t Writing to Chris- tian believers at Colossae, he warns them : "Let no man seduce you, willing in humility, and reli- gion of angels."$ Still earlier the book of The Wisdom of Solomon (14 :18,27) applied the word to the worship of idols . Now, although Paul calls by the name "religion" the cult of the Pharisees and the worship of angels, things which he con- siders to be wrong, his fellow writer James ap- plies the name to true Christianity, saying: "If any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled be- fore God and the Father, is this : to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation : and to keep one's self unspotted from this world."$ * De Civitate Dei, Book 10, chapter 3. t The Bible, at Acts 26 :4, 5, translated from the Latin by the Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1941 . $ The Bible, at Colossians 2 :18 and James 1 :26, 27, according to the Douay Version, translated from the Latin Vulgate . In the original Greek text the word is threskeia, which is derived from the Hebrew word meaning to seek, search or inquire, that is to say, seek for God or a higher power. 4. How do the Christians Paul and James apply the word "religion" ? 10 WHAT HAS RELIGION DONE FOR MANKIND? 5 Taken according to the way it is used, "reli- gion" in its simplest definition means a system of worship, a form of worship, without regard to whether it is true or false worship. This agrees with the meaning of the Hebrew word for it, 'a.boh.dah, which literally means "service", re- gardless of to whom it is rendered . Adopting this plain meaning of the word, notice how the New World Translation of James' words above reads : "If any man seems to himself to be a formal wor- shiper and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart, this man's form of worship is futile . The form of worship that is clean and undefiled from the standpoint of our God and Father is this : to care for orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself without spot from the world." It is in the sense of system or form of worship that we use the term "religion" in this book . e Religion is universal . No matter how loudly they claim to be godless, religion is practiced even by the Red Fascists or Communists, as we shall show to their embarrassment . Despite this fact, the world of today is not bound together in one . More so than political beliefs, religion is a divisive force today. It itself is divided. There are many kinds of religion.
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