How do Jehovah's Witnesses' teachings about Christ compare with
Scriptures?
M
any people are confused about
the Jehovah's Witnesses. People
have written to ask if they are
Christians or do they worship a
different God? The following article
may help to answer this important
questions.
Jehovah's Witnesses and
Christians have several things in
common. They share common
concerns about religious apostasy,
they teach against evolution and
they believe that Christ will return to destroy the forces of Satan and
establish His kingdom on earth.
Jehovah's Witnesses and Christians do, however, differ on many
important doctrines. In an attempt to keep this article to a reasonable
length, let us not concentrate on ALL the differences. Rather...
...L
ET US INVESTIGATE THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE, THE
PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.
JW's believe that Jesus Christ was a perfect man, and that He is a
person distinct from God the Father. However, they also teach that
before His earthly life, Jesus was a spirit creature, Michael the
archangel
, who was created by God and became the Messiah at His
baptism. According to Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus is a mighty one,
although not almighty as Jehovah God is. According to
John 1:1
in their
Bible, The New World Translation, Christ is "a god" but not "the God."
They teach that Jesus "was and is and always will be beneath
Jehovah" and that "Christ and God are not coequal".
Does the Bible confirm their beliefs or does it teach the orthodox
Christian concept that Christ is God? This is an extremely important
question. Consider the following points:
1. The Christ of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old
Testament.
o
Isaiah wrote about seeing Jehovah in
Isaiah 6:1-10
.
o
In
John 12:31-42
, we are told that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory
and spoke of Him
o
In
Exodus 34:14
we are to worship no one but Jehovah.
o
In
Hebrews 1:6
the angels worship Christ.
o
In
Isaiah 44:6
Jehovah is called the first and the last
(confirmed in
Revelation 1:8
),
o
but in
Revelation 22:13
Christ is the first and the last.
These verses demonstrate that the name "Jehovah" is used for
both God the Father and of God the Son. Although they are
distinct persons they are each called "Jehovah" because they
each possess deity.
2. The deity of Christ is taught in Scripture.
In
Matthew 1:23
, Christ is called "Immanuel," which means "God
with us."
When Thomas touched Jesus' wounds, after the resurrection, he
exclaimed, "My Lord and my God" (
John 20:28
). There is no
basis whatsoever for saying, as some JW's say, that Thomas
was referring to Christ when he said "my Lord" but was referring
to God (Jehovah) when he said "my God." Instead, Thomas
called Christ both his Lord and his God. And Christ did not
correct him!
Colossians 2:9
clearly confirms the deity of Christ
when it states that in Him "all the fullness of the divine quality
dwells bodily" (New World Translation). Stephen called Jesus
"Lord" (
Acts 7:59,60
), and we are to confess Jesus as Lord
(
Rom. 10:9
;
I Cor. 12:3
). "Lord" in these verses is Kurios, which
is the Greek word for Jehovah in the Septuagint, the Greek
version of the Old Testament. It is evident from this that Christ
the Lord (kurios) is Jehovah God.
3. Attributes of Christ show that He is God.
Jesus Christ knows all things (John
1:48
;
2:25
;
6:64
;
14:30
;
21:17
). He is all-powerful (
Matt. 28:18
;
Heb. 1:3
), sinless (
John
8:46
), eternal (
Mic. 5:2
), and unchanging (
Heb. 13:8
). Since only
God possesses these attributes, Christ must be God.
4. Certain works of Christ show that He is God.
Jesus Christ has the power to forgive sins (
Mark 2:5-7
;
Eph.
1:7
), give eternal life (John
10:28
;
17:2
), judge the world (
John
5:22, 27
), and control nature (
Matt. 8:26
). Since only God can do
these things, Christ must be God.
5. Christ received worship as God.
Jesus is worshipped by the angels (
Heb. 1:6
) and by man (
Matt.
14:33
), and yet only God is to be worshipped (
Ex. 34:14
). Christ
Himself said that worship is due to God alone (
Matt. 4:10
), and
yet He accepted worship. If Jesus in His pre-existent state were
the
archangel
Michael, how could He have received worship,
since angels are not allowed to receive worship (Rev.
19:10
)? If
Christ were not God, then worshipping Him would be idolatrous.
6. Jesus Christ is called "the mighty God" in
Isaiah 9:6
.
JW's have a ready answer for this verse. They explain that
Christ is "the mighty god" but not "the almighty." They say that
Christ is the mighty, never the almighty and that Jehovah is the
almighty God, never the mighty. However,
Jeremiah 32:18
shows that Jehovah is the mighty One. Therefore, since Christ is
the mighty God (
Isaiah 9:6
) and Jehovah is the mighty God (
Jer.
32:18
), they are both God. They both possess full deity.
7. Christ is God, the Creator of all things according to
Colossians 1:15-17
.
JW's refer to this passage to support their teaching that Christ
was created by Jehovah (for example, Let God Be True, p.35).
This is based primarily on the words, "the firstborn of all
creation," in verse 15. However, if this verse was teaching that
Jesus Christ is the first created being made by God, the word
"first-created" would have been used of Christ, not the word
"firstborn." These are two different words in the Greek, with two
different meanings. "First-created" is protoktistos, and "firstborn"
is prototokos.
Colossians 1:15
does not use the protoktistos,
"first-created." Instead it uses prototokos, which means an heir,
a begotten one, the first in rank. The teaching of Colossians
1:15 is that Christ is first in rank above all creation; He is the
Heir of all things. He is prior to all creation and superior over it.
The JW's New World Translation adds the word "other" four
times in
Colossians 1:15-17
, so that the passage states that
Christ created "all other things," everything except Himself.
However, there is no basis for adding "other." It certainly does
not occur in the Greek manuscripts. The translators of the New
World Translation admit this by putting "other" in brackets. This
"translation" attempts to comply with the assumption that
firstborn means first-created. But, as shown, this is not the
meaning of firstborn, and therefore it is also wrong to add the
word "other." There is no verse in the entire Bible that states that
Christ was created by Jehovah!
8. Christ claimed to be equal with God in
John 10:30
.
JW's believe that this verse, "I and the Father are one," means
that Christ was one with God the Father in purpose and not in
nature and essence. However, if that was all Christ was saying,
why did the Jews want to stone Him? They themselves thought
His purpose was the same as God's.
Verse 33
of John 10
explains that they wanted to stone Him because of
blasphemy
,
because He claimed to be God!
The deity of Christ is the central point of the Scriptures. It clearly
teaches that Christ is God. The teachings of the Jehovah's Witness'
concerning Jesus Christ clearly contradict the teachings of the Bible.
Passages such as
Philippians 2:5-11
tell us that Jesus Christ, who
existed as God, took the bodily form of a humble servant so that He
could die on the cross in our place. "Therefore also God highly exalted
Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (kurios), to the glory of God
the Father."
How to Talk Creation with a Jehovah's
Witness
by Robert Doolan
A survey of members of conservative churches in 10 states across
America found that almost 90 per cent of those polled had met a
Jehovah's Witness. Yet almost none of these people knew what
Jehovah's Witnesses believe, or how to talk to them properly. But the
best place to start is at the beginning—at creation.
You've got to give credit to Jehovah's Witnesses for one thing. Their zeal and
persistence is probably unparalleled among religious groups. And even if they do
always seem to knock on your door when you're either sleeping in, sitting down
to Sunday dinner, or trying to feed the baby, if you talk to them long enough
you'll find they are as anti-evolution as you are. Their headquarters in Brooklyn,
New York, produces millions of copies of books which expose the errors of
evolution and give evidence for creation.
1
The problem is that the Watchtower society, the Jehovah's Witnesses'
organization, is notorious for overlooking details that prove their ideas wrong.
Like many other cults, their zeal is '
not according to knowledge
', as Paul lamented
of Israel (
Romans 10:2
). Unfortunately, their ideas on creation suffer from this
malady also. So creationists who talk to them at the door should know where the
'Watchtower creation' differs from God's creation as revealed in Genesis and
other parts of the Bible.
The purpose of this article is not to provoke you to argue with Jehovah's
Witnesses. Your argument is not with the Witness on your doorstep, but with the
leaders of his or her organization. They have led the Witness to think that the
distorted doctrines they have taught him or her are in fact God's truth. Your
purpose in discussing creation with Jehovah's Witnesses—and you will find you
have a common interest in this subject—is to urge them to see that their leaders
are not providing them with reliable information. They rely on the doctrines of
men who have made Scripture fit their own ideas. If the Witness can see this, he
or she may be more open to the truths of the Gospel.
Begin your discussion by admitting that you have a strong interest in creation.
Say you have heard that the Watchtower society produces a lot of material
exposing the errors of evolution, for which they are to be commended. Then add
that you have also heard strong criticism of their doctrines. Ask if you could go
over a few passages of the Bible with them about creation. They won't refuse. If
you have difficulty remembering all the points listed below, ask if they would take
this article away and read it, then let you know their response to each point.
How long is a Genesis day?
Start by discussing the length of the days in the first chapter of Genesis.
The Watchtower publication 'Life—How Did It Get Here?' rightly points out that
the Hebrew word yom, translated '
day
', can mean different lengths of time.
2
Because yom sometimes allows periods much longer than 24 hours, the
Watchtower organization has decided that this is what 'day' must mean
throughout the first chapter of Genesis.
However, good exegesis requires that a secondary meaning of any Biblical text
should only be sought if a literal reading doesn't make sense. But the literal 24-
hour day, with evening and morning each day, makes very good sense in the early
verses of Genesis. In the overwhelming number of its occurrences, the word yom
means an ordinary, literal day—either an entire solar day, or the daylight part of
an ordinary solar day. Whenever the word is used in Scripture with specific
beginning and end points ('
evening
' and '
morning
') or is described as '
the first
day
', '
the sixth day
', etc., it always refers to a literal solar day.
3
This should be
pointed out to the Jehovah's Witness.
A well-known scholar in New Testament Greek, Dr Robert H. Countess, has
critically analysed the Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament. He found that the
translators of the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation have adopted—as
well as invented—certain principles whereby they have chosen a reading not
found in their basic Greek text or in any Greek text.
4
This tendency seems at
times to inhibit the Watchtower's literal acceptance of the Old Testament text as
well.
In most translations
John 1:1
shows that Jesus the Creator ('
the Word
') '
was God
'.
But the New World translation has added to Scripture by saying 'the Word was a
god', making Jesus to be a false god like Baal or Satan.
Ask the Jehovah's Witness this: 'If the writer of Genesis wanted to describe the
six days of creation as six ordinary 24-hour days, how should he have done it?'
Each day in Genesis 1 has an evening and a morning, and is described as the 'first
day', the 'second day', etc. Ask the Jehovah's Witness how it could have been
made clearer.
The Watchtower organization teaches that
Genesis 1:3-31
is not discussing the
original creation of matter of the heavenly bodies. It describes the preparation of
the already existing earth for human habitation. "Therefore the Watchtower
society allows the possibility of millions of years before verse 3.
6
But they seem to
ignore the main verse that refutes this. In
Exodus 20:11
, God Himself wrote on
tablets of stone, '
In six days, the Lord made heaven and earth
[
Genesis 1 :1
],
the
sea, and all that in them is
[Genesis 1:2 onwards].' There is no room in any of
these verses for millions of years, or even any years.
God's six days of work and one day of rest are given as a reason why we should
have a day of rest following six days of labour. We do not work thousands of years
then have thousands of years of rest. There is no break in the creation between
verses 1, 2 and 3 as the Watchtower society implies. In any case, as linguist Dr
Charles Taylor pointed out in reply to a Jehovah's Witnesses' claim that each 'day'
is thousands of years long: 'there's no sense having a 1,000-year wait between the
creation of the plants and the creation of the insects to fertilize them.'
7
Is the Holy Spirit God's 'Active Force'?
In any discussion with a Jehovah's Witness on the subject of creation, you are
sure to come up against their conception of the Holy Spirit.
Most Bible translators render the final part of
Genesis 1:2
somewhat like the King
James Version: '. . .
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
' But
the Watchtower organization does not believe in the personality of the Holy
Spirit, so they have altered this text in their Bible to read '. . . God's active force
was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.'
8
The Watchtower society denies the Trinity, so it teaches its followers that the
Holy Spirit is simply Jehovah God's invisible 'active force' (as rendered above in
Genesis 1:2 of their own Bible). Their New World Translation usually renders this
supposedly impersonal 'active force' as 'holy spirit', with no capital letters and no
'the' in front of the words.
Could the Watchtower translation of Genesis 1:2 be correct? Is the Holy Spirit
really an 'active force' rather than a real personal part of the triune Godhead as
Christians believe? Not at all. The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit in a personal
way. He speaks (
Acts 13:2
, see the outcome in
13:4
), bears witness (
John 15:26
),
feels hurt (
Isaiah 63:10
), knows (
1 Corinthians 2:10,11
), wills (
1 Corinthians
12:11
), can be insulted (
Hebrews 10:29
), and so on. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit
as '
He
', not 'it'. In
John 16:13
for example, Jesus says: '
when he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to
come.
' Ask the Witness why Jesus Himself would have called the Holy Spirit 'He'
if the Holy Spirit is only an 'it' as the Watchtower society teaches. And how can
the Spirit speak, hear, bear witness, feel hurt, guide and show if He is only an 'it'?
A passage that Jehovah's Witnesses rarely encounter in their organized Bible
studies is
Romans 8:26,27
. These verses simply do not fit their conception of the
Holy Spirit. In these verses we are told the Spirit 'makes intercession' for us. Can
a 'force' do this? We are told the Spirit has a mind. Does a 'force' have a mind?
We are told the Spirit pleads for us. Can a 'force' plead for us? Of course not. The
Holy Spirit is given personal attributes by Jesus and the other Bible writers
because He is a person of the Godhead—a personal expression and form of the
one true God.
The Watchtower's booklet Reasoning from the Scriptures, which is chiefly
designed to help the Witness refute the arguments of Christians, tells the Witness
to answer the above argument by saying that it is not unusual for something to be
personified in Scripture (wisdom, for example).
9
But ask the Witness this: 'If the
Holy Spirit really were a person, how would the Bible writers express this?'
Remind them that Jesus called the Holy Spirit 'He', not 'it' (
John 16:13
).
Sometimes the Jehovah's Witness may point to
Acts 2:4
, which says the disciples
were all 'filled' with the Holy Spirit. They ask, 'How could the spirit be a person,
when it filled about 120 disciples at the same time?
'10
But Jesus Himself,
obviously a person, fills all things (
Ephesians 1:23
). Does this then disprove
Jesus' personality?
Invite the Witness to read
Acts 5:3,4
. In these verses Ananias is accused of lying
to the Holy Spirit. How and why would someone bother to lie to a 'force'? In the
very next verse the Holy Spirit is identified as God ('
You have not lied to men, but
to God
.'
Acts 5:4
). Then invite the Witness to read
2 Corinthians 3:17
in his or her
own New World Translation to show that God is the Spirit—not just the one who
sends forth an 'active force'. In this verse the New World Translation says,
'Jehovah is the Spirit'.
There can be no doubt: The Watchtower translation of Genesis 1:2 is inaccurate.
Unfortunately they have not taken other important parts of Scripture into
account when formulating their doctrine. Instead of forming their doctrine from
Scripture, they have made their translation of Genesis 1:2 fit their doctrine.
...And the Word was God
John 1:1
, a great passage cherished by Christians down through the centuries,
clearly shows in most translations that Jesus the Creator ('
the Word
') '
was God
'.
But here again the New World Translation has added to Scripture. The
Watchtower's translation doesn't say 'the Word was God' —it says 'the Word was
a god'. So Jesus is downgraded to just 'a god'.
But look where this theology leads. If Jesus is not the true God, the Watchtower
translators must be making Him out to be a false god— no better than Baal or
Satan. Peter warns against this:
'. . . there shall be false teachers among you, who
privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them,
and bring upon themselves swift destruction'
(
2 Peter 2:1
).
The fact is that Jesus is called God in the Bible, along with the Father and the
Holy Spirit. Invite the Witness to look at
John 20:28
. In this verse the Apostle
Thomas realizes who Jesus is and exclaims: '
My Lord and my God
' (capital 'G'
even in the New World Translation). Jesus' reply leaves no doubt that Thomas
was expressing the truth. Thomas was a believer in the true God, and he called
Jesus 'my God'. Thomas was referring to a specific true God, his God, namely
Jesus. As Thomas could honestly call Jesus '
God
', it was equivalent to calling Him
Jehovah.
In the past some Witnesses answered this passage by saying Thomas was simply
making an expression of surprise, equivalent to 'Oh, my God!' But few will admit
these days that Thomas would have blasphemed in such a way, particularly
considering Jesus' reply.
Another passage which calls Jesus God is
Isaiah 9:6
. This verse is heard in
churches world-wide every Christmas. It is a prophecy from Isaiah which says:
'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The Prince of Peace.'
Discussion of this passage with a Jehovah's Witness usually goes like this:
'Who is this child born unto us?'
'It is Jesus Christ.'
'What does the verse call Him?'
'It calls Him Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God . . .'
'The mighty who?'
'Well, it calls Him the Mighty God, but He's not the Almighty God,
who is Jehovah, the Father.'
'What does it call Him after the mighty God?'
(Silence.)
Again we should point out to the Jehovah's Witness where such theology leads.
Jehovah's Witnesses must believe from such passages that Jesus is either (a) a
false God, or (b) a second true God. Either position will be confusing for a
Jehovah's Witness who has never thought out the argument himself.
While on Isaiah 9:6, ask the Witness the difference between the '
Mighty God
'
(whom he acknowledges to be Jesus) and the '
Almighty God
' (who he says is
Jehovah—God the Father). Perhaps he will say that the Almighty God Jehovah
upholds all things by the word of His power. But
Hebrews 1:3
says this of Jesus.
Perhaps he will say that the Almighty God Jehovah has all power in Heaven and
earth. But
Matthew 28:18
says this of Jesus. By definition, 'almighty' means 'all-
powerful'.
11
Therefore Jesus Christ is almighty.
Also show the Jehovah's Witness that even though the Watchtower organization
teaches that the Mighty God and the Almighty God are different, Scripture does
not support this. Ask him to read
Isaiah 10:20,21
in his New World Translation.
Verse 21 says, '
A mere remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty
God
.' A former Jehovah's Witness elder, David Reed, suggests you say to the
Witness: 'Since Isaiah was a Jew and therefore believed in only one God—
Jehovah—whom did Isaiah understand the Mighty God to be?' Certainly Isaiah
would have understood the Mighty God to be Jehovah. So the inspired Word
written through Isaiah the prophet calls Jehovah the '
Mighty God
', even though
the Jehovah's Witness admits that Isaiah 9:6 says Jesus is the '
Mighty God
'.
12
To reinforce the point, ask the Witness to read
Jeremiah 32:18
in his own Bible.
Remind him that the Watchtower society teaches that the Mighty God and the
Almighty God are different. Jeremiah 32:18 gives the name of the Mighty God:
'
the true God, the great One, the mighty One, Jehovah of armies being his name
.'
Then say to the Witness that as Jesus is the '
Mighty God
', and Jehovah is the
'
Mighty God
', who must Jesus be? (Let him reach the conclusion himself that
Jesus and Jehovah are one—as
John 10:30
says.)
Final comments, summary, and conclusion
It can be seen that the Watchtower's creation differs from Biblical creation in
many important respects. Some of these are:
1. Their claim that a day is thousands of years long.
2. Their unwarranted insertion of countless years somewhere between verses
1 and 3 of the first chapter of Genesis.
3. Their alteration of Genesis 1:2 to substitute 'God's active force'
(impersonal) for 'the Spirit of God' (personal).
4. Their calling the Holy Spirit 'it' when Jesus Himself called the Holy Spirit
'He'.
5. Their downgrading of Jesus to a creation of God instead of THE Creator
(
Colossians 1:16,17
). (In fact they believe Jesus is simply a created angel.)
6. Their implication in John 1:1 that Jesus is a false god.
7. Their distinction between 'a god' called Jesus (whom they may reluctantly
acknowledge as 'mighty God'), and 'the God' called Jehovah (who they say
is 'almighty God'). This is contrary to Scripture, which calls both Jesus and
Jehovah 'mighty God'.
All these facts should be pointed out and discussed as long as necessary with the
Jehovah's Witness. Even though Jehovah's Witnesses are trained to sidetrack
you, or throw in red herrings which are aimed to divert your attention to
Armageddon or some other subject, resist the temptation until you have
discussed all the creation aspects covered in this article.
Your aim is to show the Witnesses that their organization has let them down
badly in their teaching of creation. This should help them realize that the
Watchtower's other teachings are possibly wrong too (which many are). If this is
seen by the Jehovah's witness he or she may then be ready to accept the true
Gospel—salvation by grace through faith instead of salvation through the
Watchtower society's erroneous teachings (
Ephesians 2:8,9
).
References
1. Did Man Get Here by Evolution or by Creation?, Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, 1967; also, Life—How Did it Get
Here? By Evolution or Creation?, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of
New York, Inc., Brooklyn, 1985.
2. Life—How Did it Get Here? p. 26.
3. Henry M. Morris and Martin Clark, The Bible Has the Answer (Revised
and enlarged), Creation-Life Publishers, San Diego, 1976, p. 94.
4. Robert H. Countess, The Jehovah's Witnesses New Testament,
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg (New Jersey),
second edition, 1987, p. 12.
5. Reasoning from the Scriptures, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of
New York, Inc., Brooklyn, 1985, p. 88.
6. Ibid.
7. Reply to a Letter to the Editor, Creation 10(4), September-November
1988, pp. 46-47.
8. New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, 1961 (Revised 1970), Genesis
1:2.
9. Ref. 5, p. 380.
10. You Can Live Forever on a Paradise on Earth, Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society of New York, Inc., Brooklyn, 1982, pp. 40-41.
11. Oxford Reference Dictionary Guild Publishing, London, 1986.
12. David A. Reed, Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse, Baker
Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986, p. 42.
Document Outline