“What Jesus Is Now”
This is the title of an article in Awake! (Dec. 8, 1998, 8-11), a publication of the Watchtower Society. I received it last week from a Jehovah’s Witness who has frequented my doorstep of late. Jehovah’s Witnesses do believe in the Jesus we read about in the Bible. Of course, they would say that they do, but the “proof is in the pudding” as we test whether these teachers are from God (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:21-22). Here are some of the things this article says about Jesus, followed by Bible answers:
Jehovah’s Witnesses: “Jesus was the first and only direct creation of God in heaven countless ages ago, before the angels and the physical universe. This is why he is called God’s ‘only-begotten Son.’ All other creations were made through this Son, God’s ‘master worker,’ in his pre-human existence” (8).
Bible Answer: Jesus is eternal God — not a created being. He is “God with us” (Matt. 1:23) — the I AM (John 8:58), and one with the Father (Matt. 1:23; John 8:58; 10:30-33). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). The Watchtower Society had to rewrite John 1:1-3 in their “New World Translation” of the Bible to avoid and evade the force of its truth! Their Bible says the Word was “a god.”Jesus described himself as “the first and the last” in Revelation 1:17. Isaiah 44:6 gives the very same designation to Jehovah: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the First and I am the Last; Besides me there is no God.” Now, either Jesus is the God who was Israel’s Redeemer in Isaiah 44:6, or he is a blasphemer in Revelation 1:17! The Jesus of the Bible is wholly, eternally God. The Jesus of the Watchtower was created in their false interpretations and twisting of the Scriptures.
Jehovah’s Witnesses: “About 2,000 years ago, God transferred the life of Jesus to the womb of a Jewish virgin, to be born as a human. Even now, by the process of artificial insemination, humans can do something that is in some ways comparable” (8).
Bible Answer: Incredible! Jehovah’s Witnesses say the virgin birth of Jesus is comparable to artificial insemination! The Bible says that Mary was told that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). His birth was a miracle of God — artificial insemination is not. Colossians 2:9 says that “in Him (Jesus, jrp) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Jesus’ divinity was not lessened by his humanity. Miraculously, deity inhabited flesh (John 1:14). Jesus is called the “Son of God” not because his existence was due to a creative act of God. He is the “Son of God” because this appellation describes his nature — his fullness of deity. The people of Jesus’ day understood that to call God your Father was to “make yourself God” (John 10:30, 33, 35). Jesus concurred with their assessment by calling himself “the Son of God” in John 10:35-36).
Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe Jesus is fully God. The Jesus of the Watchtower is not the Jesus of the Bible!
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Truth
Magazine Vol. XLIV: 12 p23
June 15,
2000