Is Jehovah Witness teaching correct?
<>

Frankly Answered Questions - FAQs

Is what the Jehovah Witnesses are teaching me correct?

Q: I am currently torn in my faith. I was/am a Christian that is searching for answers. I have been in the United Kingdom for 3 months and I welcomed Jehovah Witnesses into my home. We started to study together and I am now confused in my faith. Their beliefs are different, but made much sense from the scripture. For example, celebrating Christmas and birthdays aren't true worship. I keep reading scriptures that relate to this in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 and Isaiah 52:11. This is what they pointed out to me.

They also told me that having pictures, crosses, jewelry, etc.. was also false religion. That we shouldn't use images in worship/prayer (Exodus 20:4; Isaiah 42:8 and 1 John 5:21). Is this to wrong to do? Also did Jesus die on a stake or a cross. If a stake why do we associate it with a cross?

The big one that concerns me is the trinity. Is Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit the same. For it says that Jesus was GOD'S first creation and this indicates that he was created and had a beginning. God has no Beginning or End. In the scripture John 1:1 says that "In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God and the Word was God (or a god according to the Jehovah Witness New World Translation.

Ok, the trouble is we all agree that the Word is Jesus (John 1:14), but if Jesus is God, how can you be with someone and be that someone (John 1:1)? Also, doesn't it say that no man can see God? If they are equal why does it say that the Father is greater then the Son (John 14;28; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Genesis 17:1)?

I come to you for advice with Scripture truth. I need some guidance in the right direction to the truth. Please, if you can help I would greatly appreciate it.

A: Some of the questions that Jehovah Witnesses ask can really mess with your mind. At the same time, it's good to know the answers to their questions - because there are good answers - so that your faith in the Truth can be solid.

The first (and most important) point concerning the Jehovah Witnesses is that they lead people back to the slavery of legalism and salvation by works. Now if you are a Christian at all (and by saying that, I'm not doubting that you are), you should know that isn't right. Talking with the Jehovah Witnesses feels like moving from peace into bondage; from relationship to a Person into following a set of rules. It feels that way, because it is. It's all about "Do not taste, do not touch" (Colossians 2:20-23):

Of course, you already recognized this when you sent the email, because the first thing you wrote about was what NOT to do (Christmas, birthdays, pictures, crosses, jewelry). In Jehovah Witness teaching, salvation is a reward for good works. In their book Let God Be True they express this belief: "All who by reason of faith in Jehovah God and in Christ Jesus dedicate themselves to do God's will and then faithfully carry out their dedication will be rewarded with everlasting life. However, that life will not be the same for all. The Bible plainly shows that some of these, that is, 144,000 will share in heavenly glory with Christ Jesus, while the others will enjoy the blessings of life down here on earth." (Let God Be True, p. 298).

The Watchtower indicates that salvation is determined not by trusting in Jesus Christ, but by loyalty to the Jehovah's Witness leaders: "Your attitude toward the wheatlike appointed 'brothers' of Christ...will be the determining factor as to whether you go into 'everlasting cutting off' or receive 'everlasting life.'" (The Watchtower, August 1, 1981). This helps explain why the Jehovah's Witnesses evidence such great zeal in spreading their teaching from house to house - they are doing it to earn their salvation. Of course, the JWs will talk about "faith," but by this they mean intellectual assent to their teachings, not "trusting" in Jesus like the Bible means the term.

True Christianity is about trusting Jesus Christ, who saves us by His righteousness. It's all about the experience of a personal relationship with Jesus (through the Holy Spirit). It's about grace and undeserved mercy. You will hear very little about these things in Jehovah Witness teaching. They really have missed the heart of the gospel. They have even missed the purpose and meaning of the cross.

There are a lot of nit-picky items we could discuss about the Jehovah Witnesses, such as the celebration of Christmas or the wearing of crosses. In my opinion, these are all things that Paul calls "non judgmental items." See Romans 14:1-5, 13-18; Colossians 2:16-23. Each Christian is permitted to make up their own mind about such things. We shouldn't judge another person on the basis of their conviction on these issues. These are issues that the Bible doesn't command you to do or prohibit you from doing.

By the way, to quote Bible verses about "being separate" and "touching no unclean thing" is a very typical legalistic appeal. They quote these verses to play on your guilt without proving that the Bible actually teaches that Christmas, birthdays, flags, or jewelry are "unclean." It isn't really fair and it's a logical fallacy called the Loaded Question. A Loaded Question is a question that has another question or an assumption mixed up in it. The assumption is made that celebrating birthdays is unclean (without proving it), then they ask, "Doesn't the Bible say to "touch no unclean thing"? Wait a minute! Let's deal with the hidden question: "Are birthdays unclean things in God's eyes?"

The same thing is happening when JWs quote passages about idolatry (Exodus 20:4; Isaiah 42:8; and 1 John 5:21). The Loaded Question is, "Doesn't the Bible tell us not to worship idols?" Of course, it does. But the JWs are assuming that having a picture of Jesus or wearing a cross is an idol. Is it? An idol is an image of something used for worship. If you are worshipping pictures, crosses or your jewelry, then you are sinning. But if you are not worshipping your cross, just wearing it for witness or to remind you of what Jesus did on the cross for you, then be at peace.

Oh, yes. You asked about whether is was a cross or a stake. It was a cross. We have drawings (like the one at right) and descriptions of crucifixions from the time of the Romans. They all involve a cross beam used to stretch out the arms. Nails were placed through the wrist (part of the "hand" in the ancient way of thinking). Jesus showed the nail wounds in his hands to his disciples (see John 20:24-28). (By the way, the graffiti is from A.D. 200s and depicts a boy with one hand raised in an attitude of worship before a crucified figure with an ass's head. The mocking words scribbled beneath are "Alexamenus worships his god.")

Now the Trinity is not a nit-picky item, because it goes to the heart of who Jesus is. Is he simply the angel Michael now living in a spirit body (as JWs teach) or is he God in-fleshed, now living in a resurrected human body? Most people (including Christians) don't have a really clear understanding of the Bible's teaching on what we call the Trinity (tri - unity), so it becomes confusing when cults challenge this idea that God is "one nature in three persons." (By the way, no one would invent such a difficult doctrine. It's way too hard to explain - which is one of the reasons why I believe it to be the Truth and not an invention of men).

The Bible teaches that the three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are equal in essence (that is, their divine nature), but subordinate to one another in their persons: the Son submitting to the Father (just as in any good family) and the Holy Spirit submitting to both the Father and the Son. This explains why some verses teach (as you pointed out) that the Father is greater than the Son (John 14:28), yet also teach that they are equal in nature (John 10:30; Philippians 2:5-6) and worship (Matthew 2:11; Luke 24:52; Hebrews 1:6). By the way, if Jesus is only a super-angel, as the JWs teach, then we definitely shouldn't worship Him - yet we are taught to worship Jesus in the New Testament: Colossians 2:18; Hebrews 1:4-14; Revelation 19:9-10; 22:8-9.

If you haven't already seen the web page on "Is Jesus God?" then take a look at it http://www.new-life.net/faq202.htm, especially the last three paragraphs which explain how to demonstrate to a Jehovah Witness that Jesus is God, even using their own translation.

Of course, you don't find a huge number of verses in the Bible saying that Jesus is "God." The reason for this is that "God" is really the name for the first person of the Trinity, that is the Father. So the New Testament only speaks this way when they are really trying to push the point that Jesus is divine (such as in John 1:1). But you do find many statements of Jesus being divine, the exact image of God, and of God's nature, etc. Rather than quote all of those here, you can read them on the "Is Jesus God?" page.

Now concerning John 1:1, the thing to say here is that Jehovah Witnesses have to ignore Greek grammatical rules and then publish their own translation in order to get John 1:1 to say: "And the Word was a god." The Jehovah Witness translation is simply in error when it comes to this verse. "a" is what we call an indefinite article. There is no indefinite article in Greek, so the Greek doesn't say "a god." There are definite articles in Greek ("the") and it is true that the definite article does not appear here. Why? Because in Greek you don't use a definite article with a predicate nominative. In the sentence: "The Word was God," "The Word" is the nominative (subject) of the sentence and "God" is the predicate nominative of the sentence. To show that God is the predicate nominative and not the nominative you leave off the article in Greek. So the absence of the article has nothing to do with Jesus being "a god," whatever that type of creature may be.

Even if you could reject John 1:1 - which you can't - the apostle John goes on to show in many other verses of the same gospel that Jesus was divine. Most of these are even evident in the Jehovah Witness translation. See John 5:18,23; 8:58-59; 9:35-38; 10:30; 14:7-9; 17:5; 20:26-28.

By the way, what the Jehovah Witnesses teach about Jesus is nothing new. It's called the Arian heresy and was quite prevalent in the early church. The Council of Nicene (from which we get the Nicene Creed) was called to deal with it and it was condemned as unbiblical. And rightly so. Think about it. If Jesus is just a super-angel, then how can He die for the sins of human beings? The whole idea of Jesus being a substitute for our sins on the cross is lost (2 Corinthians 5:21). Super-angels cannot be our substitute (they are not human) and the death of one cannot atone for the sins of ALL people (because they are not divine, so their life is not of infinite worth). They cannot sympathize with our human weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15-16) and they definitely shouldn't be worshipped (Matthew 4:10; 14:33; 28:9,17; Luke 24:52; John 9:35-38; Revelation 5:13-14). If Jesus is anything less than a unique divine-man, then the cross loses it's meaning and a personal relationship of faith in Jesus is unnecessary.

I'll deal with two other questions you mentioned, then I'll cease. you asked, "Doesn't it say that no man can see God?" I've answered that question on this web page <http://www.new-life.net/faq015.htm>, so I'll let you read what I wrote there.

The final issue is about Jesus being the "first born of all creation" (Colossians 1:15). First, let's size up the problem. If we include direct statements about Jesus' divinity, divine activities that Jesus performed, divine attributes that Jesus has, divine titles that Jesus is said to have, and the worship given to Him (which Jesus never rejected), we have (at least) over two hundred statements about Jesus' divinity found in the New Testament. In Colossians 1:15 we have one verse that on the surface seems to teach that Jesus was the "first thing" that God created. Just on the basis of courtroom evidence, I would suspect that I must not have correctly understood what Paul means in Colossians 1:15.

That, in fact, is the case. First of all, note that it says "first born," not "first thing." It's not even about being created, but something about "first born." Jesus is the "first born" - a good Jewish and Roman term speaking of inheritance rights. The firstborn son had certain privileges and rights in the Biblical world. Jesus Christ has these same rights in relation to all creation - priority, preeminence, and sovereignty (see verses 16-18). So the idea is more that Jesus is the first born over all creation, rather than the first thing of all creation. (The genitive case used here can have that sense. It's called a Genitive of Place or Position.) The emphasis is not on Jesus being created or even being born, but on Jesus having the position of the first born son. The same thought occurs in Hebrews 1:1-2: "God appointed Him heir of all things, through Whom He also made the worlds."

You might also want to note that the phrase that precedes "first born" is a phrase about Jesus' divinity: "He is the image of the invisible God" - an idea repeated in Hebrews 1:3: "the exact representation of God's nature." How can an angel - any angel, even Michael - be the exact representation of God? If an angel can be an exact image of God, then that God is way too small. Certainly not the God we read about in the Bible who is "Holy, Holy, Holy," "the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see." (Isaiah 6:1-5; 46:9; 1 Timothy 6:16). Jesus came to earth to represent His Father: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?" (John 14:9-10). The divine Son shows us the invisible divine Father who we never can or will see, because Jesus "and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

I hope some of this is helpful to you. The bottom line is that the Trinity (although not a Biblical word) is a Biblical idea. There's no other way to fit the New Testament teaching together about Jesus being divine, having the same titles as God, and being worshipped. And the other bottom line is don't trade the peace, freedom, and grace you have in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for the slavery of following man-made rules. Please read Galatians 2:20-3:14.

I'd recommend that you check out the following links. They contain much helpful information about Jehovah Witnesses and their teaching: