Over the last few weeks our church’s ministry apprentice and myself have been visited by a group of sincere, enthusiastic and persistent Jehovah’s Witnesses.
After arriving a number of times at our doorstep, they debate with us with the aim of persuading us that Jesus is not God and nor, they say, did he ever claim to be God.
In fact, they allege that the Christian Church has misled millions into believing the false doctrine of the “Trinity”, a word that does not even occur in the Bible.
Jesus, they claim, was a created being, the “first-born” over all creation – emphasis on the word born. Jesus was begotten or created by God. Jesus is therefore not God and nor should he be worshipped or honoured as God.
At church, we have recently worked systematically through the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament. Mark leaves us with no doubt as to the divine identity of Jesus.
Son of God
Mark starts his Gospel with these words, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1)
Mark’s Gospel ends with a hardened, pagan, Roman centurion seeing how Jesus dies and saying, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).
We should understand what the centurion was saying here. His worldview and culture told him that Caesar was the divine Son of God. Roman coins had this inscription: Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.
The Caesars were worshipped and honoured as gods in what is now known as the Emperor Cult. This Roman centurion saw how Jesus died and realised that Caesar was not the Son of God, but that Jesus was.
Jesus should be the object of his devotion and allegiance, not Caesar.
Divine son of Man
During Jesus trail before the Jewish ruling council, the religious leaders could not find a charge against Jesus that held up to scrutiny.
The high priest, as a last resort, asked Jesus directly, “”Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61)
Jesus said: I am.
Jesus went even further, he said he was in fact the Son of Man who sits at the right hand of God and comes on the clouds of heaven.
This language is straight from Daniel Ch. 7 where one like a son of man (like a human being) comes on the clouds of heaven towards God. The Son of Man is given all power, dominion and authority, and even more startling, all the nations worship him.
We all know that in the Bible we are told to worship God alone (Exodus 20:3). And yet all the nations are worshipping the Son of Man.
But he remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:61-62)
The high priest realised that Jesus was claiming deity:
‘“The high priest tore his clothes…”Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as worthy of death.’ (Mark 14:63-64)
Jesus was condemned for being a blasphemer, for claiming that which belongs to God.
The irony is that the accusation was 100% true.
God
Jesus’ claims to divinity don’t come as a huge shock to the reader of Mark’s Gospel.
In chapter 1, Jesus is called the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit, a task which was reserved for God himself (Ezekiel 39:29).
We read in Chapter 2 how Jesus forgave a man of his sins – a prerogative which belongs only to God (Psalm 51:1-4, Jeremiah 31:34 etc).
In chapter 4, Jesus commanded the wind and the waves and, not too surprisingly, creation listens to its creator (Psalm 104:5-7 etc).
Chapter 6 tells us how Jesus supernaturally multiplied bread and then proceeded to walk on water.
And the final chapter in Mark’s Gospel tells us how Jesus rose from the dead.
Throughout Mark’s Gospel Jesus does things only God can do.
The Jehovah Witnesses’ counter this by saying that Jesus only did these things by the power of God, not because he was God himself.
This argument, however, is not good enough. Mark’s Gospel plus the astounding words and deeds of Jesus recorded in the other three Gospels are clear evidence that Jesus was no created being or angel.
In his incarnation, Jesus certainly chose to leave the splendour of heaven and “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:7), but never did he stop being God.
The God of the Bible is one God in three Persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Jehovah Witnesses teach a different doctrine and a different Jesus.
See this site for more info on the Jehovah Witnesses.
Hi James
Great article you wrote, I agree. Good to have your blog details too!
Interesting that John the baptist’s message is to prepare the way for the Lord (Mark 1:3) and the Jesus rocks up (Mark 1:9)! The Lord John is speaking about is no-one less the the LORD himself, Jehovah, of Isaiah 40:3.
All the best for your studies.
Andre
Hi Andre,
A while ago I was thinking about the Christian response to JWs. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on my conclusion http://www.rekindle.co.za/content/jesus-and-answer-jehovahs-witnesses/
I’ve been wrestling with the meaning of Son of God for a while now. It’s interesting that you reference Mark 1:1 because “gospel” there I have associated with imperial conquest but the title “Son of God” I have wanted to say means “God’s king” or something to that effect because of the way it’s used in the Old Testament.
You’re right though; JWs deny hell, have wonky ideas about the final state in general and don’t celebrate birthdays but the fundamental problem is that they don’t know God, the Trinity, revealed in Christ. If they did, they wouldn’t need to work their way to salvation by visiting us. Perhaps it’s a gracious error then… they are forced to come and hear the gospel 🙂
My two cents. When a JW wants to come in and talk to you say to him/her this (or along these lines): I’ll let you come in and we can debate. But before we waist our time let me ask you this. Let’s say we spoke and we took time looking at all the arguments, and lets assume I managed to show you that your reasoning is faulty and you are fully satisfied with my arguments. Would you change your view?
Right there you can sort the argument lovers from the seekers. I would suggest this primer for all debates. See the problem is our hearts not our arguments. Good arguments only help those with an open heart. Open to Truth. Otherwise you are just wasting time.
I found this very helpful post from randy alcorn not too long ago (he’s one of my faves):
http://www.epm.org/blog/2012/May/21/what-would-you-say-someone-who-doesnt-believe-jesu
For me that the most compelling line of argument, and it sort of ties together everything you have said: “You say Jesus never claimed to be God, …so if that’s the case, what was reason Jesus was put to death?”…If Jesus was just a political trouble maker, and never claimed to be God…The accusations leveled at him from the religious leaders make absolutely no sense.
Nobody can honestly read the Gospels and conclude that Jesus is who the JW’s say he is, without a heavy amount of influence and indoctrination.