• Answering Watchtower Misconceptions About Jesus - Some time ago, a subscriber to my blog wrote and asked me to do some posts about the differences between the Jesus of the Watchtower and the Jesus of the Bible. I thought that was a great idea, so today we begin a new blog series entitled “Answering Watchtower Misconceptions About Jesus.”
  • Is It Wrong to Pray to Jesus? - Because the Watchtower teaches that Jesus isn’t God, it also teaches that we must not pray to him, but only to the Father through Jesus.
  • Is It Wrong to Worship Jesus? - Because the Watchtower believes only the Father is Jehovah and that Jesus is a lesser, created being, it is adamant that we must not worship Jesus.
  • Who Is the Alpha and the Omega? - When you are talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses about the identity of Jesus, ask one of them to read aloud Revelation 22:12-13. We’ll let them use their Watchtower translation.
  • Who Was Pierced? - In Zechariah 12:10, Jehovah gives the following prophecy: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” So Jehovah is the one who will be pierced. Yet in the New Testament, it is Jesus who was pierced at the time of his execution.
  • Is Jesus the I AM? - Jesus’ calling himself “I am” in John 8:58 was a claim to be God. That’s why the Watchtower changed the wording.
  • Does Jesus’ Subordination Disprove His Deity? - It will surprise Jehovah's Witnesses greatly to learn that acknowledging the human limitations of Jesus and his positional subordination to the Father is not a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. It is an integral part of that doctrine.
  • Is Jesus God or “a god”? - Having asserted that Jesus is a created being , the Watchtower had to figure out how to deal with John 1:1, which plainly states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So they came out with their own version of the Bible (the “New World Translation”), in which they rendered that verse as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”
  • Was Jesus Created? - The Watchtower does not believe that Jesus is God, so it concludes that he must be a created being. Here are the two primary Bible passages they use in support of this claim, along with my suggestions as to how to answer them.
  • Is Jehovah the Father Only? - This post isn’t about how to prove the doctrine of the Trinity (or the deity of Christ) to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Rather, it’s about overcoming the language barrier so that at least Jehovah’s Witnesses understand what you are and aren’t saying.
  • How to Combat Proof Texting and Bible Hopscotching About the Deity of Christ - Here is an example of both, taken from Watchtower argumentation against the deity of Christ, which appears on page 203 of its book What Does the Bible Really Teach?
  • Refuting Modalism - The usual formulation of modalism is the idea that in the Old Testament, God revealed himself as the Father; in the gospels, he revealed himself as the Son; and after his ascension back to heaven, he reveals himself as the Holy Spirit. That’s not what Christians believe, but because the Watchtower lumps the definitions together, if you tell Jehovah’s Witnesses you believe in the Trinity, they may think you are a modalist. You will want to watch for this possibility so as to be able correct their misunderstanding.
  • Is Jehovah the Father Only? - This post isn’t about how to prove the doctrine of the Trinity (or the deity of Christ) to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Rather, it’s about overcoming the language barrier so that at least Jehovah’s Witnesses understand what you are and aren’t saying.
  • Was Jesus Created? - The Watchtower does not believe that Jesus is God, so it concludes that he must be a created being. Here are the two primary Bible passages they use in support of this claim, along with my suggestions as to how to answer them.
  • Is Jesus God or “a god”? - Having asserted that Jesus is a created being , the Watchtower had to figure out how to deal with John 1:1, which plainly states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So they came out with their own version of the Bible (the “New World Translation”), in which they rendered that verse as follows: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”
  • Does Jesus’ Subordination Disprove His Deity? - It will surprise Jehovah's Witnesses greatly to learn that acknowledging the human limitations of Jesus and his positional subordination to the Father is not a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. It is an integral part of that doctrine.
  • Is Jesus the I AM? - Jesus’ calling himself “I am” in John 8:58 was a claim to be God. That’s why the Watchtower changed the wording.
  • Who Was Pierced? - In Zechariah 12:10, Jehovah gives the following prophecy: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” So Jehovah is the one who will be pierced. Yet in the New Testament, it is Jesus who was pierced at the time of his execution.
  • Who Is the Alpha and the Omega? - When you are talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses about the identity of Jesus, ask one of them to read aloud Revelation 22:12-13. We’ll let them use their Watchtower translation.
  • Is It Wrong to Worship Jesus? - Because the Watchtower believes only the Father is Jehovah and that Jesus is a lesser, created being, it is adamant that we must not worship Jesus.
  • Is It Wrong to Pray to Jesus? - Because the Watchtower teaches that Jesus isn’t God, it also teaches that we must not pray to him, but only to the Father through Jesus.