An interesting question to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses is, “Did Jesus make a false prophecy in John 2?”

Now, no Jehovah’s Witness would ever say that Jesus uttered a false prophecy, but what he predicted in John 2 completely contradicts Watchtower teachings.

Ask one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to read aloud John 2:18-22, which took place immediately after Jesus cleansed the temple and overturned the money tables:

Therefore, in response the Jews said to him: “What sign can you show us, since you are doing these things?” Jesus replied to them: “Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said: “This temple was built in 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was talking about the temple of his body. When, though, he was raised up from the dead, his disciples recalled that he used to say this, and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had spoken.” (Watchtower translation)

Follow up by asking four diagnostic questions:

  1. What temple did the Jews think Jesus was talking about? (The temple building in Jerusalem)
  2. What temple does John say Jesus really was talking about? (His body)
  3. What did Jesus prophesy he would do with his body if the Jews destroyed it? (He would raise it up in three days)
  4. So did Jesus raise up his body on the third days as he prophesied or did he prophesy falsely?

Jesus’ prophecy provides a good argument against the Watchtower’s view of death as nonexistence until the resurrection.

How could Jesus raise himself from the dead if he no longer existed?

So the Witnesses are likely to focus on who did the raising.

Here is what the Watchtower has taught them to say:

By what he here said, did Jesus mean that he would resurrect himself from the dead? Does that mean that Jesus is God, because Acts 2:32 says, “This Jesus God raised up”? Not at all. Such a view would conflict with Galatians 1:1, which ascribes the resurrection of Jesus to the Father, not to the Son. Using a similar mode of expression, at Luke 8:48  Jesus is quoted as saying to a woman: “Your faith has made you well.” Did she heal herself? No; it was power from God through Christ that healed her because she had faith. ( Luke 8:46;   Acts 10:38 ) Likewise, by his perfect obedience as a human, Jesus provided the moral basis for the Father to raise him from the dead, thus acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son. Because of Jesus’ faithful course of life, it could properly be said that Jesus himself was responsible for his resurrection.

Says A. T. Robertson in Word Pictures in the New Testament: “Recall [John] 2:19  where Jesus said: ‘And in three days I will raise it up.’ He did not mean that he will raise himself from the dead independently of the Father as the active agent (Rom. 8:11 ).”—(New York, 1932), Vol. V, p. 183. (Reasoning from the Scriptures, pp. 423-424)

It doesn’t occur to the Watchtower that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all had a part in raising Jesus from the dead.

You can discuss that if you want to, but I prefer to direct the conversation to what the Watchtower ignored completely in its explanation:

Regardless of who did the raising, what did Jesus say would be raised up after the Jews destroyed it?

His body!

But the Watchtower insists that Jesus’ physical body was never raised from the dead.

So who was right about that—Jesus or the Watchtower?

At this point, I have had Jehovah’s Witnesses argue with me by presenting the Watchtower’s “take back the ransom” argument against the bodily resurrection of Christ:

If a man pays a debt for a friend but then promptly takes back the payment, obviously the debt continues. Likewise, if, when he was resurrected, Jesus had taken back his human body of flesh and blood, which had been given in sacrifice to pay the ransom price, what effect would that have had on the provision he was making to relieve faithful persons of the debt of sin? (Reasoning From the Scriptures, p. 217)

You can cite them Romans 8:11: “If, now, the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his spirit that resides in you.” (emphasis added)

The “also” means that God will do the same thing he did for Jesus.

What is that?

He will make your mortal body alive just as he did with Jesus when he raised him from the dead.

You can point out to the Witnesses that if Jesus agreed with Watchtower teaching, this is what he should have prophesied in John 2:

Tear down my body and in three days Jehovah—not I—will raise it up. No, actually if you tear down my body and neither Jehovah nor I will raise it up because that would nullify the ransom sacrifice. Rather, Jehovah will raise me from the dead and create a spirit body for me to replace the physical body you tore down. Well, to be precise, Jehovah will raise nothing that died. Instead, he will re-animate a spirit body I used to have and will use his perfect memory to put my personality patterns and memories into that.

Then remind them of what the inspired apostle John actually reported in John 2:19-21:

Jesus replied to them: “Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said: “This temple was built in 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was talking about the temple of his body. When, though, he was raised up from the dead, his disciples recalled that he used to say this, and they believed the scripture and what Jesus had spoken.”