As Jesus was dying, he “called with a loud voice and said: ‘Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.’ When he had said this, he expired.” (Luke 23:46, Watchtower translation)

Doesn’t that show that Jesus’ spirit was an immaterial part of him which survived physical death and went immediately to be with His Father?

Not according to the Watchtower:

Notice that Jesus expired. When his spirit went out he was not on his way to heaven. Not until the third day from this was Jesus resurrected from the dead. Then, as Acts 1:3, 9 shows, it was 40 more days before he ascended to heaven. So, what is the meaning of what Jesus said at the time of his death? He was saying that he knew that, when he died, his future life prospects rested entirely with God. (Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 383-384)

But this reasoning is circular.

That is, it assumes what it claims to be proving, namely that there is no conscious, immaterial part of a person which survives between his death and his resurrection.

It also assumes that resurrection is not a reuniting of soul, spirit, and body.

All right. Now we know what the Watchtower says the spirit is not.

But then, according to the Watchtower, what is it?

Watchtower definition of spirit

In the context we are examining, the Watchtower defines “spirit” as “the active life-force in earthly creatures.” (Reasoning From the Scriptures, p. 360)

The Watchtower explains:

The soul and the spirit are not the same. The body needs the spirit in much the same way as a radio needs electricity—in order to function. To illustrate this further, think of a portable radio. When you put batteries in a portable radio and turn it on, the electricity stored in the batteries brings the radio to life, so to speak. Without batteries, however, the radio is dead. So is another kind of radio when it is unplugged from an electric outlet. Similarly, the spirit is the force that brings our body to life. Also, like electricity, the spirit has no feeling and cannot think. It is an impersonal force. But without that spirit, or life-force, our bodies “die and return to the dust” as the psalmist stated. (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, pp. 210-211, emphasis added)

Not recognizing that the book of Ecclesiastes expresses two different, conflicting, viewpoints—that of God and that of a person who sees this life as all there is—the Watchtower assumes that every statement it contains has God’s imprimatur and uses it as proof of its doctrines:

Eccl. 3:19: “There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit…” (Thus both mankind and beasts are shown to have the same… spirit.) (Reasoning From the Scriptures, p. 378)

So, according to the Watchtower, the spirit is just a non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force (analogous to electricity) which can animate either humans or animals.

The word substitution technique

 In situations in which you want to help Jehovah’s Witnesses see the problems with the Watchtower’s definition of a key term, one way to do it is to substitute the words of the Watchtower’s definition into the Bible texts to see if that definition makes sense.

Here are some examples you can show the Witnesses.

After each substitution, you can ask some variation of: “Does that make sense?”

Acts 7:9

 “As they were stoning Stephen, he made this appeal: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Watchtower translation)

Substituting:

“As they were stoning Stephen, he made this appeal: “Lord Jesus, receive my non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force.”

 John 11:33

“When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he groaned within himself * (Lit. “in the spirit”) and became troubled.” (Watchtower translation)

 Substituting:

“When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he groaned in his non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force and became troubled.”

 John 13:21

“After saying these things, Jesus became troubled in spirit, and he bore witness, saying: ‘Most truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.’”     (Watchtower translation)

Substituting:

“After saying these things, Jesus became troubled in his non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force, and he bore witness, saying: ‘Most truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.’”    

 1 Corinthians 2:11a

“For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him?… (Watchtower translation)

Substituting:

“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force within him?”

Ask, “How can an impersonal, non-thinking force know the thoughts of a man? In fact, how can an impersonal, non-thinking force know anything at all?”

Coming back to Jesus’ dying words:

Luke 23:46

“As Jesus was dying, he “called with a loud voice and said: ‘Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.’ When he had said this, he expired.” (Watchtower translation)

Substituting:

“As Jesus was dying, he “called with a loud voice and said: ‘Father, into your hands I entrust my non-feeling, non-thinking impersonal, active life-force.’ When he had said this, he expired.”

You can conclude by saying something like this:

“Do you see from all this why I believe the spirit isn’t some impersonal force but rather is a conscious part of a person which survives physical death?”