• 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.”
  • Did Jesus Become the Messiah at His Baptism? - Thus far in this series, we have examined Watchtower misconceptions about the nature of Jesus. Now we move on to look at its misconceptions about Jesus’ earthly ministry.
  • Why Not Create a Second Adam Out of the Dust? - If—as is implied by Watchtower Christology—Jehovah had a large number of options, why would he have to choose an archangel or angel for his redemptive purpose? If the key qualification was the Savior’s exact correspondence to Adam, why couldn’t Jehovah simply create a perfect second Adam out of the dust of the earth and ask him to make the ransom sacrifice?
  • Could God Have Sent Successors if Jesus Failed? - Adam was created perfect and sinless and placed in a garden paradise, yet in a short time he failed miserably. Jesus was born into a sin-infested world. If, as the Watchtower claims, Jesus wasn’t God in human flesh, there would be constant risks that he might fail as well.
  • Could God Have Sent a Different Savior? - If the Watchtower is right, then Jehovah sat safely in heaven and selected someone else to become a man and die a horrendous death to atone for our sins. But if we are right, then God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, personally came and bore the consequences of his own righteous wrath against sin in order to save us. The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 himself came to earth and gave his life for the sheep. That’s a big difference!
  • Was There an Incarnation? - The Watchtower does not believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That’s not surprising, given that it doesn’t believe in the deity of Christ.
  • Was Jesus Just a Man? - What about the Watchtower’s teaching we discussed last week—their teaching that Jesus is Michael the archangel? How do they square that with their claim that he was “a perfect man, nothing more, nothing less”?
  • Is Jesus the Archangel Michael? - The Bible only mentions one archangel, and Jude 9 gives his name as Michael. The Watchtower asserts that Michael is also Jesus Christ.
  • Can Someone Besides God Forgive Sins? - In Matthew 9:2, Jesus told a man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Here’s a great question to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses: If—as the Watchtower teaches—Jesus isn’t God—what right did he have to do that?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Can Someone Besides God Forgive Sins? - In Matthew 9:2, Jesus told a man, “Your sins are forgiven.” Here’s a great question to ask Jehovah’s Witnesses: If—as the Watchtower teaches—Jesus isn’t God—what right did he have to do that?
  • Is Jesus the Archangel Michael? - The Bible only mentions one archangel, and Jude 9 gives his name as Michael. The Watchtower asserts that Michael is also Jesus Christ.
  • Was Jesus Just a Man? - What about the Watchtower’s teaching we discussed last week—their teaching that Jesus is Michael the archangel? How do they square that with their claim that he was “a perfect man, nothing more, nothing less”?
  • Was There an Incarnation? - The Watchtower does not believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. That’s not surprising, given that it doesn’t believe in the deity of Christ.
  • Could God Have Sent a Different Savior? - If the Watchtower is right, then Jehovah sat safely in heaven and selected someone else to become a man and die a horrendous death to atone for our sins. But if we are right, then God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, personally came and bore the consequences of his own righteous wrath against sin in order to save us. The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 himself came to earth and gave his life for the sheep. That’s a big difference!
  • Could God Have Sent Successors if Jesus Failed? - Adam was created perfect and sinless and placed in a garden paradise, yet in a short time he failed miserably. Jesus was born into a sin-infested world. If, as the Watchtower claims, Jesus wasn’t God in human flesh, there would be constant risks that he might fail as well.
  • Why Not Create a Second Adam Out of the Dust? - If—as is implied by Watchtower Christology—Jehovah had a large number of options, why would he have to choose an archangel or angel for his redemptive purpose? If the key qualification was the Savior’s exact correspondence to Adam, why couldn’t Jehovah simply create a perfect second Adam out of the dust of the earth and ask him to make the ransom sacrifice?