Today, I will begin a series of short articles addressing the manner in which the Jehovah's Witnesses misconstrue the identity of Jesus Christ. For those who may not know, the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW's) do not believe that Jesus was/is divine. Instead, they view Him as an archangel. In this series of articles, I'll not only address many of their arguments, but will raise arguments of my own that you might employ in your dealings with them.
Our focus in this article will be on Revelation 19:9-10. Carefully notice this exchange which took place between an angel and the apostle John:
"Then he (the angel) said to me (John), 'Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' And he said to me, 'These are the true sayings of God.' And I fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"
When John bowed down to worship this mighty angel, the angel rebuked him, commanding him to direct his worship to God. Jesus Himself said to Satan in Matthew 4:10, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'" And so, we can safely conclude that the only being worthy of our worship is God, for He is divine. No angel or man or woman or child or creature is worthy of our worship and it would be wrong to offer such.
And yet, isn't it interesting that Jesus received worship on many occasions?
"And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him..." (Mt. 2:11).
"And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him..." (Mt. 8:2).
"While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him..." (Mt. 9:18).
"Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Truly, You are the Son of God" (Mt. 14:33).
"And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!' So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him" (Mt. 28:9, also verse 17).
These are only a few of the many examples we could consider. Now, here's the question: if the only being worthy of our worship is God, and yet Jesus received worship as a mere angel, wouldn't that make Him a false Christ? This is what the Jehovah's Witnesses must accept; they must contend that Jesus was WRONG in accepting all of this worship. If He was merely an angel, then He must have been a fallen angel for receiving worship that was only to be given to God!
Or...or we can accept what the scriptures teach, that Jesus was/is divine! What do you think?
Click here to read "Part 2" in this series of articles.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI"m currently studying weekly with some JW's (I've been somewhat allusive regarding who I am and my knowledge of the Bible.) They've come a couple of times, and we are now getting to some issues of their doctrine that are not biblical. I'll be glad to use these few points as we discuss this issue.
Thanks for your comment, Kurt. When I lived in North Carolina, there was a JW I studied with for several months before he finally ended the studies. The approach I used was to address their organization itself, the Watchtower Society. It's like cutting off the head of the beast. If you can point the fact that the Watchtower Society claims to be a prophet and mouthpiece of God, and then emphasize (in detail) their failed prophecies and their doctrinal flip flops, they really start to wriggle and squirm. If they'll stick with you, though...if they're honest...that's the best way to deal with them.
ReplyDeleteI have some great material on this that I put together. Maybe one of these days I'll get it in digital format. Where I own my own publishing company, it would be a great project to pursue as an actual booklet.
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