Is Jesus “The God”?
|
|
|
|
Is Jesus “The God”? |
|
Is Jesus the Almighty God? If you ask a Jehovah’s Witnesses this question the answer you get will surely be a dogmatic, NO! The Watchtower teaches that the true Almighty God is the Father, Jehovah, and His son is Jesus Christ. While Christians do believe that the Father is Almighty God, can we be sure that the Watchtower is correct in calling Jesus just “a god”, a being who is inferior to the Father? Let’s see. “The title ho theos [the God, or God], which now designates the Father as a personal reality, is not applied in the N[ew] T[estament] to Jesus Himself; Jesus is the Son of God (of ho theos)....” The Watchtower, July 1, 1986, p. 31 (footnote) The Watchtower teaches here that the Greek words, “ho theos”, which mean, “the God”, apply only to Jehovah God and are not used in the New Testament when speaking of Jesus. The absence of these words indicate, according to the Society, that Jesus cannot be the Almighty God.
Let’s take a look at the Watchtower’s own Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures. This is a tool published by the Society that has the English New World Translation and the Greek text on the same page for comparison. In here we can see if the Greek words, “ho theos”, are applied to Jesus. In John chapter 20, doubting Thomas had just witnessed and believed on the victorious, resurrected Lord Himself. In verse 28, a very blown-away Thomas triumphantly addressed Jesus saying, “My Lord and my God”. If we look at the Greek words, we see that Thomas actually said, “The Lord of me and the God of me!”, or, “The Lord of me and ho theos of me”. So, Thomas had no problem calling Jesus a title that the Watchtower says belongs to only Jehovah God. Was Thomas wrong in calling Jesus “the God”, or was he, as the Watchtower teaches, saying something similar to, “Oh my God!”, as we painfully hear so often today? One thing is sure, if Thomas was way off base in his declaration, Jesus never corrected him for it or rebuked him for using the name God in vain. In Matthew chapter 1, verse 23, it says that, “the virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which means when translated, “With us is God”. If we look at the Greek section in the Interlinear we see that the word Immanuel means, “With us the God”. Again, in Greek, “With us ho theos”. So again, Jesus is given the title that, according to the Watchtower, is reserved for Jehovah only. Why has the Watchtower said that Jesus can’t be God because the words “ho theos” are not applied to Him when, in fact, there are 2 obvious places in the New Testament where Jesus is called “the God”? Why does the Watchtower want to obscure the real identity of Jesus Christ?
What does all this mean to Christians? Do they believe that Jesus is the Father? No! Please understand that Bible Christians do not believe that Jesus and the Father are the same person. The doctrine that teaches that the Father and the Son are the same person is an old heresy called Modalism that is defined in The Watchtower, May 15, 2002, page 30, as believing that, “....God revealed himself ‘as the Father in Creation and in the giving of the law, as the Son in Jesus Christ, and as the Holy Spirit after Christ‘s ascension‘ “. Christians agree that Jesus is a separate person from the Father, but believe that Jesus shares the same nature as His Father, making Him equal to God. Even the Jews of Jesus’ day knew exactly what Jesus meant by calling Himself the Son of God. In John 5:18, the apostle writes, “On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God”. Are you sure that the WT is teaching you the correct identity of Jesus Christ? You can have everything else right but if you’re wrong about who Jesus is, you’re wrong for all eternity. Will you let an organization who has concealed information from you teach you about Jesus, or will you let the Holy Spirit teach you personally through God’s Word? Jesus did say that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will bear witness about me. (John 15:26)
|
