Friday, June 8, 2012

Why do Jehovah's Witnesses deny the divinity of Jesus?

Jesus as the resurrected divine Son of Man

During His earthly life and ministry He did the very things we would expect the Creator God to do.

He did miracles. He raised people from the dead, turned water into wine.


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. -John 1:1

Additional Details

It's a shame you guys had to re-edit your own bible.

Answer:

Hi there! He did those miracles because "God was with him." (Acts 10:38, see also 1Cor. 1:24)
Additionally, you may be surprised to learn that the Trinitarians changed John 1:1c to read "the Word was God," as the Greek text literally reads "the Word was a god," as corroborated by a translation of John from Greek 1,700 years ago, as it reads the same as discovered only after the NWT was published.[1]

To address your initial question, far from denying the divinity or deity of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses affirm it with the loudest voice! This is clearly seen in the scripture you referenced: John 1:1, where you dispute the translation of "a god." Here we affirm in the clearest way that Jesus is divine.

Perhaps this question arises over a common misunderstanding about monotheism. Monotheism includes the existence of other inhabitants in heaven. But we don't give exclusive devotion to those, we give exclusive devotion to the almighty Creator, Jehovah God.

Ironically, it is the Trinitarians who deny the divinity of Christ. For instance, it is believed by them that Jesus is fully man and fully divine in heaven. Yet this is an abstraction that violates what Jesus and Paul taught about heaven. (Matthew 16:17; John 8:21, 23; 1 Corinthians 15:50; see also Psalm 115:16) So since the Trinitarian divinity of Christ is a clear violation of both the Scriptures and universal laws that God established, it cannot exist. Thus, Trinitarianism has defined the divinity of Christ out of existence.

Consider also how Trinitarianism teaches that Jesus was an incarnation on earth and how this violates the scriptures and nullifies Jesus' sacrificial death:

  • An incarnation could never offer himself as a corresponding ransom for the sins of humanity like Jesus did. (1 Timothy 2:5, 6)
  • An incarnation could never fully "sympathize with our weaknesses" like Jesus did. (Hebrews 4:15)
  • An incarnation is not "lower than angels" like Jesus was, but is still a spirit. (Hebrews 2:7, 9)
  • An incarnation could instantly heal injuries no matter how serious, as Jesus could not without his God's power. (Acts 10:38)[2]

Thus we can be most thankful that Jesus was not an incarnation but was born from a woman as Paul told us at Galatians 4:4. Any religious system that denies this basic teaching is condemned per Galatians 1:8.

Thank you for asking this question and I hope you give some prayerful attention to the reasoning here.

Source(s):

[1] Coptic John 1:1 and the New World Translation http://jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2010/09/coptic-john-11-and-new-world.html

[2] Additional reading: Jesus: a Spirit Born on Earth http://jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2011/02/jesus-spirit-born-on-earth-jesus-was.html
Do You Reject Trinitarianism? http://jimspace3000.blogspot.com/2010/11/normal-0-false-false-false.html

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