I have been meeting up with two Jehovah's Witnesses for a few months, with a great friend who lets me join in, in all their debates. Yesterday we focused on the kingdom and who Jesus really is and what they seemed to be saying is that Jesus is God but not equal to God the Father.
They were quoting scripture left, right and centre to support their view. Here are a few examples:
John 14 v28: Jesus says: "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."
Matthew 24 v36: Jesus says: "No-one knows about that day (the last day) or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
1 Corinthians 11 v3: "Now I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
They quoted a few others which I can't remember off the top of my head, but I left the meeting feeling like I'd let down the side - that I couldn't come up with enough arguments to 'knock 'em dead' with. I argued that many times Jesus says that He and the Father are 'one' and that if you see Jesus 'you see the Father'. I quoted Philippians 2 v6 onwards: Jesus "who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness... he humbled himself..." I felt this showed that Jesus was God but had to make himself nothing and a servant in order to accomplish what His Father had told Jesus to do.
The way I see it is that Jesus is God but He had to make his role 'lesser' than God to show other's how to live (prayer etc) and fulfill his purpose. In Corinthians Paul is not saying that women are lesser than men and Jesus lesser than God but he is saying who the final authority goes to. While Jesus was on earth the final authority goes to his Father in Heaven and on earth the final authority in a marriage goes to the husband (I am definitely not saying women are inferior to men, just that a head is needed. A good husband always listens to his wife and considers her opinion when making decisions for them both). While on earth Jesus would not know about the last days and He was saying that this does not concern Him while on earth. While on earth the Father is greater than the Son. It is all a matter of purpose.
The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first created (before Adam and Eve) and is therefore the first, the beginning and the Alpha (Revelations 22). They believe this explains why Jesus was at the creation of Adam and Eve. I do believe that Jesus has always been there.
Now this is where I show how amazing God really is. While worrying about this during Sunday service and thinking about what a failure I'd been the day before, God speaks to me through the sermon. Jesus is the cornerstone and foundation of our faith: Jesus is 'the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me' (John 14 v6). My vicar even says he has changed his sermon in the evening service to talk more about who Jesus really is!
I may not be able to argue and explain all things (to my satisfaction!) but at least I know who the cornerstone really is and no one can take that away from me.
Recently I lost a friendship to the JW. They are good at indoctrinating their people. Remember the devil in the Garden of Eden said, “Did God really say”, it is this the JW do. Christ was fully God and fully man. It is hard for us to get our minds around this fact. God had to make the way for atonement of sins and it could only come at His hand. The perfect sacrifice is of God; His Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ was and is the only perfect sinless human to walk on earth. It was the woman’s seed but God’s Spirit that brought the seed to life, in the person of Christ. This is why Christ was fully man and fully God, the ONLY begotten of God.
ReplyDeleteIt is only through trusting this that we become called children of God. This is the fact that the JW twist. The JW preach a gospel that Paul warned us to not accept. From the time of Christ, there has been a wide way that only gets wider. There are only two ways on earth God (the narrow gate) or the other (the wide gate). All religions have a system of works to become righteous Christ is not a religion. He is the only living person who could rightly make the claim of being God and one with God.
The JW as well as other “false Christian” religions are good at twisting the Word of God, taking what sounds right and distorting, falsifying it. For two years, I tried to get a JW to see the truth and it never happened, but they did get me to doubt at one point, so be careful dealing with false religions.
Paul told us the law to the proud (unsaved) but grace to the humbled (saved). If they do not accept the truth, the hard truth is we are to dust off our feet and move on. We are warn about friendship with those who do not accept Christ was fully God and fully man. If they cannot accept the truth, like in the account of the beggar Lazarus, when the rich man begged for someone from the dead to go to his brothers so they will see the truth, Abraham’s reply, they have the law and the prophets.
It is free will choice and that is the part that often hurts our heart, when a soul is blind to the truth. Scriptures tell us they will believe a lie, a delusion, they exchanged the truth for a lie. All we can do is pray God will send someone else to water the seed you planted and pray the ground will turn to good ground and receive the truth.
Mrs. J.
Thank you for that lovely comment. I do think I need to be careful when discussing things with them and my friend and I have come to the conclusion that we will meet for two more weeks then end the meetings as they appear to be achieving very little.
ReplyDelete