Why do Jehovah Witnesses refer to John 1:18 for support of thier position?

Question

They say since Jesus says "no one has ever seen God..." that means since Jesus was seen, he could not be God. Yet, Jesus also says "He who has seen me HAS seen the Father!" Therefore by their own argument the Father is not God either! Note: they need to also read the rest of John 1:18 too. It actualy says Jesus is God.

Answer 1

The Scriptures explain themselves quite plainly, when their context is not obscured. Note:

(John 1:18) No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god [Jesus] who is in the bosom position with the Father is the one that has explained him.

(John 14:9-10) He that has seen me [Jesus] has seen the Father also. How is it you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in union with the Father and the Father is in union with me?

(John 17:20-23) I [Jesus] make request, not concerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith in me through their word; 21 in order that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with you, that they also may be in union with us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me forth. 22 Also, I have given them the glory that you have given me, in order that they may be one just as we are one. 23 I in union with them and you in union with me, in order that they may be perfected into one, that the world may have the knowledge that you sent me forth and that you loved them just as you loved me.



Here's another thought:

(John 12:44-45) Jesus cried out and said: “He that puts faith in me puts faith, not in me only, but in him also that sent me; 45 and he that beholds me beholds also him that sent me.

(Colossians 1:15) He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

(Hebrews 1:3) He [Jesus] is the reflection of his glory and the exact representation of his very being, and he sustains all things by the word of his power; and after he had made a purification for our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in lofty places.


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Answer 2

The Bible firmly, and clearly, shows that Jesus was created. It does so in both Colossians 1:15 and Revelation 3:14. Therefore, because the Bible does not contradict itself, the translating of John 1:1 into reading "the Word was God" cannot be correct, and IS NOT correct. It's not merely the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation that agrees with Jesus not being God, it's also the view of a number of other Bible translations that have nothing to do with Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yes, Jesus has said "He who has seen me has seen the Father", but as we already know from the scriptures mentioned, Jesus is NOT God himself (or the Father). So what could this possibly mean? Consider that Christ spent countless eons of time in the heavens alongside his Father, learning from him, and imitating his ways. Jesus had such a long time to learn from his Father (and Creator) that he was able to perfectly imitate him in his personality. It goes along with the saying today "like father like son". That is a perfectly rational and logical explanation for Jesus' words about "he who has seen me has seen the father", and what's more, it supports the Bible's own statements that Jesus and the Father are two separate and distinct individuals.

NOWHERE in the Bible, including John 1:18, is it said that Jesus Christ is God. As mentioned, the Bible DOES say that Jesus was created BY GOD. As a matter of simple logic and common sense, a person cannot be created BY someone and yet be that person. It simply doesn't work that way.

Answer 3

John 1:34 basically states that Jesus is the "Son of God" not God. What was seen at that time was the Son of God & the Lamb of God not God himself. Exodus 33:20 states ": “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live.”" Those who have seen Jesus have lived, and not died after seeing Jesus, so Jesus is not the God but the "Son of God".

Jesus is the image of the Father that's why whoever has seen him has seen the Father. Not that they are the SAME person, which the doctrine of the Trinity also doesn't teach. The Father and the Son are different persons. Notice it doesn't say "He who has seen me has seen God" but instead "He who has seen me has seen the Father". Likewise, the Son is different person from the Father, the Son is a different person from God.

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Answer 4

How does seeing Jesus enable one to see the Father?

Because they are the same? No.

Col 1: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

2 Cor 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

(Note: the Glory of Jesus is that he is the image of God, not God

When you see a picture, a statue, or look in the mirror you see an image.)

Heb 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

(Jesus is the exact representation of His nature.
Just as seeing a man's son, you can see the man in the way he walks, in the way he talks, in the way he thinks,

Looking at Jesus, God's Son and image, we see the Father.

Therefore John 1:18 is fulfilled, We haven't seen the Father, we've seen his exact representation)

Answer 5

You really should read the entire book of John, not just a few scriptures.
Have you ever heard the expression, "He is his father's son" or "He is just like his father"
We can study Jesus and learn about his father, because when a person is with another person for a very long time, they develope the same qualities. Why is that so difficult to understand?
Jesus said, "The father is greater than I am." at John 14:28. Are you calling him a liar?How do you explain that? Around 40 times he is called 'the son of God' . Eight times he is called "God's son". Jesus never claimed to be God.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20050915/diagram_01.htm

Answer 6

I don't understand why they ignore Revelation 2:18 where Jesus says He is the Son of God! or 1 John 5:7 where the Trinity is perfectly explained!

Answer 7

This makes me think of the verse which says that Moses saw God's back and then later one another verse which says Moses actually say God's face. Then, of course, we actually have your question referring to John 1:18.

If you think of Almighty God Jehovah as a perfect sphere, then you can understand that looking at the back of the sphere is like looking at the front of the sphere. There! An apparent Biblical contradiction has been resolved.

Now, Almighty God (Exodus 6:3) is referred to as being "from time indefinite to time indefinite," or "from everlasting to everlasting." But Jesus Christ is actually referred to as having a beginning in the scriptures. In various places (depending on which Bible you use), Jesus is referred to as a "Mighty God", "God", or "a god." Jesus is never given the title of "Almighty God" however. That title belongs to Jehovah alone.

If you think of all perfect spirit creatures as being like invisible spirit mirrors, then you can understand how they can reflect God's great light to each other and to human flesh and blood.

Jesus' other title is "the Word." Beginning would be a good place marker for that position.

I like to visit www.biblegateway.com and www.watchtower.org to compare different Bibles online. I also recommend you try out various online versions of The Emphatic Diaglott New Testament Bible. www.heraldmag.org/olb/bsl/Library/BIBLES/Diagltt/Diaglott.pdf

Answer 8

I don't know what they are trying to prove, I have had some come to my home before, but when I opened my bible, they had to leave right away, But to say that JESUS is GOD, I will say that JESUS was NOT GOD, But THE SON OF GOD. If we try to make that body of Jesus , God, Then God would have to die, God never did die & never will die. Where Jesus said if you have seen me you have seen the Father, Jesus was referring to, when God annoited Jesus to do something, Then you saw God in action , like for instance raising the dead, healing the blind eyes, God dwelled in Jesus without Measure, In dwells in us as the Holy Ghost with Measure

Answer 9

No one has seen God the Father. They've seen a burning bush.

"I and My Father are One." John 10:30

Answer 10

You should ask them personally, so that you could get the answer directly from them, and not get mediocre comments from people who don't understand their beliefs.
There are many religions in this world, and many gods as well. If you have your own beliefs, why go criticizing other religions? What good does that do to you or other people? No matter what you say, most people won't change their mind when it comes to their religion or beliefs.

Answer 11

I rely on other scriptures such as:

John 17:3 - This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.

Notice that people take in knowledge of two people 1) you, the only true God, and 2) the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ. Did Jesus send himself forth and then refer to himself as the one he sent forth?

John 20:17 - Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But be on your way to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and YOUR Father and to my God and YOUR God.’”

Is Jesus his own father? And is he also Mary's father?

John 14:28 says: YOU heard that I said to YOU, I am going away and I am coming [back] to YOU. If YOU loved me, YOU would rejoice that I am going my way to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.

If Jesus were co-equal with God or WAS God, how could the Father be greater than he is?

John 10:36 - do YOU say to me whom the Father sanctified and dispatched into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, I am God’s Son?

Jesus claimed to be GOD'S SON - not God.

1 Peter 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

There are many scrptures that support Jesus as being God's son and not God himself.

In fact, here's some additional information to think about:

The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4). . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—(1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

In The Encyclopedia Americana we read: “Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian [believing that God is one person]. The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching.”—(1956), Vol. XXVII, p. 294L.

According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, “The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher’s [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions.”—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.

John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of ‘person’ and ‘nature’ which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.”—(New York, 1965), p. 899.