What do you (J W's) really think of Jesus?

Question

A right viewpoint of Jesus Christ is crucial to the Christian faith. Central to Christianity is Jesus
Christ. He is Lord and Sovereign and has the pre-eminence over all things (Col.1 :18).
While the Bible shows us all the glorious attributes that Jesus has, in contrast Jehovah’s Witnesses
have been told that He is a “spirit creature”. But is a creature the centre of a Christian’s faith? Would you trust a creature to save you? Unless He is the centre of your faith you will not acknowledge that Christ is the firstborn OVER ALL CREATION. Neither will you acknowledge the truth that He is the Maker of everything, and you will overlook the reason why there has been a word inserted at Col.1 :16,17 in your New World Translation, a word which has no right to be there.*

Unless He is the centre of your faith
you will see that to equate the Maker of
everything that exists with having the
nature of an angel is far wide of the mark, and a woefully inadequate description
of the Lord of glory. And it will explain why no Jehovah’s Witness, or anyone else can find a verse that teaches it. If He is the centre of your faith you will want to WORSHIP Him just as people did in New Testament times (Mat.2:2, 11; 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 28:9,17; Mark 5:6; Luke 24:52; John 9:38). We join in with all of God’s angels and worship Him who is our salvation (Heb.1 :6). If He is the centre of your faith you will need no Organisation to explain how the tomb where He was buried is empty. You will reject foolish ideas about His body being dissolved into gases or that Jehovah disposed of the body somewhere. We know there is nothing complicated about His resurrection don’t we? He really did rise again just as He said (Mark 16:6,7).

AN ANGEL. IS THIS THE "SAVIOUR" YOU ARE TRUSTING?

Answer 1

Good question. I think you will find the following information quite useful...
http://sixscreensofthewatchtower.com/1deityofchrist.html

Answer 2

The real question is: why do people call themselves Christians yet obey not a word of Jesus Christ?

Jesus has begining, firstborn of all creations. He is known as the son of God.
God has no begining (Isaiah 44:6) and he is the Almighty; the Alpha and the Omega spoken three times in Revelation.

Jesus said, "the father is greater than I."
Jesus said to Satan, you should only worship Jehovah your God.
The demons didn't deny Jesus as the Son of God.

Jesus never said he was the God. He never wanted any worship because the worship rightfully belongs to the Father, Jehovah God.

Obviously, you are being misled. Jehovah God created Jesus with his own hands. Then Jesus helped his Father to create all things.

If you want to know why JW's believe what they believe and how they came to their understanding of the Bible, just talk to one of them in person.

Answer 3

Does the fact that "worship" is given to Jesus prove that he is God? There is More than One use for the word, "worship":

>The Greek word rendered “WORSHIP” is pro·sky·ne′o, which A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature says WAS ALSO “USED TO DESIGNATE THE CUSTOM OF PROSTRATING ONESELF BEFORE A PERSON & KISSING HIS FEET, THE HEM OF HIS GARMENT, THE GROUND.” (Chicago, 1979, Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker; second English edition; p. 716)
This is the term used at:
Matthew 14:33 ;
Hebrews 1:6 ;
Genesis 22:5 in the Greek Septuagint
Genesis 23:7 ;
1 Kings 1:23 in the Septuagint.

>At Hebrews 1:6, the angels are instructed to “worship” Jesus, according to the rendering of RS, TEV, KJ, JB, and NAB. NW says “do obeisance to.”

>At Matthew 14:33, Jesus’ disciples are said to have “worshiped” him, according to RS, TEV, KJ; other translations say that they “showed him reverence” (NAB), “bowed down before him” (JB), “fell at his feet” (NE), “did obeisance to him” (NW).

>At Matthew 4:10 (RS), Jesus said: “You shall worship [from pro·sky·ne′o] the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (At Deuteronomy 6:13, which Jesus is evidently here quoting, appears the personal name of God, the Tetragrammaton.) In harmony with that, we must understand that it is pro·sky·ne′o with a particular attitude of heart and mind that should be directed only toward God.<

For those who really want to know the truth about Christ Jesus (using whichever Bible they might care to use), the links below are to Bible-based articles, which contain several Scripture reference-links that go with each subject covered:

Who Is Jesus Christ?
- Early Questions About Identity
- WHO JESUS HIMSELF SAID HE WAS
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2005/4/22/article_01.htm

Who Is “the Only True God”?
- Jesus' Position in Heaven
- Name of the Lamb and of the Father
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2005/4/22/article_02.htm

“Those Who Are Called ‘Gods’”
- Was Jesus Also Called God?
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2005/4/22/article_03.htm

The Lord's Prayer -- Its Meaning for You
(Whose name did he say we should pray to be sanctified...
"My name" / the "Son's name?", or, "OUR Father's" name"?)
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2004/9/15/article_02.htm

Psalm 83:18 "That they may know that You alone, whose name is *Jehovah/Yahweh/LORD* art the Most High over all the earth."
http://bible.cc/psalms/83-18.htm
*KJV, ASV, DBY, WBS, YLT, NWT // BBE, WEB // NASB, GWT, JPS

Answer 4

I am not a JW, but they believe that Jesus is "a god" in addition to God the Father. They dont translate Deut 6:4 right.

Answer 5

We base our beliefs on the Bible. In the bible we are told that Jesus is the Son of God. It is not something found strictly in the NWT.

Answer 6

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the bible term "angel" properly refers to *ANY* spirit creature. The resurrected Christ Jesus is a spirit creature, so Witnesses believe that it is not technically incorrect to refer to Jesus as "an angel"; it would be incorrect to believe that Jesus was a mere angel on a par with other angels. Even before he came to earth and was impaled, Jesus the Son enjoyed a position higher than any other creature in existence because of two different reasons.


Firstly, as the firstborn of creation, Jesus likely spent thousands or millions or billions of years in exclusive association with Jehovah; this unique opportunity allowed Jesus to learn so much that Jesus is spoken of as the "image" and "reflection" and "exact representation" of Almighty Jehovah God.

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

(Hebrews 1:3) [Jesus] is the reflection of [Jehovah's] glory and the exact representation of his very being


Secondly, the bible teaches that Jesus worked alongside Jehovah to CREATE the other angels (and the rest of the heavenly and physical universe).

(Colossians 1:15-18) By means of him all other things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All other things have been created through him and for him. 17 Also, he is before all other things and by means of him all other things were made to exist, 18 and he is the head of the body, the congregation. He is the beginning

(Revelation 3:14) These are the things that [Jesus] says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God [see 2 Cor 1:20]

(Proverbs 8:22) Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago.

(John 1:1,14) In the beginning [Jesus] was... So [Jesus] became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son from a father; and he was full of undeserved kindness and truth.


While Jesus enjoyed an elevated position since his creation by Jehovah, the bible teaches that Christ Jesus the Son has been given even GREATER glory and authority than he previously had. Since Jesus' resurrection to heaven, the bible indicates that: no salvation occurs without Christ, accepting Christ's sacrifice is a requirement for true worship, every prayer must acknowledge Christ, Christ is the King of God's Kingdom, Christ is the head of the Christian congregation, and Christ is now immortal.

In fact, it is only since his resurrection that the bible explicitly and plainly states that Jesus (the Son) is now "better than the angels" and that Jehovah (the Father) elevated him thusly (emphasis has been added to most of these citations)...

(Hebrews 1:3-4) [Jesus] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty [Jehovah] in lofty places. 4 So he HAS BECOME better than the angels

(Matthew 28:18) And Jesus approached and spoke to them, saying: "All authority has been GIVEN ME in heaven and on the earth.

(Acts 2:36) God MADE HIM both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you impaled.

(John 3:35) The Father loves the Son and HAS GIVEN all things into his hand.

(Acts 5:31) GOD EXALTED this one as Chief Agent and Savior to his right hand

(Psalm 2:2-6) The kings of earth take their stand And high officials themselves have massed together as one against Jehovah AND against his anointed one... Jehovah himself will hold them in derision..., Saying: "I, even I, HAVE INSTALLED my king [Jesus]


As the agent of creation for the other angels, who better than Jesus to be their "Chief"? The term "archangel" is always in the singular, and actually means "Chief of the Angels". The bible teaches that the one and only archangel (named "Michael") is actually the heavenly pre- and post-human Jesus.

Note that Jesus the Lord calls with an archangel's voice:
. (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16) Jesus died and rose again, so, too... the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel's voice


Note who leads angelic armies (Jesus is "Logos", "The Word"):
. (Revelation 19:13-14) the name he is called is The Word of God. Also, the armies that were in heaven were following him

. (Revelation 12:7) And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled


Who returns and stands up during a time of distress such as has never happened before?

. (Daniel 12:1) "And during that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people. And there will certainly occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came to be a nation until that time. And during that time your people will escape, every one who is found written down in the book.

. (Matthew 24:3-21) the disciples approached him [Jesus] privately, saying: "Tell us, When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?" And in answer Jesus said to them: "...All these things are a beginning of pangs of distress. ...But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved. ...for then there will be great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no, nor will occur again.

Once you study it, the bible really teaches that Jesus is Michael. Although anti-Witnesses sometimes pretend that Gabriel (and sometimes "Lucifer") are also archangels, the fact remains that the bible itself speaks of only one single solitary archangel. Who would be above Jesus among heavenly creatures?


Interestingly, the Scriptures refer to *ALL* angelic spirit creatures as "morning stars". Jesus is not excluded from that terminology, but he is elevated by the unique description "the BRIGHT morning star".

(Job 38:4,7) When [Jehovah] founded the earth... When the morning stars [or "angels"] joyfully cried out together, And all the sons of God began shouting in applause

(Revelation 22:16) I, Jesus... I am the root and the offspring of David, and the BRIGHT morning star. [caps added]


Thanks again for the opportunity to share bible truth about the distinct persons of Jehovah the Father and Jesus the Son!


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20050422/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19951101/article_02.htm