Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believed In Two Gods?

Question

The Jehovah's Witnesses believed their Jesus is "a god" ("Mighty God" only) and Jehovah, the Father, is Almighty God. They would not identify whether Jesus is a "true God" or a "false God" according to their own version of John 1:1 (New World Translation). If that is true then they are not monotheists (believers in but one God only) but polytheists (believers in many gods) like the pagan neighbours of Israel.

Please visit: www.TheBereans.net

Answer 1

here you are.
nobody really reds my links, but please do
http://www.watchman.org/jw/1404-1.htm

Answer 2

Well, as a matter of fact, we don't believe in 2 Gods. If you have a bible look up a scripture- Deutromony 4:39 which says-
'And you well know today and you must call back to your heart that Jehovah is the true God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. There is no other.'
so you can see that there is only one God and we only believe that there is one TRUE God- Jehovah. Good question though.

Answer 3

I appreciated the answers of many; particularly Centexdancer and HeIscomingOnTheClouds. Centexdancer pointed out that it would be nice to ask a JW instead of telling everyone what they believe. And HeIsComing pointedly stated that he does not believe that Jesus is God the Father. I appreciated this because it shows that there are many people who do not believe that Jesus is God the Father.

There are countless professed Christians that reject the doctrine of the Trinity. Not just Jehovah's Witnesses. I am curious as to why people like to point to Jehovah's Witnesses as the only ones having this "peculiar" belief – as if no other professed Christian rejects the Trinity doctrine.

As responders have pointed out, there are many gods. Satan is clearly described in scripture as a god and as the god of this world. Angels are spoken of as gods and so are humans. Again, someone rightly pointed out that money can be a god – so can our belly.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there are many gods.

As for the pagan neighbors of Israel, did you never read that the Israelites themselves not only worshiped Yahweh but also Baal – the pagan god of their neighbors? Psalm 106:28; Numbers 25:3; Hosea 9:10; 1 Kings 18:18, 21. Were they polytheists? And Paul - who under divine inspiration plainly called Satan the god of this world at 2 Corinthians 4:4 - was he polytheistic too?

Hannah J Paul

Answer 4

Hi! You can't really understand the mystery of God, not unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to you.. Why?? Because "great is the mystery of God" (1 Timothy 3:16)

No matter what you do if God will not give you, you will never understand. So ask for God's wisdom first (James 1:5), as Jesus said on Matthew 13:10-13 "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear and so can't understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven".

Visit this site and know the mystery of God. Post your comments and we'll help you out answer your questions. God bless...

Answer 5

Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity
Jehovah is God Jesus is God's son no wee in the bible those it say that their is 2 gods READ the bible and you will see, or next time one shows up at ur door step open the door and tell them to explain it to you and that was u will understand

Answer 6

Witnesses do not believe the Trinity. Jehovah is God. Jesus is God's son. If you want to pick apart the Witnesses belief's there are many that are questionable. But this one you have wrong. God knows, those people patrol this site. You'll hear from more of them than you care to.

Answer 7

For God to be identified at John 17:3 as the TRUE God does not demand that ALL others called `god' or `gods' are FALSE gods as a few trinitarian apologists imply. The inspired scriptures when speaking of FAITHFUL angels, prophets, God-appointed judges, kings, and magistrates clearly calls them "gods" on occasion. These are called "gods" in the sense of faithful servants of God, representing the true God.

If we should see, for example, someone being called the `TRUE prophet', that should mean that the person so described is TRULY a prophet. In either case this certainly does not have to mean that all other prophets must be FALSE. Even if it was said that this one was the "ONLY true Prophet," we would probably consider him the ONLY prophet in the HIGHEST of the word, but that still would not make ALL other prophets of God FALSE prophets.

At John 17:1, 3 Jesus prays to the Father: "FATHER, .... this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." - New International Version (NIV). Here the Father ALONE is not only very clearly identified as the only true God, but Jesus Christ is again pointedly and specifically EXCLUDED from that identification ("AND Jesus Christ whom YOU [the only true God] have sent").

Notice how this respected trinitarian Bible has rendered John 17:1, 3 - "FATHER,....This is eternal life: to know thee WHO ALONE art truly God, AND Jesus Christ whom THOU hast sent." - New English Bible (NEB).

So, the title "the TRUE God" does not have to mean that there are no others who may be called "gods" or "a god" in a subordinate but righteous sense. It is, however, an EXCLUSIVE title for God, the Most High, only true God, Jehovah. And clearly it refers EXCLUSIVELY to the FATHER. No one else is the God or the True God. (Compare Ps. 86:10; 2 Kings 19:19; Is. 37:16.)" -RDB

Answer 8

They don't believe that Jesus is God. I never heard where they said there was two Gods.

I am no JW, but I don't believe that Jesus is God the Father.

Yet, I do believe this.


God the Father begat his Son a life unto himself. John 5:26

The Son is the expressed image of the Father. His will in only that of his Father. The Father made the Son God over all creation, through giving him his Holy Spirit without measure. The Father filled the Son with his Spirit. And by the Son, and through the Son by the will of the Father, all things were created. Jesus was begotten of the Father in the beginning. Jesus was begotten of the Father even before the creation of the heavens and the earth. Our salvation was established even before the fall of mankind.

So Jesus has the full authority of the Father, by having the Spirit of his Father in him without measure.

So all things came into being by the will of the Father through the Son by the ministry of his Holy Spirit. Praise God.

What a wonderful maker.

Answer 9

I look toward Yahweh as my God, the Almighty, Creator of the heaven's and the earth, and all living things. I look at Christ Jesus as my Saviour, my King, to whom I go to and gain everlasting life from his Father. Jesus the love of my life is my interceder.
"No one goes to the Father except through me", says Christ Jesus.
Jehovah's Witnesses I do believe feel the same way, because that is the way, the truth, and the life.......Christ Jesus.

Answer 10

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Almighty Jehovah ("God the Father") has no peers. Yet, the bible plainly mentions other "gods".
...(1 Corinthians 8:5) there are those who are called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth

Jesus as "a god": (John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:18)
Angels as 'gods': (Psalm 82:1)
Satan as a 'god': (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Human judges as "gods": (Psalm 82:6-8)


It seems obvious that a person is not polytheistic merely because he believes the bible, or because he acknowledges the existence of these other so-called "gods". A person is polytheistic when he WORSHIPS multiple "gods", believing them to be peers. Jehovah is "the one true God" in the sense that He has no rival.
...(Psalm 86:8,10) There is none like you among the gods, O Jehovah... You are God, you alone.
...(Exodus 22:20) One who sacrifices to any gods but Jehovah alone is to be devoted to destruction.


Jehovah's Witnesses are (by far) the largest Christian religion which rejects trinitarianism and the belief that Jesus is equal to Jehovah. For decades, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses has recognized the inaccuracy of describing trinitarianism as polytheistic.

Yet, it seems obvious that certain arguments by certain trinitarians have strayed from the official doctrine of "the Trinity". Note this point from their official website:
http://watchtower.ca/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_05.htm
[quote]
’Elohim means, not “persons,” but “gods.” So those who argue that this word implies a Trinity make themselves polytheists, worshipers of more than one God. Why? Because it would mean that there were three gods in the Trinity. But nearly all Trinity supporters reject the view that the Trinity is made up of three separate gods.


By contrast, Jehovah's Witnesses reserve the English word "worship" uniquely in connection with Jehovah God. The bible speaks of honoring Christ Jesus and doing obeisance to him, but only Jehovah the Father merits worshipful "exclusive devotion".

(Exodus 20:2,5) I am Jehovah your God... I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive devotion

(Philippians 2:5,6) Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God’s form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God

Learn more!
http://watchtower.ca/e/ti/index.htm?article=article_05.htm
http://watchtower.ca/e/20050422/
http://watchtower.ca/e/20020515/
http://watchtower.ca/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_03.htm
http://watchtower.ca/e/lmn/index.htm?article=article_04.htm

Answer 11

Does John 1:1 prove that Jesus is God?

John 1:1, RS: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [also KJ, JB, Dy, Kx, NAB].” NE reads “what God was, the Word was.” Mo says “the Logos was divine.” AT and Sd tell us “the Word was divine.” The interlinear rendering of ED is “a god was the Word.” NW reads “the Word was a god”; NTIV uses the same wording.

What is it that these translators are seeing in the Greek text that moves some of them to refrain from saying “the Word was God”? The definite article (the) appears before the first occurrence of the·os′ (God) but not before the second. The articular (when the article appears) construction of the noun points to an identity, a personality, whereas a singular anarthrous (without the article) predicate noun before the verb (as the sentence is constructed in Greek) points to a quality about someone. So the text is not saying that the Word (Jesus) was the same as the God with whom he was but, rather, that the Word was godlike, divine, a god. (See 1984 Reference edition of NW, p. 1579.)

What did the apostle John mean when he wrote John 1:1? Did he mean that Jesus is himself God or perhaps that Jesus is one God with the Father? In the same chapter, verse 18, John wrote: “No one [“no man,” KJ, Dy] has ever seen God; the only Son [“the only-begotten god,” NW], who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.” (RS) Had any human seen Jesus Christ, the Son? Of course! So, then, was John saying that Jesus was God? Obviously not. Toward the end of his Gospel, John summarized matters, saying: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, [not God, but] the Son of God.”—John 20:31, RS.

John 1:1, 2:

RS reads: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (KJ, Dy, JB, NAB use similar wording.) However, NW reads: “In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This one was in the beginning with God.”

Which translation of John 1:1, 2 agrees with the context? John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God.” Verse 14 clearly says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . we have beheld his glory.” Also, verses 1, 2 say that in the beginning he was “with God.” Can one be with someone and at the same time be that person? At John 17:3, Jesus addresses the Father as “the only true God”; so, Jesus as “a god” merely reflects his Father’s divine qualities.—Heb. 1:3.

Is the rendering “a god” consistent with the rules of Greek grammar? Some reference books argue strongly that the Greek text must be translated, “The Word was God.” But not all agree. In his article “Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1,” Philip B. Harner said that such clauses as the one in John 1:1, “with an anarthrous predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning. They indicate that the logos has the nature of theos.” He suggests: “Perhaps the clause could be translated, ‘the Word had the same nature as God.’” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87) Thus, in this text, the fact that the word the·os′ in its second occurrence is without the definite article (ho) and is placed before the verb in the sentence in Greek is significant. Interestingly, translators that insist on rendering John 1:1, “The Word was God,” do not hesitate to use the indefinite article (a, an) in their rendering of other passages where a singular anarthrous predicate noun occurs before the verb. Thus at John 6:70, JB and KJ both refer to Judas Iscariot as “a devil,” and at John 9:17 they describe Jesus as “a prophet.”

John J. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “Jn 1:1 should rigorously be translated ‘the word was with the God [= the Father], and the word was a divine being.’”—(Brackets are his. Published with nihil obstat and imprimatur.) (New York, 1965), p. 317.

In harmony with the above, AT reads: “the Word was divine”; Mo, “the Logos was divine”; NTIV, “the word was a god.” In his German translation Ludwig Thimme expresses it in this way: “God of a sort the Word was.” Referring to the Word (who became Jesus Christ) as “a god” is consistent with the use of that term in the rest of the Scriptures. For example, at Psalm 82:1-6 human judges in Israel were referred to as “gods” (Hebrew, ’elo·him′; Greek, the·oi′, at John 10:34) because they were representatives of Jehovah and were to speak his law.