Jehovah's Witnesses: Do you despise the cross?

Question

Theologians have found some reservation with the Jehovah's Witness proposal. Apologist conclude that according to both Biblical and secular historical manuscripts, Christ was crucified according to the standards of Roman execution at the time. In effect, the historical evidence that revolves around Roman crucifixion rarely speaks of a single stake method.

Answer 1

I'm not a Jehovah's Witness, but they speak extremely disrespectfully, not just of the "cross", but of the "stauros" - regardless of its shape.

On the other hand, Paul the apostle said that he would boast or glory in the stauros or "torture stake of our Lord Jesus Christ" - quoting from the JW Bible, Gal. 6: 14. Clearly, to Paul, Jesus' torture stake represented Jesus' sacrificial death. In spite of this clear scripture and others such as 1 Cor 1: 18, JW's, as you see here, contend that a REAL Christian would despise the instrument the same as they would despise a gun that killed a loved one. They must wonder why Paul would take such a point of view - because from their POV, it is an object of murder. They totally ignore the symbolism that Paul attached to it.

Answer 2

No, a Christian should not demonstrate contempt for others' objects of veneration, but neither is a Christian required to respect idols. It seems likely that true Christians (such as Jehovah's Witnesses) feel as the apostle Paul did regarding idols:

(Acts 17:16) Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit within him came to be irritated at beholding that the city was full of idols.


Like Paul, Jehovah's Witnesses do not distract from the message of the good news by focusing on a message of denunciation against idols (such as the cross). Instead, Witnesses believe that the bible plainly forbids idolatry of any kind, including the worshipful use of icons such as crucifixes and share that information with their progressive students.
http://watchtower.org/bible/1jo/chapter_005.htm?bk=1jo;chp=5;vs=21;citation#bk21
http://www.watchtower.org/bible/ac/chapter_017.htm?bk=ac;chp=17;vs=29;citation#bk29

(1 John 5:21) Guard yourselves from idols.

(Acts 17:29) We ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and contrivance of man


The exact shape of Christ's instrument of death is hardly a central doctrine of the faith, but Jehovah's Witnesses do happen to believe that Jesus was almost certainly impaled on a simple stake, rather than a cross of two intersecting beams. Of course the Romans had the ability to create a cross, and probably did. But ask yourself: why they would have bothered when a simple stake would have worked just as well or better?

The bible most assuredly does NOT offer any proof that the stake was actually a cross of two intersecting beams. The actual facts of the bible may be enlightening to examine...

You may be interested to see how your own copy of the bible translates Acts 5:30, Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 21:22, 23, and Acts 10:39. The King James, Revised Standard, Dyaglott, and Jerusalem Bible translate the instrument of Christ's death simply as "stake" or "tree" because the original wording simply does not support the idea that this was more than a piece of upright wood. The English word "cross" is an imprecise translation of the Latin word "crux". Note this image of crucifixion performed with a "crux simplex", such as seems to have been used to execute Jesus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Justus_Lipsius_Crux_Simplex_1629.jpg

It is also eye-opening to examine how the first-century Christians felt about idols of any kind, much less one that glorified an instrument of death.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/200604a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20050508a/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_11.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19960715/article_01.htm

Answer 3

Regardless of the SHAPE of the instrument used to kill Jesus, a more important issue for true Christians should be the propriety of VENERATING the instrument used to kill Jesus. Whether it was an upright single torture stake, a cross, an arrow, a lance, or a knife, should such an instrument be used in worship?

If one of your dearest friends was executed on the basis of false charges, would you make a replica of the instrument of execution? Would you cherish it, or would you rather shun it?

Crosses were used by the ancient Babylonians as symbols in their worship of the fertility god Tammuz.
In ancient Israel, unfaithful Jews wept over the death of the false god Tammuz. God spoke of what they were doing as being a `detestable thing.' (Ezek. 8:13, 14) According to history, Tammuz was a Babylonian god, and the cross was used as his symbol. From its beginning in the days of Nimrod, Babylon was against God and an enemy of true worship. (Gen. 10:8-10; Jer. 50:29) So by cherishing the cross, a person is honoring a symbol of worship that is opposed to the true God.

Answer 4

No more so that I would any instrument used to kill an innocent person or loved one.

Why would one want to use such an instrument as a means of worship?

Answer 5

Well unless Jesus is a liar he died in a pole.

John 3:15 "14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,"

Numbers 21:8 "The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."

9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.


"put it up on a pole" unless Jesus is a liar he told us that.

remember they also says that Jesus born in December 25

Answer 6

They despise so many things about real Jesus of the Bible. They really separate themselves from Him so well that He could to say " Who are you, I do not know you. Go to the Savior who died on pole! "

Wearing a cross is an outward symbol for an inner worship attitude toward Christ. JWs really show they follow their organization's orders.

Answer 7

Do I despise all the other pagan symbols in false religion?

Answer 8

They are Anti- Christ or lets just call it what it is, the Antichrist movement.

Answer 9

Stau-ros never meant Cross

Answer 10

EDITED :


Regarding the “nails” reasoning, anti-JWs say that it has to be a cross because the Bible says “Nails”. Their problem is that Jesus can be impaled on the stake and NAILS can be used also to impale him, not only thru the hands but also in the feet.

Jesus is now in the form of God, and the form of God is a spirit. So Jesus is now a spirit, the SAME form before he came back to earth. It is unreasonable to say that Jesus who was a spirit before he came to earth is now trapped in a PHYSICAL and HUMAN BODY.

Rev 2 & 3 and other texts in the Bible showed that Jesus is now a spirit, not a man/human/flesh WITH a spirit after being resurrected. Notice it used the phrase “THE spirit” in Rev 2 & 3, not “the one WITH a spirit” nor “human/man/flesh”. A human/man is not a spirit, it has a physical body. Jesus is THE spirit in Rev 2& 3 because he has a SPIRITUAL BODY.

1 Cor 15:42-45 talks about the resurrection of the dead. For the holy & anointed ones and also Jesus, they were given a spiritual body not physical. Please notice the contrast.

1 Cor 15:42-45
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised up in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised up in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised up in power. 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one. 45 It is even so written: “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

1 Cor 15:44 – sown PHYSICAL body, raised up a SPIRITUAL body.
1 Cor 15:45 – Adam became a soul(i.e. with PHYSICAL body) , the last Adam became a life-giving SPIRIT (i.e with spiritual body).
Notice the context is talking of the resurrection of the dead.


Jesus has became lower than the angels (spirits) when he became human (physical). After resurrection, Jesus is higher again than angels (spirits).If Jesus retain his physical body then he is still lower than angels.

Jesus of course can take the form of a physical body anytime he wishes to just like in the case of Luke 24:36,37.



==
JWs do not despise the death of Jesus and what his death in the “stauros” means. Some people use the “cross” in their worship and JWs do not do that.

So the question is, Did Jesus die on the “cross” or a “stake”?


The Greek word “Stauros” according to the Strongs Dictionary is

a stake or post (as set upright), that is, (specifically) a pole or cross (as an instrument of capital punishment);

Notice stauros means either an 1. upright stake/pole/post or 2. cross.

According to the Imperial Bible Dictionary, stauros is “properly signified a stake, an upright pole, or piece of paling, on which anything might be hung, or which might be used in impaling a piece of ground”.

It also defines stauros as “cross” which was a MODIFICATION and introduced as the dominion and usages of Rome extended themselves into Greek-speaking countries.

So stauros which was ORIGINALLY an upright pole has a NEW ADDITIONAL MEANING which is the word cross.

The question now is, Is the STAUROS in which Jesus died the ORIGINAL meaning (upright pole) OR the new ADDED meaning which is CROSS?

Which meaning is supported by the Bible?

The STAUROS that Jesus CARRIED, and the STAUROS in WHICH Jesus was Impaled was either translated CONSISTENTLY as


A. CROSS

WHAT Jesus Carried:
Luke 23:26 - KJ
And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.

WHERE JESUS was IMPALED
John 19:19 KJ
And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross.


B. STAKE

WHAT Jesus Carried:
Luke 23:26 NWT
26 Now as they led him away, they laid hold of Simon, a certain native of Cy•re´ne, coming from the country, and they placed the torture stake upon him to bear it behind Jesus.

WHERE JESUS was IMPALED

John 19:19 NWT
Pilate wrote a title also and put it on the torture stake.


A bigger STAUROS is needed so that two persons (Jesus and Simon) have to carry it. Notice Simon carried the stauros behind Jesus.

One of the these prophecies which was fulfilled in Jesus in order for us to be released from the curse of the Law, was in :

Gal 3:13
13 Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us, because it is written: “Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake/tree.” Which is taken from Deut 21:23. (his dead body should not stay all night on the stake/tree; but you should by all means bury him on that day, because something accursed of God is the one hung up)

The Greek word used there is XULON/XYLON (timber, tree, wood) which is a similar word as the STAUROS.

Even if the “cross” was used in Jesus’ time, I believe that in order for the prophecy/law to be fulfilled in Deut 21:23, Jesus MUST have died on the original meaning of the stauros which stake and not the modified meaning, which is the cross.

Acts 5:30 states “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.”




The book The Non-Christian Cross, by J. D. Parsons (London, 1896), says: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross. . . . It is not a little misleading upon the part of our teachers to translate the word stauros as ‘cross’ when rendering the Greek documents of the Church into our native tongue, and to support that action by putting ‘cross’ in our lexicons as the meaning of stauros without carefully explaining that that was at any rate not the primary meaning of the word in the days of the Apostles, did not become its primary signification till long afterwards, and became so then, if at all, only because, despite the absence of corroborative evidence, it was for some reason or other assumed that the particular stauros upon which Jesus was executed had that particular shape.”—Pp. 23, 24; see also The Companion Bible (London, 1885), Appendix No. 162.


Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words provides telling insight into the "cross." It declares:

"stauros denotes primarily, ‘an upright pale or stake.’ On such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, ‘to fasten to a stake or pale,’ are originally to be DISTINGUISHED FROM the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed ‘cross.’ The shape of the latter had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the third century A.D. had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the church apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau, or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the ‘cross’ of Christ" ("cross," page 138).


Bullinger points out that the symbol of crosses "were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god," and a cross with four equal arms, vertical and horizontal, was "especially venerated as the ‘Solar Wheel.’" He goes on:

"The Catacombs in Rome bear the same testimony: ‘Christ’ is never represented there as ‘hanging on a cross,’ and the cross itself is only portrayed in a veiled and hesitating manner. In the Egyptian churches the cross was a PAGAN SYMBOL OF LIFE, borrowed by the “Christians”, and interpreted in the pagan manner. In his Letters from Rome Dean Burgon says: ‘I question whether a cross occurs on any Christian monument of the first four centuries.’