Christians believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God - Jehovah's Witnesses also believe that, or do they?

Question

Christian theology says that Jesus Christ has ETERNALLY been the Son of God, that he was not created. Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus Christ was the firstborn. What does the Bible say? And if a religion has a false take on Jesus Christ, can they legitimately claim to be Christians? What would Christ say?

My thanks to everyone who has contributed in a thoughtful and respectful manner. I appreciate the time and trouble you've all taken, especially Vot Anar and trustdel. Would I be right in concluding that your short answer is, No - Jesus Christ was never ETERNALLY the Son of God?

Interesting that some people think it doesn't matter and some think Jesus Christ could be BOTH (eternally the Son of God and also created as the Son of God).

If, for any reason, anyone thinks I'm being piously perfect, judgemental and lacking in love, may I disabuse you of this notion? You see, eternal lives depend on getting this right. If we do not worship Jesus as our God, Lord and Saviour, then we are not in the New Covenant, and there can be no salvation through His shed blood. My motive in asking this question is concern. It's too important an issue to either gloss over or get wrong. I'm not judging anyone. We can all check out the Bible references and arguments made and decide for ourselves.

gj3 - I loved your answer - tell me, which translation of the Bible were you quoting from? Also, I say 'Amen' to your prayer.

Great answers from Danny H, destined to win and kj7gs - you will no doubt be releived to know that this question was not being asked from a Jehovah's Witness perspective, but from a born-again Christian perspective.

Answer 1

I've just been watching a BBC 1 TV prog, The One Show, where the subject of JWs refusing blood transfusions had been aired. Many viewers had responded saying JWs are not Christians because they do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. Now, that's a tricky one because if you read their literature, it's constantly stating that Jesus is the Son of God. JWs will adamantly insist they DO believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God! The difficulty lies in the theological point you raised in your question.

Orthodox Christianity declares that Christ is the ETERNAL Son of God. There never was a time when God did not exist and there never was a time when God was not in triune fellowship with the Son and the Holy Spirit. In John 1:18 we are told of Christ that he is 'the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father'. Note it does not say 'will be' or 'was' in the bosom of the Father. The Greek grammar is in the continuous, perpetual tense. JWs state that Jehovah God created Christ as the first of his creation - so Christ is a creature. That is why they feel forced to render Jn 1:1 as Christ being 'a god' with a small 'g' when it should be 'was God'. Again, Greek grammar rules are violated by them in order to distort scripture. Nobody can tell them anything about Greek grammar!

When it comes to the incarnation (Christ becoming the Son of Man, born of the virgin Mary) the Athanasian Creed is careful to state that this was not a case of Deity coming down into flesh, but rather mankind being taken up into God. God is never degraded. But the JWs degrade Christ, and therefore God. Of course, they cannot see it. However, when they have a Big God (Jehovah, the Almighty) a small god (Jesus, a god and an angel at that - Michael) and the Holy Spirit who is merely an 'it', like electrical power, there is unarguably a severe degredation of the Godhead and for that reason they cannot legitimately claim to be Christians.

EDIT Proof of their distortion of Greek - the JW Bible renders Revelation 3:14 as 'the beginning of the creation by God' (above) yet their own Greek Interlinear has 'beginning of the creation of the God'! The genetive 'tou theou' means 'of God' and not 'by God'. For the NWT to be right the genetive would require the preposition 'hupo' which is not found in the Greek text. So their use of this text is deceitful. It should read that Christ is 'the beginning of the creation of God' meaning he began the creation.

Answer 2

I know what you are saying but here is where the confusion comes in. Jesus is a god, he is a divine one and as the Trinity people like to point out in John 1:1, he is with God. Now, the Father, is Jehovah. He alone is Almighty God. As it is explained, Jesus the son is in the "bosom position" of the Father. He is "First Born" going back eons of time. Everything else came into existence through this order. People are particularly confused because of the churches taking Jehovah's name out of the bible close to 7,000 times. Instead they put the word God or Lord. So, naturally, people think that Jesus Christ is the almighty. This is one of the most "crafty acts" that Satan does to mislead. He is misleading the whole earth. Re 12:9 (This is why the world is in chaos)

Answer 3

The point is, Jesus had a beginning. The scripture clearly calls Jesus "the firstborn of all creation" and "the beginning of the creation by God." Colossians 1:15, Revelation 1:5

By calling Jesus the second person of the holy trinity, some are giving Jesus a title and designation that does not exist in the scriptures.

The fact that he is a "SON" is a strong indication that his Father came before him. There is no son that exists whose father did not come before them.

Any complicated (either Nicene or any other) explanation does not negate the clear testimony of the scriptures. In fact, John 1:1, and 1 John 5:7 are two examples of humans wanting to add to the scriptures to make God's inspiration conform to their will. John 1:1 was clear to those who read it in the original languages, and 1 John 5:7 did not exist in the form that you find it in many Bible versions until the 14th century.

Answer 4

JW's believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. They believe that Michael materialized into a human and was born as the man, Jesus. He lived a sinless life and died for our sins. After that, He dematerialized and went back to heaven as the archangel. He is not divine and in no way shares a godship with God the Father. They are the only ones that believe this, which they use as further proof that they are God's "true" organization.

Well, a few problems with this. Jesus forgave sin, which no created being - angel or human - could do. Jesus is our judge, which again, nothing created could be. Thirdly and my favorite, Jesus was worshiped. There are several instances in the bible where He is paid hommage and respect and even called "God". If He is not God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, then any worship of Him would be idolatry, and would make a lot of bible scriptures lies.

God bless.

Answer 5

I'm sure you are asking us from a Jehovah's Witness perspective since you are looking for specific verses that will stack the deck in your favor, rather than look carefully at the implications of the Scriptures. Looks like everybody else has gone into tremendous detail to answer your question, but the implication that Jesus is a demigod or even an angel, is ludicrous to me. The Bible would not be held in nearly such reverence if it was all about a demigod. Jesus would have corrected and refuted those who worshiped him, as an angel, if he was one, would have done.

Jesus was fully God and fully man, as the historic Church documents claim. Those historic Church documents were written because of the heresies that were creeping into the church, Arianism being one of them. Jehovah's Witnesses will say that these documents were "made up" and of men rather than God, and I see them as protecting and preserving orthodox belief. JWs and I will never see eye to eye on this, and cherry picking verses out of the Bible in order to justify their own error and confuse others, is something that must never be embraced, and must always be refuted.

What would Christ's say? He has already said it, and I believe that the Bible is clear enough, he ain't no Michael the Archangel. Jesus is God.

Answer 6

Christian believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Mark 5:7 "With a shriek, he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” Even the demon know who Jesus is; the Creator of the Universe (Colosians 1:15-17 "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together." Jesus is 100% human and 100% God (John 1:1-2 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.") The teaching of the J.W. is they do not believed in diety of Jesus Christ. They have their own bible translation called New World Translation Bible. They twist some of the Word of God to make it fit to their own doctrine. They do not believed in the Trinity. The word Trinity is not in the Bible but the Bible taught this. Some of their wording are Jesus is a way not The Way. and the Bible said this "Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6. I hate to say this but they are cult and claiming that they are Christian. Christian is Christ live in their heart. We have intimate relationship with God and we are not denying the doctrine of the Trinity. Christianity is not a religion is a personal relationship with God. The Bible taught that in the last days many of false prophet will show up and deceived most of the human nature. Becareful out there. There are so many false prophets out there.
If you are not sure where are you going after this life you are in big trouble.
Pray this prayer.
Jesus, I thank you that you forgive my sin at the Calvary and I believed in my heart that you rose on the third day for our eternal life. Jesus I'm asking you to come and live in my heart and I will make you my Lord and my Savior from now on.
If you pray this prayer from your heart, you know that you are going to heaven and live with Jesus from now and forever more. Thousands of angels celebrating in heaven and welcome you in God's family. Now the Holy Spirit lives in your heart. Tell someone about what you did. If you can read the Gospel of John in the New Testament Bible.
May the blessing, love, joy, peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reign in your heart forever more.
Some of the J.W. did not know what is the real meaning of Jesus name in Hebrew and Aramic. In Hebrew is Yahweh saves. in Aramic is Yeshua saves, the english translation of the Yeshua or Yahweh is Jehovah saves. Is simple problem right? Jesus saves and He is God. People did not know what they were talking about.

Answer 7

Not created?

Revelation 3:14
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God:

Whats your take on this verse?


If Jesus was God, then this verse would not state this.


Update: Another question; Is he the Son of God or God? He cannot be both.

Answer 8

What they do or do not believe is not for you to declare "false" or "true" or to question their right to be called "Christians" or anything else. You can think freely but the judgment is God's and Jesus-not you.
I don't care how piously perfect you consider your own beliefs to be...If you have not love you are nothing. And your accusations are thinly veiled condemnations-judgmental and does not show any sign of love towards persons who happen to hold their own views of which you dislike.
"What would Christ say?"
Judge not or you will be judged. And Remove the beam from your own eye.

Answer 9

I think Y/A should make a rule on runaway (loooooooong) answers. I don't know how the JW's or other faiths feel about this; but I think there's no issue here. Why can't everyone come into agreement and say Jesus was both. On earth he wanted to show people he was the Son and then he was the Father. It depends on what the circumstances was at the time. By showing he was the Son was a role model for all of us on how WE should be to the Father. By showing he was the Father, was to show US that he is loving and understanding of the flesh. His existence in Heaven and on Earth has been accomplished and not in vain because WE BELIEVE, LOVE, and have FAITH in HIM.

Answer 10

I don't completly follow your question. First off Jehovah is God as it says in the bible and yes Jesus Christ is God's son. He impregnated Mary so that she may carry his child even though she had never had intercourse, hence the name Virgin Mary. Jesus is Gods only son, but Jesus wasn't a only child. Mary and her husband had children after Jesus. So what both religions are saying is true.