A Letter to the Jehovah's Witnesses

Dear Jehovah’s Witness:

Thank you for your dedication and commitment to your faith and willingness to share it.  Like Paul said to the Athenians in Acts 17, “I can see that you are a very religious people.”  All of man’s attempts to get to God through religion, however, are futile; only God’s revelation of Himself is true and reliable.  We must therefore look to the Scriptures, the inspired and inerrant Word of God to determine the most fundamental issue of what true faith entails:  What does God say in the Bible about Himself and His nature?  Remember in Matthew 16:15, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” 

Like points on a compass, one degree off will make a HUGE difference when followed to its conclusion.  Who Jesus is, is the most essential question anyone will ever ask and answer.  To get that wrong, following that point to its conclusions, can bring a person to the wrong faith and ultimately can condemn him.  As a friendly neighbor, I’d like to spend some time showing you the truth from Scripture.  You have visited my house to share some reading material, and I will read it.  My only request is that you return the courtesy by reading my letter to you.  So let’s begin at the beginning.

What does the Old Testament say about who Jesus is?

Genesis 1:1 makes reference to the Triune God when using the “generic” word for God, Elohim.  This is a plural Hebrew noun.  Furthermore, in verse 26, Jehovah the Father speaks in the plural, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.”  The point I make here is only that God in three persons is a reality alluded to from the beginning.  Let me be clear though, Trinitarian Christians worship ONE God who exists in three persons, not polytheistic gods.  The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father.  The Father is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.  The Son and the Spirit are also distinct, but all three Persons are God, Jehovah.  (Jehovah’s Witnesses use the term Jehovah in the same way that Trinitarian Christians use the term Father.)  The deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit becomes more sure as one looks at the whole of Scripture. 

Also in Genesis, verse 22:8, Moses records Abraham explaining to his son about the sacrifice, “God will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt offering.”  Emphasis on this word causes the pronoun, Himself, to be read as the direct object.  In other words, God will provide Himself as the burnt offering, referring to the fact that Jesus Christ would die on that same hill 2,000 years later as the once and final sacrifice for sin.  Abraham and Moses, therefore, affirm that Jesus, the Coming Messiah, is God and can, therefore, be the propitiation for sin.

David, arguably the most significant Old Testament character after Moses, says in Psalm 110:4, about Abraham’s dealings with the priest of Salem but speaking of the Christ, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”  David affirms that only the eternal God can be “a priest forever”; which is not and can not be true of a created being.

Jesus’ eternal nature is affirmed again in Psalm 110:1, when David writes,” The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”  Who is David calling Lord?  And who then is “my Lord”?  These two persons are not the same because one is speaking to the other.  This strongly supports the idea that Jehovah, the Father, is speaking to Adonai, the Son, who does in fact sit at the right hand of the Father.  David worships and honors both Persons by calling both names for God.

Furthermore, Isaiah prophesies in a familiar passage, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  (Emphasis mine)  Isaiah’s prophecy is clear: Jesus is mighty and everlasting.  He is God.  Moses, the Giver of the Law, David, the King on whose throne Jesus sits, and all the prophets, including Isaiah, indicate that the Messiah, Jesus, is God.  This is understood throughout the Major and Minor Prophets.

Moving to the New Testament, what do the Apostles say about who Jesus is?

John summarizes it best saying in his prologue to his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  The original Greek says, “Kai theos ev o logos.” Transliterated, this states, “And God was the Word.”  In other words, “What God was, the Word was.”  The order is NOT, “Kai o logos ev theos.”  Jesus is not a god, nor is He the same person as the Father. The word order tells us that Jesus has all the divine attributes that God the Father has. 

When asked by Jesus for His identity, Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus tells Peter that the Father has supernaturally revealed this truth.  The Son and the Father are not the same Person, as clearly shown here, but Jesus’ deity is affirmed in other passages.

Thomas affirms Jesus’ deity in John 20:27-29 , “My Lord and my God!” upon seeing the resurrected Jesus.  Clearly Thomas calls Jesus Lord and God when he falls down in worship at Jesus’ feet..  Jesus does not “correct” Thomas for error because Thomas confesses the truth just as Peter did.

In Colossians 1:15-16 Paul explains Jesus’ position as the resurrected Lord “He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over all creation.”  Image does not imply lesser, only that Jesus as God has the same attributes as Father God, that of being eternal: omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.  And Firstborn does not mean born, as Jehovah’s Witnesses claim! It is a title meaning heir.  This term was used at a time when “primogeniture” was practiced.  The firstborn son of a family was the heir of the family when the father died.  Paul uses this term to explain that Jesus is Heir of creation because of what He accomplished on the cross.  If there is any doubt that Paul espouses the deity of Christ, read on in Colossians 2:9, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”  Paul and all the Apostles affirm the deity of Jesus.

What did Jesus say about Himself?

Jesus says in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I am.”  The “I am” statement is clearly a reference to the Old Testament name for God the Father, what Jehovah’s Witnesses use from the Church Father Jerome’s Latin translation of the Hebrew YHWH in Exodus.  Jesus is claiming deity, equality with the Father. 

And at another point Jesus says, as recorded in John 10:29-31, “’My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.” (Emphasis mine)  The Father and the Son are ONE God, though distinct Persons, as Jesus Himself reveals in these two passages.

What did Jesus’ enemies say?

Why do I ask this question?  Who cares, right?  Even Jesus’ enemies knew who Jesus was or at least who He was claiming to be.  The reference above, John 10:31, shows that Jesus’ enemies wanted to kill Him because they understood His claim to be God!  This is demonstrated in verse 33 when the Pharisees say, “‘We are not stoning you for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’”  They knew exactly, just as we should, what Jesus’ claim is!

Jesus claims to be God, but what does Jehovah, the Father, say about Him?

Jesus’ baptism is the best place to see all three Persons of the Trinity.  Matthew 3:13-17 tells the story and records the Father saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  And the Spirit descends like a dove.  If Jesus claims to be God, and He is not, why would the Father say that He is well pleased with His Son?  Why would His Spirit descend upon Him?  To say anything else but that Jesus is God with the Father and the Spirit is to make Jesus and the Father out to be liars!

All of the Scriptures point to the fact that Jesus is God, and this Scriptural truth  is understood and supported by the early Church Fathers.  The Council of Nicea was called in 325 A.D. to address the Arian Heresy, the same heresy that Jehovah’s Witnesses are following today, which states that Jesus was not God but a created being.  Out of that Council came the creed which affirms the Trinity: 

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen. (emphasis mine)

Not only do the Scriptures attest to the deity of Christ, but so does Church history.  Jehovah exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  This is a great mystery, but any other teaching is unorthodox and “another Gospel”, as Paul called it.

Thank you for taking time to read this; I pray that it is helpful to you in finding the true Jesus, the Son of God who by grace can completely save you and free you from sin, death, and the Law.  Because Jesus is God, His sacrifice is efficacious; a man could not save us, an angel could not save us, “a god” could not save us. Because Jesus is Jehovah, equal to the Father, His sacrifice completely covers the infinitely offensive sin of His people.  He calls, and His sheep know his voice.  I pray that you hear the voice of Jehovah Jesus.  If after reading this, you’d like to talk further, please feel free to make an appointment.

Sincerely a follower of Jehovah the Son,

Rich Cali