Kingdom Ready Blog

Though I’ve been swamped here lately and away from the blog (so much reading to catch up on now) and I still need to do some final tweaks to a piece on the Counter Missionary movement that I’ve been working on, I thought I’d write this week on what happened to me just the other day.

Fridays are the one day of the work week that one can find me around the house since I work from home during the later part of the day and spend the mornings taking care of my toddler daughter while my wife works a half day. So when the doorbell rang late Friday morning I thought it must be the mailman or UPS/Fed Ex. But low and behold it was my local Jehovah Witnesses. Two well-dressed ladies with Bibles in hand and some “Watchtower” publications were at my door. One of them I instantly recognized as a woman I met at my own home garage sale back in the spring. She and I briefly spoke back on that day as my wife and I were selling our old junk (I guess she went to garage sales to witness & give out JWS literature) and when she asked about my beliefs I quickly described some of our theological similarities and differences. Ever since then I guess I got put on some type of “Check back with” list and she and others have attempted to drop by once or twice since then, but never at a time that I was either home or available. On this morning though I was just hanging out playing with my daughter so I decided to invite them in to have a more in-depth discussion.

Once again I shared our common ground in that we both believe that God, the Father, alone is the one true God and that the popular Trinity belief is false. We both believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but not God the Son or God in the flesh. I also discussed how we both believe that humans do not have an immortal soul that goes off to heaven at death, but that being completely mortal, after death we are asleep/non-existent until the return of Jesus when he resurrects everyone and establishes the Kingdom of God here on earth. We also discussed a few scriptural points regarding those topics and how perplexing it was that believers in mainstream Christianity typically do not also see many of these things as self evident.

Then they asked about how we differed from one another. And though I have issues with a few different areas of Jehovah Witness belief and practice, I decided to concentrate on the one BIG “Christological” difference between us – the belief that Jesus pre-existed his birth as God’s first creation and was really the Archangel “Michael”. I tried to approach the subject with them like I do with all theological issues – using Scripture, common sense, and the evidence from history.

So I attempted to show that the Arian belief of Jesus as an angel, a secondary pre-existent divine being, was just as much a Greek pagan corruption of Hebrew thought as the Trinity belief tends to be. The Arian conception of the “Logos” still hearkens directly back to Plato, not the Hebrew world of those responsible for writing every book of the Bible. The Hebrew people throughout time have looked for a real human Messiah that would come into existence as a biological descendent of King David (and rightly so as their Scriptures clearly indicate this). Having either a third “person” in the Godhead or even a secondary divine “archangel” enter the womb of a human and “take on” human form are both cut from the same “Greek” philosophical cloth. Further still it owes its origins to various pagan cultures and is simply not from the Hebrew thought world.

Of course my guests simply thumbed through their primary little yellow Watchtower study guide – “What Does The Bible Really Teach”, and were all too quick to mention verses from it that they believe teach of Jesus’ pre-existence. I already happened to have a copy of their little guide book myself and knew the basic route they would probably be heading – the first chapter of Colossians. BTW, if anyone is curious, here is the word-for-word text from this Watchtower booklet (pgs 41-42) in the chapter “Who is Jesus Christ?”, in the subsection – “Where Did Jesus Come From?”:

“The Bible teaches that Jesus lived in heaven before he came to earth. Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and also said that His origin was “from early times” (Micah 5:2). On many occasions, Jesus himself said that he lived in heaven before being born as a human (John 3;13, 6:38, 62; 17:4,5). As a spirit creature in heaven, Jesus had a special relationship with Jehovah.

Jesus is Jehovah’s most precious Son – and for good reason. He is called “the firstborn of all creation,” for he as God’s first creation (Colossians 1:15). *[Jehovah is called a Father because he is the Creator. (Isaiah 64:8). Since Jesus was created by God, he is called God’s Son. For similar reasons, other spirit creatures and even the man Adam are called sons of God. – Job 1:6; Luke 3:38.] There is something else that makes the son special. He is the “only-begotten Son” (John 3:16). This means that Jesus is the only one directly created by God. Jesus is also the only one whom God used when he created al other things (Colossians 1:16). Then, too, Jesus is called “the Word” (John 1:14). This tells us that he spoke for God, no doubt delivering messages and instructions to the Father’s other son, both spirit and human.

Is the firstborn Son equal to God, as some believe? That is not what the Bible teaches. As we noted in the preceding paragraph, the Son was created. Obviously, then, he had a beginning, whereas Jehovah God has not beginning or end (Psalm 90:2). The only-begotten Son never even considered trying to be equal to his Father. The Bible clearly teaches that the Father is greater than the Son (John 14:28; 1 Corinthians 11:3). Jehovah alone is “God Almighty” (Genesis 17:1). Therefore, He has no equal.

Jehovah and his firstborn Son enjoyed close association for billions of years – long before the starry heavens and the earth were created. How they must have loved each other (John 3:35; 14:31)! This dear Son was just like his Father. That is why the Bible refers to the Son as “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). Yes, even as a human son may closely resemble his father in various ways, this heavenly Son reflected his Father’s qualities and personality.

Jehovah’s only-begotten Son willingly left heaven and came down to earth to live as a human. But you man wonder, ‘How was it possible for a spirit creature to be born as a human?’ To accomplish this, Jehovah performed a miracle. He transferred the life of his first born Son from heaven to the womb of a Jewish virgin named Mary. No human father was involved. Mary this gave birth to a perfect son and named him Jesus (Luke 1:30-35).”

In our discussion of Colossians 1, I brought up the fact that where verse 15 calls Christ the “firstborn”, it isn’t necessarily limited to time. It can also mean rank or position.. The term in Greek is “prototokos” and protos can mean either first in time or first in rank. Firstborn can be used to designate one who has the higher position or is first in importance regardless of their birth order or age. Anthony Buzzard posts a nice paper by William Wachetel on this exact topic at his “Focus on the Kingdom” magazine’s website here: COLOSSIANS 1:15-20 — PREEXISTENCE OR PREEMINENCE?. Also one can look to the Messianic Psalm 89 and see that the Messiah will be MADE God’s “first-born” (89:27) at a future point in time coming from David’s seed (not spoken of as already being in existence).

Next in our discussion I decided to see how they would answer the issues posed by the first chapter of Hebrews. To me, it is clearly the death blow to any premise that Jesus was an Archangel since Hebrews Chapter 1 specifically shows that Jesus was NOT an angel. Right off the bat in Hebrews we see that while God originally spoke to the faith’s forefathers and the prophets in many ways, he didn’t use his Son to speak for him until the more recent times of the New Testament period (verse 1 & 2). This eliminates the possibility of Jesus running around the Old Testament doing this or that as an angel or (in the Trinitarian sense) a member of the Godhead. Then in verse five we plainly hear “For to which of the angels did He ever say, “Thou Art My Son, TODAY I Have Begotten Thee”? And again, I Will Be A Father To Him And He Shall Be A Son To Me”? This, from verse five of Hebrews Chapter One, is a direct quote from Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14. But Hebrews doesn’t’ stop there as this gets reiterated once again in verse 13 with “But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit At My Right Hand, Until I Make Thine Enemies A Footstool For Thy Feet”? And finally there’s the logic problem of Hebrews Chapter 2 verse 5. How could Jesus have been an angel if here it says “For He did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking.”?

After presenting these verses to my guests and them reading them for themselves in their own Bibles, the only response I got was a “Hmmm, that is interesting.” It seemed like they had never encountered that before. Now perhaps they were just attempting to sidestep the issue (as they did want to go back and discuss other possible “pre-existence” verses). But it felt more like they just had never looked at what Hebrews says in those verses. For a little more depth on this issue, I highly recommend the following article by fellow Biblical Unitarian – Juan Baixeras: “IS JESUS AN ARCHANGEL”.

I tried to pin them down on whether they believed that Jesus was the one who actually conducted the original creation and they seemed a little tentative there. At one point they said that God was responsible for the creation. But then they came back and said that Jesus was with God and either assisted Him or did most of it. I countered with questions about all of God’s/Jehovah’s clear statements in Isaiah (specifically Isaiah Chapter 40, 42, 43,44, & 45) of being the ONLY one responsible for the creation. Over and over again Yahweh/Jehovah is seen saying that HE is the only God and that He ALONE/BY HIMSELF is the creator. Language could not be clearer that Yahweh ALONE created everything. Jesus is simply not anywhere to be found there. Not to mention that when Jesus himself references the creation in the New Testament he too speaks of God (NOT himself) as the responsible party (Matt 19:4, Mark 13:19). BTW on this topic, another excellent article that attacks the idea of Jesus being the creator is one by Ray Faircloth entitled “WAS THE ARCHANGEL MICHAEL THE AGENT OF THE GENESIS CREATION?”.

After about an hour of these discussions, by guests indicated that they needed to get on their way. I guess they figured that they weren’t going to convince me that I needed to convert over to become a Jehovah Witnesses. And on the flip-side I seriously doubt if I made them want to leave their chosen denomination either. But it was interesting dialog and perhaps I planted a seed or two with them that maybe, just maybe, they have the wrong “Angelic” truth. Instead of listening to the Watchtower’s teaching about Jesus being the Archangel Michael, maybe they should simply trust in God’s announcement through another Archangel – Gabriel – in Luke 1:35.

Luke 1:35 ”The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason* the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

*See also Anthony Buzzard’s excellent article: “Gabriel Was Not a Trinitarian” Recovering the Biblical Son of God”.