Shaky Pillar #5
Denial of Christ’s Deity
“Well, did Jesus ever say that he was God? No, he never did. Rather, in the Bible he is called ‘God’s Son’” (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, Copyright 1982 by Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Page 39).
They deny that Jesus is actually God.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Because “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), it is evident that the Word is Jesus of Nazareth, so the verse plainly refers to Him. Jesus is God who was with God.
In their proprietary version of the Bible, which in and of itself is highly suspicious, the New World Translation puts it as: “In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god” [emphasis added]. The word “a” is an indefinite article in English, indicating a generic or unidentified noun. There are some words in this verse that translators skip over when bringing the Greek into English simply because English does not require their inclusion, but “a” is not the word! Rather, it is the definite article “the!” The definite article means the noun is known to the reader. The definite article appears over 5,000 times in the Greek New Testament. Not a single reputable translation ever renders it as “a.” A word-for-word, literal, and direct translation of John 1:1 would actually be: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and God was the Word” [emphasis added]. By suggesting an alternative translation, the Watchtower is counting on unquestioning acceptance, but serious students will consult the original language and see the Greek text presents the opposite of what the New World Translation attempts to communicate. Jesus is not “a god;” He is “the God!”
Not only is He “the God” as opposed to merely “a god,” but so much more, Jesus is the fullness of God! “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). God is incomplete without Christ. The Son of God is described not as His offspring but as “the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance” (Hebrews 1:3).
In a chapter devoted to proving the superiority of Christ over angels because of what God said to His Son and did not say to angels, the Hebrew writer quoted Psalm 45, “But to the Son (he saith,) ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever’” (Hebrews 1:8). God called Him God!
Immediately after the reference to Psalm 45, the inspired penman to the Hebrews also quoted the 102nd Psalm: “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of thy hands’” (Hebrews 1:10) and that Psalm is addressed to Jehovah (Psalm 102:1). The people calling themselves “Jehovah’s Witnesses” should know better.
Scripture affirms Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, God Himself, the fullness of God, the express image of God – in short, Jehovah. To deny these facts about Him is to deny Him and “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (I John 2:23).
