Witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses – Part 1

 

(Notes for the video are below. See Part 2.)

Over the next two days I’d like to spell out the verses that I think are the most compelling to use with a Jehovah’s Witness (JW) to argue from Scripture that Jesus is God. In addition, I want you to take these notes, print them off, and slip them into your Bible or place them by your door so that you don't have to worry about remembering every word. It’s my hope this will be a practical resource that will help you make a lasting impact when witnessing to JWs.

I want to start with a word of advice. Don’t get sidetracked with all the other issues that JWs may want to talk about like soul sleep, or heaven, or the Holy Spirit. These are all important issues, but they are not the most important issue. Make the goal of your conversation about answering one question: Who is Jesus? How you answer this question changes everything. All other questions—although interesting—simply pale in comparison. Christianity stands or falls on its view of Jesus Christ. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses are very clear that Jesus is not God. He is actually the created archangel Michael. On the other hand, Christians hold that Jesus is the God-man. Fully human, but also fully God. So how can we show them that Jesus is God?

POINT #1: THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT JESUS IS JEHOVAH

If it could be demonstrated that Jesus is identified as Jehovah, then the JWs’ worldview comes crashing down. So the question becomes, is Jesus ever referred to as Jehovah? The simple answer to this question is yes! You may be thinking, “What’s so special about Jesus being identified as Jehovah?” Well, this requires a little background knowledge. The proper name for God in the Hebrew Bible is transliterated YHWH. This name is called the tetragrammaton­ (which means “four letters”). The most widely used pronunciation of the tetragrammaton is Yahweh, though some English Bible translations use the term Jehovah. 

(A) Demonstrating That Jesus Is Jehovah from Psalm 102:25-27 and Hebrews 1:10-12

With these preliminary comments out of the way, let's dive into the argument, which involves two rather straightforward passages of Scripture.

Ask your visitors to take out their New World Translation (NWT) and have them flip to Psalm 102:25-27. You will find it says, “[25] Long ago you laid the foundations of the earth, And the heavens are the work of your hands. [26] They will perish, but you will remain; Just like a garment they will all wear out. Just like clothing you will replace them, and they will pass away. [27] But you are the same, and your years will never end.”

Now ask them, who is this passage about? Make sure you get a straight answer. If they know their Bible they will be excited to say, “Jehovah!” Some less biblically literate JWs will need a lifeline. In this case, I would encourage you to read the context together.

In fact, the first verse of Psalm 102 (NWT) declares, “[1] O Jehovah, hear my prayer; Let my cry for help reach you.... [12] But you remain forever, O Jehovah, And your fame will endure for all generations.... [21] So that the name of Jehovah will be declared in Zion And his praise in Jerusalem, [22] When the peoples and kingdoms Gather together to serve Jehovah.”

There can be no doubt that the psalmist is describing Jehovah. Therefore, we have established that our first text is describing the eternal, changeless (immutable), creator Jehovah. This is not describing a finite, created being.

Once you have agreed upon this point, it’s time to flip over to the New Testament. Now kindly ask your guests to turn in their NWT to Hebrews 1:10-12. It is very important that you take your time and establish the context of these verses. I usually start a few verses back to get the context. 

Hebrews 1:6-8 NWT	Hebrews 1:6-8 ESV
[6] But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.” [7] Also, he says about the angels: “He makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” [8] But about the Son, he says: “God is your throne forever and ever, and the scepter of your Kingdom is the scepter of uprightness.	[6] And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship (proskuneo) him.” [7] Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” [8] But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

Clearly, these verses are speaking about the Son—Jesus Christ. At this point I would also suggest passing over the dangling carrot in verse 8. God says to the Son, “Your throne, O God.” That's right folks, God calls Jesus God (ho theos, in Greek). So putting aside the second part of verse 8, you need to emphasize the beginning of verse 8, “But of the Son he says.” And still talking about the Son, the author of Hebrews writes:

[10] And: “At the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. [11] They will perish, but you will remain; and just like a garment, they will all wear out, [12] and you will wrap them up just as a cloak, as a garment, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never come to an end.”

Did you catch that? Where have we heard these words before? This is a quotation from Psalm 102:25-27. Remember that our new JW friend has already agreed that Psalm 102:25-27 is a description of the eternal, changeless, creator Jehovah. Yet, the author of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, clearly attributes this same identification to the Son. Therefore, Jesus is being identified as Jehovah. So, is Psalm 102:25-27 about Jesus, or is it about Jehovah? The answer is, yes! Why? Because Jesus is Jehovah.

(B) Demonstrating That Jesus Is Jehovah from John 12:41 and Isaiah 6:1

Now we’re going to start in the New Testament and move to the Old Testament. Start by asking your JW friends to open their Bible to John 12:41. You will need to read the surrounding verses to lay down the context. Here Jesus is at the end of his public ministry and is about to start his private ministry to his disciples. And although Jesus had performed many signs, some would not put their faith in him. John tells us why:

[37] Although he had performed so many signs before them, they were not putting faith in him.... [39] The reason why they were not able to believe is that again Isaiah said: [40] “He has blinded their eyes and has made their hearts hard, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn around and I heal them.” [41] Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory, and he spoke about him. [42] All the same, many even of the rulers actually put faith in him, but they would not acknowledge him because of the Pharisees, so that they would not be expelled from the synagogue; [43] for they loved the glory of men even more than the glory of God.”

At this point, we need to ask a question: who is the “him” in verse 41? From the context, it is clearly Jesus who is being referred to. Verse 42 continues the thought, “All the same, many even of the rulers actually put faith in him, but they would not acknowledge him....”

The next question that needs to be asked is, when did Isaiah see his (Jesus’) glory?

Well, verse 40 gives us a quotation from Isaiah 6. This is the prophet Isaiah’s vision of Jehovah sitting on his throne. The NWT will even have the reference to Isaiah 6 in the side margin. So that's exactly where you need to turn next.

Isaiah 6:1-3 says:

[1] In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw Jehovah sitting on a lofty and elevated throne, and the skirts of his robe filled the temple. [2] Seraphs were standing above him; each had six wings. Each covered his face with two and covered his feet with two, and each of them would fly about with two. And one called to the other: “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory.”

So if you were to ask Isaiah, who did you see sitting on the throne? His answer would be Jehovah. But if you were to ask John, who did Isaiah see sitting on the throne?
 His answer would be Jesus. 

They may insist that Isaiah doesn’t explicitly say he saw his glory. Fair enough. But this argument is even stronger than it appears. The New Testament authors, including John, would almost always quote from the Septuagint (LXX) which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. In the Septuagint, Isaiah 6:1 reads:
 And it came to pass in the year in which king Uzziah died, [that] I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory.

(C) The New Testament Authors Applied the Greek Term for Jehovah to Jesus

Consider the dilemma faced by the New Testament writers. They needed to communicate two distinct truths. First, Jesus is God. Second, Jesus is not God the Father. The problem is, theos (the Greek translation of Elohim) was already used as a designation of God the Father. Do you see how this could be an issue?

Instead of applying the word theos to Jesus, which they did on occasion (See Jn. 1:1, 20:28; 2 Pt. 1:1; Rm. 9:5; Titus 2:13), they used the word kurios, the Greek translation of Jehovah.

Romans 10:9,13 says, “[9] because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [kurios] and believe in your heart that God [theos] raised him from the dead, you will be saved . . . [13] For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [kurios] will be saved.’”

Paul takes Joel 2:32 (“everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”) and applies it to Jesus (“if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [kurios]...you will be saved”).

Paul does this again in his letter to the Philippians. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Therefore God [theos] has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [kurios], to the glory of God [theos] the Father.

This is a quote from Isaiah 45:23 where Jehovah declares, “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” There can be no mistake that Paul is intentionally applying the name of Jehovah from the Old Testament to Jesus. Here we have very clear examples from Scripture where Jesus is described as Jehovah.

Comments

[Matthew]

Thank you, Tim for your post. I understand your constraint of keeping your thought to one main point for a blog post, however, and for the benefit of others, I would like to suggest an amendment to 1(A) as an additional retort to the Jehovah’s Witness teaching.

Objection
While your argument supports the conclusion of Jesus’ divinity using Ps.102 and Heb.1, the first objection I expect to hear to your 1(A) reasoning is this: Jehovah created Jesus and used him to create everything else. That, if true, removes the need to assign divinity to Jesus. One justification cited is Col.1:17 (NWT) “…by means of him all other things were made to exist …”, referring to Jesus. The word ‘other’ in the NWT is of course key. Yes, Jehovah made everything. Second, Jehovah is ‘one’ and there cannot be another (Deut.6:4, Is.45:5, etc.). Third, since it’s absurd to have made yourself, Christ must be made by someone else – Jehovah. So the passage puts the Son making everything, or rather, as they argue everything else. Hence we have the objection to your 1(A) argument: the clarity we need to understand Hebrews 1:10 is found in Colossians, not by importing Trinitarian teaching into the text. Despite the common misunderstanding of the Trinity (in perceiving a logical problem of both Jesus and Jehovah being God) there is scriptural response to that without needing to “explain” the Trinity, which I have found to be a road-block; it tends to appear to have been “derived” and not explicit in the text.

Response
(1) Now the retort to that objection, found in Isaiah chapter 44. Jehovah spends the first 22 verses comparing Himself to false gods, repeating that there’s actually no other God and, really, mocking idols that can’t do anything. Then in verse 23 it changes, and in 24 it states, “This is what Jehovah says, your Repurchaser, Who formed you since you were in the womb: ‘I am Jehovah, who made everything. I stretched out the heavens by myself, And I spread out the earth. Who was with me?’”(NWT) Note all the parties involved in the making of creation. How many were there according to this? If Jehovah was by himself when he made everything, and then rhetorically asks ‘Who was with me?’ – implying no one else – then how could Christ be there making everything else in the presence of Jehovah? How could Jehovah make Jesus, and then through whom make everything else (ref. Col.1:17 NWT)? How can “by myself” mean also that He wasn’t by Himself?

(2) Furthermore, John 1:3 states, “All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.”(NWT) Where’s the ‘other’ there?! Wouldn’t that be needed to prevent the disastrous and heretical misunderstanding that Christ was somehow Divine? Shouldn’t it be translated “All other things …”? Forget the John 1:1 debate for now, if ‘other’ was included in Col. 1:17 what about all the other ‘other’s?

The retort to their objection is Is.44:24. If Christ was there why was Jehovah alone?

[dave]

“Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, And he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; That stretcheth forth the heavens alone; That spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;” (Isaiah 44:24)

Jesus is the redeemer;

Jesus redeemed all who ever were redeemed, both in the Old Testament and in the New.

“For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” (Colossians 2:9–10)

[Greg Harvey]

I have to agree with the other commenter. You will get objections even to a perfectly laid out, coherent, flawless argument. There are no silver bullet arguments. The JW has to be pushed back onto their heels at least three times before their mind will start to open to reason. Their corrupted Bible makes it so much harder and the next version may corrupt even more holes that they've left.

I've become fond of a different strategy that also works with Mormons, Catholics and others. I ask if they ever pray to Jesus? Sometimes they will confidently say they do but they actually just pray 'in Jesus' name'. I ask them if they don't speak directly to Jesus then how do you have a mediator you never talk to? (1 Tim 2:5) How do you have a personal relationship with someone you never talk to? Why don't you obey Jesus when he says to ask Him directly in your prayers. (John 14: 13,14) Jesus also said to come to Him for eternal life. (John 5:39,40) "Have you ever done what He said and came to Him for eternal life?" You can tell them that you know why they don't, because the Watchtower society tells them not to. I would then make it very personal and ask, "If Jesus were standing right here and telling you to call upon his name, to come to him for eternal life, to ask him for what you most deeply need, to give Him honor just as you honor the Father (John 5:22,23), are you saying you wouldn't bow before him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins? Are you saying you wouldn't ask Him for the gift of eternal life? Are you saying you wouldn't honor Him as you Honor the Father. Are you saying you would totally ignore that He's there because the Watchtower Society tells you to? Jesus said to ask Him, to come to Him, to call upon His name, to honor Him and you can be obedient to Jesus right now and ask Him for the deepest need in your life, the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life!!! What can be more important for you to do right now than that?"

I see this as a way to bypass the barriers in their mind and go straight to their heart in a way that is perfectly consistent with scripture but gets to the true gospel message, their answer to their sin problem is in Christ alone.

[Jerry]

(John 14:6)Jesus said to him: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

(John 20:17) Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’”

Obviousely the Son and Father are different.

[WisdomLover]

Of course the Father and Son are different. No orthodox believer denies this. It is actually considered heretical to deny this.

They are different persons. The Holy Spirit is a third distinct person. But He is also fully God.

All three persons are one substance.

Three Persons, One Substance.

That is the orthodox position, and John 14 and 20 don't count against it.

[Sam Harper]

Tim, do you think it's a good idea to press the deity of Jesus with Jehovah's Witnesses? From all the testimonies I've read of people who left the Jehovah's Witnesses, that seems to be the most difficult point for them to come around on. They always leave the organization for some other reason, and while they're adjusting their theology in other areas, they struggle with this one the most.

I think it is good to have a strong case for the deity of Jesus and the Trinity, but no Jehovah's Witness is going to hang around and let you spell it all out. I think if you want to press the issue, it might be best to first make sure they understand what we are saying in the first place since their literature sometimes misrepresents the Trinity, and most of them are confused about it. Then, maybe bring up one or two scriptures for them to chew on, then hope it wasn't so overwhelming that they won't come back.

Every time I talk to Jehovah's Witnesses, I feel like I'm doing a balancing act between wanting to get in a good point or two on the one hand, and on the other hand not wanting to lay it on so thick that they never come back.

[Barbara]

I spoke to two JW women who came to my door recently. I asked them to look at Isaiah 44:6, in which God calls Himself the first and the last. Then we went to Rev. 1:8 and finally to Rev. 1:17-18. Then I asked them to tell me if God ever died. They did not have a good reply and ended up leaving without resolving this between themselves. I'm praying that a seed of doubt was planted and will take root in them.