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A Tool from the Jehovah Witnesses in Their Witnessing

April 04, 2017

What are the resources you provide for God’s people to aid in their evangelistic endeavors with Jehovah Witnesses, the modern day Arians? How do you refute their belief that “there was a time when Jesus was not?”

It is also helpful to hear first-hand from Jehovah Witnesses what they use to prepare their people for their door-to-door “evangelism.” Below are 28 questions from one such aid prepared for JWs, calling into question the deity of Jesus. It is their attempt to validate their own position denying the eternality of the second person of the Godhead, the Son, and to call into question the orthodox belief that Jesus is fully God (and fully man).

The Arian, and subsequent Jehovah Witness, view denying the full deity of Christ was condemned as a heresy at the Council of Nicea (325). In the words of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed (381):

[We believe in one God . . . And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all time, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father, through Whom all things came into being, Who for us men and because of our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human.

For a bit of history, and using a reference in Evangelical Convictions, we refer to the orthodox truth regarding the Trinity (p. 43): “Our God is a triune God – one God in three Persons.” And the intra-trinitarian relationship is explained in this way(p. 42, n. 28): “Theologians through the centuries have spoken of the Father as ‘unbegotten,’ the Son as ‘eternally begotten of the Father,’ and the Spirit as “proceeding from the Father and the Son.’”

Here is the tool to which we ought to be able to respond. How well did you do?

Good Points For Field Service

IF JESUS IS GOD

  1. Why is he called the "firstborn" of all creation? Col. 1:15, Rev.3:14
  2. Why did he say that he did not come of his "own initiative" but was sent? John 8:42, 1 John 4:9
  3. Why did Jesus not know the "day and the hour" of the Great Tribulation but God did? Matt. 24:36
  4. Who did Jesus speak to in prayer?
  5. How did he "appear before the person of God for us"? Heb. 9.24
  6. Why did Jesus say "the Father is greater than I am"? John 14:28, Php. 2:5, 6
  7. Who spoke to Jesus at the time of his baptism saying "this is my son"? Matt. 3:17
  8. How could he be exalted to a superior position? Php. 2:9, 10
  9. How can he be the "mediator between God and man"? 1Tim. 2:5
  10. Why did Paul say the "the head of Christ is God"? lCor. 11:30
  11. Why did Jesus "hand over the Kingdom to his God" and "subject himself to God"? 1 Cor. 15:24, 28
  12. Who does he refer to as "my God and your God"? John 20:17
  13. How does he sit at God's right hand? Ps. 110:1, Heb. 10:12, 13
  14. Why does John say "no man has seen God at any time"? John 1:18
  15. Why did not people die when they saw Jesus? Ex. 30:20
  16. How was Jesus dead and God alive at the same time? Acts 2:24
  17. Why did he need someone to save him? Heb. 5:7
  18. Who is reffered to prophetically at Prov. 8:22-31?
  19. Why did Jesus say "that all authority has been GIVEN to me in heaven and on earth"? Matt. 28.18 Dan. 7:13, 14 (similar)
  20. Why did he have godly fear? Heb. 5:7
  21. How could he learn obedience and be made perfect? Heb. 5:8-9
  22. Why would an angel be able to strengthen him or angels minister to him? Luke 22:43, Matt. 4:11
  23. Why would Satan try to tempt him if he KNEW that he was GOD? Matt. 4:1-11
  24. Jesus when sent to the earth was made to "be Lower" than the angels. Heb. 2:7. How could any part of a God Head EVER be lower than the angels?
  25. Then if Jesus was the sameas God, who was he being tempted to rebel against? could God be tempted to rebel against himself? Matt. 4:1
  26. Near the end of his earthly life, Jesus cried out "My God, why have you forsaken me?" Matt. 27:46 Can God desert or forsake himself?
  27. 5:8 says that Jesus learned obedience! To whom would he obey if he was GOD? And Does God need to LEARN anything?
  28. God's justice is strickly perfect. Ex. 21:23-25 for example. The ransom price was one perfect human for another. An imperfect man's life would be too low. Ps. 49:7 If Jesus was the same as God, the ransom price paid by a God would have been too high. Adam was a perfect MAN and the ransome price was a perfect MAN, not higher nor lower.

Cf. Phil Johnson, “A Practical Example Showing Why Doctrine Is Important"

Comments

Kevin Watters: "I really like the Athanasian Creed. Its much better than the Apostles Creed and even better than the Nicene Creed in its clarity of explaining the Trinity. Non-Trinitarians like the musical group Phillips Craig & Dean, can say (tongue in cheek) that they agree with the Apostles Creed but as far as I know they wont say they agree with the Athanasian Creed."

Greg Strand: "Thank you for your comment, Kevin. This is a good example of how and why biblical and doctrinal matters need to be clarified in time, as key doctrinal issues are questioned, undermined and/or denied. It is necessary at that point to clarify, which often requires explicit expressions and expansions of what previously had been implicitly affirmed. I often say these creeds are necessary but not sufficient. What I mean by that is that as good and right as they are in what they include, creeds and confessions are also statements made in historical contexts. Thus, a creed or confession is an affirmation/articulation (or defense of, stated more negatively) of the essentials of the faith at that time. But because times change and challenges to the faith once for all entrusted to the saints happen historically and contextually, it will entail and require new statements to be made. However, it is made in a contemporary context, grounded in the previous historically written and affirmed statements, confessions and creeds. And all of these are affirmed and grounded in sola Scriptura, the absolute and supreme and final authority of the Word of God. The Word of God alone is the norma normans, the norming norm of all else. Creeds and confessions are the norma normata, the normed norm, important and necessary statements to be made, but historical statements normed by the Word of God."

Greg Strand

Greg Strand is EFCA executive director of theology and credentialing, and he serves on the Board of Ministerial Standing as well as the Spiritual Heritage Committee. He and his family are members of Northfield (Minnesota) EFC.

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