Good News for our Jehovah's Witness Friends

Sincere searchers for eternal, life-giving truth desire an accurate understanding of the faith-inspiring Greek Scriptures, an understanding that is fortified by the knowledge of what the original language says and means. (From “By Way of Explanation” for the KIT)

From the new world translation (nwt) and the kingdom interlinear translation (kit)

For there has been a child born to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, NWT)

“Mighty God” is the same title applied to Jehovah in Isaiah 10:20-21 NWT and is essentially the same title applied to Him in Jeremiah 32:18 NWT (“the mighty One, Jehovah.”) This prophecy refers to Jesus, who is the “Mighty God.”

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says Jehovah God, “the one who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.” (Rev. 1:8, NWT)

And he said to me: “They have come to pass! I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end…” (Rev. 21:6a, NWT)

“‘Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each on as his work is. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:12-13 NWT)

• “The Alpha and the Omega” are the same exact title for both the Father and the Son–making both of Them the all-encompassing “beginning and the end,” “the first and the last,” and making Them, therefore, equal.
• Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Watchtower Society, said that the “Almighty” in Revelation 1:8 referred to the resurrected Jesus (Studies in the Scriptures, Volume VII, page 15.) This would make the Almighty Son equal to Almighty Jehovah God the Father, called “God Almighty” in Exodus 6:3 NWT.
• The Emphatic Diaglott, a New Testament published by the Watchtower Society, also applies the “ALMIGHTY” in Revelation 1:8 to “the glorified Jesus,” stating that “ALMIGHTY” is “an attribute of Deity” (page 872), making the Son also God and , therefore, equal to the Father.

“he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.” (John 5:18b NWT)

“I and the Father we are one…you are making yourself god” (John 10:30, 33b, KIT)

Note that in both cases Jesus supports this concept of His equality with the Father. The Jews did not understand Jesus to mean by this statement that He and the Father were one just in “unity;” they understood Him to mean that Jesus was God. The word “god” was spelled with a small “g” by the New World Bible Translation Committee.

“All this actually came about for that to be fulfilled which was spoken by Jehovah through his prophet, saying: ‘Look! The virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel,’ which means, when translated, ‘With Us Is God‘” (Matthew 1:22-23, NWT).

• “With Us Is God” reads, actually, in the Greek, “With us the God” (Matthew 1:23b, KIT), here the definite article “the” appears before “God” (ho Theos, KIT). One could conclude from this statement, then, since “Immanuel” or “the God with us” refers to Jesus, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be equal to Jehovah God the Father.
• The “El” at the end of Immanuel means God. Similarly, Bethel means “house of God” and Israel means “Prince of God.”

…in answer Thomas said to him [to Jesus, risen in bodily, physical form according to Luke 24:37,43 NWT]: “My Lord (Kurios) and my God!” ( John 20:28 NWT).

The word translated “Lord” here is Kurios in the Greek and is translated “Jehovah” in Matthew 1:22 NWT, Acts 2:21 NWT, Romans 10:13 NWT, Revelation 1:8 NWT, and other passages. In agreement with the translation of Kurios as “Jehovah” in these other scriptures, Thomas could have been calling Jesus: “My Jehovah and my God!” If Jehovah was Thomas’ God, then Jesus, called “My Jehovah [or Lord] and My God” must, as God the Son, be equal to God the Father.

“In beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward the God, and god was the Word.” (John 1:1, KIT)

Note the absence in the KIT of the indefinite article “a” before “god” referring to the Son, whereas the Watchtower has inserted it before “god” in the NWT: “…the Word was a god.” The use of the indefinite article “a” before “god” in the NWT:

…is erroneous and unsupported by any good Greek scholarship, ancient or contemporary, and is a translation rejected by all recognized scholars of the Greek language, many of whom are not even Christian, and cannot, therefore, be said to be biased in favor of the orthodox contention.

“But that the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thornbush, when he calls Jehovah `the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.” (Luke 20:37-38, NWT)

Here Jehovah God the Almighty is referred to as “a God.” However the KIT indicates that “a god,” as used in John 1:1 (NWT), applies to Jesus, “the Word” (Logos), and that “the God” (ho Theos) applies to Jehovah. But this explanation cannot stand in view of the above verses.

“…toward but the Son, The throne of you, the God, into the age of the age…” (Hebrews 1:8a, KIT)

“You” is a pronoun referring to “the Son.” “God” and “you” are called appositives (are in apposition to each other) in English grammar. An apposition is “a grammatical construction in which two typically adjacent nouns [refer] to the same person or thing” (Webster). In this case “God” and “you” are the same person; and both refer to “the Son,” calling the Son “God.”

The Father is speaking in Hebrews 1:5-8ff NWT-KIT. He speaks to the Son in Hebrews 1:8 KIT, calling Him God. What better authority on the deity of Christ could there be than Jehovah God the Father Himself?

“…because in him is dwelling down all the fullness of the divinity bodily” (Colossians 2:9 KIT)

“..while we wait for the happy hope and glorious manifestation of the great God and…Savior of us, Christ Jesus.” (Titus 2:13 NWT)

Jesus is called God in these passages. In Titus 2:13 NWT, the “[the]” before “Savior” was added by the New World Bible Translation Committee and is not in the original. The “of” before “[the]” is unnecessary in English since it already appears before “the great God” and sets the grammatical case for both words, “God” and “Savior.”

“the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:1 NWT)

This is another passage where Jesus is called God. The “[the]” before “Savior” was added by the New World Bible Translation Committee and is not in the original Greek or grammatically required.

Jesus is also called God in the following passages:

• Romans 9:5 NWT-KIT
• John 8:58 KIT (Jesus calls Himself the “I am”).

“Look! There are days coming,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “and I will raise up to David a righteous sprout”. And a king will certainly reign and act with discretion and execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved, and Israel itself will reside in security. And this is his name with which he will be called, Jehovah is Our Righteousness [or, simply, “Jehovah Our Righteousness” since the “Is” is not in the original Hebrew]” (Jeremiah 23:5-6 NWT).

Here Jehovah Himself calls Jesus, the “righteous sprout” of David, “Jehovah.”

“…the beginning (arche) of the creation by God.” (Revelation 3:14b, NWT)

This verse is often used to show that Christ was the first of God’s creations. The Greek word arche is translated variously: “beginning” (Revelation 3:14 NWT), “government officials” (Luke 12:11 NWT), “government” (1 Corinthians 15:24 NWT) or “rulerships” (Romans 8:38 KIT). Therefore, Revelation 3:14b NWT could just as well be translated with Jesus as the “government official of the creation of God” or as having the “rulership of the creation of God.” These latter translations are in complete harmony with John 1:3 NWT-KIT and with Colossians 1:16, 17 NWT-KIT (note that “[other]” is in brackets and is not found in the original Greek) which state that “by means of him [Jesus] all things were created,” including the people in “governments” and who are “authorities;” that “all things came into existence through him;” and that “he is before all things.” If the Lord Jesus Christ created all things and existed before all things, then He Himself could not be a created being.

…so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:10-11 NWT)

By my own self I have sworn — out of my own mouth in righteousness of the word has gone forth so that it will not return — that to me every knee will bend down, every tongue will swear,…(Is 45:23 NWT)

The first of these is the well-known exaltation of Jesus Christ. The KIT tells us in verse 11 that “Jesus Christ is Kurios,) which the NWT and KIT usually insist should be restored to “Jehovah.” So this passage should read “Jesus Christ is Jehovah,” that is clear. In the second passage Jehovah tells us that everyone shall bend the knee to Him, which only emphasizes what we just said.

…because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first. Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess 4:16,17)

It is not clear why the Watchtower Society uses this passage to identify Christ as Michael the Archangel. In the KIT, the footnotes (“16, 17b, and 17c”) to “the Lordb” and “the Lordc” identify this “Lord” (“with an archangel’s voice”) as “Jehovah.” And Jehovah God the Almighty is most certainly not Michael the Archangel. Moreover Jesus is said to be “so much better” (Hebrews 1:4 KIT) “than the angels” (Hebrews 1:4 NWT). Jesus is not just “greater” but “better” than the angels — and this includes Michael as well.

But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you to play false to the holy spirit and to hold back secretly some of the price of the field? (Acts 5:3)

As they were publicly ministering to Jehovah and fasting, the holy spirit said: “Of all persons set Barnabas and Saul apart for me for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2)

In the first verse, consider this: you cannot lie to a table, flowers, carpet, etc.. You can only lie to a functioning, cognizant personality because only a personality can be lied to. So the “holy spirit” (the lower case is the Watchtower’s choice) must be a person. In the second passage, as the apostles prayed to Jehovah, the holy spirit answered them. In order for the Spirit to do such a thing, He must be a functioning, cognizant personality. Since they were ministering to Jehovah, and got an answer, it makes sense that the Holy Spirit is both Jehovah and God.

And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet [already were]; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. … And death and Hades were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire. (Rev 20:10,14)

The beast (a man, according to Revelation 13:18 NWT and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 NWT) and the false prophet, another man, were cast (Revelation 19:20 NWT) into the lake of fire, where they still were one thousand years later (Revelation 19:20-20:10 NWT) without being annihilated; and where “they [these human beings and the devil] will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” They were “hurled into the lake of fire” because their names were “not found written in the book of life.” “This means the second death, the lake of fire,” which “second death” is eternal, everlasting, unending, burning torment.

And Now the Really Good News

According to the NWT, you can be saved by:

1. calling upon Jehovah (Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13);
2. confessing your sins to Him (I John 1:9);
3. believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31);
4. walking in Scriptural light and thus letting the blood of Jesus cleanse you from “all sin” (I John 1:7);
5. repenting of and turning from your sins through the help of Christ (Luke 13:3); and,
6. confessing Christ publicly as your Lord who has risen bodily from the dead (Romans 10:9, 10; Luke 24:37-43).

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