Earlier today we received a call from a gentleman whose newly converted friend was being pursued by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Could we help?
The first point, of course, relates to attitude. These are sincere people who believe they are doing Jehovah's (better Yahweh's) work. While respecting their dedication we nonetheless believe them badly misguided. The worst thing one can do here is lose the battle on attitude. In addition to failing on our part, it only reinforces their perception of being persecuted for Jehovah's sake.
Secondly, since Christ is foundational to the faith, this becomes the focal point in distinguishing the spiritually valid from the spiritually spurious. In terms of orthodoxy vs. the Jehovah's Witnesses, the issue thus becomes: Is Christ truly and fully God? The JWs say "no." The following is a synsopsis of that which we shared over the phone with the gentleman.
1. The Christ child as promised in Isaiah 9:6 would be known as "The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father." Given such his name would be Immanuel, "God with us" (Matt. 1:23).
2. The injunction to prepare a way for the LORD and to make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (Isa. 40:3) is applied in anticipation of Christ by John the Baptist (John 1:15-27).
3. The Psalmist refers in Psalm 45:6 to God's everlasting throne. The statement is applied to Christ in Hebrews 1:8,9.
4. The divine title Adonai of Psalm 110:1 is repeatedly applied to Christ in the New Testament (Matt. 22:41-45; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Acts 2:34,35; Heb. 1:13; 10:12,13.)
5. In Revelation 1:8 and 21:6,7, Christ appropriates the divine ascription of Isaiah 41:4: "I am the Alpha and Omega...the Almighty."
6. Jesus repeatedly identified himself by the sacred name of Deity: "I AM" (see Ex. 3:14). The Jews understood his point and endeavored to stone him for it (John 8:58; 8:24; 8:28 [in the last two references the King James "he" is an interpolation].
7. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus gave the name (singular) of God as including himself.
8. Upon the rich young ruler' s having addressed him as "good," Jesus replied, "There is none good but one, God" (Matt. 19:17). Thus his claim to deity in that, "If you acknowledge me as good, you must acknowledge me as God...and vice versa."
9. Thomas confessed Christ as God (John 20:28).
10. I Timothy 3:16 defines Christ as "God manifest in the flesh."
11. Titus 2:13 equates God and Jesus Christ.
12. Acts 2:36 applies the divine title to Christ.
13. Philippians 2:10,11 appropriates divine identity and human acknowledgement of Isaiah 45:22,23 as finding ultimate fulfillment in relation to Christ.
14. The grammatical construction of I John 5:20 applies "This is the true God" to the antecedent "his Son Jesus Christ."
15. Acts 20:28 states that God purchased the Church with his own blood.
16. To the claim that Christ and the Archangel Michael represent the same personality, Hebrews 1:5 notes that divine Sonship is never ascribed to angels.
Many other references might be given here, but the foregoing serves to make the point. Two final points here, however.
A. Having originally taught that Christ would come when their numbers reached 144,000 (a notably confused distortion of Rev. 7:4; 14:1f), the JWs were faced with a dilemma when their numbers exceeded that figure and Christ was not yet here. It was then discovered that there would be an inferior level of "Kingdom" adherents known as Jonadabs (see Jer. 35).
This creates a series of problems. The original 144,000 are now gone - and Christ is not yet here. Furthermore, the best one can now hope for is to be a second class citizen (Jonadab) in Christ's Kingdom. (Funny we never saw anything in Scripture about second class believers in the Body, is it not?) While a minute handful of the original 144,000 were allegedly yet alive in the seventies, I have asked JWs at my door as to why Christ did not return in 1975 - the latest (to my knowledge) of their various predictions as to the time of Christ's return. The only answer I ever received beyond, "We made a mistake" was one lady who sought to impress upon me that "We acknowledge it when we make a mistake."
Finally, upon seeing the JWs making their rounds, the question sometimes arises: Would it not be nice if all evangelical Christians held something of the same degree of commitment as some JWs?
And, of course, there are those who do. We are thankful for them.
Burl Ratzsch
