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The Trinity/Binity, Part 3: What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe About God And Jesus?

As a result of careful study by the early Bible Students in the 19th century, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as the Bible Students became known in 1931, believe that the Scriptures contain all the means of learning the truth essential to salvation. (Joh 18:37 [pa|in]; 1Ti 2:3-6 [pa|in]; 2Ti 3:16-17 [pa|in]) As such, they learned from the Scriptures alone that Jesus is not God, but has a divine origin in heaven, a created being, having been known as "the power of God and the wisdom of God", (Pr 8:12 [pa|in]; 22-31 [pa|in]; 1Co 1:24 [pa|in]) through whom God made all things (Joh 1:3 [pa|in]; Col 1:15, 16 [pa|in]). We believe that he served the only true God, Jehovah (Ex 3:15 [pa|in]; Joh 17:3 [pa|in]) as the archangel Michael. (See the heading Evidence that Jesus Is the Archangel below.) He "emptied himself", (Php 2:5-7 [pa|in]) abdicating all his power and authority as an archangel, and God set that one’s consciousness into the womb of a human Jewess named Mary as a human infant whom God named Jesus. (Php 2:7 [pa|in]; Lu 1:35 [pa|in]) No longer was he a heavenly being, and did not remember his position in heaven until his memory of the heavens was opened up to him at his baptism. (Mt 3:16, 17 [pa|in]) He never once claimed to be God.

The perfect man, Jesus, gave his life as a ransom for imperfect humanity who could do nothing to buy back perfection. (1Pe 2:24 [pa|in]) After his death, God resurrected Jesus, conquering death for all who put faith in him, (Joh 11:25 [pa|in]) and he was once again made into a heavenly spirit being. At that time he was granted all authority over heaven where he was installed as king. (Mt 27:45-50 [pa|in]; 28:17, 18 [pa|in]) And when he has accomplished the entire plan laid out in the Scriptures, he will hand the kingship back to Jehovah, once again making Jehovah, alone, ruler of all things. (1 Co 15:28 [pa|in])

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God nor "a god" in the sense that they belong to a pantheon as some try to accuse us. But Jesus is merely God’s judge and representative just as Moses was, (Ex 4:15, 16 [pa|in]; Ps 82:1-8 [pa|in]) but in a greater sense, having become heir to the kingdom of God in order that he might subject all things to the only true God, his Father, and the Father of the heavenly adopted holy ones, Jehovah. (Joh 20:17 [pa|in]; Heb 1:2 [pa|in])


Return to the beginning of the Salvation vs. the Trinity/Binity series

Go back to: Part 2: A Brief History of the Trinity and Binity

Go to: Part 4: How the Trinity/Binity Affects the Salvation Message

Comments

Robert Murphey said…
[Originally posted October 26, 2016 at 6:12 PM]

And the truth that we've come to know about Jehovah and Jesus came well before the New World Translation was produced, well before. Jehovah's spirit obviously guided the Bible Students, and individuals before them, who were seeking truth and as a result, saw through the Trinity falsehood.(Matt 20:28)

Truth is available to those who want it, but sadly, many would rather stay in darkness for convenience sake. (Matt 7::13-14)

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