BIBLICALIST
CLOSEBeliefs Examined
A respectful doctrinal comparison between the claims of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the biblical teaching concerning the person and saving work of Jesus Christ.
BELIEFS EXAMINED
ARE JEHOVAH’SWITNESSESCHRISTIAN?
The question must be answered doctrinally, not emotionally. A group may use Christian vocabulary and speak respectfully of Jesus while defining Him differently from Scripture. Biblical Christianity stands or falls on the identity of Christ, the gospel of grace, and the final authority of God’s Word.
This lesson evaluates official doctrine. It does not question the sincerity, intelligence, or personal worth of individual Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jehovah’s Witnesses identify themselves as Christians and speak often about Jesus. The decisive question, however, is not whether His name is used. It is whether the Jesus being preached is the eternal Son revealed in Scripture.
A different definition of Christ produces a different gospel. Christian language cannot repair a denial of His divine identity.
Official Jehovah’s Witness teaching rejects the Trinity and identifies the prehuman Jesus with Michael the archangel. Scripture, however, distinguishes the Son from the angels and commands the angels to worship Him.
Jesus is not presented as the first angel God made. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. The Creator cannot belong to the category of created things.
Jehovah’s Witness teaching describes the Holy Spirit as God’s active force rather than a divine person. Yet Scripture shows the Holy Ghost speaking, teaching, guiding, forbidding, being grieved, and exercising will.
A force does not say, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul.” A force is not lied to as God was lied to in Acts 5. The biblical language is personal and divine.
The gospel announces that Christ truly died, was buried, and rose again. Jesus invited His disciples to handle Him and declared that a spirit does not have flesh and bones as they saw Him have.
A teaching that replaces His bodily resurrection with the recreation of a spirit being does not preserve the apostolic witness.
Jehovah’s Witnesses emphasize association with their organization, submission to its teaching, preaching work, and continued faithfulness. The New Testament places the sinner’s confidence in Christ and His finished work.
Good works follow salvation, but they cannot purchase it. No religious organization can occupy the place of the one Mediator between God and men.
Salvation is by grace through faith, not of works.
There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Salvation is found in no other name.
A Jesus who is merely a created archangel is not the eternal Creator revealed in the Bible.
Respond with truth and compassion. Do not mock people or rely on insults. Open the Scriptures, define terms carefully, and keep the discussion centered on Jesus Christ.
Ask who created all things, why angels worship the Son, who raised His body, and whether eternal life rests in Christ or in loyalty to an organization.
What must be examined?
Using the name Jesus does not guarantee the biblical Jesus is being preached.
Christ is the eternal Word and Creator, not a created angel.
The Holy Ghost speaks and acts as a divine person.
Jesus rose bodily from the dead.
Salvation rests in Christ, not an organization.
Truth should be spoken with patience and love.
Build your understanding of Christ from Scripture. When speaking with a Jehovah’s Witness, refuse hostility and refuse vagueness. Clearly present the eternal Son, His bodily resurrection, and salvation by grace through faith in Him.
1. Why is the identity of Jesus central to Christianity?
2. How does Hebrews 1 distinguish Christ from angels?
3. What personal actions does Scripture attribute to the Holy Ghost?
4. What did Jesus say about His resurrected body?
5. Where must assurance of salvation rest?