The Heresy of Jehovah’s Witnesses (5)
The Heresy of Jehovah’s Witnesses (5)
They believe that Jehovah created Christ as His first creation, and then through Him created all other creatures!! They believe He is a god, a mighty god, but not the Almighty God.
They claim that Christ did not have an immortal soul, but that the Father granted Him heavenly immortal life at the resurrection.
They regard Christ as created, yet as the first of all creations, the firstborn of all God’s heavenly creatures, because He was the first to appear by the Creator’s power into existence in heaven (Let God Be True, p. 42).
Thus, Jehovah’s Witnesses revive the Arian heresy once again. But even though they believe that Christ is created, at the same time they also believe He is a god — a mighty god — yet not the Almighty God. They believe that God created all things through Him.
In their book (Let God Be True, pp. 42–43) they say:
“After God created Him, making Him His firstborn, God used Him in creating all other creatures. Does He not deserve to be called a god? Knowing that the word ‘god’ means a mighty and powerful ruler. But He was not the Almighty God, rather a mighty god.”
Although they believe He is a mighty god, they also believe that He did not have an immortal soul, but was granted immortality after the resurrection.
Thus, they claim that Christ did not have an immortal soul by nature. In their book (Let God Be True, p. 80) they say:
“Jesus also was a soul capable of dying, and He did not have an immortal soul as some imagine, but was a human soul who died!!”
That is, their doctrine of the non-immortality of the soul is applied even to the Lord Christ Himself!!
They also say in the same book (pp. 53–54):
That Jesus did not ascend to heaven with His human body, and that He is no longer a man… but after offering His perfect humanity, God Almighty raised Him and granted Him heavenly immortal life as a glorious spiritual creature, making Him higher than the angels and all other created beings of the universe, second only to Jehovah the Almighty.
And in this meaning they say in their book (The Truth Shall Make You Free):
“Did that first-born Son possess immortality, that is, deathlessness? He did not have that quality, nor was He immortal at that time. Life without end depends on endless obedience to God… But the time came when Jehovah God gave His Son the opportunity to gain immortality…” (pp. 44–45).
They call Christ the Word or Logos. And in their book (Let God Be True, p. 43) they say:
“Jehovah God brought forth the Logos at the beginning of creation, long before He brought forth Lucifer (that is, Satan).”
However, regarding the first verse of the Gospel of John, they translate it as follows:
“In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was a god” (The Truth Shall Make You Free, p. 47).
Here they use the word a god instead of God, reserving the title God only for Jehovah. Even the verse that says, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), they remove the word God and replace it with who, writing it as: “Great is the mystery of godliness, who was manifested in the flesh.”
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