Why other paths fall short
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created being, the archangel Michael, and not God. The New Testament calls Jesus God, gives Him worship and says all things were made through Him.
What it teaches
The Watch Tower Society teaches that Jesus was God's first creation and its New World Translation renders John 1:1 as a god. Witnesses reject the Trinity.
Where it goes wrong
If Jesus made all things that were made, He is not Himself made. He received worship, which belongs to God alone, and accepted Thomas's confession. Hebrews says God commands all the angels to worship the Son, so the Son is not an angel.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:1-3 (WEB) · context
6When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” 7Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.” 8But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom.
Hebrews 1:6-8 (WEB) · context
16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
Colossians 1:16-17 (WEB) · context
28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28 (WEB) · context
Sources
- New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)
- Ron Rhodes, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses (Harvest House, 1993)
Why the evidence matters
If Jesus rose, His offer is real
God loves you and gave His Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish.