Jesus IS God

As some of you know, I've recently been going back and forth with a Jehovah's Witness on the topic of the Trinity. This has been a HUGE learning/growing time for me. I've learned a TON about not only JW beliefs, but also a TON about how flawed their beliefs are. I wanted to throw out a few posts on some of the things that I've learned.

JW belief: "Jesus never claimed to be God or even equal to God."

Response: Everyone in the Bible refutes when called God or even the messiah, but Jesus doesn't. Thomas says "my Lord and my God" after he touches Jesus's side (John 20:28). However, Jesus does claim to be equal to God: Throughout the Bible Jesus has the same characteristics as God. For example, he is all knowing, just like YHWH. He is a judge. Jesus said that he would judge all man someday...that's God's role in the OT. God is the ONLY one that can forgive sin (ref Luke 5:21)...yet Jesus is often seen forgiving sin (ex: woman at the well). Check out Daniel 7:13-14. It's a prophecy of the Son of Man. The prophecy of the messiah combines human and god traits. First, he's coming on the clouds which is a clear symbol of divine authority (Psalm 104:3, Isaiah 19:1). It also says that he has is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom where all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. Literally, (use eSword if you don't believe me - excellent program) the Greek here means that they would worship Jesus. Jesus claims that he will fulfill this role in Mark 14:61-62 and it's ultimately fulfilled in Revelation 19. We can only serve one master. In Revelation 19 and also in 22, John attempts to bow down to someone in Heaven and the someone says that we can only bow down to (or serve/worship) God. Jesus knew the OT scriptures better than anyone...look how often he corrected rabbis. Jesus refers to himself as the "Son of Man" more than anything else...so yes, Jesus does claim to be God. And if he lied (which he didn't), he would have sinned, would not have been perfect, and then there would be no hope for us at all (thankfully that's not the case).

JW belief: "Jesus is not eternal & did not exist during creation"

Just to point out how completely ridiculous these claims are I'm going to use JW's New World translation. Genesis 1:26 says "And God went on to say: “Let [Elohim] us [notice that plural pronoun] make man in our [notice the plural pronoun again] image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth. And [Elohim] God proceeded to create the man in his [notice the singular pronoun here] image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.” - If Jesus isn't there at the beginning...then who is "us"? We see this same plural pronoun in Genesis 3:22, 11:7, and Isaiah 6:8...and I'm sure there are a lot more. Who is "us" if not the trinity? The Bible, even the screwed up New World translation, teaches that there is plurality in the Godhead.

Philippians 2:6 also references the pre-existance of Christ. It (even the New World translation) says that Jesus existed in the form of God. Looking back at the Hebrew text, we find that "form" here means substance. So Jesus is God. One more (also from the NW translation), John 8:58: "Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to YOU, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.”" I could really keep cranking these pre-existance verses out all night, but here's my last one, from the last chapter of the Bible, Rev 22:12: Jesus promises to come back. He says that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

While I have this NW translation open...take a look at Isaiah 9:6: "For there has been a child [namely, Jesus] born to us [the world], there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

Consider this: Does God the Father share his throne with a lesser God? No, see Isaiah 42:8. However, it is clear that Jesus is on the right hand of the throne (see Mark 14:62). The New World Translation is notorious for mistranslating John 1:1. That translation indicates that Jesus is a lesser God, "a god," in John 1:1. If Jesus were a "lesser god" then then YHWH wouldn't share His throne.

That's really just a small portion of what I've gotten out of this conversation, but I hope it's helpful to someone else as well.