Review: Jehovah’s Witnesses Beliefs about Jesus

• Jesus was/is the Archangel Michael• Jesus was created by God• Jesus is a god, not the God• After His crucifixion, Jesus was not physically

raised from the dead – only spiritually• The second coming of Christ was in this

invisible spiritual form, and it already happened in 1914

Jehovah’s Witnesses Arguments Against the Deity of the Holy Spirit

• Merely God’s active force, something like electricity• Persons can’t be subdivided and fill many people,

but forces can• The Father (a person) is named Jehovah; the Son (a

person) is named Jesus; the Holy Spirit (not a person) has no name

• When the Bible seems to attribute personal characteristics to the Holy Spirit, it is mere personification, as when the same thing is done concerning wisdom or sin

Grammatical Interlude• In Greek, as in many other languages but not in English, nouns

have gender• When a pronoun is used to refer to such a noun, the pronoun will

have the same gender as the noun• Just because a masculine pronoun is used in the English

translation one cannot infer that the original Greek intended to assign sex, or even personhood, to the object named by the noun

• Therefore, because John 14:17 (“even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” ESV) uses “he” and “him” to refer to the Holy Spirit, one can’t say just from that the Holy Spirit is obviously a person

Personal Attributes of the Holy Spirit

• Has a Mind:– Can search “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (I

Corinthians 2:10 ESV)– Can comprehend “… no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the

Spirit of God.” (I Corinthians 2:11b ESV)– Has a mind “And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the

Spirit …” (Romans 8:27a ESV)• Can Grieve: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians

4:30a ESV)• Has a Will:

– “… by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (I Corinthians 12:11b ESV)

– “… having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (Acts 16:6b ESV)

Actions of the Holy Spirit Showing Personality

• Testifies: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26 ESV)

• Intercedes: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us … “(Romans 8:26a ESV)

• Commands:– “And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ ”

(Acts 8:29 ESV)– “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the

work to which I have called them.’ ” (Acts 13:2 ESV)

Scriptural Treatment of the Holy Spirit as a Person

• Can be blasphemed: “… the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Mathew 12:31b ESV)

• Can be lied to: “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit … “ (Acts 5:3a ESV)

• Can be obeyed:– The Antioch church by setting apart Paul and Barnabas as

missionaries to the Gentiles (Acts 13)– Peter by meeting and accompanying the emissaries of

Cornelius (Acts 10)• Is Sent: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father

will send in my name …” (John 14:26a ESV)

You Can be a Person Without Being Given a Name in the Bible

• Demons and unclean spirits referred to in the Bible are clearly persons but are almost never named

• Likewise, the [Holy] spirit is given a designation that is descriptive of his primary characteristic, holiness

• In both cases, the failure to give a name does not imply that the referent is not a person

One Can be Filled with a Divine Person

• “… that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19 ESV)

• “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10 ESV)

• These verses show that one can be filled with God and with Jesus, both of whom are persons, even according to Jehovah’s Witnesses

• Warning: don’t try these verses in the NWT because they have been rewritten to merely refer to unspecified “fullness”

Jehovah’s Witnesses Arguments Against the Doctrine of the Trinity

• The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible• If you simply read the Bible you will never come up with

Trinitarian doctrine• Jesus never taught or explained the Trinity• Since “… God is not a God of confusion …”

(I Corinthians 14:33b ESV), a confusing doctrine like the Trinity can’t be correct

• The doctrine of the Trinity was inspired by pagan tritheism• The doctrine of the Trinity is man-made and began at the

Council of Nicea

Detour: The Name “Jehovah”

• Originally Hebrew was written without vowels• Vowel marks were added later by scribes when Aramaic

began to be replace Hebrew as the spoken language of Palestine

• Leviticus 24:16 ESV says “Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.”

• Because the scribes took this severe penalty quite seriously, their solution was to not write the name of God at all

• The consonants for God’s name in Hebrew are “YHWH”

Detour: The Name “Jehovah”

• The scribes inserted the vowels “e-o-a” from the Hebrew word for LORD (e-do-nay) whenever YHWH appeared, giving YEHOWAH

• When Martin Luther made his German translation of the Bible, this word was transliterated into German with Y becoming J and W becoming V to give JEHOVAH

• When William Tyndale made his English translation of the Bible, he made heavy use of Luther’s German translation, thus giving English Bibles “Jehovah”, a word that is completely man-made

• If a Jehovah’s Witness points out that “Trinity” is a man-made word that is not even in the Bible, what should you say?

A Concept Can be Biblical Without the Term Being in the Text

• The Israelite government before the monarchy was designed to be a theocracy

• The Roman Empire in NT times was officially a theocracy, ruled by a supposedly divine emperor

• The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society claims to be a theocracy

• Yet the word “theocracy” never appears in the text of the Bible

Jesus Isn’t the Only One who Taught in the Bible

• Those who wish to reinterpret the teachings of the Bible regarding homosexual behavior say (correctly) that Jesus never mentions it in the Biblical text

• Yet this behavior is clearly taught against in both testaments

• Words attributed to Jesus are not the only inspired teaching in the Bible

• Even so, Jesus made many statements, already covered in the previous two weeks, that bear on the doctrine of the Trinity

So What if the Trinity Confuses You?

• I Corinthians 14:33 refers to speaking in tongues and orderly worship, not to the simplicity of doctrine

• Verses such as:– “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How

unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33 ESV)

– “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12 ESV)

show us that we are not promised complete understanding of the nature of God

• C. S. Lewis said it well: “If Christianity were something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.” Mere Christianity, Beyond Personality, chapter 2

Pagans Can Get Close to the Truth

• There are old stories from pagan societies about a flood which killed much of humankind and about a messiah-like figure (Tammuz) who was resurrected

• Should Christians refrain from teaching a Biblical concept just because pagans believed something similar first?

• Triads of three gods are tritheism, not Trinitarianism (one God being with three distinct persons)

The Council of Nicea

• The Council of Nicea (AD 325) was called to settle what is now known as the Arian heresy

• Arianism had to do with nature/divinity of Jesus

• The Nicene Creed thus was more detailed than earlier creeds with respect to Jesus

• However, the doctrine of the Trinity long pre-dated AD 325 and did not originate with the Council of Nicea

Three Important Verses on the Trinity

• “ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name [Greek is singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19 ESV)

Three Important Verses on the Trinity

• “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (II Corinthians 13:14 ESV)

• This verse doesn’t, by itself, prove the Trinity, but it does give the doctrine strong support

Three Important Verses on the Trinity

• “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” (I John 5:7,8 KJV)

• “For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.” (I John 5:7,8 ESV)

• The phrase in italics exists in no Greek manuscript earlier than the 16th century, and an informed Jehovah’s Witness will know this

Each Person of the Trinity is Called God in Scripture

• “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” (I Peter 1:2 ESV)

• “Thomas answered him [Jesus], “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28 ESV)

• “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’ ” (Acts 5:3, 4 ESV)

Each Person of the Trinity Has the Attributes of God

• The following table is adapted from pp. 238, 239 of Reasoning

from the Scriptures with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (* marks the

one verse I changed):Father Son Holy Spirit

Omnipresent I Kings 8:27 Matthew 28:20 Psalm 139:7Omniscient Psalm 147:5 John 16:30 I Corinthians 2:10Omnipotent Psalm 135:6 Matthew 28:18 Romans 15:19Holy Revelation 15:4 Acts 3:14 Romans 1:4Eternal Psalm 90:2 Revelation 1:8 Hebrews 9:14The Truth John 7:8 Revelation 3:7 I John 5:6Lord Matthew 11:25* Luke 2:11 II Corinthians 3:17Everlasting Romans 16:26 Revelation 22:13 Hebrews 9:14Almighty Genesis 17:1 Revelation 1:8 Romans 15:19Powerful Jeremiah 32:17 Hebrews 1:3 Zechariah 4:6