Last week I asked, ‘Is Worshipping Jesus Wrong?’ We discovered the Watch Tower Society is inconsistent in its understanding of ‘worship’ as well as in its historical teaching and practice. In asking ‘Is Jesus God?’ we are looking at the magnificent description of Jesus in Paul’s letter to Colossae, a magnificence that is totally missed by Unitarian believers like Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Heresy
Paul’s purpose in writing is to refute a heresy that has arisen among Colossian believers. The saints at Colossae appear to have come under the influence of a hybrid, Jewish/Pagan, philosophical system marked by:
Ceremonialism: concerning food, drink, certain religious festivals and circumcision (2:16-17,23)
Asceticism: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ (2:21)
Angel worship (2:18)
Secret knowledge (2:18)
Human wisdom and tradition (2:4,8)
The deprecation of Christ (2:8)
Paul writes:
‘See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirit of the world, and not according to Christ.’ (2:8)
It is clear that an element of that heresy is the deprecation of Christ, the idea that Christ is not enough, that his work must be added to. We see what Paul is refuting in his emphasis on Jesus being Lord over all creation, worthy of worship and obedience. But is Christ God, or is Christ a creature?
It is true to say, if Jesus is to be worshipped he cannot simply be a creature. If he is a creature he certainly should not be worshipped. The word ‘more’ might be the key idea in this letter, as Paul is saying – Christ is so much more than they say, Christ is all sufficient.
Another key aspect of this heresy is ‘worship of angels’ (2:18) a key issue for Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t worship angels but who reduce Christ to the status of an angel, a creature, in his pre-earth life and a man in his earthly life.
The Truth
Paul writes of Christ as the head over all creation (1:15-17). It is an error here to interpret ‘firstborn’ as first created. The word carries several different meanings in Scripture:
Firstborn (Lk.2:7; Heb.11:28)
Prior in generation (Col.1:15)
Firstborn head of a spiritual family (Rom.8:29; Heb.1:6)
Possessing the peculiar privilege of spiritual generation (Heb.12:23)
Paul is saying here that Christ has all the privileges of a firstborn son in much the same way as David was called firstborn (Psalm 89:27) even though he was the youngest of Jesse’s sons. Christ is the greater David and the Father’s heir. Paul urges the saints:
‘Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.’ (Col.2:7-7)
They have received and been taught and established in the truth and must be rooted and built up in it. I am reminded of Paul’s urgent word to Timothy, ‘and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.’ (2 Tim.2:2) What has Paul entrusted to the churches?
‘For by him all things [not all ‘other’ things NWT] were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether throne or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together...in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell….’ (Col.1:15-19)
Christ created all things (not all ‘other’ things NWT) therefore cannot himself be a creature. They wish to make him a creature and add to God’s written Word to make him one.
Christ created all things, ‘in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.’ Consider the implications of those words when translated correctly. He created angels in all their glory, for a specific purpose, setting bounds to their activities (Heb.1:14) Angels don’t create angels, angels don’t create, God creates.
Christ is superior to thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. He is superior to the angels, ‘as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent then theirs.’ (Heb.1:4) The writer to the Hebrews goes on to ask, ‘For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you?’’ If Jehovah’s Witnesses are correct the answer to the question must be, ‘Why, to Michael of course.’ But it is clear this rhetorical question is framed to press the answer, ‘to no angel has God ever said this.’
Christ is, ‘before all things, and in him all things hold together.’ In other words, before there was anything there was Christ. When the beginning began he was already there and began it.
In Christ, ‘all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.’ As Doug Harris would always ask at this point, ‘How full is full?’
‘The godhead dwelt in Jesus not symbolically, as in the temple, or spiritually, as in us, but bodily and substantially. The fulness of the godhead was essentially his from all eternity, nor was he any more dependent on the Father than the |Father was on him, but his assumption of our nature was the result of the Father’s counsels and the fruit of the Father’s love.’ (Charles Simeon, Horae Homileticae, vol.18)
The Scripture
We are familiar enough with how Jehovah’s Witnesses deprecate Jesus, downgrade him from Creator to creature. I hope we understand how very serious this is for them. The problem here is not that the Bible isn’t clear, it’s that Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t start with the Bible but with what the Society tells them then contort and twist the text of Scripture to fit their preconceptions. Charles Russell said of his Studies in the Scriptures:
‘Furthermore, not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also, that if anyone lays the SCRIPTURE STUDIES aside, even after he has used them, after he has become familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years-if he then lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the SCRIPTURE STUDIES with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, s such, he would be in the light at the end of two years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures.’
This is how people are led astray with regards Bible teaching, Christ, and God’s purposes. Someone comes along and claims to have done all the hard work and all you must do is listen to them. It is, however, the Christian contention that if anyone reads the Bible alone they will see Christ for who he is. God will reveal it in his Word. How could anyone read the New Testament’s description of Christ and come to any other conclusion than that, in Christ, God walked among men?
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