The Watch Tower Society insists the title 'Word' means Jesus is 'God's spokesperson':
“The beginning” refers to the time when God began his creative work and produced the Word. Thereafter, the Word was used by God in the creation of all other things. (John 1:2, 3) The Bible states that Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation” and that “by means of him all other things were created.”—Colossians 1:15, 16.
"The phrase “the Word was a god” describes the divine or godlike nature that Jesus possessed before he came to earth. He can be described in this way because of his role as God’s Spokesman and his unique position as the firstborn Son of God through whom God created all other things."
This effectively makes him no more than a great prophet, much as in Islam. As a created being, albeit the first to be created, the only difference between him and other prophets is one of precedence. Does the Bible say Jesus was created? Is Jesus just another spokesperson for God? What does the Bible actually say on these issues?
We saw last week that Jesus is more than simply a messenger. The idea that Jesus is 'God's spokesperson' aims at the very heart of the Trinity doctrine, the Christian doctrine of the godhead. Traditionally, we believe that when any member of that holy company acts God is acting. In the Watch Tower's Unitarian model that cannot be, so Jesus becomes subordinate, a 'spokesperson,' and the Holy Spirit becomes a force. Again, they write:
"The beginning” refers to the time when God began his creative work and produced the Word. Thereafter, the Word was used by God in the creation of all other things. (John 1:2, 3)"
Where does the Bible say that? Where does the text say it? It doesn't.
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God...'
We need go no further to make the point, the text does not say, 'in the beginning God created the Word.' Having rejected Christ's deity, however, they must explain his existence. Only eisegesis will do this. This is the old Arian heresy that teaches, 'there was a time when the Son was not.'
Maybe that is true, after all, doesn't the Bible say he is, “the firstborn of all creation” and that “by means of him all other things were created.”—Colossians 1:15, 16.
That pesky word 'other'? It isn't in the Greek, but has been added by the Watch Tower 'translators' to help us understand what the Bible really means (what God intended to say?) The text in any reputable Bible translates as, ‘By him all things were created…’
The text doesn’t say, ‘by means of him,’ as though he were no more than an agent of God, but it say, ‘By him all things were created…’ The word they ‘translate ‘other’, as in ‘by means of him all [other] things were created,’ is πάντα which translates as ‘all things’ ‘everything.’ You can find, on the Bible Hub, a list of every instance of its use in the New Testament.
They go on to write:
"The phrase “the Word was a god” describes the divine or godlike nature that Jesus possessed before he came to earth. He can be described in this way because of his role as God’s Spokesman and his unique position as the firstborn Son of God through whom God created all other things."
Let’s look at his nature for a moment, in the very text they reference. John tells us two very helpful things:
‘All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’ John 1:3
Perhaps John is labouring a point here to press home Jesus’ complete deity by writing, ‘and without him was not anything made that was made.’ It’s as though he anticipated that knock at your door on Sunday afternoon, so he writes, everything made was made by him...get it? If Jehovah’s Witnesses are right that is simply not true, because Jesus would be made and can’t have made himself.
As if to press home his point, he goes on, ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ v 3
Christ is not contingent, but has life in himself. What sort of being is not contingent, but has life in itself? Did someone say ‘God’? This goes a long way to explaining how he could have made everything and the everything didn’t include himself; because he is God.
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