Page 35 - Cults and Marginal Groups - Textbook w videos short

Study Section 5: The Identity of Jesus

5.1 Connect.

When the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to your door, they will want to talk about many things.
They will want to talk about future things, the Trinity, his church, Christmas, etc. However,
the most important thing you can discuss with them is WHO JESUS IS. If you have the wrong
Jesus, you will be lost. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, and NO MAN will
come to the Father, but through me.” (John 14:6) So the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can
discuss with them is WHO IS JESUS. In the next few lessons, we will concentrate on the identity of Jesus,
and the few verses used by the Jehovah’s Witness to insist that Jesus was the first created being of
Jehovah. If He is not God, we are lost.

5.2 Objectives:

1. The student should be able to share what a Jehovah’s Witness believes about who Jesus is and
when He came into existence.

2. The student should be able to define what salvation is to the JW, and how Jesus is involved.

3. The student should be able to cite Colossians 1:16-17 and understand how this verse holds the key to
helping a JW understand that Jesus is creator of all.

5.3 The Jehovah’s Witness and the identity of Jesus Christ

The Watchtower Society teaches that Jesus Christ is an angel, the first being God created in
the universe. Jehovah was alone in the universe and decided to make his first creation, Jesus.
He was originally made an angel and named, Michael, the great prince. Jehovah used Jesus in
creating all “other” things. While Jesus is a mighty god, he is not God Almighty! JWs say that
"Since actual conception took place, it appears that Jehovah God caused an ovum or egg in
Mary's womb to become fertile, accomplishing this by the transfer of the life of his first born
son (Michael) from the spirit realm to the earth" (Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 920). "Marvelously,
Jehovah transferred the life-force and the personality pattern of his first-born heavenly son (Michael) to
the womb of Mary. God's own active force, his holy spirit, safeguarded the development of the child in
Mary's womb so that what was born was a perfect human" (Reasoning, p. 255).]

According to John 1:1 in their Bible, The New World Translation, Christ is “a god,” but not “the God.”
They teach that Jesus “was and is and always will be beneath Jehovah” and that “Christ and God are not
coequal”.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was executed but they also "believe that Jesus Christ did not die
on a cross". They support their beliefs through their own New World
Translation (NWT) of the Bible, which they much prefer to the King James
Version (KJV). One particular alternative translation is in regard to the cross.

They believe Jesus was crucified on a stake, a simple upright post, with no
patibulum (cross beam). Historians and etymologists have debated whether

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