Page 53 - Cults and Marginal Groups - Textbook w videos short

10. John 14:28

28 " You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you ' If you loved Me, you would have
rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

NWT “You heard that I said to you, I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you love med, you
would rejoice that I am going my way to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.”

JWs use this verse to show that in person, the Father is greater than Jesus; hence Jesus is a lesser god.

Again, Jesus is not speaking about His nature or His essential being, but
rather His lowly position in the incarnation. In becoming man, Jesus did
voluntarily lay aside co-equality with the Father. In becoming fully human,
Jesus was God welded to humanity. However, in this relationship, He
voluntarily became a man subject to all the weaknesses of humanity, yet
without sin. The word greater does not mean superior as in “a higher type
of being.” It does not mean “better” but “greater” as in positionally
greater. This is referring to the position of the Father in heaven over against the position of the Son on
earth. After His death, the Son would return to the right hand of the Father in Heaven to His position of
glory.

The same argument supported in I Cor. 11:3 and I Cor. 15:28 apply here.

10. John 20:17

17 Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren
and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'"

NWT: Jesus said to her: ‘Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But be on your
way to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and
your God.”

Because Jesus referred to “my Father” and “my God”, the JWs argue that Jesus could not possibly be
Almighty God Himself. Just as the Father was God to Mary, so the Father was God to Jesus, making him
a lesser god…a mere man.

In Christ’s humanity He acknowledged the Father as “my God.” It was perfectly proper for Jesus to call
the Father “my God” and to address him in prayer, because Jesus was fully human. In His humility, He
subjected Himself to the Father. Jesus never addressed the Father as “our Father” when talking with His
disciples. In doing so, He maintained a distinction between the sense in which He is God’s Son by
nature and by right and the sense in which His disciples are God’s sons by grace and adoption.

11. Mark 13:32 – “No One Knows the Day or the Hour”
The eternal Son of God, who, prior to the incarnation, was one in person and
nature (wholly divine) – became, in the incarnation, two in nature (divine and
human) while remaining one person. The Son joined Himself with the human
nature at the incarnation. In doing so, He voluntarily set aside using some of His
divine attributes (omniscience) to become fully human. However, He did not set

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