Jesus Christ – Jehovah God Almighty Who Saves!

Another Jehovah’s Witness Dilemma Exposed

Despite the fact that the OT scriptures teach that Jehovah may use human agents to save people from human oppression and captivity,

“When the Israelites called to Jehovah for help, Jehovah raised up a savior to rescue the Israelites, Othʹni·el the son of Keʹnaz, the younger brother of Caʹleb.” Judges 3:9

“And saviors will go up on Mount Zion To judge the mountainous region of Eʹsau, And the kingship will become Jehovah’s.” Obadiah 1:21

These same sacred writings are equally clear that Jehovah would never send another god to redeem his people from their transgressions, since he is the only God who acts to save and forgive mankind of their sins and rebellion. Nor would Jehovah allow individuals to confess the name of another god for salvation:

“Jehovah ALONE kept leading him; No foreign god was with him… See now that I—I am he, And there are no gods apart from me. I put to death, and I make alive. I wound, and I will heal, And no one can rescue from my hand.” Deuteronomy 32:12, 39

“Let Israel keep waiting for Jehovah, For Jehovah is loyal in his love, And he has great power to redeem. He will redeem Israel from all their errors.” Psalm 130:7-8

“‘You are my witnesses,’ declares Jehovah, ‘Yes, my servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and have faith in me And understand that I am the same One. Before me no God was formed, And after me there has been none. I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior. I am the One who declared and saved and made known When there was no foreign god among you. So you are my witnesses,’ declares Jehovah, ‘and I am God… I, I am the One who is blotting out your transgressions for my own sake, And I will not remember your sins.’” Isaiah 43:10-12, 25

“Make your report, present your case. Let them consult together in unity. Who foretold this long ago And declared it from times past? Is it not I, Jehovah? There is no other God but me; A righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, For I am God, and there is no one else. By myself I have sworn; The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, And it will not return: To me every knee will bend, Every tongue will swear loyalty.” Isaiah 45:21-23

“But I am Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt; You knew no God except me, And besides me there is no savior… From the power of the Grave I will redeem them; From death I will recover them. Where are your stings, O Death? Where is your destructiveness, O Grave? Compassion will be concealed from my eyes.” Hosea 13:4, 14

“And everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, just as Jehovah has said, The survivors whom Jehovah calls.” Joel 2:32

This now creates a problem for JWs since, according to their own Bible and doctrines, Jehovah sent another god into the world in order to save man from his sins, namely, Jesus Christ:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This one was in the beginning with God. All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence. What has come into existence by means of him was life, and the life was the light of men… The true light that gives light to every sort of man was about to come into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him, but the world did not know him. He came to his own home, but his own people did not accept him. However, to all who did receive him, he gave authority to become God’s children, because they were exercising faith in his name. And they were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or from man’s will, but from God. So the Word became flesh and resided among us, and we had a view of his glory, a glory such as belongs to an only-begotten son from a father; and he was full of divine favor and truth… Because the Law was given through Moses, the undeserved kindness and the truth came to be through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god who is at the Father’s side is the one who has explained Him.” John 1:1-4, 9-14, 17-18

“In answer Thomas said TO HIM: ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him: ‘Because you have seen me, have you believed? Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’” John 20:28-29

This also leads to the conclusion that salvation is only granted by believing in the name of this other god, since his name alone saves:

“He then said to them: ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things written about me in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened up their minds fully to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures, and he said to them, ‘This is what is written: that the Christ would suffer and rise from among the dead on the third day, and on the basis of his name, repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem.’” Luke 24:44-47

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him. Whoever exercises faith in him is not to be judged. Whoever does not exercise faith has been judged already, because he has not exercised faith in the name of the only-begotten Son of God… The one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; the one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” John 3:16-18, 36

“To be sure, Jesus also performed many other signs before the disciples, which are not written down in this scroll. But these have been written down so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and because of believing, you may have life by means of his name.” John 20:30-31

“The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, along with Anʹnas the chief priest, Caʹia·phas, John, Alexander, and all who were relatives of the chief priest. They stood Peter and John in their midst and began to question them: ‘By what power or in whose name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with holy spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today about a good deed to a crippled man, and you want to know who made this man well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ the Naz·a·reneʹ, whom you executed on a stake but whom God raised up from the dead, by means of him this man stands here healthy in front of you. This is “the stone that was treated by you builders as of no account that has become the chief cornerstone.” Furthermore, there is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.’ Now when they saw the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were astonished. And they began to realize that they had been with Jesus. As they were looking at the man who had been cured standing with them, they had nothing to say in answer to this.” Acts 4:5-14

“To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone putting faith in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:43

“My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not commit a sin. And yet, if anyone does commit a sin, we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one. And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s… I am writing you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for the sake of his name.” 1 John 2:1-2, 12

“And this is the witness, that God gave us everlasting life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this life. I write you these things so that you may know that you have life everlasting, you who put your faith in the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:11-13

In fact, the JW position basically means that it is this other god who shall resurrect the dead at the last day and pass judgment upon all mankind,

“For the Son of man is to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will repay each one according to his behavior.” Matthew 16:27

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world.’… In reply the King will say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those on his left: ‘Go away from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.’… These will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life.” Matthew 25:31-34, 40-41, 46

“For just as the Father raises the dead up and makes them alive, so the Son also makes alive whomever he wants to. For the Father judges no one at all, but he has entrusted all the judging to the Son… Most truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD, and those who have paid attention will live… And he has given him authority to do judging, because he is the Son of man. Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear HIS [the Son’s] VOICE and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” John 5:21-22, 25, 27-29

“‘All those whom the Father gives me will come to me, and I will never drive away the one who comes to me; for I have come down from heaven to do, not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none out of all those whom he has given me, but that I should resurrect them on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who recognizes the Son and exercises faith in him should have everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day.’ Then the Jews began to murmur about him because he had said: ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ And they began saying: ‘Is this not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ In response Jesus said to them: ‘Stop murmuring among yourselves. No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, and I will resurrect him on the last day.’” John 6:37-44

“True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance; but now he is declaring to all people everywhere that they should repent. Because he has set a day on which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has provided a guarantee to all men by resurrecting him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31

“This takes into account that it is righteous on God’s part to repay tribulation to those who make tribulation for you. But you who suffer tribulation will be given relief along with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus. These very ones will undergo the judicial punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord and from the glory of his strength, at the time when he comes to be glorified in connection with his holy ones and to be regarded in that day with wonder among all those who exercised faith, because the witness we gave met with faith among you.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10

Even though the Hebrew Bible is quite clear that it is Jehovah who comes to judge the whole world in righteousness:

“But Jehovah is enthroned forever; He has firmly established his throne for justice. He will judge the inhabited earth in righteousness; He will render righteous legal decisions for the nations.” Psalm 9:7-8

“Before Jehovah, for he is coming, He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the inhabited earth with righteousness And the peoples with his faithfulness.” Psalm 96:13

“Look! The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will come with power, And his arm will rule for him. Look! His reward is with him, And the wage he pays is before him. Like a shepherd he will care for his flock. With his arm he will gather together the lambs, And in his bosom he will carry them. He will gently lead those nursing their young.” Isaiah 40:10-11

“For Jehovah will come as a fire, And his chariots are like a storm wind, To repay in furious anger, To rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire Jehovah will execute judgment, Yes, with his sword, against all flesh; And the slain of Jehovah will be many… Since I know about their works and their thoughts, I am coming to gather people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.” Isaiah 66:15-17, 18

Therefore, the only way around this dilemma is to admit that Jesus isn’t some created divine being, but is actually Jehovah God Almighty who became flesh (even though he is not the Father or the Holy Spirit). This would mean that Jesus isn’t some lesser god sent to redeem mankind, but is the eternal Creator and Sustainer who, because of his infinite love, has come to save his creation. As such, the contradiction with the Hebrew Bible vanishes.

All scriptural references taken from the 2013 revised edition of the New World Translation (NWT) of the Jehovah’s Witnesses https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/.

 

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