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#9 The Facts on Jehovah's Witnesses
The Theology of the Jehovah's Witnesses
9. What do Jehovah's Witness believe about
God and the doctrine of the Trinity?
Jehovah's Witnesses believe
that the God of Christianity is a false and satanic counterfeit of the one true
God, Jehovah. Charles Taze Russell even wrote that the Christian God was "the
devil himself." Jehovah's Witnesses see God as a single person, not as a single
Being in whom are united three Persons, as Christians view God. They also deny
that God is present everywhere and limit His omniscience.
Because the Watchtower Society teaches that God is only one
person. Witnesses reject the doctrine of the Trinity as an invention of "pagan
imagination." They call it "a false doctrine . . . promulgated [promoted] by
Satan for the purposes of defaming Jehovah's name."
The Watchtower Society may accurately depict the doctrine of
the Trinity or may sometimes misrepresent or caricature the doctrine. Obviously,
Christians do not teach there are "three Gods" or "a complicated,
freakish-looking, three-headed God."
Instead, Christians believe the Bible teaches that the one
true God exists eternally as three Persons. The doctrine of the Trinity can be
seen from five simple statements supported by the Bible. (Scriptures below taken
from the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation, 1970 ed., are
abbreviated NWT.)
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There is only one true God: "For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men" (1st Timothy 2:5 NWT;
compare Deuteronomy 4:35; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10).
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The Father is God: "There is actually to
us one God the Father" (1st Corinthians 8:6 NWT; compare John 17:1-3; 2nd
Corinthians 1:3; Philippians 2:11; Colossians 1:3; 1st Peter 1:2).
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Jesus Christ, the Son, is God: "But he
[Jesus] was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God"
(John 5:18 NWT); "In answer Thomas said to him [Jesus]: 'My Lord and my God!'
" (John 20:28 NWT, compare Isaiah 9:6: John 1:1; Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; 2nd
Peter 1:1).
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The Holy Spirit is a Person, is eternal, and
is therefore God. The Holy Spirit is a Person: "However, when that one
arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide you into all the truth,
for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he
hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things
coming" (John 16:13 NWT, emphasis added). The Holy Spirit is eternal:
"How much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit
offered himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14 NWT). The Holy Spirit is
therefore God: "But Peter said: 'Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you
to play false to the holy spirit . . . You have played false, not to men, but
to God' " (Acts 5:3-4 NWT).
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The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are
distinct Persons: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the holy spirit"; "The undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the love of God and the sharing in the holy spirit be with all of you"
(Matthew 28:19, 2nd Corinthians 13:14 NWT).
It is clear from these verses
read either from the New World Translation or a modern version like the
New International Version that the Bible teaches the one true God exists
eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For 1900 years the historic Christian
church has found in the Bible the doctrine of the Trinity as defined above. This
can be seen by anyone who reads the Church Fathers and studies the historic
Creeds.
Man's incomplete comprehension of this truth is no reason to
reject what Scripture teaches, as the Watchtower Society itself agrees:
Sincere seekers for the truth want to know what
is right. They realize they would only be fooling themselves if they rejected
portions of God's Word while claiming to base their belief on other parts.
Nevertheless, Jehovah's
Witnesses allow human reason to judge God's Word. They reject the Bible's
teaching about the one true God existing as three Persons and replace it in
favor of their own view that God is only one Person. Because the idea of a
triune God is to them "unreasonable," they think that it cannot be true.
To see how unreasonable the Witnesses are in thinking this
way, let's consider a scientific illustration.
Scientists long believed that all energy existed as either
"waves" or "particles"; two contradictory things. They felt it could not
possibly be both because their natures were different. But modern scientific
tests surprised scientists and indicated to them that light existed as both
waves and particles. For a while some couldn't accept this conclusion
because it wasn't reasonable. So some scientists insisted that light was only
waves, while others insisted that it was only particles. Finally, though,
scientists were forced by the evidence to conclude that light really was both
waves and particles. Rather than clinging doggedly to their preconceived notions
of reality, the evidence forced them to accept a different conclusion.
There is no scientist who completely understands this fact or
who can explain it reasonably in detail. But they are honest enough to accept
this is what light is.
In the same way, God has told us who He is. The evidence of
Scripture forces us to accept that the one true God exists as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. We may not be able to understand it fully or explain it reasonably
in detail, but we accept it because this is what the facts have led us to.
Another illustration is love. Hardly anyone really
understands what love is, how it works, how it begins, how it grows, or
anything else connected with it. Yet we don't question its reality merely
because we can't fully understand it.
Jehovah's Witnesses don't deny the reality of light or love
merely because they don't fully understand them. Why then, do they insist that
they must understand God before they accept His existence as He has revealed it?
Indeed, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so effortlessly and
consistently linked in Scripture that assuming that God is not three Persons
makes it impossible to understand some passages (for example, Matthew 28:19; 2nd
Corinthians 1:21-22; 2nd Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:11-16;
Ephesians 5:18-20; 1st Thessalonians 1:1-5).
Try answering the following questions without concluding that
the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity:
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Who raised Jesus from the dead?
The Father (Romans 6:4; Acts 3:16; 1st Thessalonians 1:10)? The Son (John
2:19-21; John 10:17-18)? The Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11)? Or God (Hebrews 13:20;
Acts 13:30; Acts 17:31)?
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Who does the Bible say is God?
The Father (Ephesians 4:6)? The Son (Titus 2:13; John 1:1; John 20:28)? The Holy
Spirit (Acts 5:3-4)? The one and only true God (Deuteronomy 4:35)?
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Who created the world?
The Father (John 14:2)? The Son (Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:1-3) The Holy Spirit
(Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30)? Or God (Genesis 11:1; Hebrews 11:3)?
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Who saves man? Who regenerates man?
The Father (1st Peter 1:3)? The Son (John 5:21; John 4:14)? The Holy Spirit
(John 3:6; Titus 3:5)? Or God (1st John 3:9)?
Who justifies man? The Father (Jeremiah 23:6, compare 2nd Corinthians
5:19)? The Son (Romans 5:9; Romans 10:4; 2nd Corinthians 5:19,21)? The Holy
Spirit (1st Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 5:5)? Or God (Romans 4:6; Romans 9:33)?
Who sanctifies man? The Father (Jude 1)? The Son (Titus 2:14)? The Holy
Spirit (1st Peter 1:2)? Or God (Exodus 31:13)?
Who propitiated God's just anger against man for his sins?
The Father (1st John 4:14; John 3:16; John 17:5; John 18:11)? The Son (Matthew
26:28; John 1:29; 1st John 2:2)? The Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)? Or God (2nd
Corinthians 5:1; Acts 20:28)?
Though Jehovah's Witnesses
exalt human reason against the doctrine of the Trinity, saying that it is
"unreasonable," people who submit the limits of their intellect to God's Word
must conclude that it is unreasonable not to believe in it.
John Ankerberg & John Weldon
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