In this session, Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) are brought to the table. The followers of this cult do not believe in the doctrine that Jesus is God, or the Holy Spirit is God. Therefore, we can witness to them even using their New World Translation Bible, so that it can convince them even their version supports our Bible-believing doctrines and truths.
Holy Spirit is God
John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses argue that a spirit is not a person, but rather some energy or force.
Our rebuttal towards that is that one cannot worship God unless we recognize Him as a spirit. Regardless of what Jehovah’s Witnesses do spiritually or physically as an effort of worshiping God, their effort is in vain.
Hebrews 3:7-12 “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
As written in the scripture, Paul recognized the great Jehovah God to be the Holy Spirit.
In contrast, JW only believes or acknowledges that God/Lord in the Old Testament as Jehovah which is referring to our Heavenly Father, but they deny that the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost as God (The Holy Trinity) is the same God. Nonetheless, in Hebrews 3, Apostle Paul mentioned that God, in the form of Holy Ghost, was speaking. Paul was quoting from the Old Testament. Look at the similarity between the passages in Hebrews 3:7-12 and Psalm 95:7-11. The same Lord in the Old Testament was speaking in Hebrews 3 in the form of the Holy Spirit.
Psalms 95:7-11 “For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”
To witness to Jehovah Witnesses, we simply ask them if they believe that Jehovah is the Spirit; and reprove them with these verses from the real Bible, the King James Bible and you can also find these verses in their modern version, the New World Translation.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV) “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NWT) “And all of us, while we with unveiled faces reflect like mirrors the glory of Jehovah, are transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, exactly as it is done by Jehovah the Spirit.”
The NWT is even better, proclaiming Jehovah the Spirit.
Acts 5:3-4 (NWT) “But Peter said: “An·a·niʹas, why has Satan emboldened you to lie to the holy spirit and secretly hold back some of the price of the field? As long as it remained with you, did it not remain yours? And after it was sold, was it not in your control? Why have you thought up such a deed as this in your heart? You have lied, not to men, but to God.”
The above verse shows that Ananias was lying to the Holy Spirit but in verse 4, he was lying to God. This proves that the Holy Spirit is God.
Acts 22:18-19 “And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee:”
This is similar to Acts 21:4,11 where the Holy Spirit forbade Paul to go to Jerusalem (‘Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’). Paul addressed the Holy Spirit that spoke to him as The Lord.
Acts 28:25-28 “And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Isaiah 6:8-10 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”
The wording in the two passages above match. In Acts 28, it’s the Holy Spirit speaking. In Isaiah 6, it’s Jehovah speaking. They are both the same!
Jesus is God
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”
Jesus is referred to the first and the last. If they refuse to believe that this is Jesus, his resurrection is mentioned. Beside Him, there is no God. This again proves that Jesus is Jehovah God.
The Jehovah Witnesses may argue that there are two separate ‘First and Last’, and not to mix up Jehovah’s and Jesus’s ‘First and Last’. They refer to Jehovah’s as the genuine ‘First and Last’, and Jesus as firstborn of God’s creation. We can debunk them with these verses:
Revelation 1:7-8 “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
The above showed that He had no beginning.
Revelation 1:11 “Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.”
‘The first and the last’ again shows that He is the God without beginning. He is not a created being.
Lord is referring to God the Father and Jesus Christ
Matthew 11:25 “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee,O Father, Lordof heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”
Philippians 2:11 “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The verse above clearly show that God the Father is Lord and so is Jesus Christ. JW would like to pretend that the two Lords are two different contexts. To argue against them:
Ephesians 4:4-5 “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,”
The Bible says that they are one and the same Lord. Also, remember that these verses are all found in the NWT as well.
Both God and Christ Jesus are pierced
Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
JW knows that ‘his only son’ would refer to Jesus Christ. They try to rebut that by saying that the Father was pierced in an analogy when He saw His son die.
John 19:33 “But when they came toJesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spearpiercedhis side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith,They shall look on him whom they pierced.”
Scripture was a fulfillment of Old Testament in Zechariah 12. It was Jesus Christ.
John 20:26-28 (NWT) “Well, eight days later his disciples were again indoors, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and he stood in their midst and said: “May you have peace.” Next he said to Thomas: “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop doubting but believe.” In answer Thomas said to him:“My Lord and my God!”
It is clear that Thomas calls Jesus, His Lord, and His God. But JW tries to argue that Thomas was in shock and doesn’t know what he was talking about, or that Thomas was taking the name of the Lord in vain. At that time, if Thomas did that, he would be stoned to death for taking God’s name in vain. But in the next verse, Jesus confirms what Thomas’ declaration instead of rebuking him ‘Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.‘
Matthew 4:10 “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
Jesus Christ strongly refused the idea of receiving worship if He’s not being acknowledged as God. Jesus had a strong belief that we should worship nobody else but God. Why would Jesus accept Thomas’ statement and confirm it if Jesus is not God?
There’s only one savior
Titus 3:6 (NWT) “He poured this spirit out richly on us through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
Isaiah 43:11 (NWT) “I—I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior.”
Hosea 13:4 (NWT) “But I am Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt; You knew no God except me, And besides me there is no savior.”
The Father is referred to as the savior, so is Jesus Christ. JW argue that there are lesser gods, or lesser saviors, but the Bible clearly says that there is no such thing according to the verses above.
There is no other Savior as proclaimed by the one true God. Hence even if a Jehovah Witness tries to disagree with that statement, and assumes that they are two different saviors, and it is referring to two different contexts, this would raise huge hypocrisy in themselves.
For further reading,
- Christian answers for Jehovah’s Witnesses – After physical death, Hell is a place of eternal punishment/eternal death and debunking the Watchtower organization
- Study biblical doctrines at Beginners Discipleship
- What is wrong with Jehovah’s Witnesses? – Both Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are God, there’s only one savior
- What the Bible says about Jehovah’s Witnesses? – Jesus Christ is God not only a divine person, Jesus Christ did not literally resurrect, only 144,000 go to heaven and have everlasting life
- Why God is not a Jehovah’s Witness? – God has many names, blood transfusions, everlasting punishment does exist
- Why dispensational teaching and King James Bible Only is important for Christian doctrines and to dispel false doctrines and false religions