SHORT CHRISTIAN READINGS SELECTED FOR FORMER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
Seven Ways Jehovah's Witnesses Distort True Christianity
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
(edited)
Jehovah's Witnesses are wonderful people. But since they are constantly trying to convert Christian believers to their religion, it is important that Christians know what they believe. Jehovah's Witnesses are zealous, persistent, and sincere. In this case, sincerely wrong.
1. Jehovah's Witnesses are a "cult," that is, they believe they are right and that all others are wrong and will not be saved unless they become Jehovah's Witnesses, too.
All strands of Christianity have minor variations. What unites Christians, however, is our belief in Jesus as the unique and divine Son of God. This gives us a sense of unity with all Christians as brothers and sisters despite differences in history and style.
It is typical of cults, however, to see themselves as the only right way of serving God, and the only ones who will be saved when God judges mankind. In the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, they systematically proselytize people who attend Christian churches, categorizing Christendom as "false religion," "the Harlot," and "Babylon the Great."[1]
2. Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus is the fully divine Son of God.
Several heretical groups deny that Jesus is the fully divine, unique Son of God -- Unitarians, Mormons, Christian Science, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses revive the ancient heresy put forward by Arius in the Fourth Century[2] and rejected by faithful Christians at the Council of Nicea.
For Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus is not fully God, but "a god."[3] They identify him as Michael the archangel.[4] They believe he is God's first creation, and thus a creature rather than the Creator.[5] The Bible, on the contrary, says of Jesus, "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."[6]
For Jehovah's Witnesses, Jesus' resurrection was not physical but spiritual.[7] Like the angels, "he was obliged to materialize a body of flesh in order to make himself visible."[8] This is how Jehovah's Witnesses explain that Jesus' second coming--his second "presence," as they call it--"is unseen to natural human eyes."[9] True Christians believe that Jesus' resurrection was physical. The body was gone. He told his disciples. "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."[10] True Christians also expect to see Jesus return in the same way he was taken up into heaven.[11]
Jehovah's Witnesses deny Jesus' full divinity, his physical resurrection, and his visible return.
3. Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Christian teaching of the Trinity.
In addition to denying the divinity of Jesus, Jehovah's Witnesses also deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit. "This spirit is not a person at all, but is God's invisible active force by means of which God carries out his holy will and work,"[12] they teach. The New Testament, however, speaks of the Holy Spirit as a person who speaks, sends, reminds, convicts, and may be lied to.[13]
Once they have dispensed with the divinity of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit, Jehovah's Witnesses are free to dismiss the idea of the Trinity: God in three persons, each of the same substance, coequal, co-existent, co-eternal. While the Bible does not use the term "Trinity," the idea is clearly there. For example, Jesus directed that people be baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."[14]
4. Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the date of Jesus' return several times. When they were proved wrong, they covered it up.
Early Jehovah's Witnesses taught that the end of the world would come in 1914.[15] When that didn't happen, they quietly changed the prophecy in their books.[16] To explain it away, they changed the definition of a word in the Bible that talks about Christ's "coming," to mean Christ's "invisible presence."[17] After all, it is difficult to disprove that Christ's "invisible presence" did not take place in 1914. But Jesus said, "For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming (parousia) of the Son of Man."[18] All nations will see his coming.[19] Next, Jehovah's Witnesses predicted that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would return in 1925.[20] That didn't happen either.
5. Jehovah's Witnesses deny Jesus' teaching about hell.
Nobody likes to think about hell. But to twist Jesus' words to pretend he didn't teach it is dishonest. Jesus described hell (both hades and gehenna) as a place of "torment," of "agony" in the fire,[21] where "the fire never goes out," and where "their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched."[22] What does it matter that Jesus taught it? Jehovah's Witnesses pronounce that it is unloving and unjust for God to punish the wicked forever.[23] Are they going to correct Jesus?
Jehovah's Witnesses deny that a human being has an immortal soul at all. "If ... man does not have a soul but is a soul," they teach, "then there is no conscious existence after death. There is no bliss, and there is no suffering. All the illogical complications of the 'hereafter' disappear."[24] When a person dies, they believe, he (i.e., soul) goes to the grave. Those who are righteous will rise at the resurrection; the evil not will not return but be annihilated. Convenient, but certainly not what Jesus taught.
6. Jehovah's Witnesses distort the Bible's true meaning. Jehovah's Witnesses practice "proof-texting," plucking out and isolating individual Bible verses from their context. Then they use them to prove some point which may have nothing whatsoever to do with the verse's original meaning. The Bible was not written to be understood by quoting little snippets, but by reading the whole context.
Another concern is the Jehovah's Witness' "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". Translated by a committee of five, none of whom were trained in Hebrew and Greek,[25] it changes the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew texts in order to support spurious Jehovah's Witness doctrines. For example, their translation of Colossians 1:16 reads, "By means of him all [other] things were created. ..." The word "other" is added so that Jesus would be seen as a created being, and not as the divine, uncreated Creator. Philippians 1:22 in their translation reads "what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ," rather than "I desire to depart and be with Christ." Their strange, awkward rendering is intended to support a belief in "soul sleep," since this verse in its true form tells believers that they will be with Christ in heaven the very moment they die.[26] In their translation, Matthew 24:3 reads "What will be the sign of your presence" rather than "What will be the sign of your coming," to support their teaching that Christ's coming is an "invisible presence." John 1:1 reads "the Word was a god," rather than "the Word was God," in an attempt to hide the full divinity of Christ.[27] The New World Translation twists scripture to make it say what the Jehovah's Witnesses want it to say.
In a rather well-known distortion of scripture, Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on the basis that the ancient Jews were forbidden to eat the blood of animals (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26-27; Acts 15:29; etc.). It should be obvious to any reasonable person that eating blood (a pagan practice) has nothing to do with receiving someone's blood donated to save your life. Unfortunately, from this kind of scripture twisting, many lives have been lost.
Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that true religion remains "untainted by worldly politics and conflicts. It is neutral in time of war."[28] As a result, they do not participate or serve in our government. Nor do they help defend our country and freedoms when threatened. Perhaps they forget faithful Daniel, who was prime minister of the Babylonian empire under several pagan kings, and the military leaders who followed Jehovah, such as David, Gideon, and Joshua in the Old Testament, and the centurions and soldiers who were believers in the New Testament.
7. Jehovah's Witness teaching denies full Christian privileges to present-day believers.
When the Jehovah's Witnesses began in the 1880s, they believed that a literal 144,000 people, and only a total of 144,000, would go to heaven (the "heavenly Kingdom class," they call it). That worked when they were a small sect. But as the movement grew, their cumulative numbers swelled to more than 144,000. In 1965 we are told that less than 12,000 of this original 144,000 still remained alive.[29] What about the next generation of Jehovah's Witnesses? They think of themselves as the "great crowd" of Revelation 7:9 who will rule with Christ on the earth.
The problem is that the wonderful promises of the Bible--being born again by the Holy Spirit, the comfort of partaking of the Lord's Supper,[30] and the joy of heaven--these promises are "already taken." Present-day Jehovah's Witnesses believe they will never experience them.
How sad to have the most precious promises of the Bible be reserved for someone else. How sad to believe in a Jesus stripped of his deity, his physical resurrection, and his visible return. How sad to believe that you were born a generation too late to go to heaven when you die. How sad to read, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,"[31] and know that doesn't mean you. To ponder "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ"[32] and wonder if you are excluded. How sad.
[1] Mankind's Search for God (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, 1990), p. 370.
[2] In Mankind's Search for God (pp. 274-275), the author describes Arianism as a "Biblically supported viewpoint."
[3] John 1:1 in the Jehovah's Witnesses' own New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.
[4] The Watchtower, May 15, 1969, p. 307; December 15, 1984, p. 29. Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. 5, p. 84; The Truth Shall Make You Free, p. 49. Hebrews chapter 1 explains that Jesus is superior to angels.
[5] Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, 1965), p. 122.
[6] Colossians 2:9 (NIV). A careful study on the divinity of Christ can be found in Bruce M. Metzger, "The Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus Christ," Theology Today, April 1953, pp. 65-85.
[7] Studies in the Scriptures, Series 2 (Allegheny, PA: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1889), p. 129; The Watchtower, September 1, 1953, p. 518; August 1, 1975, p. 479.
[8] Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie, p. 332.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Luke 24:39 (NASB).
[11] Acts 1:11.
[12] Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie, p. 269.
[13] See Acts 5:3-4; 13:2,4; 21:10-11; John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-14.
[14] Matthew 28:19 (NIV). See also 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1:21-22; 1 Corinthians 6:11-12; 12:4-6; 1 Thessalonians 5:18-19; 1 Peter 1:2; etc.
[15] Studies in the Scriptures (n.d., probably 1907 edition), Series 2, "The Time Is at Hand" (Allegheny, PA: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1889), p. 99, says, "... we consider it an established truth that the final end of the kingdoms of this world, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God will be accomplished at the end of A.D. 1914."
[16] Studies in the Scriptures (1907 edition), Series 3, "Thy Kingdom Come" (Allegheny, PA: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1891), p. 228 reads: "That the deliverance of the saints must take place some time before 1914 is manifest. ... Just how long before 1914 the last living members of the body of Christ will be glorified, we are not directly informed." The 1916 edition changed this to read: "That the deliverance of the saints must take place very soon after 1914 is manifest. ... Just how long after 1914 the last living members of the body of Christ will be glorified, we are not directly informed." This is deception, clear and simple.
[17] Mankind's Search for God, p. 353. The Greek word parousia means physical "presence," "coming," "advent" (William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament [University of Chicago Press, 1957], p. 635). There is nothing "invisible" about it.
[18] Matthew 24:27 (NIV).
[19] Matthew 24:30 (NIV).
[20] Jehovah's Witness President Joseph F. Rutherford, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, pp. 89-90. His sermons were quoted to that effect by the press also: Los Angeles Morning Tribune, February 25, 1918; San Francisco Chronicle, February 16, 1920, p. 8; San Francisco Chronicle, February 14, 1925.
[21] Luke 16:23 (NIV), describing the rich man in hades.
[22] Mark 9:48 (NIV), describing gehenna.
[23] Mankind's Search for God, p. 377.
[24] Mankind's Search for God, p. 128. This also leads them to the doctrine sometimes called "soul sleep," that a believer does not go immediately to be with Jesus in heaven, but await in the grave for the resurrection.
[25] Four of the five members of the translation committee had only a high school education. The fifth--Fred W. Franz--was shown under oath (Edinburgh, Scotland, November 24-25, 1954) to lack Hebrew translation knowledge. He dropped out of the University of Cincinnati after his sophomore year. (Ron Rhodes, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses [Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1993], pp. 97-98.)
[26] See Walter R. Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1965), p. 68.
[27] See Metzger, p. 75 to understand their error in translating the Greek.
[28] Mankind's Search for God, p. 377.
[29] Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie, p. 337.
[30] Communion is received only at Passover, and only by those who are part of the 144,000 (Mankind's Search for God, p. 357).
[31] John 3:3 (NIV).
[32] Romans 8:9 (NIV).
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Four Reasons Why I Believe in the Trinity
By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
(edited/reformatted)
-- Is Jesus God?
-- Is the Holy Spirit a Person or an impersonal Force?
-- Why do Oneness Pentecostals, Unitarians, and Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Trinity?
-- How can God be Three and One at the same time?
-- What does the Scripture actually teach about the Trinity?
-- What is God like?
You can make up your own god, a god that fits all your preconceptions. Or you can study what God reveals about himself, and from that data seek to understand more about him.
I'm convinced from studying the Bible since childhood that you can't understand God, especially in the New Testament, unless you properly discern the relationship of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We've got to deal with this, and simplistic answers won't do. Fortunately, God doesn't follow our logic; we must be humble enough to follow his. I'm convinced that the New Testament teaches the trinitarian nature of God -- an essential unity of God, who is made up of three distinct Persons.
I'm going to explain why I believe this as simply as I can, but don't let my simplicity shroud the fact that this is a very complex subject. Many, many volumes have been written about it. It is complex, make no mistake. And frankly, I feel like a toddler trying to wade in the ocean, so I'm dependent upon what the Bible reveals for a hand to hold onto as I explore God.
Now you'll hear detractors say things like: "The word 'trinity' doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible." And that's right, it doesn't. More on that in a moment. People also say things like "three can't be one," and they're right -- if we were talking about simple mathematics. What we are talking about, however, is a complex relationship, not a simple equation. So I propose we gather our understanding from the Bible itself, not from a detractor's caricature or misunderstanding.
This is not a question of whether you or I can wrap our minds around the concept of the trinity. Electrons make lights turn on without a toddler understanding any more than how to flip a light switch. Right now passing by your head are dozens of radio, television, and wireless signals you could detect if you just had an internal tuner to sort them out and tune them in. Just because you can't hear them doesn't mean they aren't there. The question is simply: What does the Bible teach about the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
A Definition
First, let me define what we mean by "trinity." The trinity refers to "the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons." [228] The word "trinity," of course, is formed from the words "tri-" and "unity" and describes "the state of being threefold." In other words, to believe in the trinity means to believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are essentially one God, even while they retain their own set of differences. (Feel the fog beginning to blow around your legs?)
John Calvin put it this way: "That Father and Son and Spirit are one God, yet the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but that they are differentiated by a particular quality."[229] Theologians discuss complex concepts such as "one substance" (Greek homoousios) to make important distinctions. But I'm going to leave that aside.
I believe in the trinity for four good reasons -- Bible reasons. Please consider them with me.
1. Because of the trinitarian statements in the New Testament
One of the main reasons I believe in the trinity is the existence of several clear statements in the Bible that seem to put the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit together on the same level.[230]
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...." (Matthew 28:19)
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14)
"... Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood...." (1 Peter 1:2)
Of course, there are many places where the Father and the Son appear without the Holy Spirit mentioned, and the Son with the Spirit, etc. But I think these three passages are undeniably distinctive, especially Matthew 28:19. At this point, of course, the word "trinity" hadn't been thought of, but the concept certainly seems to be present in the New Testament. That's unmistakable.
2. Because the New Testament teaches monotheism and that Jesus is divine
The second main reason I believe in the trinity is that the New Testament clearly teaches both monotheism and that Jesus is divine.
-- Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief, pioneered by Judaism and affirmed by Christianity, that there is but one God. You see it often in the Old and New Testaments (for example: Mark 12:29; Deuteronomy 6:4; Acts 17:22-31; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6).
-- The Divinity of Jesus
But at the same time, the New Testament is quite clear: Jesus is divine, that is, he shares God's nature. Jesus' "beloved disciple" the Apostle John puts it this way:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3) [231]
The Apostle Paul is equally clear about Jesus' divinity.
"[Christ Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Philippians 2:6-7)
Here is another description of Jesus' position:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him...." (Colossians 1:15-19)
-- Unity with the Father
I could go on and on. The New Testament asserts Jesus' divinity again and again in numerous ways beyond the scope of this article. Jesus himself affirms his unity with the Father in ways that might be considered blasphemous -- unless they were actually true.
"'I and the Father are one.' Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, 'I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?'
'We are not stoning you for any of these,' replied the Jews, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'" (John 10:30-33)
"'I tell you the truth,' Jesus answered, 'before Abraham was born, I am!' At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds." (John 8:58-59)
"'But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.'" (Matthew 16:15-17)
In Jesus' presence, doubting Thomas calls him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) Jesus doesn't rebuke him or correct him, but comments on Thomas's faith.
At his trial, Jesus is questioned directly:
"The high priest asked him, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'
"'I am,' said Jesus. 'And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.'" (Mark 14:61-62)
I've spent some time on this because some groups today either deny monotheism, or deny that Jesus was divine in any unique sense. I'm not trying to divide, but bring clarity. A belief in the divinity of Jesus and monotheism are the bedrock of true Christianity. But it is wise to be aware that a contrary view is very much alive in our day:
Back in 1985 and later, Jesus Seminar theologians assumed that Jesus "couldn't have said" such things about himself, therefore the disciples must have made these things up.
Latter Day Saints seem to be monotheistic until you realize that every good Mormon male aspires to be a god to another planet, and that the founders of Mormonism saw God the Father only as the God of planet Earth, not of the universe, since he was appointed to be the God of the Earth by the council of the gods. This is not monotheism.
Jehovah's Witnesses see Jesus as a divine being, but not in any unique sense as sharing the Father's nature. John 1:1 should read: "and the Word was God." They translate it: "and the word was a god."
Unitarians reject the deity of Christ.
To summarize, I think it is pretty clear throughout the whole Bible that there is only one God, but at the same time the New Testament affirms again and again that Jesus is divine. Somehow you have to explain this apparent paradox. Either Jesus is God or he is only godlike. You have to face it; you can't just ignore it.
3. Because Jesus and the Father are different persons
The third Bible reason I believe in the trinity is that the New Testament indicates many times and in many ways that Jesus and the Father are different and distinct persons.
-- The Father and the Son
The reason we talk about the Father and the Son is not because some theologian made it up, but because that is the way Jesus himself explained the relationship between himself and God. For example:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27)
"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.... He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him." (John 5:19, 23)
"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.... And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." (John 17:1, 5)
I could go on, but the Bible -- especially John's Gospel -- is very clear. Jesus also asserts an essential unity between him and his Father:
"I and the Father are one." (John 10:30)
"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me...." (John 14:9-11)
-- Jesus Is Distinct from the Father
It is important, though, to recognize that the Son, Jesus, is a distinct person from God the Father. Why do I say that?
Jesus prays to the Father (John 17). This wouldn't make any sense if Jesus and the Father were the same person or entity. Jesus is not talking to himself when he prays to the Father. That is a foolish notion. But I make the point because one branch of the Pentecostal movement is not trinitarian. They believe that the term "Father" designates Christ's deity, while "Son" designates either his humanity or his deity as manifested in the flesh. Thus they believe that while the Father is not the Son, they hold that Jesus is both the Father and the Son.[232] Pretty confusing, isn't it!
-- Submission to the Father
You can also see in the New Testament that the Father (often designated in the Bible as "God" without the word Father), is the leader, with Jesus and the Holy Spirit voluntarily subservient to him. They seem to be "equal" in terms of divinity, but not in terms of role. The Father is the leader, much like in a human family of Jesus' day the father was typically the leader. No doubt that is why Jesus described the relationship as Father - Son. Paul includes a fascinating passage that explains more about this relationship:
"Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he 'has put everything under his feet.' Now when it says that 'everything' has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all." (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)
I think it is important to recognize that the New Testament presents the Father and Son as separate persons, differentiated from one another in function, and interacting with each other as separate persons do.
A very common, but overly simple, explanation of the trinity is in terms of modes or manifestations.[233] These are comparisons, explaining the trinity like water manifesting itself as ice, liquid water, and vapor. On the surface it seems helpful. But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must be more than manifestations of a single person, otherwise prayer and submission would be meaningless. The Bible requires us to see the Father and Jesus as both one God and also as distinct persons.
4. Because the Holy Spirit is both divine and has personal attributes
The fourth biblical reason that I believe in the trinity is because the Holy Spirit is referred to in personal terms in the Bible, indicating that he, too, is a distinct person, different from either the Father and the Son.
I must concede at the outset that we don't have nearly as much data about the interaction between the Spirit and the other persons of the trinity as we do about the relationship between Jesus and the Father. And sometimes the biblical data about the Holy Spirit seems ambiguous -- at least for the purposes of trying to form a consistent explanation.
-- The Holy Spirit Is Spoken of as God
Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as God in the Bible.
"Then Peter said, 'Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.' " (Acts 5:3-4)
"God" is used synonymously with "Holy Spirit" here.
-- The Spirit Performs Divine Functions
The Holy Spirit also performs divine functions, such as judging (John 16:8-11), pouring out the love of God (Romans 5:5), giving joy (Romans 14:17), hope (Romans 8:17-25), peace (Romans 8:6), regeneration (John 3:5), and faith (2 Corinthians 12:9). The Holy Spirit can also be blasphemed (Mark 3:29 and Luke 12:10), which in the New Testament is usually an act of verbally injuring someone divine.[234]
-- The Spirit Performs Functions We Ascribe to Persons
But here is the solid biblical evidence that points to the Holy Spirit as a distinct person in his own right who performs functions we attribute to personhood. The Holy Spirit appoints missionaries (Acts 13:2; 20:28), he leads and directs them in their ministry (Acts 8:29; 10:19-20; 16:6-7; 1 Corinthians 2:13), he speaks through the prophets (Acts 1:16; 1 Peter 1:11-12; 2 Peter 1:21), he corrects (John 16:8), comforts (Acts 9:31), helps us in our infirmities (Romans 8:26), teaches (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 12:3), guides (John 16:13), sanctifies (Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11), testifies of Christ (John 15:26), glorifies Christ (John 16:14), has a power of his own (Romans 15:13), searches all things (Romans 11:33-34; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11), works according to his own will (1 Corinthians 12:11), dwells with saints (John 14:17), can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), can be resisted (Acts 7:51), and can be tempted (Acts 5:9).
These are functions we attribute to persons, not to impersonal forces.
In many languages, including Greek, words have masculine, feminine, or neuter genders or inflections that have no real counterpart in English.[235] While the Spirit is often referred to by a neuter Greek pronoun, since the word pneuma has a neuter gender in Greek (such as John 14:17, 26; 15:26), on several occasions the masculine pronoun is used, apparently to emphasize the Spirit's personhood.
"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom (neuter pronoun) the Father will send in my name, he (masculine pronoun) will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26, RSV).
We see similar language in John 15:26, and especially John 16:13: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he (masculine pronoun) will guide you into all truth." C.K. Barrett observes, "The Spirit is thought of in personal terms."[236]
I make a point of the Holy Spirit's divinity and personal nature because some groups specifically deny that the Holy Spirit is a divine being. The Jehovah's Witness New World Translation, for example, sometimes even omits the word "Spirit" and substitutes the phrase "God's active force" in its place (hardly a faithful translation!), a phrase that strips away any sense of personhood.[237]
Conclusion
There is much, much more that could be said about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But I have tried to keep my points simple. Even though the New Testament doesn't use the word "trinity," it is clear to me, as I have demonstrated above, that an honest reading of the New Testament must conclude that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are spoken of as both divine beings, and distinct from one another -- and that the New Testament affirms monotheism, the essential oneness and unity of God.
While some later theological statements about the trinity go beyond what is taught in the New Testament, I believe that the New Testament clearly teaches the central concepts of the trinity: the divinity of three distinct persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- who are essentially one God.
Do you and I understand this well? No. We struggle to expand our earth-bound thinking to encompass such a thought. But the New Testament itself requires us to stretch so that we might obey Jesus' own words to make disciples and baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19).
FOOTNOTES:
[228] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition; Merriam-Webster, 1993), p. 1293. I have chosen not to capitalize "trinity" since it refers to a doctrine about God, rather than to God directly. I mean no disrespect by this.
[229] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.13.5.
[230] The verse in the King James Version, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (1 John 5:7) should not be considered part of the original, since it does not appear in any ancient text of the New Testament and is quoted by none of the Greek Fathers. It began to appear in manuscripts of the Old Latin and Vulgate families from the sixth century onwards. See Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (United Bible Societies, 1971), pp. 716-718.
[231] Jehovah's Witnesses sometimes ignorantly assert that it should be translated "the Word was a god" (trying to demonstrate that Jesus was a divine being, but not on the level of the Father), but clearly they misunderstand the Greek grammar. A careful study on the divinity of Christ can be found in Bruce M. Metzger, "The Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus Christ," Theology Today, April 1953, pp. 65-85.
[232] Robert M. Bowman, Jr., "Oneness Pentecostalism and the Trinity," Christian Research Institute magazine Forward, Fall 1985. This is a careful and thoughtful article that explains and then refutes Oneness views of the trinity. https://www.gospeloutreach.net/optrin.html
[233] Modalistic Monarchianism considers God to be one while working through the different "modes" or "manifestations" of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
[234] Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., "Trinity," International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Eerdmans, 1979-1988) 4:914-921. Plantinga, a systematic theologian from the Reformed tradition, is very careful in the way he states his conclusion based on the Bible evidence: "In sum, the NT does testify to the Spirit's distinct personhood and divinity, but mutedly and ambiguously. The Spirit in the NT is personally less distinct than the Father and Son, and His divinity less clearly stated; He appears as a nearly transparent agent for God and Christ. One properly concludes that the NT is overall clearly binitarian in its data, and probably trinitarian" (p. 917).
[235] Though in English we sometimes refer to ships with a feminine gender as "her sails."
[236] C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (Second Edition, Westminster Press, 1978), p. 482, commenting on John 15:26. See also George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1974), p. 295.
[237] See Ron Rhodes, Reasoning from the Scriptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses (Harvest House, 1993), chapter 8. Citing the New World Translation of Genesis 1:2.
*************************** ******************************
Jesus Christ is God:
A Response to Jehovah's Witnesses
Author Unknown
(edited)
There is no issue in the Bible of greater importance than the identity of the one who died for us to be our Savior -- Jesus Christ. We must therefore be sure that we are accepting Jesus for who He really is, because if we are not, we are following a false Christ (2 Cor. 11:4,13). Therefore, we will examine the biblical evidence that Jesus Christ is not only fully man, but also fully God.
Is God the Savior of the world?
"Before me there was no God formed and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD; and there is no savior besides Me," God tells us in Isaiah 43:10,11. This verse teaches several significant things:
1. There always has been and always will be only one true God.
2. There is no Savior of the world except for this one true God.
3. Therefore, the Savior of the world must be the one true God.
Is Jesus the Savior of the world?
I do not think that anyone who has read the New Testament would dispute this. Even the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation (NWT) refers to Jesus as the Savior: "... and of the Savior of us, Christ Jesus" --Titus 2:13. Therefore, since:
1. The one true God is the only Savior of the world (Isaiah 43:10,11), and
2. Jesus is the Savior of the world (Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1),
3. Jesus must therefore be the one true God.
To deny that Jesus is the one true God, one would either have to deny that Jesus is the Savior, or say that God is lying to us in Isaiah 43:11. Neither alternative fits with Scripture.
Does Titus 2:13 teach that Jesus is God our Savior?
Titus 2:13 reads: "While we wait for the blessed hope -- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" (NIV). Paul is expressly stating that it is Jesus who is our great God and Savior. But the Jehovah's witnesses dispute this, rendering the passage in their NWT: "While we wait for the happy hope and glorious manifestation of the great God and of [the] Savior of us, Christ Jesus." The NWT adds the word the, putting it in parenthesis in front of the word Savior. This obscures the fact that Paul clearly called Jesus "our God and Savior," making it read as if he were speaking of two separate persons here.
The NWT has the incorrect rendering of this passage, evident because it violates what Greek grammarians call Granville Sharp's rule. [1] "Sharp's rule states that when two singular personal nouns (such as God and Savior) of the same case (as we have here) are connected by `and' (the Greek word is kai), and the modifying article 'the' (the Greek word is ho) appears only before the first noun, not before the second, both nouns must refer to the same person. In this passage, 'God' and 'Savior' are connected by 'and.' Also, 'the' appears only before 'God.' Therefore, 'God' and 'Savior' must refer to the same person--Jesus ... In an exhaustive study, C. Kuehne found SharpUs rule to be without demonstrable exception in the entire New Testament. Thus, honest and unbiased scholarship requires that the words in these verses must be translated 'our God and Savior, Jesus Christ'" (John Ankerberg, The Facts on Jehovah's Witnesses, pp. 22-23). A few of the eminent Greek scholars who will confirm this rendering include P.W. Schmiedel, J.H. Moulton, A.T. Robertson, and Blass-Debrunner.
Even the context of the passage shows that Paul had one person -- not two -- in mind, for he speaks of "the glorious appearing" of that person. As Ankerberg points out, the Bible knows of only one such appearing--that of Jesus. And how could it be possible for the invisible God to appear other than as the visible Christ, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15)?
Does Colossians 1:15 teach that Jesus was created?
In this passage, Jesus is called the "first-born" of all creation. This does not mean that Jesus is a part of creation. To this statement, Jehovah's witnesses may level the charge that we are not taking the Bible to mean what it says. That is not the case; in fact the opposite is true -- the Jehovah's witnesses are not taking the Bible to mean what it says. We are not saying that "first-born" does not mean first born; we are saying that "first-born" does not mean "first-created," which is what the Jehovah's Witnesses teach. They are reading into the text something that is clearly not there, namely that Jesus is not the "first-born," but "first-created."
Evidence that Paul is not teaching that Jesus was created 1. Birth and creation are not equivalent terms. For example, the Bible teaches that Jesus was born of a virgin, but even Jehovah's Witnesses would not hold that this means that He was created the day He was born of Mary. Since birth and creation happen at different times, they cannot mean the same thing.
2. There are two different Greek words for "first-born" and "first-created," and Paul used the word which means "first-born," not "first-created."[2] In fact, Paul goes on to say that Christ is actually the creator of all things, so clearly He was not teaching that Christ is a created being. If all things were created by Christ, He must not be created, otherwise there is something that Christ did not create and this verse would be in error when it states that Christ created all things.
Jehovah's witnesses reply to this third point that the correct translation of the passage is that "by Christ all (other) things were created," inserting the word "other." There is absolutely no basis in the Greek text for doing this, and no reputable translation includes it. [3] Even Jehovah's Witnesses will admit that the equivalent of the word "other" is not included in the Greek text; their own Greek interlinear (page 896) shows that the Greek word panta means "all things," not "all other things." They will hold, however, that it is implied. But, as Stedman writes, "There is no such implication in Colossians 1:15-17, unless one presupposes that Christ Himself was nothing but a creature. But no translator has the right thus to presuppose on a doctrinal issue. If the text were simply rendered as it is, leaving out the inserted word "other", it would agree exactly with other New Testament passages that declare plainly that the Lord Jesus Christ is Creator of everything that has been created." Hebrews 1:10 and John 1:3 also confirm that Christ is Creator of everything, and thus He must not be created, but God.
What does the title "first-born" mean?
This title refers to Christ's preeminent position and sovereignty over creation, not that He Himself is a part of creation. In the Old Testament, the first-born had certain rights and a certain status, such as preeminence, a double share of the inheritance, the right of the priesthood, and supremacy.[4] And it can be distinctly seen from Genesis 49:3 that the meaning "priority of birth" or in "in time" has been overshadowed and even sometimes lost to the implication of the term meaning "supremacy" or "preeminence." In other words, one does not have to have been "born first" to be called "first-born" because the term's primary meaning came to be "preeminence" and "supremacy," sometimes with nothing to do about birth.
When Paul calls Jesus the first-born, He is saying that Jesus has all the rights of the first-born and that He has the first-born status of supremacy and preeminence. When Paul adds that He is the first-born of all creation, He is merely specifying what Christ's preeminence (i.e., His first-born status) applies to -- namely, all creation.
Additionally, this passage clearly teaches Christ's deity. Since Jehovah God alone created all things (Isaiah 44:24; Hebrews 3:4), and Colossians tells us that Christ is the creator, we can conclude that Jesus is Jehovah God.
Further, it is demonstrated that born does not mean created from Jesus' title "Son of God." Some might understand this to mean that He must have come into existence at some point and that He is less than God (the Son of God, not God), in just the same way that a human son comes into existence after their human father. This sounds plausible at first, but upon examination it becomes apparent that this cannot be the case. The Bible is very clear in defining the title "Son of God" to mean that Jesus is of the same nature as God, just like a child is of the same nature as their parent. And if Jesus has God's nature, then He is, by definition, God, and therefore without a beginning. For proof of this, let's examine the issue further.
What does it mean to call Jesus the Son of God?
Does the title applied to Jesus, Son of God, imply that He is different than God? No. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16), while Christians are adopted sons of God (Romans 8:15-17). Christians are called adopted sons of God because we are different from God and must become His children (hence, adopted, not begotten). Jesus is not called adopted because He never became God's Son, but has always been God's Son. Calling Jesus the only begotten Son of God means that He is of the same nature as God, not a different nature, as C.S. Lewis explains: "To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers...But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam... Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God, just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind." There is a clear distinction between making and begetting -- you cannot make what you beget. What you make is different from yourself, what you beget has your nature. Therefore to call Jesus the only begotten Son is to say that He has God's nature and was not made. Since He has God's nature, He is, by definition, God and therefore eternal. If Jesus was created by God, He could not have been begotten, and John 3:16; 1:18, 1 John 4:9, etc. are in error.
In sum,when the Bible says that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, it means that Jesus is equal to God, not less than God.
Doesn't John 14:28 teach that Jesus is less than God?
In this passage, Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I." The "greater than I" refers to Jesus' position, not person, in that during Jesus earthly life He willingly placed Himself in submission to the Father. It says nothing about His nature, only His temporary rank on earth.[5]
The New Testament evidence that Jesus is God
-- John 1:1
This passage says,"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here we see that
THE WORD = GOD
In John 1:14,15 it states "The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us." Here we see that
JESUS = THE WORD
Simple logic declares that if A=B and B=C then A=C. Therefore, since
JESUS = THE WORD and
THE WORD = GOD, then
JESUS = GOD
Jehovah's Witnesses teach that John 1:1 should be translated "The Word was a god," not "The Word was God." They contend that since theos (the Greek word for God) is preceded by the definite article (the) when it first appears in the verse, and the second time it appears it is not preceded by the definite article, they are therefore justified in translating the last part of John 1:1 "the Word was a god," because God appears without the definite article. Thus, they claim that John 1:1 does not say anything about Jesus' identity (i.e.. that He is God), but refers to a quality about Him. There are, however, no reputable authorities or translations that support the Jehovah's Witnesses translation of this verse.[6] In fact, their New World Translation has caused considerable outrage among Greek scholars because it is a major distortion of the text.
In addition, the Jehovah's witnesses do not even stick to their own rule; it is inconsistently applied throughout their NWT. Theos appears six times without the definite article in the first 18 verses of John's gospel (1,6,12,13 and twice in 18). Yet, in the NWT, it is rendered God (referring to Jehovah), not a god, in each instance except for the last clause of 1:1, when it refers to Jesus!
To remain consistent, Jehovah's witnesses must hold that verse six should read, "There arose a man that was sent forth as a representative of a god," that verse 12 should read "to become a god's children," etc. It should also be noted that the absence of the definite article does not refer to someone other than the true God. The scholarly Arndt and Gingrich Greek Lexicon, p. 357, states that theos is used "quite predominantly of the true God, sometimes with, sometimes without, the article."
In answer to the question "How can the Word be with God if He is God?" see my article Understanding the Trinity.
-- Revelation 22:12,13
Revelation 21:5-7 reads: "He who is seated on the throne said 'I am making everything new!' Then He said `write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true'. He said to me: `It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End...he who overcomes will inherit all this and I will be his God, and he will be my son.'" Here God says that He is the beginning and the end. In Revelation 22:12,13, Jesus (see 22:16) says that He is the beginning and the end: "Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Jesus clearly shows that He is God by saying things about Himself that only God can say about Himself.
-- John 10:30-33
This is another clear passage teaching that Jesus is God: "(Christ speaking) `I and the Father are one.' Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them: `I have shown you many miracles from the Father, for which of these do you stone me?' `We are not stoning you for any of these,' replied the Jews, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'" When studying the original Greek of Jesus statement "I and the Father are one," the word translated `one' means one in essence, or nature, not merely one in purpose.[7]
Some hold that Jesus goes on to correct the Jews in verses 34-36. This is not the case. What Jesus is simply doing is taking the Jew's statement about Him blaspheming to its logical conclusion to show that they are being inconsistent. In effect, Jesus is saying "If you say that I am blaspheming, you must also hold that God is blaspheming because He said to those by whom the word of God came, `ye are gods.'" Nowhere does Jesus take back His statement and say that He is not one with the Father. He in fact draws a clear distinction between Himself and those by whom the word of God comes when He says that He was sanctified and sent into the world by God.
-- Hebrews 1:8
Jesus is specifically called God in this passage: "But of the Son He says, 'Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever."
-- Hebrews 1:3
This tells us that Jesus is of the exact same nature of God: "And He is the radiance of His glory, and the exact representation of His nature."
-- Colossians 2:9
This is a strong statement about the full deity and humanity of Christ: "In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form."
-- Philippians 2:10,11
God declares that, "to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance"--Isaiah 45:22-23. But Paul declares that Rat the name of Jesus "every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"--Philippians 2:10,11. Either these passages contradict one another, or Jesus is God.
-- Romans 9:5
Paul writes "...and from them [the Jews] is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God overall..."
-- John 8:58
Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am." I AM was the most revered divine name of God in the Old Testament (Ex. 3:14). Christ was not merely claiming that He existed before Abraham, but that He was still in existence before Abraham. Dr. A.T. Robertson, one of the greatest Greek scholars who ever lived, had this to say about John 8:58 after translating it "I am": "Undoubtedly here Jesus claims eternal existence with the absolute phrase used of God."[8]
The New World Translation mistranslates this verse as "Before Abraham came into existence, I have been," eliminating Christ's clear claim of possessing absolute eternal existence, and therefore divinity . But the Greek reads ego eimi, which is in the present tense, indicative mood, so the only possible translation is "I am."[9] And once again, the New World Translation does not follow its own rules. "In John 8:42-9:12, the verb `to be' occurs 22 times in the indicative mood, and the New World Translation correctly renders 21 out of 22. John 8:58 is the only incorrect rendering."[10] This passage is another clear reference to Christ's deity.
-- Hebrews 13:8
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." This passage teaches that Jesus is immutable -- unchanging in His nature. Thus, He could not have been created, because He would have then undergone change in His nature, from nonexistence to existence. Compare this with Malachi 3:6, where God says that He is immutable.
Also see Luke 3:22, Romans 9:5, 1 John 5:20,21, John 1:18, Romans 1:4, Revelation 1:8.
The Jews also understood Jesus' claims to be God.
John 5:18 tells us that "For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." If Jesus did not mean for the JewUs to think that He was claiming to be God in this passage, then why did Jesus not correct the Jews when they interpreted it this way?
Jesus possess attributes that only belong to God.
He is omnipresent (Mt. 18:20; 28:20; Acts 18:10) omniscient (Mt. 16:21; Lk. 11:17; Jn. 4:29), omnipotent (Mt. 8:26, 27; 28:18; Jn. 11:38-44; Lk 7:14-15; Rev. 1:8), and self existent (John 1:4; 14:6; 8:58). Only God has these attributes, so if Jesus also has them, He must be God. God says in Isaiah 46:9 "There is no one like Me."
Jesus accepted worship as God.
John 20:28 states: "Thomas said to Him, `My Lord and My God!'" If Jesus is not God, as Thomas exclaimed, then why didn't Jesus correct Thomas for his "error"? Some contend that Thomas was merely exclaiming "My Lord and My God!" as many people today do when they are surprised. If this were true, however, Jesus would have rebuked him for taking God's name in vain.
The disciples, who lived with Jesus for three years, believed He is God, and so at many other times worshiped Him. Jesus accepted their worship (see Matthew 28:17, Luke 5:8)! Since God alone is to be worshiped (Luke 4:8), why did Jesus not correct these "mistakes" if He truly is just a man? Every other man of God in the New Testament who receives worship immediately refuses the worship, declaring that God alone is to be worshiped (Acts 14: 10-16, Rev. 22:8-9). Why didn't Jesus do this in a forceful way like His followers did? So,
1. Since only God is to be worship, and
2. Jesus accepted worship, either
A. Jesus sinned when accepting the worship, thus disqualifying Him as Savior, or
B. Jesus is God
Clearly option A is unbiblical (Hebrews 4:15), so it must be true that Jesus is God.
Perhaps even most striking is Hebrews 1:6, where God commands the angels to worship Jesus: "And when He again brought the first-born into the world, He says, 'And let all the angels of God worship Him.'" If Jesus is not God, then God is contradicting Himself when He lets the angels worship Jesus.
Jesus forgave sins
This is evidenced in Mark 2:5 and Luke 7:48. By Jewish law, this was something that only God could do. In Mark 2:7, the scribes say, "He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" I may be able to forgive someone for sins committed against me, but never for sins they commit against God, and this is what Jesus claimed to do. But only God can forgive sins that are committed against Him. So,
1. Only God can forgive sins committed against Himself (and all sins are against God).
2. Jesus forgave people for their sins, which were against God, so
3. Jesus has to be God
Jesus had to be fully God as well as fully man in order to pay the penalty for the sins of the world. While only a man can pay the penalty for a man, only someone who is infinite can pay the penalty for more than one person. Only God is infinite, therefore Jesus had to be God in order to pay for the sins of more than one other human. He also had to be man to pay for the sins of a man. If Jesus was only human, He could have only died for one other person, not the whole world.
Conclusion
From these passages, it is clear that the Bible teaches that Jesus is God. As William Biederwolf has said, "A man who can read the New Testament and not see that Christ claims to be more than a man, can look all over the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and not see the sun." Therefore, any other passages that Jehovah's witnesses put forth trying to teach that Jesus was created have no validity, unless they want to hold that the Bible contradicts itself.
Footnotes
1. For proof of Sharpe's Rule, see H.E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual of the Greek New Testament, p. 147.
2. H.A.W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistles to the Philippians and Colossians and to Philemon, p. 226.
3. Ray C. Stedman, "The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures," Our Hope, 50:32, July, 1953.
4. I.M. Casanowicz, "Primogeniture," The Jewish Encyclopedia, X, p. 198.
5. Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Understanding the Cults, p. 59.
6. Understanding the Cults, p. 77.
7. Thomas Robertson Archibald, Word Pictures in the New Testament, p. 186.
8. Dr. A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. V, pp. 158-159.
9. Word Pictures in the New Testament, Vol. V, pp. 158-159. Also see any Greek New Testament and dictionary for confirmation of this.
10. Understanding the Cults, p. 79.