The Jehovah's Witnesses' Doctrine of Jesus Christ is a Form of the Ancient Arian Heresy
By B. W. Leu
(edited)
Arius
Arianism derives its name from a priest named Arius who lived in Alexandria around the year 300 A.D. (1). The controversy that was raised over his views of Jesus Christ eventually led to the Council of Nicea and the making of the Nicene Creed in 325 A.D. which condemned Arius' teaching on Jesus Christ.
Let's look directly at what Arius himself taught about Jesus Christ, and then compare his teachings to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Arius said:
"We believe that this God gave birth to the Only-begotten Son before age-long times, through whom He has made those ages themselves, and all things else; that He generated Him, not in semblance, but in truth, giving Him a real subsistence (or hypostasis), at His own will, so as to be unchangable and unalterable, God's perfect creature, but not as other creatures. His production, but not as other productions; nor as Valentinus maintained, an offspring; nor again, as Manichaeus, a cosubstantial part; nor as Sabellius, a Son-Father, which is to make two out of one; nor, as Hieracas, one torch from another, or a flame divided into two; nor, as if He were previously in being, and afterwards generated or created again to be a Son, a notion condemned by thyself, blessed Pope, in full Church and among the assembled Clergy; but, as we affirm, created at the will of God before times and before ages, and having life and being from the Father, who gave subsistence as to Him, so to His glorious perfections. For, when the Father gave to Him the inheritance of all things. He did not thereby deprive Himself of attributes, which are His ingenerately, who is the Source of all things." (2)
The first thing that can be said about Arius' doctrine of Jesus Christ is that he believed the Son to be created by God as a perfect creature. Accordingly, Arius believed that the Son could not sin because he was made perfect.
This would seem to correlate with the Jehovah's Witnesses' belief about the Son's origin. But again we must ask, does not creaturehood necessitate the being given a free will that can choose to sin or not? Only a perfect being, uncreated and wholly good cannot sin. It would appear though that the Arians and the Jehovah's Witnesses in turn see the Son's creaturehood as "totally other" in type and substance than all other creation. But is this Biblical? No! Is it rational? Yes! This is what appealed to Arius, and the Jehovah's Witnesses centuries later.
Above all, the oneness of God was precious to Arius. He was soaked in neo-platonist philosophy, which taught the one sole God, called the "One", who was above all else. In this philosophy, there also was believed to be lower ranks assumed by the one known as "Intelligence", and the "Soul" of the world. These two were intermediaries between One-God and the world (3).
Continuing in the "rationalistic mode," in explaining the term "only-begotten" as used of the Son, Arius said that the Son was the only creature created by God before time. Hence, "only-begotten" was understood to mean "born alone from Him alone." Whereas all other creatures were made through the Son, as an instrument of Divine power (4).
Elsewhere, Arius wrote:
"... that there is a Trinity, but not with an equal glory, the Hypostasis being incommunicable with each other. One infinitely more glorious than the other; that the Father is foreign in substance to the Son, as existing unoriginate; that by God's will the Son became Wisdom, Power, the Spirit, the Truth, the Word, the Glory, and the Image of God; that the Father, as being Almighty, is able to give existence to a being equal to the Son, though not superior to Him; that, from the time that He was made, being a mighty God, He has hymned the praises of His Superior; that He cannot investigate His Father's nature, it being plain that the originated cannot comprehend the unoriginate; nay, that He does not know His own." (5)
According to Arius, the Son could be granted every honor and majesty short of the full nature of the Godhead." Arius was willing to grant the Son all divine attributes except divinity of his being (6). Arius, as the Jehovah's Witnesses, believed that the Son was a "mighty god," but not the "Almighty God."
The Arian controversy, as mentioned earlier, led to the formation of Nicene Creed which condemned the Arian teaching of the Son's nature as heretical. The final wording of the Nicene Creed came to be what follows:
"I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God's, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made; Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man: And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried: And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures: And ascended into heaven. And sitteth on the right hand of the Father: And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets: And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church: I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins: And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the Life of world to come. Amen." (7)
The Nicene Creed was a way of excluding Arian theology, thus it was primarily negative (8). The importance of the Nicene Creed cannot be underestimated. This was well understood by the man who stood head-to-head against Arius, Athanasius. Athanasius was in his early twenties at the beginning of the Arian dispute, and was at that time secretary to the Bishop of Alexandria. Before he died at age 80, he had became Bishop of Alexandria, and had been sent into exile five times (9).
But it was the persistance of this man that led to the defeat of the Arian teaching on Christ. Athanasius had argued that Judaism made a sharp distinction between God and God's creation. Therefore, he said that if the Son had been created, he was on the wrong side of the distinction, and could not be divine. If the Arians believed in the Son's divinity, then they must out of necessity believe in two Gods, which was very unbiblical (10).
To Athanasius, the word "begotten" was very important. He argued that to be begotten from someone was to be "of the same substance," as opposed to "created" which meant "of a different substance." If the Son was begotten, he must be of the same substance as the Father. The Nicene Creed declared that Christ was "begotten, not created," and "of the same substance as the Father" (11).
Jehovah's Witnesses
Who was Jesus before he came to earth, according to the modern era Jehovah's Witnesses? In "Let God Be True", the Jehovah's Witnesses say:
This One was not Jehovah God, but was "existing in God's form." How so? He was a spirit person, just as "God is a spirit"; he was a mighty one, although not almighty as Jehovah God is; also, he was before all others of God's creatures, for he was the first son that Jehovah God brought forth ... He was the first of Jehovah God's creations (12).
How can the Witnesses place Jesus as inferior to Jehovah in the light of Philippians 2:5-11 which clearly teaches Christ was equal with God, but emptied Himself and came in the likeness of man? Very shrewdly, the Jehovah's Witnesses change the wording of the Philippians passage in their Bible. Their New World Translation of Philippians 2:5-11, says:
"Keep this mental attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form and came to be in the likeness of men. More than that, when he found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake. For this very reason also God exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every other name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (13)
According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, the first created being of God was inferior to Jehovah God, and he gave no consideration of ever trying to be as powerful as Jehovah God. Instead, he emptied himself of what power he did have as a mighty god, in order to die as a man and be given a "superior position" to the one he originally had. Again, here in the Jehovah's Witnesses' theology, we see the Logos trading in his original state of being and becoming a man. By performing his mission prepared by Jehovah, he is rewarded by being given more rights, powers, and privilages than he had originally. A great deal for the Logos, but where is the love for humankind fit in on Jesus' part?
In "Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God", the modern day Jehovah's Witnesses say the following about who Jesus Christ was while on earth:
"As a result of this (the Logos emptying himself to come to earth), he was not a God-man on earth; he was not part spirit and part man; he was not a hybrid heavenly and earthly creature. He was a pure man, whose life force had been transferred from heaven by the miraculous operation of the spirit (or active force) of Almighty God. He was no incarnation of a heavenly person, no incarnation of the "Word of God," but, as John 1:14 plainly states, "the Word became flesh and resided among us. ...(14).
Jesus Christ was totally man or "pure man" according to the modern Jehovah's Witnesses. The divine, created "mighty god" became a person (divine referring to angelic status, not pertaining necessarily to God's own nature).
In "God's Eternal Purpose Now Triumphing", the Jehovah's Witnesses share more precisely who the angelic being was who became a human being and how this earthly transformation exactly occurred. They say:
"Rather, the Almighty God, the heavenly Father, by means of his holy spirit, transferred the life-force of his chosen heavenly son from the invisible spirit realm to the egg cell in Mary's body and fertilized it. In this way Mary became pregnant, and the child conceived in her was 'holy'".
It was indeed what the angel Gabriel called it, the "Son of the Most High." (Luke 1:32) Who, though, was the son whom God chose to be born as perfect human creature? It was not the angel Gabriel, for he was the one that materialized and appeared to Mary, and announced her coming with motherhood. The Holy Scriptures do indicate that it was the one whom an angel, when speaking to the prophet Daniel, called "the prince of your people, the great prince who is standing in behalf of the sons of your people," namely, Michael. (Daniel 10:21;12:1)
He had been acting as a princely supervisory angel in behalf of the nation of Israel, and he doubtless was the angel that manifested himself in the burning thornbush to Moses at the foot of Mount Horeb back in the sixteenth century B.C.E.
He has rightly been called Michael, the archangel. His having his life-force transferred to Mary's egg cell by Almighty God's power that overshadowed Mary meant that he, Michael, disappeared from heaven. By human birth from Mary, the Jewish virgin, he was to become a human soul. ... .(15)
So more precisely, Michael became Jesus Christ, and as a perfect human being fulfilled the mission Jehovah gave to him to bruise the serpent's heel, as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. The Jehovah's Witnesses also say:
"As a spirit Son of God, Jesus Christ was able to ascend back to heaven. ... Just as the Jewish high priest in the Most Holy sprinkled the Atonement blood toward the golden Ark of the Covenant, so Jesus entered into God's heavenly presence and presented the value or merit of his perfect human sacrifice ... the Son of God was rewarded with a heavenly position higher than the one he held before... He resumed his pre-human name, Michael, so that again there was a 'Michael the archangel' in heaven." (Jude 9; Revelation 12:7) (16).
When discussing who the modern Jehovah's Witnesses believed Jesus Christ to be, their statement of faith can be summed up as follows: he was the archangel Michael whose life-force was transferred to, and fertilized in, the egg cell of Mary. He thus became a living human soul. After his death, he was resurrected again as the archangel Michael, but given a higher position of authority in heaven.
We have already looked at how the Jehovah's Witnesses have worded Philippians 2:5-11 to fit this theology of Jesus Christ. Other scriptures arranged to fit their theology of Christ include:
1. John 1:1 where they say the Word was "a god," and not God.
2. Changing the "I AM" statements of Jesus (such as in John 8:58) to "I have been." The "I AM" statements of Jesus are significant for in them he equates Himself with Jehovah who used this title for Himself in the Old Testament.
3. They explain Revelation 3:14 and Colossians 1:15 and the use of "the beginning of the creation by God" and "the first-born of all creation," as describing Jesus' "creaturehood." But, in fact, these texts point to the fact that he was the "author" of creation. Because of this false theology about Jesus Christ, they must add to the wording of Colossians 1:16,17 which says "by Him all things were created." The Witnesses add here all "other" things.
4. The Witnesses argue that because Jesus is referred to in Isaiah 9:6 as a mighty God, and not Almighty God, he must therefore be inferior to Jehovah. But they fail to include in their translation of Isaiah 9:6 the words by which he was also called Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (17).
These passages in their translation of the Bible have proven to be those texts where they most heavily place their arguments. A thorough study of these passages in the original languages and other related texts in the Bible would seem to be the best offense in encountering door-to-door evangelists of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
In their whole doctrine of Jesus Christ, the Jehovah's Witnesses fail greatly in trying to make Jesus three different beings at three different times, for the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ is the "same yesterday, today and forever!"
CONCLUSION
It is no mystery that the Jehovah's Witnesses are a modern form of the ancient heresy Arianism. In 1991, a Jehovah's Witness door-to-door evangelist told me that they were. He said that the ancient Arians were a chosen remnant that had only reappeared in the 1800's under "Pastor" Russell. He wondered if I would join their ranks. No, I could not. For me, all the doctrines and meaning of Christianity center on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. As Alfred Mortimer has written, "The Incarnation is the most stupendous manifestation of God's Love, the crowning act of his mercy". (18)
For me, and all believers in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, the Incarnation is summed up in a verse in the Bible stated by Jesus Christ Himself, "Greater love has no one than he lay down his life for a friend." God has shown us the Greatest love possible by coming in the form of His Son. May all people, including Jehovah's Witnesses, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!
FOOTNOTES:
1. Placher , p . 73
2. Newman, pp. 213-214
3. Piault, p. 105
4. Newman, p. 210
5. Ibid, p. 216
6. Belloc, p. 32
7. Kerr, pp. 75-76
8. Torrence , p . 63
9. Placher, pp. 73-74
10. Ibid, p. 74
11. Ibid, pp. 74-75
12. Let God Be True, p. 32
13. Ibid, p. 32
14. Life Everlasting , p. 75
15. God's Eternal Purposes, p. 74
16. Ibid, p. 155
17. Make Sure of All Things, p. 282
18. Mortimer, p . 141
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