A Christian Source with Politically Incorrect News
This tract is written to you with genuine respect. If you are one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, you are probably more familiar with the Bible than many who call themselves Christians. You have likely knocked on doors in all kinds of weather, studied the Watchtower faithfully, and arranged your whole life around serving the God you believe in. That zeal is real, and this tract does not mock it.
But zeal is not the same thing as truth. Paul said of his own people, “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2). The question this tract puts to you is simple and urgent: who is Jesus Christ? Everything depends on the answer. We ask only that you read what follows with your Bible open, and let the Scripture itself, not any organization, be the judge. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
The Watchtower Society teaches that Jesus Christ is a created being, the first and greatest of God’s creatures, and that before He came to earth He was Michael the archangel. Its New World Translation renders John 1:1 to say that “the Word was a god.” But the King James Bible, with the overwhelming majority of translations made from the Greek, reads:
Think carefully about what “a god” would mean. The Bible knows only one true God, and every other “god” is a false one: “before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isaiah 43:10). If the Word were a lesser, created god alongside Jehovah, the Bible would be teaching two gods, one true and one false. That cannot be. Either the Word is the one true God, or He is a false god. John tells us plainly which: “the Word was God.”
John goes on: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). If Jesus made every thing that was made, He cannot Himself be a thing that was made. He is not a creature. He is the Creator.
The Old Testament declares that Jehovah created all things by Himself, with no helper:
Yet the New Testament says of Jesus: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16). If Jehovah made all things alone and by Himself, and Jesus made all things, then Jesus is Jehovah.
The witness of Scripture is consistent. Isaiah calls the promised Child “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6), and in the very next chapter uses the same title for Jehovah Himself: “the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God” (Isaiah 10:21). Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), taking to Himself the name God gave at the burning bush (Exodus 3:14), and the Jews took up stones to stone Him because they understood exactly what He meant. When the doubting apostle Thomas saw the risen Lord, he did not say, “My Lord and a god”; he said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Jesus did not correct him. Paul looked for “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13), and wrote that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
The first chapter of Hebrews was written to show that the Son is far above the angels. It asks, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” (Hebrews 1:5). The answer is: to none of them, and that includes Michael. Then God commands, “And let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1:6), and says to the Son, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8).
Angels refuse worship. When John fell down before an angel, the angel said, “See thou do it not … worship God” (Revelation 22:9). If Jesus were Michael, God would be commanding angels to worship one of their own number, which He forbids. But God commands all the angels to worship the Son, because the Son is God.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that the Trinity is a pagan invention, and that the holy spirit is not a person but God’s “active force,” like electricity. But the Bible speaks of the Holy Ghost as a Person who speaks, who can be grieved, and who can be lied to:
A force cannot speak, call men to a work, or be grieved. And when Ananias lied, Peter said, “why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” (Acts 5:3–4). To lie to the Holy Ghost is to lie to God. The Lord Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19): one name, three Persons. The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, but the truth it names is on every page: there is one God, and the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
| The Question | Watchtower Teaching | The Bible Says |
|---|---|---|
| Who is Jesus Christ? | A created being; Michael the archangel before His birth; “a god” | The eternal Word who “was God”; Creator of all things (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:16; John 20:28) |
| Who is the Holy Ghost? | Not a person; God’s impersonal “active force” | A Person who speaks and can be grieved; lying to Him is lying to God (Acts 13:2; Ephesians 4:30; Acts 5:3–4) |
| How did Jesus rise? | As a spirit creature; His body did not rise | Bodily, with flesh and bones, in the same body that died (Luke 24:39; John 2:19–21) |
| Who goes to heaven? | Only 144,000 anointed; a “great crowd” hopes to live forever on a paradise earth | All who believe; a great multitude no man could number stands “before the throne” (John 14:2–3; Revelation 7:9, 15) |
| Is there a hell? | No; the wicked simply cease to exist | “Everlasting punishment” for the wicked, as lasting as “life eternal” for the righteous (Matthew 25:46) |
| How is a person saved? | Faith together with obedience, preaching, and loyalty to Jehovah’s organization | By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9; Titus 3:5; Romans 4:5) |
The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was raised as a spirit, and that His physical body was disposed of by God. But Jesus Himself foretold the resurrection of His body: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up … But he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21). He did not say God would make Him a new spirit body; He said the temple that was destroyed would be raised up. And when the frightened disciples thought they were seeing a spirit, He answered them:
The tomb was empty because the body that was laid in it had risen. That is the gospel Paul preached: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
Most Jehovah’s Witnesses are taught that heaven is reserved for 144,000 anointed ones, and that they themselves may hope at best to live forever on a paradise earth, if they remain faithful. Many have never taken the bread and wine at the Memorial because they were told the promises of the New Testament were not written to them.
But the Lord Jesus made His promise to every believer: “In my Father’s house are many mansions … I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3). In Revelation 7, after the 144,000 of the tribes of Israel, John saw “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, [who] stood before the throne, and before the Lamb”; and “they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple” (Revelation 7:9, 15). The throne of God and His temple are in heaven, and the great multitude is there. There are not two classes of believers in Christ: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). And there is only one Mediator between God and men, “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5), not for a select few but for every sinner who comes to God through Him.
A Jehovah’s Witness is taught that salvation requires faith together with faithful obedience: attending meetings, preaching from door to door, and remaining loyal to the organization led by the Governing Body. Because these works are never finished, no Witness can say with certainty that he will be saved. He must wait and hope that he is found faithful when Armageddon comes.
But the Bible teaches that salvation is entirely the work of God, given freely to sinners who deserve nothing:
Even the faith that receives Christ is not of ourselves; it is “the gift of God.” Those who believe were “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). And because salvation rests on what Christ has done and not on what we do, the believer may know that he has eternal life now: “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). Christ’s sheep “shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
The Watchtower Society presents itself as God’s channel of truth on earth. But the Bible gives a test for anyone who speaks in God’s name: “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22). The Society’s publications pointed to 1914 as the end of this system of things, then to 1925, and they raised great expectation around 1975. None of these came to pass as foretold. Your soul is too precious to entrust to any organization that has spoken in God’s name and been wrong. Trust the Word of God itself.
Dear friend, you have worked hard for Jehovah. But have you ever been sure that you will be saved? The Watchtower can only tell you to keep working, keep preaching, keep attending, and hope that you remain faithful to the end. The Bible offers you something far better: a Saviour who has already finished the work.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a created angel. He is the eternal God, who took human flesh, lived the perfect life you could never live, and died on the cross to bear the sins of His people. He rose bodily from the grave on the third day, and He lives today to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). Salvation is not earned at the door or at the Kingdom Hall. It is received as a free gift from His hand.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” — Acts 16:31
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” — John 6:37
Read the Gospel of John for yourself, without study aids, and ask God to show you who His Son really is. When you meet Him there, you may say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”