- Mar 5, 2024
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The Lie That Christ Is Not God, Part 1
One of the false doctrines propagated by the Jehovahs Witnesses is that Christ is not God. This teaching can be refuted by a number of New Testament passages, but what makes it complicated in debating with them is that they will often point to the earliest manuscripts to support their teachings, discounting a variety of passages as being invalid, by claiming that the later texts were corrupted by the early church in order to teach their "heretical" doctrines, including the common notion that Christ was the equivalent to Jehovah.
They run into a very serious problem, however, when they get to the text of Colossians 2:2, where the apostle Paul literally referred to Jesus as 'The God Christ." This text might be better rendered "Christ our God" for readability, but the reason it is such a problem is because this reading is found in not the latest but in the earliest texts of the New Testament, including P46 which is pictured above. The Greek literally reads here "τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ θεοῦ Χριστοῦ," where the genitive is used both of Christ and God, making the strict translation, "The mystery of The God Christ." This makes the verse exceedingly problematic for the argument that Christ is somehow not God.
A Lie That Undermines It All
The above has more bearing on proper Christian theology than meets the eye. In reality, the entirety of Paul's theology hangs in the balance. Six verses later he goes on to say, "Take heed that there not be anyone making a prey of you through philosophy... in accordance with the doctrines of men and not in accordance with Christ, for in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:8-9, where the word "Godhead" here is Θεότης, which literally means "Divinity").
Like many verses the Jehovahs Witnesses don't like, they attempt to retranslate this as "in him the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily." This subtle change is then used to say Jesus merely possessed qualities like God, as if to say Jesus was merely the "agent" of God but not God Himself.
What is not said is that if the Godhead is not what is meant here, then the church does not have the Godhead literally dwelling within them through the Holy Spirit. They only figuratively "abide" in His agent, a mere man. In other words, if Christ Jesus is not God and the Holy Spirit is not God, then we merely share godly traits with another human being, an interpretation that completely rots the timbers out of Paul's theology about how the church abides in Christ, and by extension abides within God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
No wonder they don't operate in supernatural gifts. Their theology essentially makes it an impossibility, and this is the destructiveness of heresy. Satan consistently seeks to separate humanity from God and more specifically from the Presence of God, so that he can then deceive them all the more easily, prey upon them, and ultimately destroy them. True Christianity seeks to unite us with the Spirit of God by teaching that He desires to dwell within us, for if He does then He will protect His church from deception, lies, false teachings and the kinds of heresies taught by people like the Jehovahs Witnesses.
As with the Colossians, we are today being presented with false doctrines designed to rob us of the richness of abiding in Christ through the Holy Spirit, and believers today must not allow that to happen.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him
One of the false doctrines propagated by the Jehovahs Witnesses is that Christ is not God. This teaching can be refuted by a number of New Testament passages, but what makes it complicated in debating with them is that they will often point to the earliest manuscripts to support their teachings, discounting a variety of passages as being invalid, by claiming that the later texts were corrupted by the early church in order to teach their "heretical" doctrines, including the common notion that Christ was the equivalent to Jehovah.
They run into a very serious problem, however, when they get to the text of Colossians 2:2, where the apostle Paul literally referred to Jesus as 'The God Christ." This text might be better rendered "Christ our God" for readability, but the reason it is such a problem is because this reading is found in not the latest but in the earliest texts of the New Testament, including P46 which is pictured above. The Greek literally reads here "τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ θεοῦ Χριστοῦ," where the genitive is used both of Christ and God, making the strict translation, "The mystery of The God Christ." This makes the verse exceedingly problematic for the argument that Christ is somehow not God.
A Lie That Undermines It All
The above has more bearing on proper Christian theology than meets the eye. In reality, the entirety of Paul's theology hangs in the balance. Six verses later he goes on to say, "Take heed that there not be anyone making a prey of you through philosophy... in accordance with the doctrines of men and not in accordance with Christ, for in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 2:8-9, where the word "Godhead" here is Θεότης, which literally means "Divinity").
Like many verses the Jehovahs Witnesses don't like, they attempt to retranslate this as "in him the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily." This subtle change is then used to say Jesus merely possessed qualities like God, as if to say Jesus was merely the "agent" of God but not God Himself.
What is not said is that if the Godhead is not what is meant here, then the church does not have the Godhead literally dwelling within them through the Holy Spirit. They only figuratively "abide" in His agent, a mere man. In other words, if Christ Jesus is not God and the Holy Spirit is not God, then we merely share godly traits with another human being, an interpretation that completely rots the timbers out of Paul's theology about how the church abides in Christ, and by extension abides within God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
No wonder they don't operate in supernatural gifts. Their theology essentially makes it an impossibility, and this is the destructiveness of heresy. Satan consistently seeks to separate humanity from God and more specifically from the Presence of God, so that he can then deceive them all the more easily, prey upon them, and ultimately destroy them. True Christianity seeks to unite us with the Spirit of God by teaching that He desires to dwell within us, for if He does then He will protect His church from deception, lies, false teachings and the kinds of heresies taught by people like the Jehovahs Witnesses.
As with the Colossians, we are today being presented with false doctrines designed to rob us of the richness of abiding in Christ through the Holy Spirit, and believers today must not allow that to happen.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him
