by bruh2012 31 Replies latest watchtower bible
In WT Christology, is Jesus just an Angel ? albeit the Archangel ? if so, that is rather at odds with what is claimed in many scriptures for the risen Christ.
"Michael" may be the foremost Angel, but the risen Christ seems to be more that just an Angel.
Bruh2012: When Jesus oh wait Michael pulled Saul over and talked to him, he introduced [himself] as Jesus.
That’s a damn good point, Bruh. Of all the doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the one of Jesus being Michael is the strangest. And it’s a doctrine that is based entirely on extrapolation. Not one of the ancient Jewish or Christian texts discovered over the past hundred years, whether in the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Nag Hammadi writings that teach, or even suggest, such a thing. There are non-canonical texts that suggest what the first century Christians thought, and that’s that Jesus’ premortal name was Yahweh.
Methodist scholar Margaret Barker, who has written extensively on these writings, notes in her masterpiece, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel's Second God, that “There were many in first-century Palestine who still retained a world-view derived from the more ancient religion of Israel in which there was a High God and several Sons of God, one of whom was Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. Yahweh, the Lord, could be manifested on earth in human form.... It was a manifestation of Yahweh, the Son of God, that Jesus was acknowledged as Son of God, Messiah and Lord.” (Emphasis hers)
She later explains:
Nowhere is it taught that Jesus was the only son of God, but that he was the Only Begotten of the Father. The scriptures teach that when Adam fell, man needed a mediator — a go-between. The Father, or the High God, could no longer speak to man directly, and this includes prophets. Thus, he had pre-ordained His Son, Jehovah, to be that go-between. In fact, because of the divine decree of witnesses, the Father can bear witness of the Son, as can the Holy Spirit. That’s why the JW view of the Holy Spirit being an active force is wrong. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. So the Father is one, the Holy Spirit is two. How can they bear witness of Jesus if the Holy Spirit is only a force? But during Jesus’ baptism, the Father bore witness and the Holy Spirit bore witness. If Jehovah’s Witnesses are bad in math, that’s two witnesses. During the battle of Armageddon, John says there will be two prophets, or witnesses, who will minister unto the Jews. Again, the number two is significant. Jesus bore witness of himself, and the High God and the Spirit fulfilled the law.
One thing the Jehovah’s Witnesses have going for them in their beliefs is that Jesus was an angel before the world was, but the down side is that he wasn’t Michael. In the oldest accounts, Jesus was an “angel” who was appointed to his position. He, like the other angels, was also one of God’s sons — the eldest and most intelligent. “Angel” (BTW) means “sent” one” like the term “apostle.” To think of Jesus as God’s firstborn Son (eldest), and Only Begotten Son is appropriate, but it flies in the face of “traditional” Christianity, which states that Jesus has always been God, and co-equal with the Father. Clearly, Jesus wasn’t God while he was in the flesh; also clearly, he was not the same Being as the Father. But he was God before he was born into the flesh. As mediator, he appeared to Adam and Eve after the fall, Enoch, Noah, Shem (the great High Priest), Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the other prophets. When Yahweh appeared to Moses and spoke to him face-to-face, and when he appeared to the seventy elders of Israel, Joshua and Aaron, they not only saw him, but had a prepared meal in his presence.
After the Lord’s resurrection, he returned to his position as Jehovah, but retained the name of Jesus. In the Old Testament, he was called the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the judge of mankind — all titles of Yahweh and the Son of God. And John tells us that the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son.
Clearly, Jesus is deity. There is no evidence whatsoever that he was the archangel Michael.
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