SB- The Watchtower and every JW that I have spoken with denies that Jesus raised himself from the dead. Was Jesus lying?
Is this truly correct tho?
When Jesus spoke of raising himself, it is understood that 'himself' is referring to the essence of God. But even that essence had to be separated into the form of Jesus as man (from the Father who always remained alive) in order for him to really die.
Jesus the Son still depended on the separate Father to raise him up. But because they are both of the same essence of God, Jesus said he raised himself. In reality the JW belief is not utterly different from just about all other Christian belief regarding this (even tho JW also claims to be innovative on this).
The issue is in the understanding of this 'essence' of God and not necessarily on the technicalities of how the resurrection of Christ actually occurred, which is something that no human will ever truly understand.