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a god or THE GOD?

 

If you speak to a Jehovah Witness about Jesus, he will not hesitate to tell you Jesus is “a god” but not part of the Godhead (i.e members of this group do not believe Jesus is deity).  Jehovah Witnesses believe Jesus is a created being—Michael the Archangel.

 

In Jn. 1:1 the ASV says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  The New World Translation says, In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.”  See the difference?  Jehovah Witnesses believe Jesus was “godlike” or “a god,” but He is not deity (equal with the Father).

 

Jehovah Witnesses base their belief and their rendering of this verse on the fact that a definite article (the word “the”) does not appear before God in the Greek text.  According to them, if the Greek text does not read “the God,” the passage may be understood as “a god.”

 

Not only is Greek scholarship against the Jehovah Witness assertion, God shows us that this view of Jesus is completely wrong.  Take some time to read Luke 1:35, 78; 2:40; John 1:6, 12, 13; 3:2, 21; Romans 1:7, 17.  Each of these verses is like John 1:1—the word “God” is without the definite article (“the”) in the Greek text.  If the lack of a definite article in Jn. 1 justifies the rendering “a god,” such would also be true for each of the preceding verses. 

 

If you put the preceding passages in your margin by John 1:1, you will be ready to share this important truth with any Jehovah Witnesses that comes knocking on your door.