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Excerpts from e-mail interchange with a Jehovah's Witness
Recently a member of the Watchtower Society (also known as Jehovah's Witnesses) and I exchanged a lot of e-mail messages. Here are questions he asked and responses I gave. This is almost like a blog of our conversations.
- Jehovah's Witness question: Doesn't "only begotten" clearly mean that Jehovah created Jesus?
- My response: The Greek word translated as "only begotten" is monogenes. That particular word is used several times in Scripture and particularly of Jesus in John's writings. Monogenes is a compound word made up of two other words. The King James Version translators liked to translate word-for-word when possible. So when they came to the compound word monogenes, they translated mono as "only" and genes as "begotten."
There's no question about monos being the equivalent of "only." It's the genes part of that word which needs some reflection. Some have assumed it comes from a Greek word which means "give birth" or "beget." Others says that last half of monogenes comes from the Greek noun genos which most often means "kind" or "type." Thus, many modern translations will use the phrase "one and only" or "one of a kind" in passages like John 3:16.
Some scholars see monogenes as a strengthened form of monos meaning "alone," "unique," and "incomparable." In support of this is the way the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) renders Psalm 25:16, "Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely (monogenes) and afflicted" (NASB). In this passage monogenes clearly means "alone" rather having anything to do with descent. It means "the only kin or kind," hence, "the only." In John 3:16 "begotten" does not mean generated or created. "Begotten" is instead a reference to a relationship without reference to origin.
Have you read any of the writings of C.S. Lewis? He's the author of things like The Screwtape Letters and The Chronicles of Narnia. In his book Mere Christianity, Lewis says:"To beget is to become the father of something; to create is to make something. When you beget something you beget something that is the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, and beaver begets beavers, and a bird begets eggs that become baby birds. But when you make, you make of a kind different from yourself. Birds make nests, beavers make dams, a man makes a wireless set. . . What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man creates is not man."Lewis is saying that if God "begat" Jesus, then Jesus was God. If John did not mean equality in terms of essence, mind and heart, he would have said God created Jesus. Does it say anywhere in Scripture that God "created" Jesus?
When used of Christ, "only begotten" means "unique" and "only beloved." Only begotten expresses Christ's eternal union with the Father in the Godhead. What monogenes does is to direct our attention to God's character, will, love and grace as it is conveyed in the person of Jesus Christ.
- Jehovah's Witness question: Did you know that Jesus is the only thing God actually created? According to John 1, it was Jesus who then created everything.
- My answer: I'm glad that you agree Jesus was the Creator of all things. Having established that, then we need to look at the following Scriptures:
- "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth." -- Genesis 14:19
- "But Abram said to the king of Sodom, 'I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath'" -- Genesis 14:22
- "Is this the way you repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?" -- Deuteronomy 32:6
- "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." -- Isaiah 40:28
Don't these passages clearly refer to Yahweh as Creator? If Yahweh is the Creator and Jesus created all things (as you agree that John 1 says), then Jesus must be Yahweh. . . . unless, of course, you're going to say we shouldn't take those Scriptures literally. To be sure, you have said: "The scriptures decide what is literal and what is not literal, not us." In none of these passages is there any indication the words are not to be taken literally. Therefore, if we follow your principle, we must take them as literal. Right?
As Paul talks about Jesus in his letter to the Colossians, he says that "all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). If Jesus had been the Michael the Archangel -- rather than Yahweh himself -- would he have really created all things for himself? Would an angel - even an archangel -- have dared to do that? Would not such a statement be directly contrary to Isaiah 43:7 which says God or Yahweh created "everyone ... for my glory"? If Jesus was fully God, then there's no contradiction between the passage in Isaiah and the one in Colossians. If Jesus was not Yahweh, then don't you have two contradictory statements?- Jehovah's Witness question: How do you explain 1 Corinthians 8:6 ("Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live")?
- My answer: First, let's look at the whole chapter. To really understand any Scripture verse, we need to see it in the original context in which it appears. The principal issue in 1 Corinthians 8 is what Christians in Corinth were to do about buying food that had been previously sacrificed to idols.
In that discussion, Paul declares to the Corinthian believers that the idols they see throughout their city have no power. Most people in Corinth followed religions that had multiple gods. Paul declares to the believers in Corinth that there is only one God and one Lord.
Paul is not trying to say to the Corinthians: "Instead of many gods and lords, there is only one of each." Paul is saying there is only one God, only one Lord. Isn't that clear when he uses the exact same phraseology to describe both God the Father and Jesus Christ ("through whom all things came and through whom we live")? Also, as Paul continues the discussion in verse eight, he doesn't continue talking about both God and Jesus as though they were separate. He only talks about God.
In chapter nine, Paul mentions Moses. Didn't Moses refer to Yahweh as "Lord" numerous times in his writings (the Hebrew word which Moses uses is Adonai)? Among those would be Genesis 16:13: "She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me." Another example would be the clear reference to Yahweh as Lord in Genesis 24:12: "Then he prayed, 'O Lord, God of my master Abraham.'"
Now, if the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to refer to Yahweh as Lord and the same Holy Spirit inspired Paul to say there is only one Lord and that Lord is Jesus, wouldn't that mean that Jesus is Yahweh?
In Paul's writings, the opportunity for Gentiles to be converted is built on Isaiah's description of what will happen when the Messiah has come and there will be a light to the nations, "a light to the gentiles." That phrase comes from Isaiah 42 where the prophet also writes, "This is what God the Lord says" (Isaiah 42:5).
Since Paul says "there is only one Lord," do you think he had forgotten about all those Old Testament Scriptures which refer to God as "Lord"? Or, had he just badly misunderstood them?
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene
University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone:
405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
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