1. Is Jesus Inferior to the Father?
Answer:
a. John 14:28 Jesus said "....the Father _______ _________________ than I am." How can the two be equal?
(This is answered in Lesson #3--Is God More Than One Person?")
b. John 12:44-49 "....but the Father himself who __________ __________ has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak." If God sent Him, that means that God is greater, so how can He then be equal with God?
A royal person is often sent on a royal Tour to another country by their people to represent them. Those sent are very careful in what they say and do abroad. This does not mean that they are inferior to those who sent them. The fact that Christ did His Father's will completely only emphasizes the perfect unity of the Godhead.
c. 1 Corinthians 11:3 (NWT) "....the head of every man is the Christ; in turn the head of a woman is the man; in turn ________ ________________ of the ________________ is God."
Since the head of Christ is God (the Father) does this mean Jesus is inferior to the Father? This question is answered by considering the statement of Paul "...the head of a woman is the man..." In what respect is a woman inferior to a man? Is it in rank or essence? In rank the man is greater, but in essence they are equally human. Because the man is human and greater than the woman, does this mean she is any less human? No! Similarly with the Father and Son. In rank the Father was greater than the Son, but in essence they are both equally divine. Jesus is not any the less Divine. As the man and woman are both human so Father and Son are both God.
In dealing with this subject one cannot over-emphasize the fact that there is perfect unity in the Godhead. There is no tension or competition. If one Person has some task or authority, it does not mean they are superior. In this regard it is well to keep these texts in mind:
d. Matthew 28:18 (NWT) "And Jesus approached and spoke to them saying: 'All __________________ has been given ____________ in heaven and on the earth....'"
e. John 5:22 (NWT) "For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed ___________ ___________ ___________________________ to the _____________."
Was the Son superior to the Father because all authority and all judging was committed to Him? No! Both are a unity receiving equal honour and this is brought out in the next verse:
f. John 5:23 (NWT) "....in order that all may ________________ ____________ _______________ just as they __________________ ___________ ___________________. He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him."
How can two people receive the same honour, unless they are equal?
2. Is there something that the Father knows that Jesus does not know?
Mark 13:32 (NWT), Acts 1:6, 7 (NWT)
Answer:
a. "Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven __________ __________ ______________, but ____________ ____________________ only." Mark 13:32
The thinking is, if Jesus does not know the time of His coming (or Parousia) then He is not equal to the Father, who does. How then can Jesus be God? The answer to this problem lies in determining whether Christ made this statement, because He should not know, or chose not to know the time of His coming.
Just before Jesus returned to heaven He was asked:
b. "'Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?' He said to them: 'It does not belong to __________ to get _______________________ of the times or seasons which ___________ ____________________ has placed in his own jurisdiction;....'" Acts 1:6, 7
From the above text it is obvious that Jesus did not tell them the time of His coming, not because He could not but rather because He chose not to, because it was not for their best good. He knew it was best for His people to live in a state of readiness and expectation of His return.
Throughout Christ's life on earth, there was knowledge and power that was available to Him, which He did not choose to use.
3. What is one thing that is impossible for God to do that Jesus did?
Habukkuk 1:12 (NWT)
Answer: "Are you not from long ago, O Jehovah? O my God, my Holy One, ___________ _____________ _______________ _________________." Habukkuk 1:12
Therefore, the argument is that Jesus cannot be God because He died, because God cannot die. How is this explained? Christ had a dual nature, He was both the Son of Man and the Son of God. It was His humanity that died. His Divinity could not die. Jesus stated that He had power to lay down His life and power to take it up again, John 10:18. He also said that if His body temple were destroyed that "in three days I will raise it up." John 2:19-21.
His Divine nature had power to give life to His human nature. Describing His Deity in the Tomb, it has been said, "As in the womb, so in the Tomb." It was quiescent, however His human nature suffered and was tortured as completely as any other man dying the same death.
4. Doesn't this following verse of Scripture prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is only Jehovah the Father, not Jehovah the Son?
John 17:3 (NWT) Acts 4:12 (NWT) 1 John 5:13 (NWT)
Answer:
a. The text reads: "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you _________ ______________ _____________ __________ and of the one whom you sent forth, _____________ __________________." John 17:3
In this text it is contended that Jesus Christ is excluded from being part of the only true God! That being so, then Christ must be a false (god), for this NWT earlier in John 1:1, stated that He is "a god."
However, a little reflection on this verse soon reveals that this text does not exclude Jesus Christ from being part of this "only true God." The emphasis is in contrast to other false gods, in whom there is no salvation.
If a knowledge of the true God means everlasting life, then Jesus Christ must be part of this "only true God" because:
b. "Furthermore, there is _______ ______________________ in __________________ ____________, for there is _____________ another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must ________ __________________." Acts 4:12
c. "I write these things that you may know that you have __________ ________________________, you who put your faith in _________ _________________ of the ___________ of ______________." 1 John 5:13
The problem that most people have with John 17:3, is to understand how Jesus Christ can be separate from the only true God, and yet still be a member of that God (or Godhead). This can be illustrated by a telegram that could be addressed to the British royalty:
"The people of Australia know and appreciate the Royal Family, and the one you have sent to represent you on this royal visit to Australia, your eldest son, Charles."
A son is still a member of a royal family unit, even though he is separate from them. Furthermore he is still royal. In a similar way, Jesus was still a member of the Godhead, even though he was separated on this earth. He was still divine, of the same essence as the Father, --He was God.
There are more texts that we need to explore in conjunction with John 17:3.
d. 1 Corinthians 8:6 (NWT) "There is actually to us _________ _____________ the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him; and there is _________ ______________, _______________ _____________, through whom all things are, and we through him."
The Watchtower Society argues that this text means that there is but one God and that this is just the one person of the Father. Therefore any teaching upholding the Deity of Christ or the Trinity can not be true!
However, does this text mean that God the Father is God exclusively? Why does the Bible so often use the term, "God the Father," if only the person of the Father was God?
It is interesting what Paul wrote to the Galatians:
e. Galatians 1:1 (NWT) "Paul, an apostle neither from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and _________ the ____________, who raised him up from the dead.?"
Paul could have quite easily have written, "....through Jesus Christ and God, who raised him up from the dead"!
Why add "the Father?" It was because the Son had also been revealed as a Divine Being, as God!
Here is an interesting text concerning God, the Father:
f. Malachi 2:10 (NWT) "Is it not _________ ______________ that all of us have? Is it not _________ ___________ that has ____________ _________?"
Our Jehovah's Witness friends would be quick to agree that this is God the Father! the only true God! However, now go back to a text mentioned a number of times before and closely examine what it has to say about Father and also about God. Who is it talking about in this verse? Jesus:
Isaiah 9:6 (NWT) "Mighty _____________, Eternal ____________...."
Father and Son are both God. Members of the one true God. Both of them are also Lord!
5. Wasn't the mediator who was between God and man, only just a man?
1 Timothy 2:5 (NWT)
Answer: "There is _________ _________________, and one mediator between God and men, a ____________, Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 2:5.
The argument is that since Christ is the mediator, "a man, Christ Jesus," and He mediates between God and man, He cannot Himself be God.
Rather than prove that Jesus cannot be God, this verse shows the value of Jesus being both God and man. Only by being God can Jesus fully comprehend the claims of God, and only by being man can Jesus fully comprehend the needs of men. He is thus the perfect bridge between God and men, the perfect mediator!
(The Watchtower Society will allow that Jesus was more than a man, their publications will even grant Him a status as high as the Archangel! So any argument that He was only a man, because of this text, is not what they really believe anyway. The truth is, of course, that this Archangel, was fully Divine, He was God!)
OBJECTIONS TO THE DEITY AND PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
6. How can the Holy Spirit be a Person and fill people?
Answer:
On the day of Pentecost the Bible says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It is argued that for this to happen, the Holy Spirit would have had to be an "active force," not a "person."
Furthermore people are baptized in the Spirit, and once again the Watchtower Society believes this could not happen if the Spirit was a person.
The answer to this question is no problem if we realize that while the Holy Spirit has all the attributes of personality, and as such is a Person, it is still Spirit. People can be possessed by evil spirits, so it is no problem for people likewise to be possessed by the Holy Spirit.
7. How can the Holy Spirit be a person and be "poured out?"
See Acts 2:17. Isaiah 53:12 (NWT)
Answer:
The fact that the Holy Spirit is "poured out" is also no problem, because we often speak of people "pouring out themselves" or being "immersed" (baptized by the Spirit) in someone's personality. The Bible even speaks of Jesus "pouring out" His soul:
"due to the fact that he ____________ ___________ his soul to the very death...." Isaiah 53:12
If the Bible says Jesus could "pour out" His soul, then the expression that the Person of the Holy Spirit, which after all is "spirit," is also poured out, should be no problem to us!
Noteworthy: In 1989, The Watchtower Society published: Should you Believe in the Trinity? In this booklet the Society has wrested many of the quotations out of context to make the authors appear to say the opposite of what they believed. Other quotations are taken from liberal scholars who themselves do not believe in the authenticity of the Bible let alone the Trinity. Few quotes give the page or chapter numbers which makes it difficult to check the Society's dishonest scholarship!
However, Robert M. Bowman, Jr., has done just this in: Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, available from Baker Book House or Koorong Books in Australia.