Vol. 10, No. 8, 1993

The Jesus of The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society

by James Walker

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, teaches that Jesus has not always existed, but was himself a created being originally named Michael, the Archangel.

The Jehovah's Witnesses' view of Christ is explained in their book, Aid to Bible Understanding. Under the heading Michael, they state, "Scriptural evidence indicated that the name Michael applied to God's Son before he left heaven to become Jesus Christ and also after his return. Michael is the only one said to be the `archangel,' meaning `chief angel' or `principle angel'" (p. 1152).

The Watchtower's Jesus is not equal to God the Father nor Eternal but is himself a created being. Under the section Jesus Christ, they teach, "Thus the scriptures identify the Word (Jesus in his pre-human existence) as God's first creation, his firstborn Son. this son was actually a creature of God" (Ibid, p. 918).

Jehovah's Witnesses also teach that this archangel was transformed into a human at Bethlehem and was named Jesus but he was not yet the Christ. The Society's book, Things In Which it is Impossible for God to Lie, teaches, "Not at birth but at thirty years of age Jesus became Christ or `Anointed One'" (p. 211).

Jehovah's Witnesses are also told that Christ did not die on a cross, which is considered to be a symbol of apostate Christianity. Instead, they believe that, "On Nisan 14 of the year 33 C.E. Jesus' enemies put him to death on a torture stake [a single upright pole]" (The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, p. 51).

By this method only one nail would have been used to secure Jesus' hands. The Witnesses have published pictures depicting such a "torture stake" (Awake, 1 April 1974, p. 14).

Jesus never rose bodily from the dead according to Jehovah's Witnesses. In The Kingdom is at Hand they explain, "At death he laid aside the human organism in which he ministered as a new creature for three and a half years; and in his resurrection he was no more human. He was raised as a spirit creature" (p. 258).

The human body of Christ was destroyed according to the Watchtower. After his spiritual resurrection, he appeared to his disciples in different temporary fleshly bodies. The Society states, "However for forty days after his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on different occasions in various fleshly bodies, just as angels had appeared to men of ancient times. Like those angels, he had the power to construct and to disintegrate those fleshly bodies at will, for the purpose of proving visibly that he had been resurrected" (Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1394).

Because Watchtower theology teaches that Christ's resurrection was not bodily but spiritual only, they teach that his second coming (they prefer the term presence) would be invisible (Ibid, pp. 1335-36). The Society teaches that this second Presence has already occurred. Originally it was taught the second presence had happened in the year 1874.

A short biography of Charles Taze Russell, founder of the organization, was published in the Society's book, The Divine plan of the Ages. It records, "Like other Christians he [Russell] was looking for the second coming of Christ. Between 1872-1876 he discovered that the Scriptures clearly teach that the Lord would not return in a body of flesh, but would return as a spirit being, invisible to human eyes, and that his second presence was due in the autumn of 1874" (1927 ed., p. 4).

However, the Society later revised its chronology and now dates this invisible second presence in the year 1914 (The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, p. 86).

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses Jesus is a created being, the Archangel Michael, a man who became the Christ 30 years after his birth at Bethlehem, a resurrected spirit creature and who returned invisible in 1914. Is this the Jesus of the Bible?