I write to a Jehovah's Witness proving that Jesus is NOT Michael!

[Limey_Bob]

Robert Skynner

166 Tamar House

James Street

Plymouth

PL1 4HJ

 

15^th February 2012

 

Dear Richard,

 

I’ve been looking at the Scriptures for with regard to Michael the Archangel. Here is he result of my studies. Scripture mentions Michael five times at: Daniel 10:13, 21, 12:1, Jude 9 and Revelation 12:7. Michael is addressed as ‘Archangel’ (meaning the chief angel) at Jude 9. However, at none of these five verses is it stated or even hinted, that Jesus Christ is Michael the Archangel. From my copies of Russell’s (Zion’s) Watchtower, the Watchtower did for a long time teach that Michael was not the Michael: (Zion’s Watchtower, November 1879, page 48) – see the scan below:

(unfortunately this scan won't copy from word).

 

1.      At both Acts 17:31 and 1^st Timothy 2:5, Jesus Christ in his post-resurrection state is described as ‘a man’ which is the Greek word ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos this word is numbered G444 in Strongs Concordance. However, the Watchtower contradicts this by claiming that Christ in the year 1914 defeated Satan as an angel, that is as Michael the archangel and not as a resurrected and glorified man: Revelation its Grand Climax at Hand, page 181, section 16. This claim is further undermined at Matthew 24:30, Mark 13:26 and Luke 21:27, where Christ is at his second coming is described with the messianic title; ‘The Son of Man,’ however, angels aren’t human beings and so angels cannot be described as the ‘Sons of men.’

 

 

2.      Hebrews 1:4 states that Jesus Christ isn’t an angel, because he is: “so much better than the angels.” The context is given at verse three, where the representation of an image made by a seal in wax is made, to illustrate the fact that Christ and the Father both share the same divine nature.  This is why Christ is superior to the angels.

 

 

3.      The angels always refuse to accept any worship which is directed towards them, see Revelation 22:8-9. And yet at Hebrews 1:6 God the Father directly commands the angels to worship his Son; Jesus Christ. “Let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1:6, 1961 edition NWT, also all other modern and ancient translations).

 

4.      Michael the Archangel was unable to rebuke Satan, and instead he said to him; ‘the Lord rebuke you’ (Jude 9, TEB), also translated as ‘may Jehovah rebuke you’ (Jude 9, NWT 1961 edition). Yet Jesus Christ did rebuke Satan, and he clearly did so himself at Matthew 4:10, where the 1961 edition NWT states that Christ rebuked Satan by stating: “Go away Satan! For it is written, ‘it is Jehovah your God you must worship, and to him alone you must render service.’ ”

 

 

5.      At Daniel 10:13 Michael isn’t identified as God’s Son, and neither is he spoken of as being unique in any sense whatsoever. For Michael is here identified in the plural as “one of the chief princes.” So because Michael is only one angel amongst a company of fellow senior angels, just as Daniel 10:13 states. So Christ, who is uniquely the μονογενής monogenēs ‘only begotten Son’ of God (John 3:16, 3:18, 1^st John 4:9-14) and that by his uniquely (ontological) nature which he shares with the Father (Hebrews 1:3), cannot also at the very same time also be Michael, who is just one senior angel amongst a company of other similar (higher) angelic beings.

 

 

6.      At Hebrews 1:13 God the Father here makes a direct quotation of Psalm 110:1 and he then directly applies this to Jesus Christ: “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” Now if Christ were really Michael the archangel, then this verse wouldn’t make any sense. For the entire purport of this passage is to state that Christ only sits at his Father’s right hand, which in Jewish terminology means a position of rank and authority, because he is uniquely God’s Son (which archangels are not).

 

 

7.      We read at Hebrews 2:5 concerning the world to come, which Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret as the promised paradise earth that it won’t be a world which will be in subjection to the angels. However, at Hebrews 2:8, of this coming age we read that all things, which must surely include the new earth itself, will then be in complete subjection to Jesus Christ. So Christ cannot be an angel, or else they’d be a direct contradiction at Hebrews chapter 2 between verses 5 and 8.

 

 

8.      How can Jesus be Michael the Archangel, when according to John 14:9 to see Jesus Christ is to see God the Father: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” However, a mere archangel, who isn’t Yahweh God, cannot reveal Yahweh to us, for only Yahweh himself can genuinely reveal himself to us! Could you the reader, reveal Yahweh God to another by the sheer force of your own will? Of course not, and for the obvious reason that because the reader isn’t God therefore he or she cannot reveal someone who they are not, for it is only possible to reveal yourself to another.

 

 

9.      1^st Corinthians 6:3 speaking of God’s people, states that they will soon judge angels: “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” However, if Jesus Christ is the Archangel Michael, who became this angel once again after his crucifixion, when his body dissolved into gasses, but was then recreated by Jehovah as the archangel Michael. Then to be consistent shouldn’t Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that one day they’ll judge Jesus Christ, if he’s an angel himself, in the light of 1^st Corinthians 6:3. 

10.  When Christ returns to this earth at his second coming, we are told at 1^st John 3:2 of our own resurrections; “that we shall be like him.” However, as I’ve already mentioned, the Bible states very clearly at both: Acts 17:31 and 1^st Timothy 2:5 that Christ in his post-resurrection state is described as ‘a man’ (ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos). However, the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ was recreated by Jehovah as an archangel at his resurrection (he was not resurrected as a man). Then because we shall be like him, if Christ is now an archangel, then that would mean that on their paradise earth, all Jehovah’s Witnesses would likewise also lose their human natures, being instead remade into angels themselves, just like their own version of  Jesus!

 

 

11.   The Revelation book on page 181, section 15, applies 1^st Thessalonians 4:16 to Jesus and then makes the claim that this archangel is Jesus Christ. But this text does not state that the archangel is the Lord (Jesus) who descends from heaven, anymore than it states that the Lord (Jesus) who descends from heaven is a trumpet or a voice. The shout of the archangel and the trumpet of God both announce Christ’s return; but they are not Christ himself. If the Watchtower Society is to be consistent, they they ought to concede that if Christ is the archangel then he is also a trumpet! The – οῦ suffix ending in Greek, which is used of both the archangel ἀρχαγγέλου and also of God θεοῦ at 1^st Thessaolonians 4:16, is a genitive singular which implies a grammatical possession. See the back cover of the Purple edition of the Kingdom Interlinear Translation where a grammar sheet is provided at the bottom of the back cover. So the shout is the archangel’s voice and the trumpet is God’s announcement according to the use of this genitive singular tense.

 

 

Finally.  Speaking of Jesus Christ’s human body, Paul at 1^st Corinthians 15:44 does not claim that Christ rose from the dead as a ‘spirit,’ nut instead he tells us that at his resurrection, that Jesus rose as a ‘spiritual’ (πνευματικός pneumatikos) body (σῶμα sōma). This word pnumaticos means ‘spirit controlled,’ as in the instance of the rock which Moses struck 1^st Corinthians 10:4, this rock was a literal rock and it wasn’t something composed out of spirit. The word ‘soma’ (body) in the singular tense always means a physical body, and this word never means ‘a spirit’ or something non-physical (such as a ghost), when its used in the singular, which is why Christ is then called a man (anthropos) three times at 1^st Corinthians 15:47-49. So at his resurrection, from Yahweh his Father (who is a divine Spirit), and through Christ who is this same Divine Spirit; Jesus could now bestow everlasting life upon his elect, so he thus became a life-giving Spirit (verse 45), whilst at the very same time he also rose as a man with a genuine physical body (soma) which was spiritually dominated (pnumaticos) by the divine spirit.

 

Thank you

 

Robert XXXXX

 

FOLKS, I SEE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES OUT ON THE STREETS DOING THEIR CART WORK HERE IN PLYMOUTH, UK. WE NEED TO CHALLENGE THEM.