Jehovah Witnesses often appeal to "reason" as to why they cannot accept the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. They conclude that the doctrine of the Trinity is unreasonable, therefore it is false. I do not accept that it is unreasonable. My reasoning actually leads me to believe that Jesus HAS to be God inorder for God to get ALL the glory in salvation (I'll deal with this shortly). But of course, we are not left to the subjectivity of fallen man's reasoning to determine whether or not Jesus was fully God. We are to go to scripture and be faithful to its witness.
Isaiah 48:11: "For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another."
Isaiah 42:8: "I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols."
God clearly says that He will not share His glory with another. God reserves all glory for Himself. Yet, Jesus says:
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.- John 17:5
Notice that this is NOT a glory given to the son. This is a glory that Jesus had with the Father, before the world existed, before He came into the world as a man. This was not new to Him. No angel, no mere created being, no matter how excellent in its creation, can ever utter these words: "with the glory I had with you before the world existed".
In addition, Jonah 2:9 teaches us that "Salvation is of the Lord". What Jehovah's Witnesses are saying is that Jehovah God created a being (Jesus) and decreed that this being die for men- becoming their object of faith- that leads towards salvation. This is of course unreasonable and most importantly- unscriptural. It does not give all the glory to God, but to a "created being". It is not consistent with scripture, and was deemed heresy in 325 AD.
John Gill comments: "that all kind of salvation is of the Lord, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; not only this salvation from the devouring waves of the sea, and from the grave of the fish's belly, was of the Lord; but his deliverance from the terrors of the Lord, and the sense he had of his wrath, and the peace and pardon he now partook of, were from the Lord, as well as eternal salvation in the world to come, and the hope of it. All temporal salvations and deliverances are from the Lord, and to him the glory of them belongs; and his name should be praised on account of them; which Jonah resolved to do for himself: and so is spiritual and eternal salvation; it is of Jehovah the Father, as to the original spring and motive of it, which is his grace, and not men's works, and is owing to his wisdom, and not men's, for the plan and form of it; it is of Jehovah the Son, as to the impetration of it, who only has wrought it out; and it is of Jehovah the Spirit, as to the application of it to particular persons; and therefore the glory of it belongs to all the three Persons, and should be given them. This is the epiphonema or conclusion of the prayer or thanksgiving; which shows that it was, as before observed, put into this form or order, after the salvation was wrought; though that is related afterwards, as it is proper it should, and as the order of the narration required."
Note: We are not saying that Jesus is a second god (which Jehovah witnesses teach-given their translation of John 1:1). Rather, we are teaching what historical and biblical Christianity has always taught: That in the one being of God, there exist three co-equal and co-eternal persons, namely, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
In Christ, Awretchsaved
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