Introduction to My Lord and My God

One of the interesting facets of our culture is the way in which things have a way of going around in cycles. Whether it be music, fashion or whatever, what fell out of style yesterday is sure to be back in style tomorrow.

The first house my wife and I lived in as husband and wife was built in the mid-1970’s. It came with shag carpeting (which we replaced in part,) but the thing that spoke most loudly about the vintage was the earth tones in the bathrooms. We had one almond and one green coloured one. In getting towels, drapes, etc. for the almond one, we did all right. But with the green one it was tough; in the 1980’s, when everyone wanted to “paint it black” matching the earth tone green was a real trick.

We eventually sold the house to a couple who were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Our new home was built in the early 1990’s and so the colour scheme was, we thought, a little more up to date. One evening at the department store, however, as my wife was carefully examining every item on the sale rack, my eyes fell on a poster with pictures of the newest fashion colours and the caption: “Earth tones.” Sure enough, it looked from the colours that our old bathrooms were back in style again. As the “Christian Greek Scriptures” (to borrow a phrase from our friends in the Watchtower) would say, my eyes were opened; I started to see such colours on people at church, and I realised that something I never expected to see again was once again back in vogue.

Such repeats go beyond fashion. The couple to whom we had sold our house not only are back in colour fashion, but their religious organisation has brought back an idea that most of us thought was dead a long time ago; the idea that we could be “Christians” on the one hand and deny the proposition that Jesus Christ is God. Most believers grow up thinking that this was settled a long time ago, but like the earth tones it just keeps coming back.

Since Jesus Christ is the central figure of human history, it makes sense that the question of who He is – especially for those who acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour – is an important one. It became critical in the fourth century, when a Libyan priest named Arius who was living and ministering in Egypt ignited the controversy that bears his name. He asserted that Jesus was not God and that there was a time when He didn’t exist. Standard church histories tell us that the question was settled by the Council of Nicea, but in reality it took most of the fourth century to get the Nicene formula – that Jesus was God and “of one substance” as the Father – accepted as normative Christianity. It took several centuries thereafter for the various barbarian tribes – such as the Goths and the Lombards – who had adopted the Arian faith to catch on, but eventually most everyone did.

Now in these last days we have an organisation that claims to be the Christian organisation that nevertheless has adopted Arian theology on the person of Jesus Christ. How can this be? Both the Watchtower and its detractors spend a lot of time debating this issue, frequently without understanding the reasons behind the debate. Why is it important that Jesus be God? What are the implications if He is not? Why is it important that the Holy Spirit also be God? How do the Son and Holy Spirit relate to the Father? And to each other?

Although amongst Evangelical Christians – and in a sense the Jehovah’s Witnesses also – the Bible is presented as authoritative and definite on this issue, the fact remains that the original debate spent as much time – maybe more – debating points of Greek philosophy as they did the Bible. Does this really add anything positive to our understanding of God? Are we, as Evangelicals, adopting a position that we think is Biblical when in fact it is more directed towards philosophical considerations? Finally, do we as Evangelicals really understand the basis for the “traditional” formulations of this problem, or are we simply doing as Moses Maimonides claimed that Christian and Muslim scholars were wont to do:

…when they laid down their propositions, (they) did not investigate the real properties of things; first of all they considered what must be the properties of the things which should yield proof for or against a certain creed; and when this was found they asserted that the thing must be endowed with those properties; then they employed the same assertion as a proof for the identical arguments which had led to the assertion, and by which they either supported or refuted a certain opinion…Therefore when philosophers of a subsequent date studied the same writings they did not perceive the true character of the arguments; on the contrary, they found in the ancient works strong proofs and valuable support for the acceptance or rejection of certain opinions, and thus thought that, so far as religious principles were concerned, there was no necessity whatever to prove or refute any of their propositions…

One can only approach this subject knowing that one is entering a serious theological minefield. However, the whole subject of the deity of Christ and of the nature of the Godhead is too important to ignore, especially if we are planning to do more with Jehovah’s Witnesses than slam the door in their face. But it goes beyond that; it pertains to the deepest questions about the universe itself that there are. So, realising that we tread a tricky path, we put our trust in God to direct our paths to the way of truth and not of error.

In writing this, I want to make a couple of statements about our friends in the Watchtower.

First, although it is in fact the Watchtower’s position that has ignited this work, I want to make clear that this question is of much broader interest that just with them. The question of the deity of Jesus Christ is central to Christianity’s relationship with all other beliefs and especially with Judaism and Islam; I trust that this would be of interest to them as well.

Second, it is not my desire to “pick on” the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society or its adherents. One of the things I find about this organisation is that it is not something that people are neutral about; they either love it or hate it, and that love or hatred is extended to the people who inhabit it. People are also not shy about expressing that love or hatred, whether it be in person, on the Internet, or in whatever forum they choose. My only desire in this work is to search for the truth and in the process to glorify God in Christ Jesus; with His help, this is possible.