A central question in discussions with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Muslims is whether Jesus is God. Here is some evidence that he is.
JESUS IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST
In the book of Isaiah, Yahweh/Jehovah says he is "the First and the Last":
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“I AM THE FIRST and I AM THE LAST;
besides me there is no god.
Christ says the same of himself:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am THE FIRST and THE LAST, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
(See also Revelation 2:8, 22:12-16.)
The person here speaking is Jesus. The speaker say he was dead and is alive forevermore. Now, though some have been raised from the dead, Jesus is the ONLY ONE who was raised and is alive FOREVERMORE.
Another way we know it is Jesus talking here, is in Revelation 1:12-16. Here, as John turns around to see who is speaking, he sees the "Son of Man". Jesus identifies as the Son of Man all throughout the gospels. E.g. in Mark 13:26 and Mark 14:62, where Jesus identifies as the one spoken of in Daniel 7:13-14.
(Note: God's name is not "Jehovah God" as the Jehovah's Witnesses like to insist but Yahweh. "Jehovah" is an imperfect anglicization.)
THERE IS ONLY ONE "FIRST AND THE LAST"
Since "the First and the Last" is the LORD himself, there is only one such being. God does not share his glory with anybody:
I am the Lord; that is my name;
MY GLORY I GIVE TO NO OTHER,
nor my praise to carved idols.
If Jesus is this "First and the Last", he can be no other than God himself.
THE FIRST AND THE LAST IS CREATOR
Some claim that Jesus is only the first of creation. Is it possible for the term "the First and the Last" in Revelation 1 to refer to a creation? No. The term means that none is formed before Him nor none exist after Him:
“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
BEFORE ME NO GOD WAS FORMED,
NORE SHALL THERE BE ANY AFTER ME.
11 I, I am the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.
Isaiah 41:4 explains further who "the First and the Last" is:
Who has performed and done this,
calling the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord, THE FIRST,
and with THE LAST; I am he.
The LORD called the first of generations, and he will be there until the last of generations. He must have pre-existed the first of generations in order to be able to call them.
Nowhere in scripture is the title bearer of "the First and the Last" a creation. Instead, the title bearer is uncreated. He is the creator, the being who created the heavens and the earth:
“Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called!
I am he; I AM THE FIRST,
and I AM THE LAST.
13 My hand LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,
and my right hand SPREAD OUT THE HEAVENS;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together.
Sometimes in the Bible, demons or angels are referred to as gods. E.g. Satan is the god of this world. The above verses make it clear that we are talking about not a god but God the creator.
JESUS IS MIGHTY GOD AND ETERNAL FATHER
In the famous prophecy of Jesus' birth, Isaiah 9:6 uses the Hebrew El Gibor for Mighty God. Is this the Almighty God, or just a mighty God?:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
That the term Mighty God refers to Yahweh is seen in the next chapter of Isaiah. Here it says Yahweh is the Mighty God, using the same term El Gibor in the Hebrew. That the one that a remnant of Israel will lean on is the one that they will return to:
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on THE LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the MIGHTY GOD.
"Eternal Father" is a divine title; it is a reference to our Eternal Father. Wonderful Counsellor is another divine title in Isaiah 9:6, for only God is called Wonderful.
JESUS IS GOD REVEALED
God revealed himself in the Old Testament through theophanies.
Now, 1 Timothy 1:17 says God is invisible. John 4:24 says that God is Spirit; spirit is invisible. Exodus 33:20 says you cannot see God and live. But God has revealed himself to man in a human way. Examples:
- Genesis 17:1 says God showed himself to Abraham.
- Genesis 18:1 says Yahweh appeared to Abraham, as three men (c.f. Genesis 18:1-4). Jacob bowed before them and referred to them as My Lord ("Adon" in the Hebrew).
- In Genesis 32:24, God wrestled with Jacob as a man.
- In Genesis 32:30, Jacob saw God face-to-face.
- In Exodus 34, Yahweh came down in the cloud.
The most significant theophany is Jesus. In John 1:18 it says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known".
JESUS IS THE "I AM"
Jesus declared himself as God, in a way that was very clear to the Jews.
In John 8:56, "Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. HE SAW IT AND WAS GLAD." Abraham saw Jesus. In John 8:58, Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (in the Greek, "eigo eimi"), identifying himself in the way God revealed himself in Exodus 3:13-14. Jesus identified himself as God title "I am" and the Jews went to stone him.
(Jehovah's Witnesses might not see the clear identification as God here. Their New World Translation obscures it; it says instead "I Will Become What I Choose to Become".)
IS THE FATHER GREATER THAN THE SON?
In John 5:22-23, 27, the Father judges no-one but has given all judgment to the Son. A Jehovah's Witness might say that since the Father had the authority originally, he is greater. The Father IS greater than the Son, though not in essence but in rank or position.
This point can be illustrated by the example of marriage. Here, husband and wife are equal in value and essence. However in 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:23, the husband is the head of the wife. In a Christian marriage, one is leader, the other a follower. One has greater authority in a Christian marriage. The Father is equal in essence to the Son but greater in authority.
TRINITY IS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: THE WORD OF THE LORD
John 1:1 has been famously mis-translated in the Jehovah's Witness New World translation. Their translation does not say "the Word was God" but "the Word was a God". The indefinite article "a" has been artificially added. The Greek here says "theos en ho logos" (literally, God was the Word). This can even be seen in the Interlinear on the Jehovah's Witnesses website HERE.
Jesus is identified as the Word in John 1:14.
The Word or Logos is not a Greek New Testament innovation. All over the Old Testament, the word of the Lord is mentioned. It refers to Yahweh. In Genesis 15:1-3, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. (That is, Abram saw the word of the LORD.) In verses 4-7, the word of the LORD identifies as the LORD. The word of the Lord and the Lord are used interchangeably. Other examples:
- 1 Samuel 3:1-7, the word of the Lord was revealed to Samuel; the word of the Lord not yet revealed to Him before this time
- 1 Samuel 3:10, the Lord came and stood in front of Samuel
- 1 Samuel 3:21, "The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word."
- In 2 Samuel 12:9, "Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?".
- In 1 Kings 13:9, "For I was commanded by the word of the Lord".
- In Jeremiah 1:4-7, "The word of the Lord came to him".
- In Jeremiah 1:9, "the Lord reached out his hand and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth".
- In the same chapter, "The word of the Lord came to me" is mentioned twice (in Jeremiah 1:11,13).
