(…continued from part II)

Once I asked, “What makes you teach that Christ is an angel?” The answer from the Jehovah’s Witness people, they explained, is in 1Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” They teach that the archangel is Michael therefore archangel Michael is actually Christ Jesus. Nowhere, in the Bible, is Christ designated Archangel. He is the Creator and not one of the angels.

As the Angel of the LORD, He received worship. Hebrews 1:6-7 says in verse 6, “And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 7. “And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” In Jude 1:9, Michael told the devil, “The Lord rebuke thee;” which proves that he, Michael, is not the Lord. Did Jesus use Michael’s rebuke when He had an encounter of temptation with Satan in the wilderness? The Lord of glory, King of kings and the Lord of lords will shout and the vocal chords of the heavenly host will echo the Lord’s. This is what Paul is teaching in this verse.

          In defence of their doctrine, one of them challenged me to explain why He is the first born of Colossians 1:15, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” taking this to mean that He was the first intelligent being of creationism. Is there any mention of Adam’s birth. Who did labour through, to the parturition of the angels? Angels and our pristine parents were sculptured, one after the other personally, by Christ.

Why debate Christ’s angelic birth or creation? There is no need for it.

Verse 18 answers that question of verse 15. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” [Colossians 1:18]. Paul divinely ascribes the beginning to an angel? He is the Creator. He must be preeminently first in all things. In this verse He is first to conquer death. He is the first from His mother’s womb. From eternity, He is the first begotten of the Father in verse fifteen; making His primogeniture a threefold.

Too stubborn to give in to a superior argument based on scriptural fact the avowed disciples of Charles Taze Russell contend still with Proverbs 8:22 to prove that Christ was definitely an entity of creationism. “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old” [Proverbs 8:22]. Qânâh (kaw-naw’) is the Hebrew word for ‘possess’ and it means: ‘to erect, that is, create; by extension to procure, especially by purchase (causatively sell); by implication to own.’ Is the possession wisdom? If the LORD had to possess wisdom before embarking upon all His creative works, therefore, an urgent need to create wisdom for Himself arose, can these people not see the implications of the portentous blasphemy? It portends the lack of wisdom on God’s part before creating anything. One who is deficient in wisdom is indubitably dumb. Is this what Jehovah God is?

God will have to continue to acquire more wisdom to remain preeminently the origin and source of wisdom. The attainment of wisdom requires a pedagogue. Tell me, if you know, from whose hands the display of pedagogical prowess God did receive the certificate of wisdom? If God is absolutely complete in all ramifications ere creation then He did not need to acquire any facilitating faculty in His ways of old. When you pull out a scripture indiscriminately for the sake of teaching, the resultant effect breeds an illogical conclusion of God’s protocol. They did not take cognizance of the thirtieth verse.

You can get born again by praying this prayer with all your heart and truthfully: Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory, Amen.              (…to be continued…)

Read part II  here

Read part IV here

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