Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe in Jesus? Are They Christian?
Two questions dominate online searches about Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus: "Do JWs believe in Jesus?" and "Do they think Jesus is God?" The short answers are yes and no. Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus is real, that he is the Son of God, and that salvation comes only through his ransom sacrifice — but they explicitly reject the idea that he is Almighty God, deny the Trinity, and do not worship or pray to him. This gateway article answers both questions in the Watchtower's own words, explains why JWs nonetheless call themselves Christian, and explains why mainstream Christianity classifies their teaching about Christ as non-Christian. Links to the deeper articles on each sub-topic appear throughout.
The Short Answer
Yes — Jehovah's Witnesses believe in Jesus. Their own website states plainly: "We believe in Jesus, who said: 'I am the way and the truth and the life.'... His death and resurrection make it possible for those exercising faith in him to gain everlasting life."[1]
But no — they do not believe Jesus is God. In the very same answer, the organization writes: "We do not worship Jesus, as we do not believe that he is Almighty God."[1] A separate official statement of belief is even more direct: "We have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God and that there is no Scriptural basis for the Trinity doctrine."[2]
This combination — strong devotion to Jesus paired with a flat denial of his deity — is the heart of every dispute between Witnesses and mainstream Christianity. The sections below unpack what Witnesses actually teach.
What Jehovah's Witnesses DO Believe About Jesus
He is God's first and only direct creation
Witnesses teach that Jesus is a created being — the very first thing Jehovah ever made — and that he existed in heaven as a spirit person long before being born on earth. According to the official jw.org brochure What Does God Require of Us?: "Jesus was God's first creation... He is the only Son that God created by himself. So Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God. Jehovah used the prehuman Jesus as his 'master worker' in creating all other things in heaven and on earth."[3]
The proof texts are the New World Translation's renderings of Colossians 1:15, which calls Jesus "the firstborn of all creation," and Revelation 3:14, which calls him "the beginning of the creation by God."[4] The Watchtower reads "firstborn of all creation" to mean Jesus was himself the first one created, and "beginning of the creation" to mean he was the starting point of God's creative work — not its eternal author.
He was Michael the archangel before and after his earthly life
A teaching unfamiliar to many outsiders is that Witnesses identify the pre-human Jesus with Michael the archangel. An official Awake!-era Watchtower magazine states: "Jesus Christ is Michael the archangel." It explains that the names Michael (meaning "Who Is Like God?") and Jesus (meaning "Jehovah Is Salvation") "focus attention on his role as the leading advocate of God's sovereignty."[5] Another jw.org article concludes that Michael "is evidently a name given to Jesus before and after his life on earth," and that Jesus "has 'an archangel's voice' because he is the archangel, Michael."[6]
→ See the full article: Jesus Is Michael the Archangel.
He is the means of salvation — through his ransom sacrifice
Witnesses place enormous weight on Jesus' death as a "ransom." The organization affirms: "We follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor him as our Savior and as the Son of God.... Deliverance from sin and death is possible through the ransom sacrifice of Jesus." A person must "exercise faith in Jesus," change their course of life, and get baptized.[2] In Witness theology, Jesus' perfect human life paid the exact "corresponding ransom" for the perfect life Adam forfeited, opening the way to everlasting life.
He is NOT Almighty God — and is not to be worshiped or prayed to
This is the defining negative claim. Because Witnesses hold that Jesus is a created, subordinate being, they refuse to direct worship or prayer to him. They take Jesus' own words as decisive: "The Father is greater than I am" (John 14:28). Their reasoning, presented in the Watchtower article Is Jesus God?, runs: if Jesus were God, "to whom was he praying?" — concluding that Jesus' prayers, his admission of subordinate authority, and his calling the Father "my God" all prove he is not God himself.[7] Prayer, for a Witness, is addressed to Jehovah alone, "in Jesus' name," but never to Jesus.
→ See the full article: The Trinity and the Deity of Christ.
He mediates the New Covenant — but, per Watchtower teaching, directly only for the 144,000
A particularly controversial nuance concerns 1 Timothy 2:5, which calls Christ the "one mediator between God and men." The Watchtower of April 1, 1979 taught that "in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the 'mediator' only for anointed Christians" — the 144,000 who are in the New Covenant — while "the 'great crowd' of 'other sheep'... is not in that new covenant" but instead "come[s] under benefits that flow from" it.[8] Critics argue this effectively places the majority of Witnesses at one remove from their own Mediator.[9]
→ See the full article: The Mediator Doctrine.
He died on an upright stake, not a cross
Witnesses reject the cross as a pagan symbol and teach that Jesus was executed on a single upright pole. The New World Translation renders the Greek stauros as "torture stake" throughout, and Watchtower literature argues that stauros in classical Greek meant an upright stake without a crossbeam and that there is no proof the apostles used it to mean a cross.[10] Mainstream scholars and historians dispute this, noting that by the first century stauros was commonly used for crosses and that the early church used cross imagery long before Constantine.[11]
→ See the full article: Cross or Stake?.
A related distinctive: Witnesses teach that Jesus was raised not in a physical body but as a spirit, and that he then resumed his identity as Michael.
→ See the full article: The Resurrection of Jesus.
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View on Amazon →Why Jehovah's Witnesses Call Themselves Christian
From the Witness point of view, the label "Christian" is earned by following Christ, not by subscribing to creeds written centuries after his death. They argue that:
- They preach the Kingdom message Jesus preached and imitate his ministry.
- They accept the entire Bible, including the Gospels, as God's inspired word.
- They depend on Jesus' ransom sacrifice for salvation and baptize disciples in his name.
- The Trinity, they contend, is a post-biblical doctrine borrowed from pagan philosophy and formalized only at the Councils of Nicaea (325 CE) and Constantinople (381 CE) — long after the apostles.
Why Mainstream Christianity Regards JW Christology as Non-Christian
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and historic Protestant churches reach the opposite conclusion, and they do so on a specific point: the deity of Christ. The Nicene Creed (325/381 CE), accepted across these traditions, confesses Jesus as "true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance (
homoousios) with the Father." Mainstream theologians argue this is not a later invention but the unpacking of New Testament texts such as John 1:1 ("the Word was God"), John 8:58 ("Before Abraham came into existence, I am"), John 20:28 (Thomas addressing Jesus as "My Lord and my God!"), and Colossians 2:9 ("in him all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily").Because the Watchtower teaches that the Son was
created and is therefore not co-eternal or co-equal with the Father, mainstream scholars classify Witness theology as a modern form of Arianism — the fourth-century teaching of the presbyter Arius that "there was a time when the Son was not," which the Council of Nicaea condemned as heresy.[12] From this vantage point, sharing the name of Jesus is not enough; a religion that denies he is God is held to worship a different Christ than the one the historic church confesses. Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox bodies accordingly describe the Watchtower as a non-Trinitarian or "non-Christian" group.[12]Both descriptions can be true at once: Witnesses are
Christ-following by their own definition, and non-Christian by the doctrinal definition of the historic creeds. The disagreement is not over whether Jesus mattered, but over who Jesus is*.The Two Views Side by Side
| Question | Jehovah's Witnesses | Mainstream Christianity |
|---|---|---|
| Is Jesus God? | No — he is God's first creation and a "lesser," mighty one | Yes — fully and eternally God, equal with the Father |
| Did Jesus always exist? | No — he had a beginning | Yes — eternally begotten, never created |
| Who was Jesus before earth? | Michael the archangel | The eternal Word/Son (not an angel) |
| The Trinity? | Rejected as unscriptural | Central, defining doctrine |
| Should Jesus be worshiped/prayed to? | No — worship and prayer go to Jehovah only | Yes — Jesus is worshiped as God |
| Cross or stake? | Upright torture stake | Cross |
See Also
- Jesus Is Michael the Archangel
- The Divine Name 'Jehovah'
- The Trinity & the Deity of Christ — Is Jesus God?
- Armageddon & the Paradise Earth
- Death, the Soul & Hellfire
- The 144,000 & the Great Crowd — Two-Class Salvation
References
1. ↩ "Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe in Jesus?" Frequently Asked Questions, jw.org. [jw.org]
2. ↩ "What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe?" Frequently Asked Questions, jw.org. [jw.org]
3. ↩ "Who Is Jesus Christ?" What Does God Require of Us? (brochure), jw.org. [jw.org]
4. ↩ New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, Colossians 1:15 ("the firstborn of all creation") and Revelation 3:14 ("the beginning of the creation by God"). [jw.org]
5. ↩ "Is Jesus the Archangel Michael?" The Watchtower (public ed.), April 1, 2010 — "Jesus Christ is Michael the archangel." [jw.org]
6. ↩ "The Archangel Michael—Who Is He?" Bible Questions Answered, jw.org — "evidently a name given to Jesus before and after his life on earth." [jw.org]
7. ↩ "Is Jesus God?" The Watchtower (public ed.), April 1, 2012, citing John 14:28 ("The Father is greater than I am"). [jw.org]
8. ↩ "Questions From Readers," The Watchtower, April 1, 1979, p. 31 — "in this strict Biblical sense Jesus is the 'mediator' only for anointed Christians." [wol.jw.org]
9. ↩ Paul Grundy, "Why the Watchtower Teaches That Jesus Is Not Your Mediator," JWfacts.com. [jwfacts.com]
10. ↩ New World Translation (rendering stauros as "torture stake") and Reasoning From the Scriptures, "Cross" entry, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. See also "5C 'Torture Stake'," NWT Appendix. [wol.jw.org]
11. ↩ Paul Grundy, "Jesus' Death on the Stauros — Cross or Stake?" JWfacts.com (citing first-century usage of stauros and early Christian cross imagery). [jwfacts.com]
12. ↩ On the Nicene definition of Christ's deity and the classification of Watchtower Christology as a modern Arianism, see the Nicene Creed (325/381 CE); and Justin Taylor, "The 11 Beliefs You Should Know About Jehovah's Witnesses," The Gospel Coalition. [thegospelcoalition.org]
