Stumper Question for Jehovah’s Witnesses, #24
Jn 1:3 says that Jesus created “all things”, but in Isa 44:24, God says that he “by myself” created the heavens and the earth and asks the question “Who was with me?” when the heavens and the earth were created. How can this be since if Jesus was created by God, then he would have been with God when everything else was created?
The irony of these so-called stumper questions is that the questioner reveals himself to be the one who is stumped.
First, John 1:3 does not say that Jesus created all things. Given the Trinitarian’s fixation on words and letters apparently it has escaped their notice that John 1:3 says “all things came into existence through him.” The word through is very important in that context, because it implies that Jesus was merely the creative agency that God used. And certainly that is in harmony with what is revealed throughout the Greek Scriptures.
Jesus himself might say to those who claim that he must be the Creator because Isaiah 44:24 says that God was all alone when he created everything: ‘Have you never read the account in Genesis, when God spoke and said: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness?'”
Obviously, God was not alone. But the Trinitarian would have us believe that God was merely muttering to himself – perhaps one third of the triadic godhead conglomeration was speaking to one of the other God selfs?
But, of course, honest and sensible people recognize –taking the Scriptures in totality –that the Creator was inviting his special Firstborn son to share in the creation of man, just as he had done previously in the creation of the myriad of creatures in the spirit realm. This is perfectly understandable and quite common in the human scheme of things, as a father who runs a business will often train and teach his son or sons the business and afterwards the son will succeed him and directly run the business. But the business is still owned by the father while he is alive. Didn’t Jesus say that the Father taught him everything? Although there is much more to it than that, this essentially illustrates the role that Jesus plays relative to his Father in heaven.
Besides the obvious fact that God was not alone, that there was in his company another entity, yes – a deity, a god, whom Jehovah invited to work with him, the passage in Isaiah does not say that God was strictly alone. It merely asked the rhetorical question: “Who was with me”? And the correct answer in the context of Jehovah’s conversation to the repurchased Jews was that no one was with God, at least not any of the so-called gods that the Israelites and the Babylonians and all the ancients worshiped. And that is the subject matter of the 44th chapter of Isaiah. Jehovah declares his absolute Godship and derides the phony gods of the world for their absolute impotence.
There is another reason why Jehovah speaks of himself as the sole Creator in the so-called Old Testament. Prior to Jesus’ coming to the earth little was known about the relationship of God with the mysterious entity he was speaking with in Genesis, when he said “let us make man in our image.” The identity and origin of the Messiah was a sacred secret – an X factor. The Apostle explained it this way: “I became a minister of this congregation in accord with the stewardship from God that was given to me in your behalf to preach the word of God fully, the sacred secret that was hidden from the past systems of things and from the past generations. But now it has been revealed to his holy ones…”
Certainly Jehovah’s position as God was not hidden from past generations. On the contrary, God asserted himself into human affairs on many occasions, such as the Flood, the Babel incident, the Exodus from Egypt, the fall of Babylon, and on and on. It was the identity of the Son that was concealed. But when the appointed time arrived the Messiah came to earth and the veil of secrecy was lifted and the light shone; more especially, after his return to heaven when the holy spirit was poured out upon those who believed upon him, the long hidden sacred secret was fully revealed.
The truth is that the Bible reveals that Jehovah has a special son, one whom he calls his beloved one. He has given all things to his beloved Son, even his very throne. So, while God created all things through his Son the Son did not create himself. Jehovah did. That is why Revelation 3:14 says simply that Jesus “is the beginning of the creation by God.” The phrase in Greek translated as “beginning” is the same word found at John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word.”
God could have just as easily personally created everything. He did not need an assistant. But because his very nature is goodness, love and generosity, for that reason Jesus does not take to himself the title of Creator. He recognizes, as must we if we desire to be in the truth, that everything he has and everything he has accomplished is a gift from the great Giver, God.
Eventually, every person alive, and even those who have died and are resurrected, will have to answer to the Son. We should not imagine that those who persist in lyingly denying the special relationship that exists between Jehovah and his firstborn Son shall fare well in standing before the judgment seat of the glorious Son of Man.
