Perhaps the most striking fact about the religious group calling themselves “Jehovah’s Witnesses” is that they believe Jesus is not God/deity, but that He was created by God. As a way of trying to bolster their doctrine, they created their own version of the Scriptures, The New World Translation.
In the NWT, in John 1:1, they made a slight change that makes a big difference. “…the word was with God, and the word was a god.” If you question them about this, they will say something about a Greek rule that say when the word “the” (the Greek form of it, at least) doesn’t appear before the word “God” (theos in Greek), it is not talking about THE God, but only A god.
Here’s the problem with that reasoning…well, a couple problems—(1) It’s not true, and (2) they don’t follow their own supposed rule anywhere else in their translation—including the other four times it appears in the same chapter! John 1:6, 12, 13, and 18 all have the word “God,” but the Greek word for “the” is absent. In the NWT, each one of these verses is translated “God” (with a capital “G”).
In short, they made the whole thing up in order to “support” their false doctrine. But Jesus is God in the flesh, He is the creator, the defeater of Satan—He is not “a god.”
-Bradley S. Cobb
Bro Bradley, Regarding the JW’s and Jn 1:1, here is an excerpt from my spiritual memoirs.
“In early November (1977), we received an anonymous call about a family in need of food. The preacher went to their house. However, the husband said they did not need food. The wife stood behind him, nodding otherwise. He went back shortly when the husband was not home. The lady showed the preacher her cupboard was bear except for a box of cereal. The refrigerator only sported a carton of milk. On Wednesday as we arrived home from work, we received the call to bring food. The heart of the church was overflowing. Our small congregation had loaded the good part of Bro Ps pickup with food. Bro P and the preacher took it to that family immediately. It was the preacher’s tradition to invite those of us who did not have family nearby, to spend Thanksgiving day with his family. He also invited the indigent family, with whom all became acquainted. They agreed to a Bible study. After a couple studies the preacher asked me to go with him, because the neighbor lady who had been a JW for two years, came over to show him the correct understanding of the scripture, thus becoming disruptive. So he wanted me to try to work with her, while he studied with the family (still had one young son at home). Upon arriving, Immediately, I noticed this was a Catholic family, a very Catholic family. They had a built in shrine/ altar in the wall with a small statue of Mary, candles and a huge rosary (wooden beads about the size of pecans) hanging on the wall encircling the shrine. After we reviewed a Jule Miller booklet, the preacher took the family into the living room. I stayed at the table with the JW, answering her questions. I wrote down scripture references and drew figures on a sheet of paper. That was my only part in that. That night she agreed to study with the preacher. Three weeks later Teresa was baptized into Christ. It was the preacher’s practice to study with new converts an hour a week for a year. (I adapted that practice, except I will study with folks one-on-one as long as they want and usually two hours a week at one sitting). On one occasion, two JW higher-ups from Omaha came while the preacher was studying with her. They were concerned she had left the JW. So the preacher told them she had been baptized and was now a member of the Church of Christ. However, he also offered to discuss a proposition in her presence to let her make up her own mind. And he proposed they discuss whether Jesus was God or mere man. They agreed. The preacher called me, knowing I was fascinated with the Koine Greek and ask me to do some work on John 1:1. I already had FF Bruce’s commentary on John and had previously bought an overhead projector in a salvage store. I also had a copy of the Emphatic Diaglott by the Watchtower. Even though I was ignorant of the Greek NT, I put together slides using Bruce and the Diaglott. We arrived that evening with the preacher’s satchel of books and the JWs with theirs. The preacher asked them to pray with us before we began. They refused, saying they had prayed in the car. So the preacher led prayer. Then the preacher asked them to begin their presentation, they deferred to us. The preacher asked me to explain John 1:1 using the overhead slides. After doing so, they snorted, wanting to know where I got that, so I showed them the Diaglott (their material). One of them said, “We weren’t ready for this.” They got up and left never to return. Sister Teresa was very evangelistic, setting up a study for the preacher with the family next door and a family across the street. All four were baptized. Three Christian families on James St! All neighbors. The Catholic family never became Christians. Sis Teresa is still a faithful Christian 40 years later.