Part
Four: How can Jesus be God when he didn't know
everything?
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Our discussion will
take the form of a simulated conversation between a
Jehovah's Witness named Joe and a Christian named
Chris.
Joe:
Chris, last week we talked about how the Watchtower denies
God's omnipresence and how you believe that this teaching
has made him out to be a limited and small God. Since you
believe that Jesus shares the nature of God with his Father,
tell me, how could Jesus be God when he didn't know things
here on earth?
Chris:
Joe, does the Watchtower say that one of the reasons that
Jesus cannot be God is that he didn't know everything while
he was here on earth?
Joe:
Yes, that's right.
Chris:
And does the
Watchtower say that the Father is God because
he knows everything?
Joe:
That is one of his attributes - his unlimited
knowledge.
Chris:
That's interesting Joe, because I have read that the
Watchtower teaches that God doesn't know
everything.
Joe:
That is certainly not true. I have never seen any such
statement.
Chris:
Let me ask you some questions to show you where I am going.
Does the Watchtower teach that the Father knows
everything about the past?
Joe:
Yes, of course. Jehovah God knows everything.
Chris:
Does he know
everything in the present time?
Joe:
There is no doubt
about that. The Bible even says in Hebrews 4:13 "And there
is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all
things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with
whom we have an accounting."
Chris:
Now tell me, Joe, does the Father know the
future?
Joe:
Yes he does. The May 15, 1982 Watchtower pg 7 says
"...Jehovah has proved himself to be the God who does know
the future, including that of human governments."
Chris:
Does the Watchtower also teach that the Father chooses not
to know some things about the future?
Joe:
Just because he has this knowledge does not mean that he
uses it. The Watchtower says in the Feb. 15, 1995 Watchtower
on pages 5 & 6 "...in many cases, he has chosen not to
use his foreknowledge. Because God is almighty, he is free
to exercise his abilities as he wishes, not according to the
wishes of imperfect humans."
Chris:
I don't believe
that God only selectively knows the future, but if I
understand the Watchtower right, they teach that there are
things that the Father doesn't know yet he is still
qualifies to be God?
Joe:
Yes, there are some future things that the Father has chosen
not to know. But Jesus didn't know some things while he was
here on earth. If his Father knew these things, but Jesus
did not, how could Jesus be God?
Chris:
Joe, have a look at Philippians 2:6 in your New World
Translation. It says about Jesus "who, although he was
existing in God's form" The Greek word for existing is
huparcho (hoop-ar'-kho); and is a present active participle
meaning that Jesus was existing in God's form and still
continues to exist in his form. Yet at the same time Jesus
did something. Can you read verse 7?
Joe:
It says "No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form
and came to be in the likeness of men."
Chris:
Joe, what did Jesus empty himself of?
Joe:
The Feb. 15, 1992 Watchtower pg 17 says that "God's
only-begotten Son enjoyed a preeminent position of heavenly
glory superior to all the angels. He was rich indeed! Yet he
willingly emptied himself, was born as a member of a poor
family, and grew up surrounded by sick, dying humans." So
Jesus must have emptied himself of his position and heavenly
glory.
Chris:
That's correct Joe. He emptied himself of his position and
heavenly glory in order that he could also become man. When
he was here on earth he chose to limit himself
to the nature of aman. He got tired and had to sleep. He was
hungry and needed food and he chose to limit his infinite
knowledge unless it was for a specific purpose so that he
could live as a true man. Yet at the same time Philippians
says that he never stopped being in God's
form. So what Jesus did was take on another
nature in addition to that which he already
had. He couldn't have dropped his heavenly nature,
because Phillippians said that he never
stopped being in God's form.
Joe:
Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are saying
that Jesus chose to limit his knowledge and powers in order
to live as a man and that even though he was a true man, he
never stopped existing in God's form?
Chris:
Yes Joe, that's
correct. But do you see that the Watchtower has taken a
hypocritical position when it comes to Jesus? They say that
the Father is God even though they teach that he can choose
to not know certain things. Yet at the same time they try to
prove that Jesus is not God because he chose to limit his
knowledge when he was a man. I would like to talk to you
next week about how Jesus showed that he was God while he
was here on earth.
Joe:
Okay. Let's talk again next week.
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