December
2008
But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts,
always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness
and reverence - 1 Peter 3:15
The Only Begotten Son of God!
Lately, I've run across several witnesses that defended the Watch Tower doctrines by stating that Jesus is NOT God but rather the only begotten son of God. He was created.
They have been told "only begotten" means only created and they believe it. From the Watch Tower web site available to all the world, they reason that "the only-begotten Son" cannot be equal to God because it doesn't make sense.
The following are the first two paragraphs from the JW web site under the heading, 'How the "Only-Begotten Son"?':
"THE Bible calls Jesus the "only-begotten Son" of God. (John 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9) Trinitarians say that since God is eternal, so the Son of God is eternal. But how can a person be a son and at the same time be as old as his father?
Trinitarians claim that in the case of Jesus, "only-begotten" is not the same as the dictionary definition of "begetting," which is "to procreate as the father." (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary) They say that in Jesus' case it means "the sense of unoriginated relationship," a sort of only son relationship without the begetting. (Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words) Does that sound logical to you? Can a man father a son without begetting him?"
A screen capture from the Jehovah’s Witnesses web site under the heading of,
How the “Only-Begotten Son”?
Their initial arguments appeals to human reason. If it doesn't seem reasonable therefore it can't be true. Since humans beget humans that aren't as old as themselves therefore God must do the same.
To begin with, what father has ever beget anything other than another of the same nature and character as himself? Would it not likewise seem reasonable of Jesus that He is of the same nature and character as the Father?
Actually, what father has ever beget a son without a mother? Must God have a wife as the Mormons say is reasonable?
We MUST realize that when we speak of God and His nature and character we speak as a finite creature trying to understand the infinite Creator.
The Greek word for "only begotten" is monogenes and does NOT mean only created.
C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity gives some good insight into the word begotten. Lewis says:
"To beget is to become the father of something; to create is to make something. When you beget something you beget something that is the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, and beaver begets beavers, and a bird begets eggs that become baby birds. But when you make, you make of a kind different from yourself. Birds make nests, beavers make dams, a man makes a wireless set. . . What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man creates is not man."
Lewis is saying that if God "begat" Jesus, then Jesus was God. If John did not mean equality in terms of essence, mind, nature, and heart, he would have said God created Jesus. Nowhere in the Holy Bible do we find that God created Jesus, or that He is Michael the archangel as witnesses are taught.
The late Dr. Henry Morris comments on John 1:14 where Jesus is referred to as "the only begotten of the Father":
"This is the key verse of the Incarnation, assuring us that the man Jesus, who dwelt among us for a time, was also the eternal Word who was "in the beginning with God" and that He "was God" and that "all things were made by Him" (John 1:1-3). He was God the Creator manifest in the flesh."
Amen.
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