Apologetics: Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Unitarians Have a Problem…

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently had the opportunity to talk to some Jehovah’s Witnesses and challenge them about their beliefs. In the days since I talked to them, I have been thinking more about the JW belief system, and something occurred to me. Jehovah’s Witnesses have a unitarian view of God. They deny the Trinity, saying it comes from paganism, and hold that there is only one God – Jehovah – and that the Son is a totally different entity. As for the Holy Spirit, they believe it is an active force, once again separate from Jehovah.

But why does this sound familiar? Where else have we heard something similar?

Oh, that’s right! We’ve heard similar stuff from Muslims, who believe Allah is only one dude, Jesus is not his son, and the Holy Spirit is…something. Some will say the Holy Spirit is the angel Gabriel, others will argue it’s a name for Muhammad, and still others will say that it’s Allah’s spirit, whatever that is. We also see this same issue in other unitarian belief systems.

However, as with the Muslims, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others like them have two major issues concerning God’s character. First, we have the question of why would God create in the first place? If, according to Muslims, JWs, and others, God is a single entity, then it is not in his nature to be relational. So why should he be lonely? Why should he create anything? In order for him to have any inclination to create, he would have to change his character to one that’s relational, which means his attributes change, something that Muslims, JWs, and Unitarians would all adamantly deny. They all agree that God doesn’t change, yet in denying the Trinity, they force him to change to explain why we’re here.

Second, we have the issue that if God is one, with no other persons, then he is dependent on creation to have various attributes, particularly that of lordship. In the Christian view of the Trinity, we believe that the Trinity has an effective hierarchy, with God the Father at the top. There is lordship in that, which means that God has always been lord even before creation began.

However, if the Unitarian view is true and God’s always been a single entity, then he can’t be eternally lord because in order to be lord of something, you need something to lord over. Thus, he is dependent on creation’s very existence to be able to claim that title.

Until next time,

M.J.