"And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, "AND LET
ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM."
(Hebrews 1: 6, NASB)
In part one, we looked at the relational comparison of Jesus
and angels to God the Father. Now in this blog, we are going to look at
"Who the angels worship." According to the Watchtower teaching on
this Bible verse, they render it in the New World Translation as follows: "But when he again brings his Firstborn
into the inhabited earth, he says: "And let all God's angels do obeisance
to him" (Heb. 1: 6). As one can see, the Watchtower changed the word
"worship" from such translations as the KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV, and the
CSB to the phrase "do obeisance." It is unfortunate that the
Watchtower has changed the word "worship" to "do obeisance"
which is being dishonest with the text before us. But this is not surprising,
for the Watchtower has a history of tampering with the Word of God. Christian Apologist, Ron Rhodes
gives an example:
"It is interesting to note that
the 1961 edition of the New World Translation rendered Hebrews
1:6 , "But when
he again brings his First-born into the inhabited earth, he says: 'And let all
God's angels worship him'" (emphasis
added). By contrast, the 1971 edition reads, "But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth,
he says: 'And let all God's angels do
obeisance to him'" (emphasis added)."[1]
As you can see, Mr. Rhodes gives us the obvious change in
the comparison of the two editions of the New World Translation. The Watchtower
not wanting its adherents to think that Jesus can receive worship from angels
like Jehovah does, purposefully tampered with the text to make it read,
"do obeisance" to the Lord Jesus. By doing so, they have robbed Him
of the worship due to Him. Also, they made the change for two primary reasons:
(1.) The NWT phrase "do obeisance" is in keeping with their teaching
that Jesus is not to be viewed as God like Jehovah is. Hence, the reason for
the Watchtower's use of the phrase, "do obeisance" which means that
Jesus is to be honored, but not
worshipped as God. (2.) Lastly, the change
from "worship" to "do obeisance" counteracts any
doubt that may be cast on their false view that the Lord Jesus is Michael the Archangel . Concerning the Watchtower's view that Jesus is
Michael the Archangel , Mr. Rhodes gives this
interesting comment:
"Worse comes to worse when it is
realized that the Jehovah's Witnesses say Jesus was an angelic being in his
prehuman state (as Michael the archangel) and returned to the angelic state
after His death on the cross. This being the case, the angels mentioned in Hebrews 1:6 are actually commanded to worship a
fellow angel - they are told to worship
one of their own! Why would God allow this, especially since He has
elsewhere said that worship is to be rendered to Him alone (Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 6:13 ; Matthew
4:10 )?"[2]
I agree with Mr. Rhodes, we are to
worship God alone, not an angel like Michael. Since the Lord Jesus Christ without
question is God manifested in the flesh,
we like the angels are to worship Him alone. For it was Christ who
purchased our redemption on the cross of Calvary ,
not angels. Another equally important point to consider is that angels who
serve God will always reject worship. This can be seen in Revelations 22: 8-9,
where we read, "And I John saw these
things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel
which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I
am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep
the sayings of this book: worship
God." (KJV). Concerning the
Greek word for worship, proskuneo, author
David Reed has this to say:
"Angels consistently
refuse to accept worship, saying: "Be careful! Do not do that!... Worship
God." (Revelation 22:8-9 NWT). But,
the Father's command concerning the Son is, "let all God's angels worship him." (Hebrews 1:6 NWT, edition of 1961). In a later edition of
its Bible the Watchtower Society changed worship
to obeisance at Hebrews 1:6 . Still, regardless of how it is
translated, the same Greek word proskuneo
is used at both Revelations 22:8-9 and Hebrews
1:6 . The proskuneo (worship
or obeisance) that angels refuse to accept, but say to give to only to God, is
the same proskuneo (worship or
obeisance) that the Father commands to be given to the Son at Hebrews 1:6 . (see also John
5:23 , NWT)."[3]
To conclude this blog, I have
given a list of 10 reasons why Christ is more Superior than angels. Consider
these reasons as follows below:
(1.) Christ is more
Superior than angels as God's supreme Revelation, the Word made flesh. The
Lord's final Word to mankind. God's Word above the words of angels (see Heb. 1:
1-3; John 1 : 1-2
(2.) Christ is more
Superior than angels as Creator of all things, including angels (see Heb. 1: 3;
John 1 :
3
(3.) Christ is more
Superior than angels , for He was given a Name more superior than theirs,
including Michael the archangel (see Heb. 1: 4; Matt. 1: 21-23; Eph. 1: 21;
Phil. 2: 9).
(4.) Christ is more
Superior than angels, for He is the only begotten Son of God (see Heb. 1: 5; John 1 :
14
(5.) Christ is more
Superior than angels, for He is the Sovereign Lord over all things who is
worshiped, while angels are ministers who serve and worship Him (Heb. 1: 6-7).
(6.) Christ is more Superior 1 Tim. 6 : 15
(7.) Christ is more
Superior than angels in that He alone is the "Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending" of all
things (see Heb. 1: 10-12; Rev. 1: 8).
(8.) Christ is more Superior 1
Cor. 15 : 25-28
(9.) Christ is more
Superior than angels in that He has not put the world under the authority of
angels, but under His authority (see Heb. 2: 5).
(10.) Christ is more
Superior than angels in that it was He who took upon himself the flesh of man
(His incarnation) to accomplish redemption for mankind (see Heb. 2: 7, 9; Phil.
2: 5-8).
No comments:
Post a Comment