Over a year ago we started taking preorders for the third edition of my Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended: An Answer to Scholars and Critics. Just short of a year ago, I wrote about the contents and projected release date of the book (see “The Third Edition of Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended,” IN MEDIO [August 1, 2006], on elihubooks.com). At that time, my intention was to provide a corrected, slightly revised version of the second edition, and to release it in late 2006 or in early 2007. That vision has since changed and, consequently, so has the date of the third edition’s release.

The third edition is coming rapidly to a finish, but there is still a tremendous amount of type-setting, editing, and indexing that is needed. I greatly appreciate the patience of all those who have pre-ordered the book and who have had to endure changes for the release date. But I promise you, it is coming. The book is only being released in hard cover, and for those who pre-order in the USA shipping is free through the date of the book’s release. Preorders will be shipped in the order in which they are received, so pre-ordering is recommended if you want to receive your copy soon after the release.

At Elihu Books, our objective is not to make a lot of money selling books or DVDs. We want people to have information in the best possible form for their personal use, and to help others. We also want the material we present in defense of Jehovah God to have a dignified and professional quality. But DVDs and books, especially hard cover books with a high page count, are very expensive to publish. Having said that, at Elihu Books we also realize that many people simply cannot afford $15 here or $35 there for different publications or videos. That’s why, in addition to all of the online materials we offer for free (IN MEDIO, “Upon the Lampstand,” and everything else readable, audible, or viewable on our site) we are going to offer a new division at Elihu Books through which all of the items we offer for sale will be made available for free to those who are truly unable to pay for them. Obviously, the extent to which we will be able to do this will depend on our own financial resources and the offsets to our expenses that we receive through purchases of our products. But I am confident we’ll be able to make this work so that everyone, one way or another, can get copies of what we offer on our site.

Getting back to JWD3, I know that many are curious about what it will contain and how the information will be presented. Below is a listing of all fifteen chapters and a brief description of each. In the description of Chapter 1, there is also a link to a preview of the first 30 pages of the book:

On March 1, 2007, I asked the question, “Who really is ‘the only true God’?” I pointed out that Trinitarians believe that the “one God” of the Bible is a Trinity of “persons,” that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share equally and fully in the nature of one being, the Trinity, their “one God.” These three “persons” are not separate beings, according to Trinitarianism, but they are separate only in their “person,” which I put in quotes to help identify this unique understanding of “person” relative to Trinitarianism, that is, where one such “person” is not one being or separate from the other “persons” in his nature. The three “persons” are the one being, the one God, the Trinity.

I then pointed to the frequent contest between Trinitarians and Jehovah’s Witnesses concerning what kind of g/God Jesus is, which often takes the form of a question such as we find represented in the following dialogue:

Trinitarian: “If the Father is ‘the only true God,’ then do you believe Jesus is a false God?”

Jehovah’s Witness: “It’s not a question of ‘if,’ but ‘since’: ‘Since the Father is the “only true God” according to Jesus [John 17:1, 3], then what kind of g/God is Jesus?’”

I then challenged all Trinitarian readers to give me a 1-2 paragraph (200 words or less) answer to the following question, without assuming Trinitarianism: “Since the Father is the ‘only true God’ according to Jesus [John 17:3], what kind of g/God is Jesus?” To this question I received just one reply:

Due to the fact that the Son is Theos in a derivative sense and finds his
source of deity in the Father,(John 1:18, John 3:16, John 6:57, John 8:42, John 16:27, John 16:30, Heb 1:3 , Revelation 21:23 Col 1:19/Col 2:9) … As such he is of the same class of being which places him within the category of the true God. [J. Wiseman, email to Greg Stafford dated March 6, 2007.]

In a couple of days the June 1, 2007, IN MEDIO article on the “The Congregations of God During ‘the Lord’s Day’” will be online. Sometime next month, the July 1, 2007, article “Submissive to Those Taking the Lead” will be completed. That will end one, the first, complete year of IN MEDIO and begin the start of the second.

IN MEDIO was an online journal I started last July to explore issues of biblical importance in an easy-reading yet seriously discussed way to help advance Christian understanding of God, his Son, his Word, and his people. I think things are off to a good start, and I hope you think so, too.

Jehovah willing and with the help of some like-minded Christians I hope to continue advancing the cause of truth and make known the name of Jehovah and the truth about the Bible and about Jesus Christ. I have a number of things in mind that I will be using to bring global attention to the truth about Jehovah God and his name, and to give a powerful witness for belief in Jesus Christ through what is taught in the Bible. But in order to accomplish all that I have planned, I intend to change the schedule of IN MEDIO from monthly to quarterly.

After I complete the first year of IN MEDIO with the next two articles, I will not submit any articles through it until the start of 2008, and thereafter I will do so once every three months. I will use the rest of 2007 to finish JWD3, a preview of which will soon be on the Elihu Books front page and advertised through this Blog under “Curious About JWD3?” I will also maintain the Elihu Books Chat as much as possible, and update “Upon the Lampstand.” Other changes to this site are coming, and there will be some revisions to the existing menus, graphics, and options, all of which I hope will make this site a place where everyone who visits can learn and explore issues of personal, global, and even universal importance.

Greg Stafford

Part Two: “He Saw His Glory, and He Spoke About Him.”

The issue here in Part Two of my response to Dr. James White’s recent Blog series regarding our 2003 debate and related discussions has to do with the apostle John’s reference to Isaiah ‘seeing’ the “glory” of and ‘speaking about’ Jesus Christ (John 12:41). Since John refers to both Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53 in the immediately preceding verses, do either of these sections of Scripture contain a reference to Isaiah ‘seeing Jesus’ glory’ and his ‘speaking about him,’ as reported by John? Further, does John 12 elsewhere contain any information that might help us answer the question one way or another? Finally, in what ways might one biblically see in Jehovah’s “glory” the “glory” of Jesus Christ?

First consider the texts, then the arguments for each side, followed by a consideration of our published discussions on this subject, and finally a review of what Dr. White and I said about this issue in our 2003 debate.

The Texts

I here present the texts that are at the center of this discussion, with underline and bracketed comments added to help keep some of the accounts’ particulars clearly in mind. I am also adding bolded brackets with numbers next to each underlined portion of the texts which will correspond to my comments below the quoted section. This means that each underlined section to the right of each bold, bracketed number is corresponding to the same number relative to my comments below each section. In the longer selections of Scripture I have also left in the verse and chapter numbers, which numbers are not in brackets.

My comments below each quoted text with respect to the bracketed, numbered section of the text that is underlined are meant to provide as much factual, potentially relevant information about the Hebrew, Greek, or English text as possible, which will then serve as the basis for the later discussion of the arguments presented by myself and by Dr. White concerning these texts...

Part One: Introducing the Issues

In this Part One in response to a recent Blog series by Dr. James White, I am going to spend a little time introducing the issues. Then I’m going to spend more time on the issues themselves. The reason for this is because precision and accuracy is essential when trying to find the truth. We all want the truth. Most of us believe we have the truth. But not everyone is committed to finding the truth. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, after all.

Yet the more time you take to look closer at something the easier it is to see things that you might not have noticed before. Sometimes if you spend a little time and you don’t rush into things, it is not only easier to see things yourself but you can also help others better appreciate the points under consideration. With issues like these, where two people’s opinions or arguments are sent over so many different media, and through various channels, it’s a good idea to put things in perspective and then look at what’s really being said, what others are saying about what’s been said, and then say what you feel you have to say.

Of course, if you ask Dr. White he might tell you (especially if it’s concerning someone with whom he disagrees) that taking your time and responding to each and every point raised in a discussion might reflect something far different than an interest in getting to the truth of a matter...

Many people have considered the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and after doing so they have found in them a powerful basis for worshipping his God, Jehovah. Such worship, as shown by Jesus himself, is tied to a desire for truth (John 4:22-244), it involves treating others the way we want to be treated (Matthew 7:12; Romans 12:16), and it means living our lives according to certain personal and moral standards, Christian standards (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Colossians 3:9; 18-23; James 3:14-17). Yet, as welcoming as these things may seem, they are not always easy to do.

For example, ‘worshipping in truth’ may involve giving oral instruction to others about the Christian way of life, as Jesus himself did (Matthew Chapters 5-7). But it also, and more importantly, involves action consistent with what is taught (Matthew 23:3). It’s much easier to teach others than it is to teach ourselves! Even more difficult are the times when we must resist those who do the greatest damage to Christianity by claiming to represent it to others in ways that in no way truly represent it.

On this last point, consider Peter, and others in the first-century Christian Congregation, whom the apostle Paul confronted because they were teaching false doctrine in the worst of ways, that is, by “compelling people to live” in ways that were not Christian (Galatians 2:11-14; 6:12). Paul obviously had to make a choice: Accept Peter’s actions and teachings toward others as something that, while not Christian, were nonetheless not something he should confront openly because of who Peter was and in the light of the great responsibility that Jesus himself had given him (John 21:15-17), or do the right thing, the Christian thing, and ‘resist Peter face to face’ because he and those with him were “not walking straight according to the truth” (Galatians 2:11, 14). Essentially, Paul was faced with a seemingly easy but truly difficult dilemma: to be a Christian, or not.

Most people want to do the right thing. But different people define “the right thing,” differently. When it comes to belief in Jehovah God, the question isn’t so much whether or not we did the “right” thing, as we see it, but whether or not we did what we we’re supposed to do, as he sees it. Consider what the “exact representation of his very being” (Hebrews 1:3) said:

Matthew 7:22-23 (NWT)
“Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU!”

Prophesying, expelling demons, and “many powerful works” are all ‘right things.’ But when Jesus said in the next verse, “Therefore everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them will be likened to a discreet man, who built his house upon the rock-mass” (Matthew 7:24), he was referring to more simple, fundamental teachings that were to be followed more so than these other “powerful works” were to be practiced.

Many of these “sayings” are given in the same discourse, recorded in part in Matthew Chaters 5-7. These included:

Matthew 5:22 (NWT)
“I say to YOU that everyone who continues wrathful with his brother will be accountable to the court of justice; but whoever addresses his brother with an unspeakable word of contempt will be accountable to the Supreme Court; whereas whoever says, ‘You despicable fool!’ will be liable to the fiery Ge·hen´na.”

Matthew 6:14-15 (NWT)
“For if YOU forgive men their trespasses, YOUR heavenly Father will also forgive YOU; whereas if YOU do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will YOUR Father forgive YOUR trespasses.”

Matthew 7:1 (NWT)
“Stop judging that YOU may not be judged; for with what judgment YOU are judging, YOU will be judged; and with the measure that YOU are measuring out, they will measure out to YOU.”

Matthew 7:1 (NWT)
“All things, therefore, that YOU want men to do to YOU, YOU also must likewise do to them.”

Trinitarians believe that the “one God” of the Bible is a Trinity, that is, a tri-unity of “persons” who are not separate beings but who share fully and equally in the nature of the one Divine Being (= the Trinity). They believe, in fact, that “Jehovah,” the God of the Bible, is the Trinity, and that the divine name is at the same time also the proper designation of each “person” of the Trinity, again, due to each “person’s” equal and full subsistence in the nature of this “one God.” Yet, in the Bible, when the description “one God” is further defined it is always, only “the Father,” usually in contrast to Jesus Christ, and always without descriptive reference to the “holy spirit.” Consider:

1 Corinthians 8:6 (NWT)

[T]here is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NWT)

One body there is, and one spirit, even as YOU were called in the one hope to which YOU were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all [persons], who is over all and through all and in all.

1 Timothy 2:5 (NWT)

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus. . .

Further, Jesus himself in prayer to the “Father” (John 17:1) referred to him as, “you, the only true God” (John 17:3). Yet, we know also from the Bible that Jesus Christ is called “mighty God” and “a god” who existed “in the beginning with God” (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1, 2, 18). This leads to the seemingly ever-present dispute between Jehovah’s Witnesses and Trinitarians today, regarding what kind of “g/God” is Jesus? The dispute often takes the form of a question: