Was Jesus a Spirit or Wasn't He? (An Appeal to Trinitarians)
by Hal Flemings
May 1990
In their zeal to discredit Jehovah’s Witnesses, many writers inadvertently
create irreconcilable difficulties for themselves. This paper will identify one
of those difficulties.
Mainstream Trinitarians believe that when Jesus Christ was on the earth in the
First Century of our Common Era that he was totally man and totally god.
Everyone seems to agree with Jesus at John 4:24 where he stated, "God is a
Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
(King James Version) Because God is a spirit and Trinitarians are certain that
Jesus is God, they argue that while on earth Jesus was God incarnate, that is, a
spirit being enclosed with flesh. Because Jehovah's Witnesses reject this view,
literally volumes of books, magazines, tracts, cassette tapes, etc., have been
produced to challenge them on the doctrine of the Trinity and the nature of
Christ.
Consider the following indicative statements that show that the mainstream
churches and others are firm on their view that Jesus Christ on the earth was a
god-man - or rather the God-man:
1. Jesus is both God and man at the same time.
2. The incarnation of the eternal Son who came from the bosom of the Father is
clearly set forth in the Scriptures.
3. A God set forth in the image of man is a God who is fully understood.
More specifically, in Francis Cassilly's volume entitled Religion Doctrine and
Practice - For Use in Catholic High Schools, page 372, we observe:
"Are there two natures in Jesus Christ? Yes, there are two natures in Jesus
Christ, the Divine Nature and the human nature." It is thus clear that for most
Protestants and Catholics that when Jesus walked the face of the earth, he was a
spirit and a man simultaneously.
The same critics of Jehovah's Witnesses who take issue with their view of Christ
in relation to the Trinity also take umbrage with the Witness view of the
resurrection of Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ, the man,
was resurrected a spirit. Note the indicative statements below that are often
repeated by such critics:
1. Luke 24:36-45 argues against the Jehovah's Witness theory. Since Jesus is
omniscient, he knew that false prophets would arise who teach that he was
nothing more than a spirit.
2. Luke 24 proves that Jesus Christ was not a spirit at his resurrection. One
day he will return in the glorified resurrection body in which he left, and we
shall know him by the print of the nails on his hand.
3. 1 Peter 3:18 cannot be used to demonstrate that Christ rose as a spirit
creature because such an interpretation is clearly contradicted in the Gospels,
by Paul and in Peter's messages recorded in Acts, which imply the empty tomb and
the preservation of Jesus' flesh.
This paper is not concerned with defending the Witness stand on the nature of
Christ at his resurrection or the question of Christ being the Almighty God or
not; those matters have been effectively addressed elsewhere. What we are
considering here is a serious contradiction.
That contradiction is as follows: these antagonists go to great lengths to
establish that while on earth Jesus was God incarnate - a spirit clothed in
flesh - but then deny that he was a spirit at all at his resurrection. Either he
was a spirit or he was not a spirit. If he was God in the flesh - experiencing
two natures simultaneously - then he was a spirit at his resurrection since God
is a spirit. On the other hand, if indeed he was, in reality, not a spirit but a
"glorified body", then he was not a God-man in the sense Trinitarians understand
it, since a God-man is a spirit clothed in flesh. They cannot have it both ways.
One of the attacks on the Witnesses has to be abandoned.
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