Jehovah's Witnesses
Catholic and Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses, guided by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, deny the Trinity and the divinity of Christ in the traditional sense, teaching instead that Jesus is a created being, in sharp contrast to core Catholic Trinitarian doctrine.
Catholic view
The Catholic Church teaches, as defined at the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), that the one God eternally exists in three co-equal, co-eternal divine Persons, and that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, true God from true God, not a created being.
Their view
Jehovah's Witnesses, following the teaching of the Watchtower Society and their New World Translation of the Bible, hold that Jehovah alone is Almighty God, that Jesus is Michael the Archangel and God's first and greatest creation, and that the Holy Spirit is God's impersonal active force rather than a divine Person.
Key differences
Nature of the Trinity
- Catholic view
- One God in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Their view
- Rejects the Trinity; only the Father, Jehovah, is Almighty God.
Identity of Jesus
- Catholic view
- The eternal Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, who took on human nature.
- Their view
- A created being, identified as Michael the Archangel, God's first creation.
The afterlife
- Catholic view
- Heaven, purgatory, and hell for all souls according to their state at death, with bodily resurrection at the end of time.
- Their view
- 144,000 go to heaven while the rest of the faithful hope for eternal life on a paradise earth.
Church authority
- Catholic view
- The Magisterium, in communion with the pope, authoritatively interprets Scripture and Tradition.
- Their view
- The Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses is regarded as God's channel for interpreting Scripture today.
Common ground
Both affirm belief in one God, the historical existence and resurrection of Jesus, reverence for the Bible as authoritative, and the importance of moral living and evangelization.
Biblical foundation
Catholics point to John 1:1, John 8:58, and Colossians 1:16-17 as affirming Christ's full divinity and role as uncreated Creator, while Jehovah's Witnesses appeal to John 14:28 and Colossians 1:15 as evidence of the Son's subordination and createdness.
Historical evidence
The Jehovah's Witnesses movement originated with Charles Taze Russell's Bible Student movement in Pennsylvania in the 1870s, formally taking its current name in 1931, while the doctrine of the Trinity, though the term developed over time, reflects the consistent worship of Christ as fully divine attested throughout the earliest Christian centuries and formally defined at Nicaea in 325.
The Church Fathers
“Jesus Christ our God.”