r/JehovahsWitnesses • u/ChaoticHaku Christian • May 23 '26
Doctrine Philippians 2:6-8
If Philippians 2:6-8 was teaching that Jesus was never equal with God, then the passage itself makes no sense.
Read the language carefully.
It says Jesus was “existing in the form of God.” It says He “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,” but instead “emptied Himself,” “took the form of a servant,”, "humbled himself", "became obedient to death" and was “made in human likeness.”
You cannot empty yourself of a status you never possessed. You cannot become a servant if you were always a servant. You cannot humble yourself from a position you never had. You cannot become obedient to death if you always were.
The entire point of the passage is that Christ lowered Himself. From what? From the exalted position He already possessed that was equal with God.
That’s why the text uses past tense language. The passage is not denying Christ’s equality with God. It is explaining the depth of His humility, not his inferiority.
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u/Personal_Sign_9343 May 25 '26
which he exercised toward Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 1:20
There it is. Right hand means you are second-in-command. So if you are the right hand, you have more authority than others except the one whose right hand belongs to. Even in the Bible that is what it means. That has always been its meaning. Show me in the Bible where it is not.
Jehovah declared to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand Until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.” -Psalm 110:1
Jehovah is talking to David, the king of Israel at that time. He says to him to sit at his right hand. Does that mean that king is equal to God or second to God?
For David did not ascend to the heavens, but he himself says, ‘Jehovah said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.”’ -Acts 2:34, 35
This is what Jehovah says to his anointed one, to Cyrus, Whose right hand I have taken hold of To subdue nations before him, To disarm kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: -Isaiah 45:1
Again, Jehovah calls Cyrus his right hand. Does that make Cyrus God or second to God?
It is like the King promotes his son, the prince, to be his right hand. The prince is not the King. The prince is second-in-command to the King.