Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) are not Christians. They refuse to accept what the Bible teaches us regarding who God is. Instead they claim that Jesus Christ is not God but rather a godlike creature, someone who was himself created by God. Just like the ancient heretic Arius, they also believe that there was a time when the Son was not.
In order to support this heresy, JWs make much of the fact that here in John 1:1 there is no definite article in the Greek text before God
and that the verse should instead be translated to read, The Word was a god.
In response there are a number of things we can mention:
Throughout John’s Gospel there are numerous places where Jesus is identified with God (John 1:18; John 8:58; John 10:30; John 17:5; John 18:5; John 21:17). (John 20:28 actually makes use of the definite article in the way that JWs claim it should be used). Our confession regarding Jesus’ deity does not depend only on this verse but even if it did, the verse itself would be conclusive enough.
If John wanted to say that Jesus was divine or godlike but not God, there is another well-known Greek word that he could have used to do so but he did not. The Greek word that he did use means
God
and notgodlike.
Greek grammar does not require a definite article for two nouns when they are joined together as found in John 1:1. It is common for one definite article to serve both nouns and so the grammatical argument is simply wrong (cf. John 1:49; John 8:39; John 17:17).
Finally, the Christian church had to deal with the same errors in the past as what comes from the JWs in the present. The church has composed several creeds in which they clearly articulated what the Bible teaches about the deity of Jesus Christ. See, for example, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.