Is Jesus Michael the archangel?
The Watchtower Society says that Michael the archangel is the same person as Jesus. What does the Bible say?
Dan.12:1 – Michael is the great prince but not in Dan.10:13 – Michael is one of the princes. Compare this with Dan.8:25 – where we see that Jesus is the Prince. Jesus is unique, but Michael is not.
Jude 9 – When on this earth, Jesus rebuked Satan and the demons and they fled before Him, but the one mentioned here had to call for help!
Rev.12:7 – The Watchtower say this took place in 1914! However, Luke 10:18 shows that in Jesus’ time the event was past and Jesus was watching. See also Ps.110 where Jehovah says that Jesus will not be doing the work.
These verses from the rest of the Bible show clearly that the teaching that Jesus is Michael is not found in the Bible.
Hebrews 1:7,8 also shows beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus is not an angel. In verse 7 God is speaking ‘to the angels’. Verse 8 begins with a but which means that God is now talking to a different group and here we see, ‘to the Son He says…’ The angels are on one side there is a dividing wall down the middle and the Son is on the other. Jesus can only line up in one of the two mentioned groups, which side does He line up on?
These verses show clearly that the teaching that Jesus is Michael is not found in the Bible and that according to Scripture it is impossible.
The three different quotations below from the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society publication The Greatest Man that Ever Lived are also relevant to this subject.
But more than that happens as Jesus is baptised. ‘The heavens are opened up’ to him. What does this mean? Evidently it means that while he is being baptised, the memory of his prehuman life in heaven returns to him. Thus, Jesus now fully recalls his life as a spirit son of Jehovah God, Including all the things that God spoke to him in heaven during his prehuman existence. – Section 12, p.2
However at his baptism, Jesus enters into a new relationship with God, becoming also God’s spiritual son – Section 12, p.3
‘Unless anyone is born from water and spirit,’ Jesus explains, ‘he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ When Jesus was baptised and the holy spirit descended upon him, he was thus born ‘from water and spirit.’ . . . Later, at Pentecost 33 C.E., other baptised ones will receive holy spirit and will thus also be born again as spiritual sons of God. – Section 17, p.2
From this we discover the following about the Jesus of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society.
** He is only a spirit son not the Son of God
** He only became God’s spiritual Son at baptism
** He needed to be born again to see God’s kingdom
Just who then was in transferred from heaven to Mary’s womb, and forgotten until baptism?
