10 reasons why Jesus cannot be Michael the Archangel.
By Robert Skynner BD (Hons).
Scripture mentions Michael five times at: Daniel 10:13, 21, 12:1, Jude 9 and finally at Revelation 12:7. However, none of these verses states openly or even hints that Jesus Christ is Michael. The Watchtower did once teach that Michael wasn’t the Son of God (Zion’s Watchtower, November 1879, page 48), but this position has subsequently been reversed; (Watchtower 15th February 1979 on page 31).
1. Hebrews 1:4 states that Christ isn’t an angel, for he’s: “so much better than the angels.” The explanation is given in the previous verse, where the image of an image stamped by a seal in hot wax is made, to illustrate the fact that Christ and the Father share the same divine nature. So this is why he’s superior to the angels.
2. At Acts 17:31 and 1st Timothy 2:5 Christ in his post-resurrection state is described by the apostles Luke and Paul as still being ‘a man!’ Indeed, Acts 17:31 even states emphatically that it will be as a man and not as an angel that Jesus Christ will judge the world, at the judgement at the consummation of the age.
3. The angels refuse to accept worship see Revelation 22:8-9. And yet at Hebrews 1:6 God the Father here directly commands the angels to worship his Son; Jesus Christ. “Let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1:6, 1961 NWT, and all other translations).
4. Michael was unable to rebuke Satan, and instead said; ‘the Lord rebuke you’ (Jude 9, TEB), also translated as ‘may Jehovah rebuke you’ (Jude 9, NWT 1961 edition). Yet Jesus Christ rebuked Satan, and clearly did so himself at Matthew 4:10, where the 1961 edition NWT states that Christ rebuked Satan by stating: “Go sway Satan! For it is written, ‘it is Jehovah your God you must worship, and to him alone you must render service.’ ”
5. At Daniel 10:13 Michael isn’t identified as God’s Son, and neither is he spoken of as unique in any sense. For Michael is identified in the plural as “one of the chief princes.” So as Michael is only one angel amongst a company of fellow senior angels as Daniel 10:13 so clearly states. Then Christ, who is uniquely the ‘only Son’ of God (John 3:16, 1st John 4:9-14), and that by his ontological nature (Hebrews 1:3), cannot also at the very same time also be Michael, a mere archangel, and one angel amongst a company of similar angels.
6. At Hebrews 1:13 God the Father makes a direct quotation of Psalm 110:1 specifically with regard to Jesus: “But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” Now if Christ were really Michael the archangel, then this verse wouldn’t make any sense. For the entire purpose of this passage is to convey that Christ only sits at his Father’s right hand, which in Jewish terminology means a position of authority and rank, purposely because he isn’t an angel at all, but because he’s God’s Son.
7. We read at Hebrews 2:5 concerning the world to come, which Jehovah’s Witnesses must interpret as their promised paradise earth that it will not be a world which will be in subjection to angels. However, at Hebrews 2:8, in this age to come we notice that all things, which must include the entire earth itself will be complete subject to Christ. So Christ therefore cannot be an angel.
8. How can Jesus be Michael the Archangel, when according to John 14:9 to see Jesus is to see God the Father: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” But how can a mere archangel, who is someone other than Yahweh God, reveal God the Father (Yahweh) to us? For only Yahweh God can genuinely reveal himself, and it’s utterly impossible for someone other than God to reveal God to us. Could you the reader for instance reveal God to me by the force of your own will, can this be achieved by effort and determination? Of course not, and for the obvious reason that because you yourself are not God therefore you can’t reveal someone or something that you are not. One final point, Jesus’ use of the Greek verb for ‘see’ which is ‘horao’ means that he wasn’t claiming that he (Jesus) was God the Father as modalists such as Oneness Pentecostals and Branhamites will claim. If he had wish to imply this, then Jesus would have here used the Greek verb ‘blepo’ instead of ‘horao.’
9. When Christ returns at his second coming, we’re specifically told at 1st John 3:2 that at our own resurrection that “we shall be like him.” But, the Bible states at Acts 17:31 and 1st Timothy 2:5 that Christ in his post-resurrection state is described by the apostles Luke and Paul as ‘a man!’ (Greek: anthropos). There’s no mention of Christ being Michael the Archangel. However, if the Jehovah’s Witnesses do indeed believe that Christ was recreated as an archangel, then because we’ll be just like him, if he’s now an archangel, then that would mean that in their paradise earth, all Jehovah’s Witnesses will also lose their own human natures and be made into archangels, just like their own false Jesus!
10. 1st Corinthians 6:3 speaking of God’s people, states that they will soon judge angels: “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” However, if Jesus Christ is the Archangel Michael, who became this angel once again after his crucifixion, when his body dissolved into gasses, but was then recreated by Jehovah as the archangel Michael. Then to be consistent shouldn’t Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that one day they’ll judge Jesus Christ?
© Robert Skynner 16th June 2006. Duplication and posting of this essay online is encouraged, provided that this work isn’t edited or changed other than stylistically. My e-mail address should anyone wish to contact me is: [email protected] I’m a former Oneness Pentecostal now saved by grace rather than by my own works.