Dear Dennis and Bruce,

Let the light get brighter and brighter, as we share the love of Jehovah and
study his word. I apologize for suggesting that new understanding of His word
might cause you to leave the Jehovah's Witnesses organization. I pray instead that
new understanding may be thoroughly studied, welcomed, and incorporated
into your organization.
Following our discussion of Daniel 10, I prayed and gave the matter of
whether the speaker was pre-incarnate Jesus much thought, and here are some
additional insights. The fact that the prince of Persia could delay pre-incarnate
Jesus for twenty-one days was prophesizing that when He walked the earth as a
man all of his divine power to perform miracles would come to him from the
Father through the Holy Spirit after his anointing by the Spirit at baptism. It does
not mean that He is a mere angel of lesser power than Michael. We have already
discussed the similarities between His physical appearances in Daniel 10:5-6 and
Revelation 1:12-18. Further, albeit less conclusive, evidence that the speaker is not
a lesser angel lies in Jesus stating in Daniel 11:3 that he will strengthen and
protect the archangel Michael in the future. A protector has more power than the
protected, and power flows from the strong to he whom is strengthened.
You may ask why Jesus helped Daniel to rise from the prone position, to
his knees, and eventually to his feet so that they were then both standing before
delivering the prophecy? After Daniel stood they were speaking at an eye to eye
level, with Daniels brown eyes staring into the "...eyes like flaming torches..." Was
Jesus refusing Daniel's worship? No, as was the case with his twenty-one day
detention, it was to foretell of his future incarnation as a human. One day He
would walk the earth with only the Power that the Holy Spirit imparted to Him,
with the same Power available to us all on an equal playing field. Daniel was
reluctant to stand up because he recognized His divinity, in Daniel 10:17 he
states "And how is the servant of this my lord able to speak with this my lord? as
for me, henceforth there remaineth in me no power, yea, breath hath not been
left in me." Young's Literal Translation. Jesus does not refuse Daniel's worship
with a "Don't do that!..." admonishment1. Rather, He accepted being addressed as
adoni, and accepted Daneil's postural worship without comment. When he stood
Daniel up it was to foretell that He would someday become low "like a son of
man,..."2
1
2

Revelation 19:10 NIV

Revelation 1:13 NIV

Further evidence that it is He lies in his prophesizing His incarnation in

Daniel 10:20 and in the importance of the entire long prophesy of everything to
come, culminating in Jesus's triumphant return and the resurrection of the dead
in Daniel 12:2-4. I don't think that Jehovah sent anyone less than Jesus Himself to
deliver such an important prophesy, a monumental prophesy of everything that
will come to pass.
If we agree that it is He whom is speaking to Daniel then we must also
agree that Jesus cannot be the same being as Michael, because He talks of His
alliance with Michael. Neither can pre-incarnate Jesus always be called the
archangel Michael. This understanding should dispel your reluctance to worship
Jesus on the grounds that doing so would constitute idolatrous angel worship.
In my handout last week containing the excerpt from
http://www.lamblion.com/xfiles/publications/magazines/Lamplighter_JulAu
g07_Angels.pdf the we learned that The Angel of Jehovah accepted worship
twice. You may still claim that the Angel of the Jehovah in Joshua 5:14 was
Michael, but the fact hat He accepted worship, as well as the reasons given in the
rest of that handout strongly dispel that objection. And if you still cling to it
being Michael in Joshua 5:14 then you are left with trying to explain why Michael
may be worshipped but Jesus cannot. Joshua was ordered in verse 153 " The
prince of Jehovahs army replied to Joshua: Remove your sandals from your
feet, because the place where you are standing is holy. At once Joshua did so.+"
This is exactly what Moses was instructed to do by Jehovah in Exodus 3:1-5. There can
be no doubt as to the divinity of the Angel of Jehovah, or as to His acceptance of
worship, in the reading either of these two passages. His acceptance of worship,
and the fact that His face may be clearly seen without dying4, rule out any other
identity for The Angel of Jehovah. He is pre-incarnate Jesus, and Jesus was
worshipped.
My other handout from last week on proskuneo
http://carm.org/religious-movements/jehovahs-witnesses/new-worldtranslation-and-proskuneo-worship deals with whether incarnate Jesus was
worshipped. As we discussed, if He was not worshipped then Shadrach Meshach
and Abednego faced the fire needlessly, and we may all start reciting the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Resurrected Jesus also accepted worship in Mathew 28:9, in John 20:28, in
the throne ascension scene as the slain Lamb in Revelation chapter 5 that we have
already discussed numerous times, and in so many other passages. The most
3
4

NWT
Exodus 33:20

telling of these passages for it's contextual setting is his being worshipped in
Luke 24:52 (Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
NIV) immediately after the apostles watched him ascend into Heaven. The
original Greek word in this scripture is proskynsantes means "having
worshipped". Having already ascended, Jesus is no longer physically present to
bow down to. His not being present means that they were not rendering
obeisance as a mere formality to a physically present human master whilst
secretly withholding true worship in their hearts. The NWT reads " And they did
obeisance* to him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. " As the proskuneo
handout details, the NWT would surely have translated proskynsantes in Luke
24:52 as worship had the subject been Jehovah, a demon, a dragon, a beast, Satan,
an image, an idol, a human, or an angel. Could what was present in the hearts of
the apostles, having just watched Jesus ascend into heaven forty days after
watching Him die, have been anything other than profound and heart felt
worship?
Jesus was worshipped in his pre-incarnate, incarnate, resurrected, and
ascended forms. Revelation prophesizes that He will be also be worshipped after
his triumphant return. Those who worship Jesus do not do so at the expense of
worshipping Jehovah, for it is written in John 5 "For just as the Father raises the
dead up and makes them alive,+ so the Son also makes alive whomever he
wants to.+ 22 For the Father judges no one at all, but he has entrusted all the
judging to the Son,+ 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the
Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent
him.+ 24 Most truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes the One
who sent me has everlasting life,+ and he does not come into judgment but has
passed over from death to life.+." (NWT)

Maranatha,
Temur Perkins