Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the booklet of the Watchtower, the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses, called “Should You Believe In The Trinity?” Tonight, we’re going to look at what they have to say about Clement of Alexandria and compare that to what he really said.
Once again, I must remind everyone that for this statement, the Watchtower gives no references whatsoever.
Clement of Alexandria, who died about 215 C.E., called Jesus in his prehuman existence “a creature” but called God “the uncreated and imperishable and only true God.” He said that the Son “is next to the only omnipotent Father” but not equal to him.
Book 1 of the Instructor, chapter 2:
Now, O you, my children, our Instructor is like His Father God, whose son He is, sinless, blameless, and with a soul devoid of passion; God in the form of man, stainless, the minister of His Father’s will, the Word who is God, who is in the Father, who is at the Father’s right hand, and with the form of God is God.
Chapter 3:
The Lord ministers all good and all help, both as man and as God: as God, forgiving our sins; and as man, training us not to sin. Man is therefore justly dear to God, since he is His workmanship.
Chapter 5:
By the same prophet is declared His greatness: “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace; that He might fulfil His discipline: and of His peace there shall be no end.” O the great God! O the perfect child! The Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son. And how shall not the discipline of this child be perfect, which extends to all, leading as a schoolmaster us as children who are His little ones? He has stretched forth to us those hands of His that are conspicuously worthy of trust. To this child additional testimony is borne by John, “the greatest prophet among those born of women:” Behold the Lamb of God!” For since Scripture calls the infant children lambs, it has also called Him–God the Word–who became man for our sakes, and who wished in all points to be made like to us–“the Lamb of God”–Him, namely, that is the Son of God, the child of the Father.
Chapter 7:
But our Instructor is the holy God Jesus, the Word, who is the guide of all humanity. The loving God Himself is our Instructor. Somewhere in song the Holy Spirit says with regard to Him, “He provided sufficiently for the people in the wilderness. He led him about in the thirst of summer heat in a dry land, and instructed him, and kept him as the apple of His eye, as an eagle protects her nest, and shows her fond solicitude for her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, and bears them on her back. The Lord alone led them, and there was no strange god with them.”
Now that the Word was at once Jacob’s trainer and the Instructor of humanity [appears from this]–“He asked,” it is said, “His name, and said to him, Tell me what is Try name.” And he said, “Why is it that thou askest My name?” For He reserved the new name for the new people–the babe; and was as yet unnamed, the Lord God not having yet become man. Yet Jacob called the name of the place, “Face of God.” “For I have seen,” he says, “God face to face; and my life is preserved.” The face of God is the Word by whom God is manifested and made known. Then also was he named Israel, because he saw God the Lord. It was God, the Word, the Instructor, who said to him again afterwards, “Fear not to go down into Egypt.” See how the Instructor follows the righteous man, and how He anoints the athlete, teaching him to trip up his antagonist.
Chapter 8:
Nothing, then, is hated by God, nor yet by the Word. For both are one–that is, God. For He has said, “In the beginning the Word was in God, and the Word was God.”
Chapter 11:
The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three of the fairest ornaments–knowledge, benevolence, and authority of utterance;–with knowledge, for He is the paternal wisdom: “All Wisdom is from the Lord, and with Him for evermore;”–with authority of utterance, for He is God and Creator: “For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made;” –and with benevolence, for He alone gave Himself a sacrifice for us: “For the good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep; ” and He has so given it. Now, benevolence is nothing but wishing to do good to one’s neighbour for his sake.
Book 3, chapter 1:
For the Word Himself is the manifest mystery: God in man, and man God.
Book 3, Prayer to the Paedagogus:
Be gracious, O Instructor, to us Thy children, Father, Charioteer of Israel, Son and Father, both in One, O Lord. Grant to us who obey Thy precepts, that we may perfect the likeness of the image, and with all our power know Him who is the good God and not a harsh judge. And do Thou Thyself cause that all of us who have our conversation in Thy peace, who have been translated into Thy commonwealth, having sailed tranquilly over the billows of sin, may be wafted in calm by Thy Holy Spirit, by the ineffable wisdom, by night and day to the perfect day; and giving thanks may praise, and praising thank the Alone Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son, Instructor and Teacher, with the Holy Spirit, all in One, in whom is all, for whom all is One, for whom is eternity, whose members we all are, whose glory the aeons are; for the All-good, All-lovely, All-wise, All-just One. To whom be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
All of this has come from one of his works and should be sufficient to establish that the Watchtower has not fairly represented Clement. As we go further into this series of course, more writers wrote a lot more and there’s no way we can mine it indefinitely.
However, the following is where all quotes come from:
http://earlychristianwritings.com/clement.html
If any in the Watchtower think I have handled Clement wrong, they are welcome to state their case.
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