Yahweh, the Creator of all things

In Isaiah 44:24 we read: “24Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,””

The LORD (“LORD” is translated from the Hebrew word “Yahweh”) is our Redeemer. He is the one who formed us from the womb. Yahweh describes Himself as the “maker of all things.” Yahweh is the Creator, and He has created “all alone.”

Creatorship is a divine quality that can be said of Yahweh alone.

Let’s take a quick look at a passage where the Apostle Paul describes God the Son as Creator of all things … Colossians 1:13-19, “13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,” (NASB).

Verses 13-14 – Christ saved His people from their sins.

Verse 15 – Christ is the image of the invisible God; He is the firstborn over creation, that is to say that Christ has the preeminence over all creation (consider the rest of this passage).

Verse 16 – Christ created all things: things in the heavens, on the earth, visible and invisible, all authorities—all things have been created through/by Him and for Him.

Verse 17 – Christ is before all things; He holds all of creation together.

Verse 18 – Christ is the head of the church; He is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead; He will have the first place in everything.

Verse 19 – Christ has all the fullness of deity dwelling in Him.

Notice the contrast of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation beginning in verse 16, “16 because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. 17 Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist” (bold emphasis mine).

The NWT inserts the bracketed “other” four times in this text. The reason for this is completely the result of JWitness theology: Jesus Christ (the Archangel Michael) is the first created being by Jehovah.

In an attempt to defend this poor translation of Colossians 1, JWitnesses point out that many modern English translations also supply the word “other,” even though the Greek doesn’t supply it. Luke 13:2 reads: “2And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?” When translating any passage from Greek to English, it is okay to supply certain words to communicate the idea of the text, but there must be a valid reason for doing so. In Luke 13, Jesus asks whether “these” Galileans were greater sinners than all Galileans (obviously talking about Galileans other than “these”) because of their terrible fate. The “other” is implied in Luke 13:2. But in Colossians 1, there is no basis whatsoever for inserting the word “other.” There is no grammatical or syntactical reason for inserting “other” into this text. So rather than Jesus creating all things, the NWT would mislead us to believe that he himself was created and then created all other things. This is a MASSIVE theological change.

Jesus is either Yahweh, Creator all things, or he is part of Yahweh’s creation. There is no middle ground. How vast is the divide between Creator and the created?! It is infinite! For Paul to speak of Christ the way he does in Colossians 1, with the most exalted language, is completely idolatrous if Christ is a mere creature.

Of course Paul was not committing the sin of idolatry, but describing the Son as He truly is: Yahweh, Creator all things. You see, Paul was a Trinitarian. This is why Paul had no problem describing the Son as Yahweh, or in this case, describing Christ as the Creator of all things.

Anywho, just something I've been studying lately =)

Case