Do Jehovah's Witnesses say the word Satan?

Answer 1

First it would be important to have a clear definition of this word (brother) before this question can be answered.

A brother can be a male sharing the same parent(s) as another offspring. Or a brother can be someone that is related to another because of common ties and interests. There are some other similar meanings for the word but more or less the same.

To answer both think about this. All of Jehovah's works are perfect; so he did not create anyone wicked. (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 5:4) The one who became Satan was originally a perfect spirit son of God. When saying that the Devil "did not stand fast in the truth," Jesus indicated that at one time that one was "in the truth." (John 8:44) But, as is true of all of God's intelligent creatures, this spirit son was endowed with free will. He abused his freedom of choice, allowed feelings of self-importance to develop in his heart, began to crave worship that belonged only to God, and so enticed Adam and Eve to listen to him rather than obey God. Thus by his course of action he made himself Satan, which means "adversary." Satan created Satan, in a sense he is his own father. Jesus clearly identifies his father as being Jehovah God, after all he was killed for claiming this. Jesus and Satan have none of the same interests, therefore they are not brothers in this way at all, in fact they are enemies.

Taking this into consideration, do you believe Jesus and Satan are brothers? Jehovah's Witnesses do not.

AnswerThis is, I hope, a balanced answer from a non-Jehovah's Witness, rather than the opinion of a practising JW.

JWs take all their theology from their version of scripture, and the Watchtower society publications. They are not allowed to receive wisdom from any other source. Therefore, to a JW, the Watchtower and The Bible (sadly, often in that order) are their source of belief and, as such, are infallible.

The problem with JW theology is that it is based on a skewed and shallow interpretation of scripture, as expounded by their founder C T Russell, who was neither a Bible scholar nor Greek expert. As the society grew, there have had to be many bizarre doctrines formulated (eg Jesus crucified on a stake not a cross, predictions - and amendments - about the end of the world, the nature of Christ and so on) that have had to be invented to agree with this suspect theology.

They are most famous for denying the divinity of Christ, despite scripture making Jesus' claims to be God very clear (he forgave sin, accepted worship, called himself 'I am', performed miracles in his own name, was indicted for blasphemy etc). This denial has led to many other doctrines surrounding Christ that are at odds with the Christian Church that has taught his divinity for the last 2000 years and who formulated this belief as a result of the disciples' own teaching of the early Church.

One of these beliefs is that Jesus Christ and Lucifer (Satan) are brothers. Lucifer and Satan have both been synonymous names for the devil since the earliest of times. As they claim Jesus was a created being (contrary to John 1) as well as Lucifer, this places both on an equal footing:

"Thus the scriptures identify the Word (Jesus in his pre-human existence) as God's first creation, his firstborn Son. This son was actually a creature of God" (Aid to Bible Understanding, Watchtower Soc, p. 918 - published around 1910).

In addition the concept of Jesus and Satan being brothers is also taught by the JW organisation:

A very old publication of the early International Bible Students group said, "In the beginning, God had two sons, that were named Word and Lucifer. Though Lucifer was not as favored as the Word was, he was defined with the Word as the morning star (Deliberation- freedom, Watchtower Soc, p. 26, 33 - published early in the 20th century, around 1912).

This sacrilege of placing Jesus on an equal footing with Satan/Lucifer is something that not even JWs often realise they are called to believe (see first answer which denies this Watchtower teaching). There are many other doctrines like this, of course.

Sadly, so many JWs never realise that the organisation to which they belong has such beliefs, yet they insist that Trinitarian doctrine, as pervades all scripture, and which was underlined in Jesus' great commission at the end of Matthew's gospel, as satanic. JW theology is very confused and simply does not add up, and this is the result of being a group that claim to have the exclusive interpretation of scripture, without a real, Spirit-revealed, academic and deep grounding in biblical theology, and as a result of this, even on this page, there is a difference of opinion between the first answerer - presumably a practising JW - and the Watchtower society's own publications.

Answer 2

Yes.