Do Jehovah Witnesses deny the physical resurrection of Jesus?

Answer 1

Answer:Most definitely!

1 Peter 3:18 is clear: "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit."

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jehovah God, the Creator of heaven and earth, is a spirit personage; and that he exists outside the physical realm. Genesis 1:1 states that God 'created the heavens and earth'; therefore God existed before he created the physical Universe.

True, there were times after his death, when Jesus appeared to his disciples in a physical body. But you'll notice that they didn't even recognize Jesus when he was speaking with them because he had given up his physical body as a sacrifice. But he certainly could do something similar to what the spirit angel Gabriel did when speaking with Mary. Gabriel, temporarily took on a physical body, when speaking to Mary. Gabriel is still a spirit angel; but it is an easy thing for them (with Jehovah's permission) to 'materialize' temporarily; and then return to the spirit realm in their 'spirit' form.

Answer:Yes. Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that Jesus came back to life as a spirit creature, namely Michael the Archangel, which they are also taught this was Jesus' identity prior to his human existence.

Witnesses use 1 Peter 3:18 in support of this teaching:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

However, critics of this teaching point to passages such as Luke 24:39, John 2:19, Act 7:56, and 1Timothy 2:5. Which, together with many more like them, they say, reveal that Christ was a physical man after his resurrection and even after his ascension to his father's side.