Jesus Is Not the Father, and Not One of the Angels

Test the Teaching · Article 2 of 9 · 2026-11-02 · Key passages: John 20:17; Hebrews 1:5, 13; Matthew 3:17. Quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB); please check each one in your own Bible.

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What we confess.

To us there is “one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31), who “has come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2). He “died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3), was buried, and “was raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:4). “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), and “This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back” (Acts 1:11).

Is Jesus the Father himself? A woman at a tomb was the first to hear the risen Jesus speak of his Father. Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb on the morning he rose. She turned, saw Jesus, and heard him say her name. Then he gave her a message for his brothers:

Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

— John 20:17

Notice whose words answer the question this article opens with: Jesus' own, on the morning he rose. He does not call himself their Father. He names another — his Father and his God — and he gives that Father to his brothers as theirs.

The question is asked in two forms, and this article takes them in turn. Some teach that Jesus is the Father: one God, one person, and Father and Son are two ways the one God has shown himself. Others teach that before he was born of Mary, Jesus was the archangel Michael, God's first creation, and that he is Michael still. The two teachings differ in much. They agree on one thing: that Jesus is not simply the Son of God. On both teachings, the Son who speaks with his Father and is set above every angel is something else instead. For the first teaching we open John 20:17, John 17, and a voice from heaven. For the second we open Hebrews 1, Daniel 10, and Jude. Where Scripture is silent, we will say so and stop.

Passages: John 20:11–18; Hebrews 1:4–14.

Read These First

  • John 20:11–18: the risen Jesus sends word to his brothers.
  • John 17:1–5: Jesus prays to the only true God.
  • Matthew 3:16–17: a voice from heaven names the Son.
  • Hebrews 1:4–14: the Son set above the angels.
  • Daniel 10:13–21: Michael, one of the chief princes.
  • Jude 9: Michael the archangel would not rebuke the devil.

First: the teaching that Jesus is the Father himself.

Jesus Names the Father as His God

What the text says. Lift up John 17, the prayer Jesus prayed on the night before he died:

Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

— John 17:1–3

In that prayer Jesus calls the one he prays to “the only true God” (John 17:3). He calls himself the one that God sent: “him whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). In Gethsemane he prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.” (Matthew 26:39). His will and his Father's will are named as two, and he puts his Father's first. On the morning he rose he named the same God again: “my God and your God” (John 20:17). Passages: John 17:5; Ephesians 1:17.

Jesus also counts himself and the Father as two witnesses. “It’s also written in your law that the testimony of two people is valid. I am one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.” (John 8:17–18). He called God “my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God” (John 8:54).

What we conclude. Jesus calls the Father “the only true God” (John 17:3) and “my God” (John 20:17). The one he prays to is the Father, whose will he put before his own (Matthew 26:39). He counts his own testimony and the Father's as the testimony of two people (John 8:17–18). Our conclusion is that Scripture shows two who testify, not one who testifies in two ways. Knowing this God, and the one he sent, is eternal life (John 17:3).

The strongest objection. Some hold that Jesus is the Father himself, come in the flesh. As some argue it, the Son is the man Jesus and the Father is the God who dwelt in him. So when Jesus prayed, the man prayed to the God within him, and the prayers do not show two. They cite Jesus' words: “the Father who lives in me does his works.” (John 14:10). They also cite Paul: “For in him all the fullness of the Deity dwells bodily,” (Colossians 2:9).

Our answer. In the same verse Jesus says it both ways: “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10). He prays that all who believe in him may share that oneness: “that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). Our conclusion is that the Father living in Jesus does not make Jesus the Father, any more than it makes believers the Father. And Jesus counts the Father as a second witness beside himself (John 8:17–18). The man praying and the God prayed to are two in his own words. How Colossians 2:9 is to be read is answered under Questions Answered. See The Trinity's texts, and what the Word of John 1 is. For this question, the same letter is plain: Paul gives thanks “to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 1:3).

Jesus Is Not the Father

What the text says. At Jesus' baptism the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God came on him:

Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

— Matthew 3:16–17

The voice does not name the one in the water as the speaker himself. It says, “This is my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus told those who opposed him, “The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.” (John 5:37). John writes to believers, “If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” (1 John 2:1). Our conclusion is that one who is with the Father is beside him, not the Father himself. Passages: Matthew 3:16; John 5:18–19.

What we conclude. Scripture plainly rules out the teaching that Jesus is the Father. Jesus prays to the Father. A voice from heaven calls Jesus “my beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). The risen Jesus goes “to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17). Those who hold this teaching confess one God, as we do. Scripture says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), and we gladly say it with them. A verse that rules out a teaching does not say that those who hold it are lost, and we do not say it either.

The strongest objection. Those who hold that Jesus is the Father cite his words in John 10:

I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

— John 10:28–30

As they argue it, one means one and the same: Jesus is the Father.

Our answer. The verse names two: “I and the Father” (John 10:30). The crowd took up stones and charged him, “because you, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33). Jesus answered from the psalm, and then he named himself as the one “whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world” (John 10:36). His claim, in his own words, was “I said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (John 10:36). Later he prays for his disciples “that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:22). His many disciples are to be one in the same way. Our conclusion is that John 10:30 does not make Jesus the Father. Passages: John 10:31.

A second objection. They also cite what Jesus said to Philip:

If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

— John 14:7–9

As they argue it, to see Jesus is to see the Father because Jesus is the Father.

Our answer. Jesus goes straight on to say how the Father is seen in him: “The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works.” (John 14:10). He had said it before in other words: “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. He who sees me sees him who sent me.” (John 12:44–45). Later in the same chapter he says, “I will pray to the Father” (John 14:16), and “the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28). Our conclusion is that Jesus shows the Father as the one the Father sent, in whom the Father speaks and works. The verse does not say that he is the Father.

A third objection. They also cite a prophecy of the coming king:

For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

— Isaiah 9:6–7

As they argue it, the child is called Everlasting Father, so Jesus is the Father.

Our answer. Our conclusion: they are throne names given to the son of David. See What Isaiah 9:6's titles mean under Questions Answered. The same verse calls the one who bears the names a son: “A son is given to us” (Isaiah 9:6). The next verse says who will bring his reign about: “The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:7). Jesus himself says, “I am ascending to my Father” (John 20:17). Our conclusion is that the title Everlasting Father, a throne name, does not make Jesus the Father.

Pause. In John 8:17–18, whom does Jesus name as the two witnesses? (See Jesus Names the Father as His God.)

Second: the teaching that Jesus was an angel — the archangel Michael.

God Set the Son Above Every Angel

What the text says. The letter to the Hebrews opens by setting the Son and the angels side by side, and it argues the difference in so many words:

having become as much better than the angels as the more excellent name he has inherited is better than theirs. For to which of the angels did he say at any time, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father?” and again, “I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son?”

— Hebrews 1:4–5

The question expects the answer none. God never said “You are my Son” (Hebrews 1:5) to an angel. He says more. When he brings the firstborn into the world, the angels are told to worship him: “Let all the angels of God worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6). Of the angels themselves he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his servants a flame of fire.” (Hebrews 1:7). And the chapter asks its question a second time:

But which of the angels has he told at any time, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet?”

— Hebrews 1:13

Angels, by contrast, are “serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). The next chapter adds: “For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels.” (Hebrews 2:5). Passages: Hebrews 1:2–3; 2:9.

Read the chapter whole, and it also says the hard words about the Son: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” (Hebrews 1:8). The very next verse keeps his God over him: “therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.” (Hebrews 1:9). The God who anoints the Son is the Son's God. How the title God is given to Jesus is answered under Questions Answered, in God said of Jesus.

What we conclude. Our conclusion is that Hebrews 1 does not leave the Son's place in doubt. He is better than the angels, and the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs (Hebrews 1:4). The Father calls him Son, seats him at his right hand, and commands the angels to worship him. The chapter's own questions have one answer: to no angel did God ever say these things. The Son is not an angel raised above his fellows. He is set in another place altogether, and the angels are his God's serving spirits (Hebrews 1:14).

The strongest objection. Those who hold that Jesus was an angel before his birth cite Paul's words about him. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15). As they argue it, firstborn of all creation means the first thing God created. So Jesus is a created being — the first and greatest of the angels — before he was a man.

Our answer. Read the passage to its own explanation of firstborn. A few verses later Paul uses the word again: “He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.” (Colossians 1:18). Our conclusion is that firstborn there names his rank, not his origin: “that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). And whether Jesus existed at all before his conception is answered under Questions Answered, in Whether Jesus existed before his conception. Our conclusion, from Luke 1:35, is that he came into existence in Mary's womb. Before that, he was in God's purpose and foreknowledge (1 Peter 1:20). He was not a created angel before he was a man.

Michael Is One of the Chief Princes

What the text says. Scripture names Michael in three books: Daniel, Jude, and Revelation. We begin with Daniel and Jude; the Revelation passage is the holders' own text, read below with their objection. In Daniel, an angel tells the prophet: “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but, behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Daniel 10:13). One of the chief princes: Michael is one among others of his rank. The angel calls him “Michael your prince” (Daniel 10:21) — the prince set over Daniel's people.

In Jude, Michael is called by the title the whole question turns on: “But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you!’” (Jude 9). The archangel himself would not pronounce a rebuke on the devil; he left the rebuke to the Lord.

What we conclude. Our conclusion: Jesus is God's Son and a man, ranked above every angel; Michael is an archangel (Hebrews 1:5). Michael is a real and great prince, and Scripture honors him. He helps God's messenger (Daniel 10:13). He stands for God's people. Even in dispute with the devil, he speaks with restraint (Jude 9). But he is “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13) — one of a company. The Son is one of none: God has no second Son of whom he said the things he said of Jesus (Hebrews 1:5, 13). No verse calls Jesus Michael, and no verse calls Michael God's Son.

The strongest objection. Those who hold the teaching cite the Lord's return. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). As they argue it, the Lord descends with an archangel's voice because he is the archangel — his own voice is the one heard.

Our answer. The verse says the Lord descends with the archangel's voice, as he descends with God's trumpet, in the same breath. Our conclusion is that descending with the archangel's voice no more makes him the archangel than descending with God's trumpet makes him God. The verse names the sounds that attend his coming; it does not name him Michael, and it does not call him an archangel. What it calls him is “the Lord himself” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

A second objection. They also cite the war in heaven: “There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.” (Revelation 12:7). As they argue it, Michael leads heaven's armies against the dragon, and the one who leads heaven's armies is Jesus under his older name.

Our answer. Read the chapter to its own account of the victory. The voice in heaven says, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come” (Revelation 12:10), and of the brothers it says, “They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony.” (Revelation 12:11). Michael fights in the chapter; the victory is won by the Lamb's blood and confessed as the authority of God's Christ. Our conclusion is that the chapter keeps Michael and the Lamb side by side, and never merges them.

A third objection. They also cite Daniel's last chapter, in full: “At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.” (Daniel 12:1). As they argue it, the great prince who stands for God's people at the end is the one who saves them. He is Jesus himself, acting as Michael.

Our answer. We say with Daniel that Michael is “the great prince who stands for the children of your people” (Daniel 12:1). A prince who stands for God's people is their guardian, set over them. Daniel's own earlier words fix his rank: “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13), “Michael your prince” (Daniel 10:21). Of the Son, God says what he said to no prince: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet” (Hebrews 1:13). The deliverance Daniel promises belongs to “everyone who is found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1). Our conclusion: Daniel calls him the prince who stands for God's people. He never calls him Jesus, and he never calls him God's Son.

Pause. In Daniel 10:13, what is Michael called — and in Hebrews 1:5, to which of the angels did God say, “You are my Son” (Hebrews 1:5)? (See Michael Is One of the Chief Princes and God Set the Son Above Every Angel.)

The Teaching We Differ From

The two teachings this article tests agree in denying one thing. Both deny that Jesus is, simply, the Son of God. He is the Son who speaks with his Father and is set above every angel. We take them in turn.

The first teaching: Jesus is the Father himself. Some hold that there is one God who is one person. Father and Son, on this teaching, are not two who speak to each other. They are roles, or forms, in which the one God has shown himself. The Father is the deity, and the Son is the man in whom he dwelt. So Jesus' prayers are the man praying to the God within him. And “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) means one and the same person.

We share much with those who hold this teaching. They confess one God, as we do. Scripture says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19), and we gladly say it with them. They love the words “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and so do we.

Their verses are John 10:30, John 14:9–10, Isaiah 9:6 and Colossians 2:9, read above where the objections are answered. Where Scripture speaks, it names two. The Son prays, and the Father hears (John 17:1–3). The Son testifies, and the Father testifies of him (John 8:17–18). The Son ascends, and the Father is the one to whom he ascends (John 20:17). Jesus himself answers the question this article opened with, and he answers it in the negative. “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17).

The second teaching: Jesus is the archangel Michael. Jehovah's Witnesses hold this teaching, and we state it in their own words. Their Bible dictionary, Insight on the Scriptures, says of the name Michael: “Scriptural evidence indicates that the name Michael applied to God's Son before he left heaven to become Jesus Christ and also after his return.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Michael 1). It explains the title: “If the designation ‘archangel’ applied, not to Jesus Christ, but to other angels, then the reference to ‘an archangel’s voice’ would not be appropriate.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Michael 2). The same dictionary argues from the word itself: “The prefix ‘arch,’ meaning ‘chief’ or ‘principal,’ implies that there is only one archangel, the chief angel.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Archangel 1). “It is, therefore, not without significance that the only name directly associated with the word ‘archangel’ is Michael.—Jude 9; see MICHAEL No. 1.” (Insight on the Scriptures: Archangel 2). Their website puts it for every reader: “Michael, referred to by some religions as ‘Saint Michael,’ is evidently a name given to Jesus before and after his life on earth.” (Who Is the Archangel Michael? 1). “Jesus has ‘an archangel’s voice’ because he is the archangel, Michael.” (Who Is the Archangel Michael? 2). “Rather, it is more reasonable to conclude that both names, Jesus and Michael, refer to the same person.” (Who Is the Archangel Michael? 3).

We share the starting point of those who hold this teaching. Michael is a real and great prince of angels, and Scripture names him with honor. We say so above, from Daniel and Jude, in the same words they open. We share, too, the honor they give the Son's voice at his return. The dead in Christ will rise at his shout (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and we confess it with them.

Their argument, fairly stated, is this. There is only one archangel, and the only name joined to that title is Michael. Jesus is called God's firstborn, and he descends with an archangel's voice. Therefore, they say, Jesus is Michael. Their verses are Colossians 1:15, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 12:7 and Daniel 12:1, read above where the objections are answered.

We answer from the text both sides open. Hebrews 1 asks, twice, to which of the angels God said the things he said of the Son. The answer the chapter gives is none (Hebrews 1:5, 13). Daniel calls Michael “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13). One archangel or several, Daniel places him in a company. The Son is placed in none. And the identity is never stated. No verse calls Jesus Michael, before his birth or after his return. No verse calls Michael the Son of God. Our conclusion is that the teaching joins two names that Scripture itself keeps apart.

A verse that rules out a teaching does not say that those who hold it are lost, and we do not say it either. Many who hold these teachings love the Lord Jesus and read their Bibles with care. Some of us were taught by them, and one of us held the second teaching for fifteen years. We ask every reader to do with us what we ask throughout this series: open the text, and read it in context. Keep what is true.

Questions Answered

These questions touch this article. Each is answered from Scripture and labeled. The Statement of Faith, section 15, gives the same answers.

Whether Jesus existed before his conception. Our conclusion: Jesus is a man, the Son of God, who came into existence in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit. Before that he existed in God’s purpose and foreknowledge (Luke 1:35; 1 Peter 1:20). Read the other way: John 1:1–3, 15, 30; 3:13; 6:62; 8:58; 17:5; Philippians 2:5–8; Colossians 1:15–17; Hebrews 1:10–12; Jude 5; Micah 5:2; Proverbs 8:22; Revelation 1:17; 2:8; 22:13. Confidence: Narrow. Every text listed is answered: John 1:1–3, John 3:13, Micah 5:2 and Proverbs 8 from Scripture’s own speech about God’s word and wisdom (Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 44:24), and the rest as our conclusion, by the foreknowledge Christ was held in (1 Peter 1:20) and the word that became flesh (John 1:14). In the WEB, Jude 5 names the Lord, whom Exodus names Yahweh (Exodus 12:51). The grade is Narrow because the step is large — and because Hebrews 1:10–12 still reads most naturally against us — not because the texts are unanswered.

The Trinity’s texts, and what the Word of John 1 is. Our conclusion: there is one God, the Father. The Word of John 1 is God’s own word, which became flesh in the man Jesus; it was not a second Person (1 Corinthians 8:6). Read the other way: John 1:1; Matthew 28:19; Genesis 1:26. Confidence: Solid. One God, the Father, is stated outright. Matthew 28:19’s one name joins three without making them one God, as one name rests on Jacob and his fathers together (Genesis 48:16); and Genesis 1:27 answers 1:26 in the singular — “God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him” (Genesis 1:27). Our step is in John 1:1 alone: John does not define the Word, and we identify it from Scripture’s own speech about God’s word — the word by which the heavens were made (Psalm 33:6), which goes out from God and does not return void (Isaiah 55:11).

God said of Jesus. Our conclusion: where Scripture calls Jesus God, it gives him a title as God’s appointed king, as it called them gods to whom the word of God came (Psalm 82:6; John 10:35). It never makes him the one God, who is his God (John 20:17). Read the other way: John 20:28; Hebrews 1:8; Titus 2:13; Romans 9:5; John 1:18; Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 3:16. Confidence: Solid. John 20:17 and Hebrews 1:9 are plain, and the very passages that call him God keep his God over him (Hebrews 1:9; Psalm 45:7). Titus 2:13 and Romans 9:5 allow the other reading in their grammar, and we say so; our answer does not rest on the construal, for on the WEB's own reading the title is the derived one of Psalm 45:6–7.

What Isaiah 9:6’s titles mean. Our conclusion: they are throne names given to the son of David. Like “Yahweh our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16), they tell what God does through the one who bears them (Isaiah 9:6). Read the other way: Isaiah 10:21. Confidence: Solid. Verse 7 credits the whole reign to another: “The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this” (Isaiah 9:7). A city is called by Yahweh's own name and is not Yahweh (Jeremiah 33:16), and the same list calls the child Everlasting Father, which no reader takes to make him the Father. Isaiah 10:21 names the God whose might the child's throne name declares.

God’s titles, Alpha and Omega, and worship given to Jesus. Our conclusion: God gave Jesus his name, authority and honor, so the words Scripture says of God are rightly said of him. Every knee bows to Jesus to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9; 2:10; 2:11). Read the other way: Revelation 22:13; 5:13; Hebrews 1:6; John 5:23; Philippians 2:10; Isaiah 45:23. Confidence: Solid. Philippians 2:9–11 and Revelation 21:22 say how: the name and the throne are given (Revelation 3:21), and God and the Lamb are named together but never merged (Revelation 1:1; 22:1). The first line traces the chain itself: it is the Revelation “which God gave him” (Revelation 1:1), made known “by his angel to his servant, John” (Revelation 1:1). Its greeting is “from God, who is and who was and who is to come” (Revelation 1:4) and “from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5); and the Lord God, speaking in that chapter, calls himself “the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8). Revelation 22:13 remains the hardest text; each time Jesus takes the first and the last he joins it to his death and rising (Revelation 1:17–18; 2:8), and Revelation says no more. See entry 6 for Hebrews 1:10.

Whether Jesus is Michael. Our conclusion: Jesus is God’s Son and a man, ranked above every angel; Michael is an archangel (Hebrews 1:5). Read the other way: 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 12:7. Confidence: Solid. Hebrews 1 and 2 set the Son apart from every angel, and the two texts answer themselves in context: in Revelation 12 the victory is “because of the Lamb’s blood” (Revelation 12:11) and “the authority of his Christ” (Revelation 12:10), not Michael's war; and the Lord of 1 Thessalonians 4 descends with the archangel’s voice as he descends with God’s trumpet (4:16) — the trumpet does not make him God, and the voice does not make him the archangel. Michael is “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13), and he would not rebuke the devil himself (Jude 9).

Whether salvation depends on these questions. Our conclusion: salvation depends on believing the good news about Jesus and remaining in his teaching. It does not depend on settling every question in this document (John 8:24). Read the other way: John 8:24; 1 John 2:23; Galatians 1:9. Confidence: Solid. John names the belief he requires: “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). John’s denial is denying that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22), and his test of teaching is the confession that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (2 John 7, 9). Galatians 1:9 curses a rival good news, not an unsettled question; Romans 14:1 shows that not every question divides.

What Scripture does not say. Scripture does not say that Jesus is the Father, or that the Father and the Son are one person under two names. It does not say that Jesus bore the name Michael at any time, before his birth or after his resurrection. It does not say that he is an archangel, or one of the angels. It does not name any archangel besides Michael, or tell us how many archangels there are. Where Scripture is silent, we do not build.

“The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Where We Stand

Scripture says

  • The risen Jesus calls the Father “my Father” (John 20:17) and “my God” (John 20:17), and calls him the Father and God of his brothers.
  • Jesus calls the Father “the only true God” (John 17:3), and himself the one the Father sent.
  • Jesus counts his own testimony and the Father's as the testimony of two (John 8:17–18).
  • A voice from heaven calls Jesus God's beloved Son (Matthew 3:17).
  • To no angel did God say, “You are my Son” (Hebrews 1:5), and to no angel did he say, “Sit at my right hand” (Hebrews 1:13).
  • The Son has inherited a more excellent name than the angels, and the angels of God worship him (Hebrews 1:4, 6).
  • Angels are serving spirits, sent out for the sake of those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14).
  • The world to come is not subjected to angels (Hebrews 2:5).
  • Michael is one of the chief princes (Daniel 10:13), and Michael the archangel would not rebuke the devil himself (Jude 9).

We conclude

  • Our conclusion: Jesus is not the Father. He is the Son, who prays to the Father, is sent by the Father, and ascends to the Father (John 17:3; 20:17).
  • Our conclusion: the Father living in Jesus does not make Jesus the Father (John 14:10; 17:21).
  • Our conclusion: John 10:30, John 14:9 and Isaiah 9:6 do not teach that Jesus is the Father (John 17:22; 14:10; Isaiah 9:6–7).
  • Our conclusion: Jesus is not Michael, and he was never an angel. Michael is an archangel, one of the chief princes; the Son is set above every angel (Hebrews 1:4–5; Daniel 10:13).
  • Our conclusion: the archangel's voice at the Lord's descent no more makes him the archangel than God's trumpet makes him God (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Hope

The words Jesus sent from the tomb were not only a correction; they were a gift. “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17). The Father he goes to is the Father he gives his brothers. He had prayed it the night before he died: “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3). John writes it with wonder: “See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). Paul writes, “For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15).

And the Son who calls him Father is set above every angel — while the angels themselves are “serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). The servants are sent for us; the Son is ours. Jesus said of his disciples: “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:27).

Open the text. Read it in context. Keep what's true.

Living It Out

These are applications, offered as invitations.

  • Try reading Hebrews 1 in one sitting, and count the questions the chapter asks about the angels — and the answers it expects.
  • When you pray, you might address the Father in Jesus' name, as Jesus taught his disciples to ask in his name and as he himself prayed (John 17:1).
  • If you were taught that Jesus is Michael, consider reading Daniel 10:13–21 and Jude 9 aloud, and asking what Michael is called there — and what he is never called.
  • With a friend who holds that Jesus is the Father, you might open John 17 together and read the prayer aloud, noticing who speaks and who is spoken to.
  • Where a question stays open, it may help to rest in what is revealed (Deuteronomy 29:29), and in the Father who himself loves you (John 16:27).

Questions for Reflection

  1. What did the risen Jesus tell Mary to say to his brothers?
  2. Whom does Jesus call “the only true God” (John 17:3), and what does he say knowing him is? (See Jesus Names the Father as His God.)
  3. How does John 17:22 help in reading John 10:30? (See Jesus Is Not the Father.)
  4. What two questions does Hebrews 1 ask about the angels, and what answer does the chapter expect? (See God Set the Son Above Every Angel.)
  5. What is Michael called in Daniel 10:13, and what would he not do in Jude 9? (See Michael Is One of the Chief Princes.)
  6. What does it mean for you that Jesus calls his Father “your Father” (John 20:17)? (See Hope.)

Check It Yourself

  • Opening: John 20:11–18.
  • Not the Father: John 17:1–5; Matthew 26:39; John 8:17–18; 8:54; Matthew 3:16–17; John 5:37; 1 John 2:1; 2 Corinthians 5:19.
  • Objections, first teaching: John 14:10; 17:21; Colossians 1:3; 2:9; John 10:28–36; 14:7–10, 16, 28; 12:44–45; Isaiah 9:6–7.
  • Set above the angels: Hebrews 1:2–14; 2:5, 9.
  • Michael: Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 12:7, 10–11; Colossians 1:15–18.
  • The teachings tested: Insight on the Scriptures: Michael; Insight on the Scriptures: Archangel; Who Is the Archangel Michael?
  • Answered: Statement of Faith, section 15; Luke 1:35; 1 Peter 1:20; Deuteronomy 29:29.
  • Hope: John 20:17; 17:3; 16:27; 1 John 3:1; Romans 8:15; Hebrews 1:14.

Notes on the Text

At John 1:1, the New World Translation renders the last clause with a god where the WEB reads God; this article's case rests on John 20:17 and Hebrews 1, not on that verse.

Next

Next in Test the Teaching: No One Knows the Day or Hour, and Every Eye Will See Him. Can the day be calculated — and will anyone miss his coming?

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Study guide: Study Guide: Jesus Is Not the Father, and Not One of the Angels
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© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/test-the-teaching/02-jesus-is-not-the-father/
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