In this post I am going to show how Revelation 12 proves that the post-resurrected Jesus cannot be the spirit creature Michael the archangel.

Pay close attention to what this chapter says:

“Then a great sign was seen in heaven: A woman was arrayed with the sun, and the moon was beneath her feet, and on her head was a crown of 12 stars, and she was pregnant. And she was crying out in her pains and in her agony to give birth… And the dragon kept standing before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth, it might devour her child. And she gave birth to a son, a male, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. And her child was snatched away to God and to his throne… And war broke out in heaven: Miʹcha·el and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled  but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God!’” Revelation 12:1-2, 4b-5, 7-10

In this vision John sees a woman give birth to the Messianic Child who fulfills God’s promises to David in Psalm 2:

“Why are the nations agitated And the peoples muttering an empty thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And high officials gather together as one Against Jehovah and against his anointed one. They say: ‘Let us tear off their shackles And throw off their ropes!’ The One enthroned in the heavens will laugh; Jehovah will scoff at them. At that time he will speak to them in his anger And terrify them in his burning anger, Saying: ‘I myself have installed my king On Zion, my holy mountain.’  Let me proclaim the decree of Jehovah; He said to me: ‘You are my son; Today I have become your father. Ask of me, and I will give nations as your inheritance And the ends of the earth as your possession. You will break them with an iron scepter, And you will smash them like a piece of pottery.” Psalm 2:1-9

Accordingly, Jehovah had sworn with an irrevocable and immutable oath that he would grant David the right to rule over God’s earthly kingdom forever, promising that David would never fail to have a human descendant sitting upon Jehovah’s throne on David’s behalf, in David’s place:  

“At that time you spoke in a vision to your loyal ones and said: ‘I have granted strength to a mighty one; I have exalted a chosen one from among the people. I have found David my servant; With my holy oil I have anointed him. My hand will support him, And my arm will strengthen him. No enemy will exact tribute from him, And no unrighteous man will oppress him. I will crush to pieces his adversaries from before him And strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and loyal love are with him, And in my name his strength will be exalted. I will put his hand over the sea And his right hand over the rivers. He will call out to me: “You are my Father, My God and the Rock of my salvation.” And I will place him as firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. I will maintain my loyal love for him forever, And my covenant with him will never fail. I will establish his offspring forever And make his throne as enduring as the heavens. If his sons leave my law And do not walk according to my decrees, If they violate my statutes And do not keep my commandments, Then I will punish their disobedience with a rod And their error with flogging. But I will never abandon my loyal love for him Nor be untrue to my promise. I will not violate my covenant Or change what my lips have spoken. I have sworn in my holiness, once and for all; I will not tell lies to David. His offspring will endure forever; His throne will endure like the sun before me. Like the moon, it will be firmly established forever As a faithful witness in the skies.’ (Selah)” Psalm 89:19-37

This explains why Revelation describes the heavenly Christ as a descendant of David and from the human tribe of Judah:

“But one of the elders said to me: ‘Stop weeping. Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so as to open the scroll and its seven seals.’” Revelation 5:5

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you about these things for the congregations. I AM (ego eimi) the root and THE OFFSPRING (genos) of David and the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:16

In these two texts we have further allusions to specific OT prophecies of the Messianic Ruler being from the line of Judah and the root of Jesse, David’s father:

“As for you, Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. The sons of your father will bow down before you. Judah is a lion cub. From the prey, my son, you will certainly go up. He has crouched down and stretched himself out like a lion, and like a lion, who dares rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, neither the commander’s staff from between his feet, until Shiʹloh comes, and to him the obedience of the peoples will belong. Tying his donkey to a vine and his donkey’s colt to a choice vine, he will wash his clothing in wine and his garment in the blood of grapes. Dark red are his eyes from wine, and his teeth are white from milk.” Genesis 49:8-12

“A twig will grow out of the stump of Jesʹse, And a sprout from his roots will bear fruit. And the spirit of Jehovah will settle upon him, The spirit of wisdom and of understanding, The spirit of counsel and of mightiness, The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. And he will find delight in the fear of Jehovah. He will not judge by what appears to his eyes, Nor reprove simply according to what his ears hear. He will judge the lowly with fairness, And with uprightness he will give reproof in behalf of the meek ones of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth And put the wicked to death with the breath of his lips. Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, And faithfulness the belt of his hips. The wolf will reside for a while with the lamb, And with the young goat the leopard will lie down, And the calf and the lion and the fattened animal will all be together; And a little boy will lead them. The cow and the bear will feed together, And their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the bull. The nursing child will play over the lair of a cobra, And a weaned child will put his hand over the den of a poisonous snake. They will not cause any harm Or any ruin in all my holy mountain, Because the earth will certainly be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah As the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesʹse will stand up as a signal for the peoples. To him the nations will turn for guidance, And his resting-place will become glorious.” Isaiah 11:1-10

In the words of David himself:

“Then King David rose to his feet and said: ‘Hear me, my brothers and my people. It was my heart’s desire to build a house as the resting-place for the ark of the covenant of Jehovah and as the footstool of our God, and I made preparations to build. But the true God told me, “You will not build a house for my name, for you are a man of wars, and you have shed blood.” However, Jehovah the God of Israel chose me out of all the house of my father to become king over Israel forever, for he chose Judah as leader and of the house of Judah, my father’s house, and of my father’s sons, I was the one whom he approved, to make me king over all Israel. And of all my sons—for Jehovah has given me many sons—he chose my son Solʹo·mon to sit on the throne of the kingship of Jehovah over Israel. He said to me, “Your son Solʹo·mon is the one who will build my house and my courtyards, for I have chosen him as my son and I will become his father. I will firmly establish his kingship forever if he resolutely observes my commandments and my judicial decisions, as he is now doing.”’” 1 Chronicles 28:2-7

Therefore, since Revelation clearly attests that Jesus is still a human descendant of David and from the tribe of Judah now that he is in heaven, this qualifies him to be the heir to the promises given to David.

And this is precisely why he is even called Christ to begin with!

As such, the risen Lord cannot be an angelic spirit creature since God emphatically declared that no mere created angel can ever sit upon David’s throne to rule it forever:

“… And after he had made a purification for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So he has become better than the angels to the extent that he has inherited a name more excellent than theirs. For example, to which one of the angels did God ever say: ‘You are my son; today I have become your father’? And again: ‘I will become his father, and he will become my son’? But when he again brings his Firstborn into the inhabited earth, he says: “And let all of God’s angels do obeisance to him.’ Also, he says about the angels: “He makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But about the Son, he says: ‘God is your throne forever and ever, and the scepter of your Kingdom is the scepter of uprightness. You loved righteousness, and you hated lawlessness. That is why God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation more than your companions.’” Hebrews 1:3b-9  

Here the prophecies made concerning the kingship which Jehovah graciously bequeathed to David and his heirs in Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 are cited to explicitly show that God never made such promises in respect to any of his angelic creatures!

Therefore, seeing that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises given to David he cannot possibly be the archangel Michael. Unless, of course, the JWs and Arian cultists have no problem with creating a major contradiction within the God-breathed Scriptures.

The final proof from Revelation that Jesus cannot be the created archangel comes from the amazing vision John saw where every created being throughout the entire creation worships Jesus in the exact same way and to the exact same extent that the Father is worshiped:

“When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, and each one had a harp and golden bowls that were full of incense. (The incense means the prayers of the holy ones.) And they sing a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slaughtered and with your blood you bought people for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.’And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, and they were saying with a loud voice: ‘The Lamb who was slaughtered is worthy to receive the power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’ And I heard EVERY CREATURE in heaven and on earth and underneath the earth and on the sea, and ALL THE THINGS IN THEM, saying: ‘To the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.’ The four living creatures were saying: ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshipped.” Revelation 5:8-14

Seeing that Jesus is clearly differentiated and distinguished from every created thing in existence he therefore cannot be a mere creature. And seeing that Michael is a created being he, therefore, cannot be the uncreated Son of God who is depicted in this remarkable scene as being coequal to God in glory, essence, and majesty!

So much for the belief of Jehovah’s Witnesses and other Arian cultists that Michael the archangel is Jesus Christ in his post-mortem heavenly state.

All citations taken from the 2013 New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition).

FURTHER READING

Is Jesus Christ the Archangel Michael?

Proving that Jesus is not the Archangel Michael

Is Michael the Ruler of Israel? Further Proof that Jesus isn’t an Archangel Pt. 1

CREATED ANGELIC BEINGS AS JEHOVAH GOD?

Is Michael the Ruler of Israel? The Witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls

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