John 20:28

                                                                                STUDIES IN GOD'S HOLY WORD

             TOPIC: The Words of Thomas in John 20:28, what do they mean?

                   The story of our Lord Jesus Christ and the challenge of "doubting Thomas" isn't something unheard of amongst Christians and Non-Christians alike. Apostle John recorded how our Lord appeared to his disciples, affirming the fact that he had defeated death as he had earlier promised and how Thomas, who wasn't with them when the Lord came, doubted it when told by the others.

                        In John 20:25, Thomas said:

            "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my fingers into the print of the nails and put my hands into his side, I will not believe,"

                        Obviously, Thomas doubted that the Lord had resurrected. He probably could have felt that Jesus could not have come have back to life after being bruised, beaten, given a very heavy cross to carry to Golgotha, nailed with huge nails by huge Roman soldiers and even after being dead and buried; his tomb, sealed and watched by Roman guards 24-7 intending to avoid any possible resurrection. Any average man would immediately abandon every hope of ever seeing Jesus again alive and that was exactly what Thomas was on that day; an average man, not a firm-in-faith believer.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (Part I)

                             "WITH THE VOICE OF ARCHANGEL"

                                "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." --- I Thessalonians 4:16 (KJV, NRSV, e.t.c.)

                             "For the Lord himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in christ will rise first." --- I Thessalonians 4:16 (Gideons, NWT, e.t.c.)

                             "There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first." --- I Thessalonians 4:16 (TEV)

                             "The foremost angel, both in power and authority is the archangel, Jesus Christ also called Michael. (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Jude 9) Under his authority are seraphs, cherubs, and angels." --- (The Watchtower, November 1, 1995 "The Truth About Angels")

                        Personally, I do not hold that Jesus Christ our Lord is one in the same with Michael the archangel but, I have been -- and will always be-- open-minded to any scripturally proven fact that may show otherwise yet, as far as I've been able to see, there is no solid evidence to bolster its scriptural status and of course, only conjectures could help give it grounds in the Bible. Reading through proof texts tendered by those who claim that the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the archangel, Michael, the above quoted verse tends to be one held in very high regard. In fact, one isn't faulty to think that it is the very verse (at least, the way they interpret it) that must have inspired the belief that Jesus is Michael the archangel but is this what this verse really states? Let's analyze further.

Jude 1:9

                                                MICHAEL "THE ARCHANGEL"

                                    "Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the Devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring reviling accusation, but said, "The LORD rebuke you!" " --- Jude 9 (Most translations have it this way)

                             "God's Word refers to Michael "the archangel." Jude 9. this term means "chief angel". Notice that Michael is called the archangel. This suggests that there is only one such angel. In fact, the term "archangel" occurs in the Bible only in the singular, never in the plural." --- What Does the Bible Really Teach? Appndx. pp. 218-219

                        If you've ever had a dialogue with some sect of Christians or Pseudo-Christians who hold and believe that Jesus is the same as Michael, I'm pretty sure you must have heard them use I Thessalonians 4:16 alongside Jude 9 much more often than they use others. It is claimed that since the Bible only mentions one "Archangel" and never has the word in a plural form, therefore, Michael must be the ONLY archangel. (In support of this claim, they cite Jude 9 as proof because of the use of the article "Michael THE archangel" to mean that Michael is the only one). And from this line of argument, the link this very claim into saying that the archangel mentioned in I Thessalonians 4:16 is none other than Michael.