Jesus Was Not Physically Resurrected
JWs teach that Jesus was not bodily raised from the dead. Instead, Jehovah disposed of (or dissolved) Jesus' physical body and re-created him as a spirit creature. The post-resurrection appearances were accomplished by Jesus 'materialising' temporary physical bodies — the way angels did in the Old Testament. Jesus is now in heaven as a spirit being, not in a physical body. This directly contradicts Jesus' own words: 'A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have' ().
If Jesus' body was dissolved, the resurrection is reduced to re-creation — God making a new spirit creature and calling it 'Jesus.' But Paul stakes everything on bodily resurrection: 'If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain' (). Jesus said, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' — and John explains, 'He was speaking about the temple of his body' (). The same body that went into the tomb came out. Thomas touched the nail marks in Jesus' hands (). Jesus ate fish (). The tomb was empty — if the body was dissolved, why was it empty? And why did the angels say, 'He is not here; he has risen' ()? A dissolved body is still 'here.' The Watchtower's doctrine destroys the very event that validates everything Jesus claimed.