Revelation 19:10
Revelation 19:1010So I fell at his feet to worship him. But he told me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who rely on the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Jehovah's Witnesses cite as proof that worship belongs exclusively to Jehovah. When John falls before the angel, the angel refuses and says "Worship God!" The Watchtower uses this to argue that no creature — including Jesus — should receive worship. They also connect the angel's statement "the witness concerning Jesus is what inspires prophecy" (NWT) to their view that Jesus is the subject of prophecy rather than its divine source. This verse is a cornerstone of JW teaching that proskuneo directed at anyone other than Jehovah is inappropriate.
Protestants use as a critical benchmark for the worship argument. The angel refuses proskuneo and redirects it to God — establishing the principle that faithful created beings refuse worship. This becomes devastating when paired with passages where Jesus accepts the identical proskuneo without correction (Matt 28:9, 28:17; Rev 5:13-14). If the angel must refuse worship because he is a creature, and Jesus never refuses it, the implication is that Jesus is not a creature. The phrase "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" also supports the pre-existence argument from — the Spirit of Christ was the driving force behind Old Testament prophecy. The angel's refusal defines what proskuneo means in Revelation's throne-room context, making Jesus' acceptance of the same act a claim to deity.
The NWT uses "worship" at where the angel refuses proskuneo directed at himself, yet renders the same Greek word as "did obeisance" when directed at Jesus in the Gospels (Matt 28:9, 28:17, 14:33). This creates an internal inconsistency: the angel refuses what the NWT calls "worship," but when Jesus receives the identical act, the NWT downgrades it to mere "obeisance." If proskuneo toward a creature is only "obeisance," the angel had no reason to refuse it. The NWT's own word choice at concedes that proskuneo carries worship significance — undermining the "obeisance" rendering elsewhere.