Is Jesus really God? (part 2)

In the last post, I looked at an evidence of the deity of Jesus in the fact that He refers to Himself as "the First and the Last", a title which is only ever given to God the Father. I focused on some verses in Revelation, and stopped at chapter 1, verse 17:

"Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last."

As clear as this connection maybe be in my mind, it may still be insufficient for others, because Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that all of these verses in Revelation are spoken by Jesus, but that it is rather God the Father who is using these terms for Himself, so there is no problem raised with Him using this title. Okay, fine. Let's look at verse 17 again, but in conjunction with the following verse:

Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Wait... what?! If the title "the First and the Last" is referring to Jehovah God... when did He die? I know that Jesus died and was raised to life, but when did this happen to Jehovah God? This verse makes no sense unless Jesus is, in His very essence, one with God the Father, who is "the First and the Last."

And this is not the only place where this claim appears. Again, Jesus says in chapter 2, verse 8:

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, "These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life."

What is interesting to me is the fact that - with all of the differences between the New World Translation and the standard, traditional, labored over, and heavily studied translations of the Bible - the New World Translation still contains these words. For one to deny the deity of Jesus, they would have to tackle the issue of God dying... especially if it exists in their own doctrine-specific translation.

Hopefully, this information is even more convincing than the fact that Jesus uses the title "the First and the Last" to refer to Himself, but if not, stay tuned, because there will be more, which, to me, is actually more persuasive still.