Doctrines to be Rejected # 3: That the Son of God was co-eternal with the Father. The statement
This can be positively stated as: Jesus was begotten of the Virgin Mary; he was only “known” beforehand in the mind and purpose of Yahweh from the beginning.
In particular, this statement can be compared to the Statement of Faith, clause 8 which reads:
That these promises had reference to Jesus Christ, who was to be raised up in the condemned line of Abraham and David, and who, though wearing their condemned nature, was to obtain a title to resurrection by perfect obedience, and, by dying, abrogate the law of condemnation for himself and all who should believe and obey him. (1Cor 15:45; Heb 2:14-16; Rom 1:3; Heb 5:8-9, 1:9; Rom 5:19-21; Gal 4:4-5; Rom 8:3-4; Heb 2:15; 9:26; Gal 1:4; Heb 7:27; 5:3-7; 2:17; Rom 6:10; 6:9;).
This Doctrine to be rejected is particularly concerned with the so-called “Preexistence of Christ”. It is also partially related to clauses 1, 2, 9, and 10, which will not be repeated here: they are primarily concerned with the nature and Christ and his sacrifice.
This current statement can be compared with that written by Bro. Roberts in 1871 (or before):
The “Eternal Son ship” Of Christ. — That the Son of God was not co-eternal with the Father, but is the result of the Father’s manifestation in the flesh, by operation of Holy Spirit upon Mary, in the manner defined in paragraph vii. (Luke 1:35; Matt 1:20; Rom 8:3, Heb 2:14,17; 4:15).
This phrasing, that Christ was God’s “Manifestation in the Flesh” is an almost direct quote from 1Tim 3:16: the word “manifested” in the KJV translation (and many others) is in the Greek φανερόω, or phanerosis, which of course is the title of John Thomas’ book1.
The italicized portion is now to be found elsewhere in the “Truth to be received”:
- Jesus was… God manifest in the flesh — Clause 10
- Begotten of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit — Clause 1
The pre-existence of Christ
So this doctrine to be rejected, “That the Son of God was co-eternal with the Father”, is intended to reject the common non-biblical idea: that Christ pre-existed. To quote from the article on “Pre-existence of Christ” from Wikipedia:
The concept of the pre-existence of Christ is a central tenet of the doctrine of the Trinity. Trinitarian Christology explores the nature of Christ’s pre‑ existence as the Divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word. This “Word” is also called God the Son or the Second Person of the Trinity. Theologian Bernard Ramm noted that “It has been standard teaching in historic Christology that the Logos, the Son, existed before the incarnation. That the Son so existed before the incarnation has been called the pre-existence of Christ.” Other aspects of Christology explore the incarnation of this Divine being as the man Jesus. In the words of the Nicene Creed, Christ “came down from heaven, and was incarnate.” Some Protestant theologians believe that God the Son emptied himself of divine attributes in order to become human, in a process called kenosis, while others reject this.
It is interesting to note the same article comments:
“(There are) those who consider themselves Christians while denying the pre-existence of Christ, (but) who nevertheless accept the virgin birth. Today the view is primarily held by Christadelphians. (They) consider that Christ is prophesied and foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but did not exist.”
The arguments — starting with Adam2
The nature of Christ is a fundamental subject, and our understanding must be based on the whole of God’s revelation. Because God’s only begotten Son is central to the purpose of Creation, Christ occupies a unique position in the whole revelation of this purpose. Type, symbol, parable, prophecy — all are used in the Old Testament in anticipation of the arrival of the Messiah, and the New Testament must be seen through these different aspects. This approach is not taken by those who argue for the pre-existence of Christ, since their case is based more or less wholly on the New Testament, and in particular the Gospel of John, without generally making any use of Old Testament references. However, unless we use the Old Testament to help interpret the New Testament, we shall inevitably end up going astray on the subject of Christ’s nature.
The requirement for a son of God and the requirement for a Messiah is thus central to the purpose of God as set out in the first two chapters of Genesis. The Sonship of Christ and his lordship, then, have their roots in the creative purpose of God.
Due to the Fall, however, a new creation was required. A second and last Adam was brought into being, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus Christ is the man at the center of the new creation of God. This man is the new Lord of creation, given from heaven “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). Thus he was the fulfilment of the purpose of God as shown in the creative actions of Genesis 1 and 2. The New Testament references must therefore be considered in the context of the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus.
How did Jesus pre-exist?
Jesus was of God, his origins were of old, his existence was from “before the earth ever was” because, as John explains, he was the Idea that was in the beginning, the Divine Idea through which the heavens and the earth were created, and for which all things exist.
In this sense his existence is before everything else, because everything (the Universe) was formed for him and through him. Without him, says John, was not a single thing made that was made. This is a profound spiritual, physical and literal truth that goes far beyond common misconceptions of Pre-existence. Jesus Christ preceded the creation of the Universe because he is the Reason that the Universe exists. Jesus Christ was the cause of the creation of the Universe in a very similar sense that a child’s crib is designed and built expressly to nurture a baby that is yet to be born, or that the Guggenheim Museum was conceived, designed and constructed for the expression of art yet to be created.
As a literally and physically real person (i.e., in the concrete sense that most people regard as “real”, i.e., “in the flesh”) it is evident that Jesus had no conscious existence as a person until after Mary conceived him through the Holy Spirit some 2000 years ago. He grew from a baby through childhood and into adulthood, and learnt obedience in the experience of his suffering. His creation and perfection involved a process of time and events, just like you and I, and so for him the world was made the way it is… as it is for us also if we are “in him”.
The difficulty that early theologians had with passages like John 1, which caused them to develop a “Pre-existence” theology, was the common human tendency to think in concrete terms, to think that for something to be “real” it is of necessity physical, concrete, or in the flesh. As someone once said, “I know it is real because I can kick it.”
So when the Bible speaks of Jesus as coming down from heaven, of being from before the world was, or even as of a Creator for whom the heavens and the earth were the work of his fingers, the concrete thinker assumes a personal and physical pre-existence of Jesus is what must be implied. In so doing he misses a most profound truth about both his own existence, the appearance of Jesus, and for that matter the creation of the entire Universe.
What is missed is the importance and power of an Idea.
Let’s go back to the Guggenheim Museum. Today I can visit it, walk around it, sit inside it and admire the art contained inside. Today, the Guggenheim Museum is a concrete reality that I can kick, a physical icon of New York City to the whole world. But it wasn’t always so. For many years, those soaring concrete spirals were but sketches of ink on paper. And many years before that, its shape was but a gleam in the eye of its architect. The Guggenheim Museum was nothing more than an Idea.
Today, looking at the concrete reality it is easy to forget the importance of the idea, and the importance of the mind behind the idea. Frank Lloyd Wright was undoubtedly an architectural genius even if his ideas were difficult to translate into concrete realities.
But were it not for his unique mind and the unique ideas of this unique mind, then the Guggenheim Museum as we know it would not exist. I would not be able to walk around it, sit in it, marvel at it, much less kick it…or if I could, it would be in something very different. Guggenheim Museums do not just appear just because cement trucks can mix concrete.
And so, it is for any special creation. The idea precedes the concrete reality.
- The idea is translated into sketches.
- The idea inspires fellow minds.
- The idea determines the schedule.
- The idea obtains the materials.
- The idea forms the concrete.
- The idea is translated into concrete reality.
- The idea is the beginning.
- The concrete is the end.
This is how John might have described the creation of the Guggenheim Museum:
- In the beginning was the idea. The idea was with Frank Lloyd Wright.
- The idea was an expression of the mind of Frank Lloyd Wright.
- And the idea was made concrete, the Guggenheim Museum.
And so it is for Christ.
- In the beginning was the Idea.
- The Idea was with God.
- The Idea was an expression of what God is.
- And the Idea was made flesh, Jesus Christ the Son of God.
- The Idea was translated into the sketches we see in the Old Testament, in the law and the prophets.
- The Idea inspired the minds of the faithful of old.
- The Idea determined the history of the earth, raised up kings and nations, brought floods and famines, blessings and curses.
- The Idea formed the heavens and the earth, the mountains and the valleys, the moon and the stars, and all that in them is.
- The Idea brought forth people and formed them for his name.
- Everything that is and has been and will be is through this Idea.
The Idea was Christ.
And John’s other point was that we (apostles) have actually seen him, we have talked to him, we have touched him, we have handled him, we have eaten with him, we have seen him crucified, we have seen him raised from the dead, we have seen him ascend on high!
John had actually seen the concrete reality, the Idea of God from before the beginning, seen the Son of God in the flesh.
John appeals to the human limitation of only taking concrete realities seriously by emphasizing his personal experience with the flesh and blood reality of Jesus Christ. But the drama and importance of seeing Christ in the flesh is only meaningful because he was the Idea that founded the entire Universe from the beginning, the Anointed Son of God, and easily the most amazing thing ever to happen in the history of the earth… and so in Christ the Idea has been fulfilled, and we have hope that the Idea works.
And to those of us who will hear him he has given the power to likewise become sons of God… and so fulfil the Idea in a multitude of individuals.
So this view also helps us understand why Jesus could say with perfect gravity, “Before Abraham was, I am”. If the earth and all the Universe were formed for Christ, then how much more was Abraham’s existence for Christ? Abraham was called out from Ur for Christ. And God could swear to Abraham by his very own self-existence that the promise (the Idea) would be fulfilled because, as John 1 says, the Idea was God. As surely as God exists, his Idea will see its fulfilment, his mind will be expressed, his word will go forth and it will surely achieve its purpose. So when we see Christ, we see God, for “how can you say show us the Father when you have seen me?” Jesus Christ was such an exact replica of God, such an exact copy of the mind of God, his character and personality such a spark of the divine, that for us he effectively is God.
Furthermore, if we take heed to his word, then we too will be part of the divine Idea, we too will have characters and personalities that replicate the divine, we too will be one with God. This has always been God’s agenda and Idea from the beginning.
So the apparent “pre-existence” language that appears from time to time and causes such confusion of thought in popular theology is the language of ideas and thoughts, of mind and character and personality. John Thomas would say they are the language of God Manifestation. They are statements of the reality, importance and force of the divine ideas and relationships that have energized and created the entire world; things visible and things invisible.
When God expresses his mind, real things happen.
Summary
- “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).
- He was begotten the Son of God
- His relationship to his Father thus began earlier; at conception, when “the Holy Spirit” came upon Mary, and “the power of the Highest” overshadowed her
- She was told by the angel Gabriel: “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”
- She [Mary] was given the information that Jesus was a son from the moment of conception, and that he was “holy” when he was begotten; separated right from the beginning for the special task of reconciling mankind to God
- These unique characteristics mark him out from every other being, human or angelic: “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” (Heb 1:5).
- God was the Father of Jesus from his conception
- Jesus shared sinful mortal flesh with the rest of mankind
- Jesus manifested to the world the glory of God
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One