About the pre-existence of the Son (1)

A visitor of the GoedBericht-site sent me a mail with some questions about the pre-existence of the Lord Jesus. Because I expect that more people have similar questions, I considered that it is good to discuss it for a broader public. In this blog I limit myself to the following quote of the mailer:

I think I understood that in your opinion the Lord Jesus was not existing before His birth in Bethlehem? As would been concluded from John 1: 14 (And the Word became flesh…). The first question is of course: did I misunderstand this…??

The answer is no and yes. In several studies I pointed out that Jesus Christ became Son of God by his conception of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1: 35). This is contrary to Christian orthodoxy which teaches that ‘God the Son’ became man. But this is a double distortion. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and not ‘God the Son’. That term is totally not biblical. Because ‘for us there is one God, the Father (1 Corinthians 8: 66; Ephesians 4: 6). The Son did not choose to become a man. No, because He was begotten by God, He became Son of God.

But, if the Son of God only existed since the conception of the Virgin Mary, did not have the Son a pre-existence? The answer is: yes… but not as Son but as word (logos). The prologue of the Evangel of John begins like this (literally translated):

In beginning was the word,
And the word was toward the God
And God was the word.
This was the beginning toward the God.
All came into being through it…

We are not talking about someone besides God, a co-creator (see next blog). No, John refers to the God who spoke as from the beginning and whose word was referring to Him. The God no one has ever seen (1: 18) and who is only known by his word. The word which accomplished all creation. Because ‘by the Word of Yahweh the heavens were made (…) for He spoke and it came to be; he enjoined and it stood firm (Psalm 33). And then we read in John 1: 14:

And the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us, and we gaze at His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten from (the) Father…

Not: God the Son became man. That is theology and dogma. The Scripture says: ‘the Word became flesh’, that is: Gods word of promise came to Mary and she became pregnant. A totally unique occasion, and therefore this Son is rightfully ‘the only-begotten Son of God’ (John 3: 18).

Now, the same word which accomplished all creation, came to Mary and ‘became flesh’. No seed of a man fertilized Mary, but word of God came to her, and therewith ‘holy spirit’ and ‘power of the Most High’ (Luke 1: 35). Só word became flesh.

To be continued.

Delen: