Jesus and His God

One, evidently a Unitarian who does not believe in the prehuman existence of Jesus , has presented the idea that the Greek phrase in John 8:58, often transliterated as “prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi”,  should be rendered as “before Abraham was God”. This is based on the assumption that “ego eimi” is being used in John 8:58 as the name often transliterated as EHJEH (from the Masoretic text) in Exodus 3:14.  We have no scriptural reason to think that when Jesus spoke the words often transliterated as EGO EIMI in John 8:58, that he was using the Holy Name EHJEH of Exodus 3:14. Jesus was responding to the Jews' question regarding his age, stating that he, himself, had been in existence before Abraham. They did not ask if God existed before Abraham, for I am sure that they already knew that God existed before Abraham.  It was claimed that John 8:58 should be rendered as “God (Ehyeh) was before Abraham”, because “Yeshua's life started when he was born on earth, as you can se...

 

Some who do not believe that Jesus existed before his birth on earth have claimed that Jesus is not the Logos, but rather that Jesus was born of the Logos. In some vague manner, the usage of "born" in John 1:12 is evidently thought to support the idea that the Logos gave birth to Jesus. Does John 1:13,14 mean that the man Jesus was born “of the Logos” of verse 1? John 1:12 But as many as received him [The Logos of verse 1], to them he [the Logos of verse 1] gave the right to become God’s children [Psalm 82:7; John 10:34,35], to those who believe in his name [the name of the Logos of verse 1]: John 1:13 who [those who believe in the Logos of verse 1] were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [by means of God’s Holy Spirit] John 1:14 The Word [the Logos of verse 1] became flesh, and [the Logos of verse 1] lived among us. We saw his glory [the terrestrial glory (1 Corinthians 15:39-41) of the Logos of verse 1 in the flesh], s...

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -- Philippians 2:5-11, New American Standard Bible translation THOSE WHO naturally h...

We have high regard for our unitarian friends who do not believe in the prehuman existence of Jesus, but we cannot agree with them in this conlusion. Most who reject Jesus' prehuman existence do not know the basis of Jesus' ransom sacrifice for sin and how that sacrifice saves Adam and all who are dying in Adam from the condemnation. Usually, those who do not believe Jesus was in existence before the days of flesh know nothing of the restoration (restitution) promises for all mankind that God has guaranteed because of Jesus' sacrifice. -- John 12:47,48; Acts 3:21; 17:31; Romans 5:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:21,22; Acts 17:31; 1 Timothy 2:5,6. See The Ransom Resource Page We generally do not use the expression "pre-exist", but rather we speak of the "prehuman existence" of Jesus. Some could interpret the tem "pre-exist" to mean a time before one exists. Of course, no one exists in any time before his existence. We do believe that many scriptures...