Christian Essentials
What are Christian essentials? Simply put, they are non-negotiable beliefs and doctrines that must be agreed on in order to be considered a true Christian.
Within Christianity, there are uncompromising, non-negotiable beliefs that must be held. These are also referred to as primary doctrines.
A step beneath the primary doctrines are secondary doctrines. These beliefs can be held deeply and zealously, but they are not deal-breaking beliefs that should hinder Christian fellowship. For example, the subject of Calvinism (predestination) vs Arminianism (free will) is often a hotly contested doctrinal debate. However, it is a secondary doctrine that true Christians can disagree on and maintain Christian fellowship. There are great proponents of each position that are true and godly people.
A step beneath the secondary doctrines are tertiary doctrines. Many times these are simply preferences and opinions. Topics such as using musical instruments in worship vs vocal singing only, the age of the earth whether young or old, worship styles such as hymns vs contemporary praise songs, alcohol use, and the likes fall squarely within the tertiary doctrines. These are completely inconsequential to Christian fellowship.
Today we discuss the essential doctrine of Jesus' pre-existence before creation.
Introduction
Religions of the world including Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Islam, Jehovah's Witness, and the Latter Day Saints view Jesus the same: He was a good man.
Some would go as far as to say that Jesus was an enlightened man or even a holy man. Atheists will even attribute to Jesus a certain amount of goodness and wisdom.
But what is so essential about whether Jesus existed before creation or was a holy man?
Author and Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis, summed it up perfectly in his book, Mere Christianity:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Jesus' Pre-existence
The apostle John begins his gospel with these words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.- John 1:1-3
John and his brother, James, were called by Jesus to follow Him as his disciples. John wrote not only the gospel book named after him, but he also wrote 3 letters (1, John, 2 John, and 3 John) as well as the apocalyptic book known as the book of Revelation which was a revelation of a vision from Jesus Christ to John.
Now, skeptics will claim that the gospel book of John was not written until well after Jesus had died as well as most, if not all, of the other apostles.
This is where archaeology and palaeography and other textual studies come in. In 1934, a partial manuscript was found in the basement of the John Rylands Library that was identified as a portion of the book of John. It has been dated to around 125 AD, give or take 20 years.
It is commonly accepted the the apostle John lived to sometime around 90 AD. So, even if the book of John wasn't written until 100 years after the death of Jesus, P52 seems to have been written around 10 to 50 years after the death of John, its author, who was an eyewitness to Jesus's miracles, death, and resurrection.
That is just one point to counter that objection.
Jesus's Claims
In the previous article regarding the Trinity, we saw the Jesus was a Person of the Triune Godhead. A few of the biblical passages that relate His claim to be God are:
- John 8 retells a conversation between Jesus and Jews in the temple. During the discussion, Jesus said:
"Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.- John 8:546-59)
Jesus' reference to claiming "I AM" was not lost on the Jews. They knew what His references was to God's self-identification to Moses from within the burning bush:
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”- Exodus 3:14
Because of Jesus' claim, the Jews wanted to stone Him in accordance with the Levitical law regarding blasphemy against God.
Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.- Leviticus 24:16
- John 10 recounts another encounter with Jews in the temple:
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”- John 10:24-33
Again, the Jews understood Jesus' claim and sought to stone Him. By their own words, it wasn't for any kindness or miracles performed, but His specific claim to be God.
- Matthew 9, Mark 2, and Luke 5 - all of which were written decades before John's gospel was written - tell of an incident in which Jesus was in a crowded home and several men attempted to bring their paralytic friend to Jesus for healing. Unable to enter, they took their friend to the roof, tore a hole in it, and let him down into the home.
And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring Him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” When Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” - He said to the man who was paralyzed - “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.- Luke 5:18-25
This was yet another claim by Jesus to be God, and it was not lost on the religious leaders present.
- John 5 tells of how Jesus healed a man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, and the Jews took exception of Him "working" on the Sabbath - another offense deserving of a stoning death.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God His own Father, making himself equal with God.- John 5:14-18
It was a cultural understanding that the firstborn son was the representative of his father. And Jesus pushed the point home and pulled no punches.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man."
- John 5:19-27
- Luke
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.- Acts 20:28
Note that this passage says that God obtained His church with His own blood. Jesus was the one who died, not God the Father. In that subtle phrasing, Luke again declares Jesus is God.
Wrap It Up
Some modern skeptics make the claim that the claims of Jesus' divinity were not made until John's gospel around 90 to 100 AD. Those passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written only a few decades after Jesus' death and resurrection and clearly make the claim of His divinity. Also, claims of Jesus' divinity in Paul's letters were written prior to his execution in 65 AD. And all of those were written within the lifetimes of eye witnesses who could have debunked any false claims. Objections from skeptics regarding the later textual appearance of Jesus' divinity have no legs on which to stand.
From these passages above, it is clearly evident that Jesus was claiming to be God, to be equal with God the Father, and therefore was pre-existent to the whole of creation. In fact, revisiting John's opening verses at the start of this article state that "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made."
So, what is the importance of Jesus being pre-existent God? Primarily, it is acknowledging Him as God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.- Romans 5:10
While atheists and other world religions like Islam, Hunduism, Jehovah's Witness, and Later Day Saints only acknowledge Him as a man, true Christianity acknowledges Jesus as God and the second Person of the Trinity. What man would give up his life for his enemies? As Paul writes to the church in Rome:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.- Romans 5:6-8
For another, it is very important in relation to Jesus' role in becoming our substitution of paying our debt of sin. As John the Baptizer told his disciples when Jesus drew near "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). And Jesus tells Nicodemus the Pharisee, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
It would require the infinitude of righteousness of God to cover the sins of multitudes of people unto salvation who have trusted in Him from the beginning of time, who trust Him now, and who will trust Him in the future. It would require the infinitude of righteousness of God to protect us from the wrath of God (the punishment for that sin).
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