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4. The Sonship was prophesied and was therefore future. No son can exist before his birth (= his coming into existence, Gk. gennao; see Luke 1:35, Matt. 1:20 and 1 John 5:18). If a son is alive before he is alive as a human person, this would lead to the impossible and unscriptural idea of a passing through the womb as taught by Justin Martyr as early as 150 AD. The concept of a pre-human and therefore non-human Messiah led to the non-biblical idea of the Incarnation of the Son, second member of a Trinity.
The Bible is quite clear about the Son’s origin:
Isaiah 7:14: “A virgin will be with child and bear a son,” i.e. he becomes the Son in the future.
2 Samuel 7:14 (note the 7:14 in both texts!): “I will be his father and he will be my son” (applied to Yahushua in Heb. 1:5).
Isaiah 9:6: “There has been a son given to us” (prophetic past tense, meaning “will be given”).
Psalm 2:7: “You are my Son; today, I have become your father” (“Today I have begotten you,”) Quoted in Hebrews 1:5 and Acts 13:33 of the coming into existence of Yahushua.
Psalm 89:26-27: “He himself calls out to me, ‘You are my father, my Yahuwah’...I myself shall place him as first born, the most high of all the kings.”
All these statements are of a future begetting of Yahuwah’s firstborn Son. The Son is promised and not preexistent. There is a very great difference.
5. The Son was exalted to pre-eminence only after his resurrection. Philippians 2:8-9: “He humbled himself and became obedient as far as death...For this very reason also Yahuwah exalted him to a superior position and kindly gave him the name that is above every name.” Yahushua attained that supreme position under Yahuwah, which is impossible if he already had it!
Translation Issues
The Greek word kai in Philippians 2:9 for “also” (or “and”) does not need to be translated separately because it is part of a Greek phrase which is correctly translated as “therefore” or “because of this”, “and for this”, or “that is why” or “for this reason” (NASB in Luke 1:35. Dio kai in Luke 1:35 means “for this reason precisely” he will be the Son of Yahuwah).
Also the phrase “to a superior position” in Philippians 2:9 is ambiguous because it implies a comparison of two high positions. More accurately the word “highly” demonstrates the Greek as showing the superlative: “to the highest place” (NIV); “elevated him to the place of highest honor” (NLT). Hence both ESV and NRSV have: “Therefore Yahuwah has highly exalted him.” (Most other translations are similar.)
Yahushua Was Not in His Ultimate Pre-eminent Position Prior to Resurrection
Colossians 1:18: “The firstborn from the dead that he might become the one who is first [‘pre-eminent’ in ESV and others] in all things.”
Hebrews 1:4: “So he has become better than the angels, to the extent that he has inherited a name more excellent than theirs.” This was because “he had made a purification for our sins” (v. 3). It does not say that he was being restored to some past inheritance, i.e. the number two position in the universe, but that he is only now worthy of such inheritance because he “became obedient as far as death” and “had made a purification for our sins.”
Hebrews 5:8: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” Only after this learning process culminated in his becoming obedient as far as death did he become pre-eminent and gain his superlative position next to Yahuwah (Ps. 110:1, where he is “my lord” (adoni) and certainly not a second Yahuwah).
6. Did the Son speak prior to his recorded life?
Hebrews 1:2: “He [Yahuwah] has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son.” Yahushua, the Son, became Yahuwah’s spokesman only “at the end of these days” whereas Yahuwah previously had used prophets and angels as His agents (Heb. 1:1; 2:2). If Yahushua had been previously an archangel (Michael), then, as a messenger and as one “standing in behalf of the sons of your people” (Dan. 12:1), he most likely would have spoken for Yahuwah prior to “the end of these days.” Yet Hebrews 1:5 shows that the Son was never an angel: “To which one of the angels did he [Yahuwah] ever say: ‘You are my son’ ?”
7. The Son never goes back to the Father. Yahushua never says he will be returning to the Father as if he had been with Him previously, but:
“...was going to Yahuwah” (John 13:3).
“I am going my way to the Father” (John 14:12, 28; 16:28).
“I am going to the Father” (John 16:10, 17).
“I am ascending to my Father” (John 20:17).
Yahushua departed to go to the Father. He is never said to return to the Father.
Misunderstood Issues
The “sending” of Yahushua was his commissioning from birth. All the prophets were sent and this has nothing to do with being alive before you are born.
Sending of Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1:5, 7, 10: “Before you proceeded to come forth from the womb I sanctified you. Prophet to the nations I made you...to all those to whom I shall send you...See, I have commissioned you this day.”
Sending did not mean that Jeremiah literally pre- existed and came down from heaven, but was commissioned at birth.
Sending of John the Baptist
John 1:6, Young’s Literal: “There came a man — having been sent from Yahuwah — whose name is John.”
The sending forth of John did not mean that he literally pre-existed and came down from heaven. It was simply a commissioning by Yahuwah.
Sending of the Disciples
John 17:18: “Just as you sent me forth into the world, I also sent them [the disciples] forth into the world.”
The sending forth of the disciples in the same way as Yahushua was “sent forth into the world” did not mean that they pre-existed.
Sending of Yahushua
Galatians 4:4: “Yahuwah sent forth His Son, who came to be out of a woman.”
Rengstorf in The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says: “Linguistically there is no support for the thesis that in Galatians 4:4 the ex in exapostellein indicates that prior to the sending, the one sent was in the presence of the one who sent him” (Vol. 1, p. 406).
Romans 8:3: “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
1 John 4:14: “The Father has sent forth His Son as Saviour of the world.”
1 John 4:9: “Yahuwah sent forth His only-begotten Son into the world.”
Yahushua Was Raised Up and Then Sent
Acts 3:26: “To you first, Yahuwah, after raising up his Servant, sent him forth.”
So no pre-human being was raised up in heaven and then sent down to earth. The sending came after Yahushua was raised up at birth, just as Jeremiah was raised up at the time of his birth to be a prophet.
What About 1 Timothy 3:16?
“Who was manifested in flesh” (KIT). “He was revealed in flesh” (NRSV).
James Dunn tells us that “manifested” (ephanerothe) simply means “appeared”:
“Without any implication of previous hiddenness (cp John 9:3; Rom. 3:21; 2 Cor. 3:3; 4:10; 5:10; 1 John 3:5, 8), so that the context becomes of crucial importance in determining the intended meaning of the text...In this case, there is no indication that the thought was intended to include a third stage of existence prior to appearance on earth...[that is] without any intention of implying a previous [pre-existent] hiddenness.”1
Compare John 9:3: “that the works of Yahuwah might be manifested in his case.” These “works” did not pre-exist literally.
1 Corinthians 10:4: “That rock was Christ”
This is typology with reference to Christ accompanying Christians through life. The Christian experience is being read back into the experiences of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt and their wilderness wanderings toward the promised land. Paul tells us twice that he is speaking in this passage “typically.”
Passing through the red sea/cloud = Christian baptism.
The miraculous manna = continuous supply of spiritual food.
Striking the rock (tsur) at Rephidim = Christ in the flesh smitten for the sins of mankind.
The gushing out of water = the giving of holy spirit.
Striking the rock (sela) at Kadesh = Christ our High Priest not to be smitten twice but only to be addressed. Yet “they impale the Son of Yahuwah afresh” (Heb. 6:6).
Water came out abundantly = the supplying of holy spirit.
The two rock incidents were at each end of the wanderings (Exodus 17 and Numbers 20). So Paul is in no way saying that Christ literally existed as a rock or that he existed in the time of the wilderness wanderings.
The Son of Yahuwah Himself (Not Just a Body) Was Sacrificed
Hebrews 10:5: “When he comes into the world he says, ‘...you prepared a body for me.’”
This body was not something that the Son was poured into! If such was the case then only Yahushua’ body was sacrificed. However, it is plain from the Scriptures that the Son of Yahuwah himself died (Rom. 5:10). The Son of Yahuwah was the sacrifice offered as Yahuwah’s “Lamb.”
Additional Comments of Leading Bible Scholars
In the 1950s Pope Pius granted Catholic scholars significant freedom for a most in-depth examination of the Scriptures without fear of any heresy charges concerning what they discovered. At the same time a number of Church of England bishops and scholars convened meetings to discuss the issue of who Yahushua really was. The Lutheran Church also became involved in the same investigations.
The conclusions were startling for these churches. Yet the authorities, cardinals, etc. started to clamp down on the findings of these scholars, resulting in the excommunication or “sidelining” of some of the scholars. Happily these researchers wrote numerous books which have opened up the debate which is still going on today. The following are only a few brief quotes from their extensive and detailed discussions of this question as to who Yahushua is.
James Dunn, Professor of Divinity: “There is no indication that Jesus thought or spoke of himself as having pre-existed with God prior to his birth...A complete discontinuity between Yahushua’ own self assertions and the subsequent claims made about him would constitute a fatal flaw.”2
Karl-Josef Kuschel, Catholic theologian: “The christology of Jewish Christianity, which had been dominant for decades and knew of no pre-existence christology, was increasingly swept aside and was finally branded heretical...A christology today which heedlessly uses the dogmatic theme of ‘pre-existence’ and introduces it into the NT foists on the NT an idea which it does not contain in this form.”3
Professor James Mackey: “What exactly, according to this term [preexistence] ‘pre-exists’ what else, and in what sense does it do so? The logical path to alleged pre-existence is a tortuous one.4
1 Christology in the Making, pp. 236-237.
2 Christology in the Making, p. 254.
3 Born Before All Time? pp. 392-394.
4 The Christian Experience of Yahuwah as Trinity, p. 51.