Article Jesus Did Not Pre-Exist Himself

[Ray Faircloth]

Jesus Did Not Pre-Exist Himself​

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A person cannot pre-exist himself and still be the same person! In fact, one creature cannot change into another creature according to God’s arrangement that all creatures were created, “according to their kinds”/“in their own species” (Gen. 1:21). So, no spirit creature can become a human.

So, having established the Jesus was never Michael the archangel and that he was not the creator of the universe, or the agent of that creation we now examine in greater detail exactly when Jesus came into existence.

PROPHECIES ABOUT THE COMING MESSIAH​

There is no hint of Jesus as pre-existing according to Deuteronomy 18 where God says:



“I will raise up for them a prophet like you [Moses] from among their brothers” (Deut. 18:18 ESV).



This means that Jesus must be fully human. If Jesus had pre-existed as a spirit creature, then in Mary’s womb he would be a hybrid – part angel/part human. But all the prophecies of the coming Messiah show him to be 100% human. Furthermore, this ultimate prophet – the Messiah - would originate from human stock as Isaiah prophesied concerning Messiah:



“And now Yahweh says, who formed me from the womb as a servant for him, to bring Jacob back to him” (Isaiah 49:5 LEB).



The quotation of Isaiah 49:6 by Luke (2:32) shows this to be a prophecy concerning the Messiah as 100% human and coming into existence in a womb and not from some other dimension.

JESUS’ COMING INTO EXISTENCE IN MARY​

Luke starts his gospel by stating that:



“because I have investigated all things carefully from the beginning, it seemed good to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may realize the reliability of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:3, 4).



In this orderly account Luke goes on to describe the coming into existence of the Messiah Jesus saying:



“Holy spirit will come upon you,” replied the angel, “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Precisely for this reason the child being brought into existence (Gk gennao) will be holy; he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).



In between verses 4 and 35 of Luke’s account there is no mention of Jesus as supposedly having previously been a spirit creature. So, Luke hardy missed out such a vital piece of information if that had been true. After all he said that he had produced an orderly account.””

Although, in verse 35, most translations use the term “being born” the Greek word gennao actually means “to be brought into existence” according to Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon and all others. The Kingdom Interlinear renders this Greek term as “was generated.” So, one cannot say that this was just the beginning of Jesus as a human, but he had come from another dimension. Such an idea is illogical because one can only come into actual existence once.

We get the same understanding of how Jesus began when we read Matthew’s account where he says: “the origin (Gk genesis) of Jesus was this way” (Matt. 1:18) and “the child fathered (Gk gennethen) in her is by holy spirit” (Matt. 1:20). To father someone is to cause them to come into existence.

Later the Apostle Paul writes of God’s “son having come into existence (genomenon)...from a woman” (Gal. 4:4), but not through a woman as in the idea of a previous life-form. In all of these texts the Greek word genesis means “point of origin/coming into being at a specific moment” Bauer’s Greek-English Lexicon.

Colossians 1:15-17​

Noting All Grammatical Points​

The entire context either side of this passage concerns the New Creation in Jesus’ lifetime, so it is impossible that verses 15-17 are about a pre-existent Jesus. The passage reads concerning Jesus that:





“He is the visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16because for his sake all things in heaven and on earth were created [by God]—the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities—all these things have been and are being created through him and for him, 17so that he is above (Gk “pro” does not mean ‘before’ in this context) everything, and in union with him all things hold together.”



In fact, in the Greek phrase pro panton the word pro is used here in the sense of pre-eminence i.e., above in importance. Also, in 1 Peter 4:8 and James 5:12 pro panton is translated literally as “above all things.”

NO PRE-EXISTENCE IN THE HISTORY OF JESUS​

Further to the fact that Luke 1:35 shows that Jesus came into existence in Mary’s womb we see other factors which make it impossible for him to have pre-existed. These are:



“Now at the end of these days He [ God] has spoken to us by means of a son” (Heb. 1:1-2).



So, Jesus was not alive to be the spokesman for God until he was born and was able to speak for God. This was when, “God having raised up His servant, sent him to you” (Acts 3:26).

JEWISH CONCEPTUAL PRE-EXISTENCE​

In Romans 4:17 we learn that, “[God] calls things which do not yet exist as though they already exist.” This means that they pre-exist in His mind, but not literally. Then at a later time those things come into actual existence. One of those things was the necessary sacrifice to deal with human sin and so in God’s mind from ancient times Jesus was, “the lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8), in other words, this executional and sacrificial death of Jesus was already in God’s mind from the foundation of the world and so was a conceptual rather than literal pre-existence.

Also, the Apostle Peter provides us with the knowledge that, “[Jesus] was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20). This means that Jesus was not literally known by God at that very early time, but only in His mind as part of His plan and purpose.

Finally, the pre-existence language in the Gospel of John is entirely conceptual rather than literal as shown when Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language” (John 16:25).

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