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The Birth of God
by Jeffrey Hagan At this time of year, when believers worldwide celebrate the birth of our Lord, it's interesting to note that not all of those who believes in the virgin birth hold to the vital truth that Jesus was conceived as God incarnate (God clothed in flesh). For example, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was merely created by God. Not only simply created by God but created as the archangel Michael. During His earthly excursion to He simply became a human being, and after His death on the cross was re-created as an immaterial spirit creature. In addition, the Jehovah Witnesses use Colossians 1:15 as a pretext for believing that Jesus was the first creation of Jehovah before the creation of the world. They believe Jesus was the greatest creation, but nonetheless merely a creation. All of this brings an important question to the forefront, was Jesus indeed conceived by the Virgin Mary as God in human flesh? Also, how can Christ be both the eternal Creator of all things and at the same time be firstborn? To start with, when Paul referred to Christ as the firstborn he had His preeminence in mind. We see this same usage established without question in the Old Testament. For example, Ephraim is called the Lord's "firstborn" in Jeremiah 31:9 even though Manasseh was actually born first (this can be found in Genesis 41:51). In the same manner, in Psalm 89:27 David is deemed the Lord's "firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth" regardless of the fact he was actually the youngest of Jesse's sons (as can be found in 1 Samuel 16:1013). Although neither Ephraim nor David were the first one born in their families, both were firstborn in the sense of "preeminence or prime position."* In addition to all of this, Paul refers to Jesus as the firstborn OVER all creation, not the firstborn IN creation. There's a big difference. And as the firstborn OVER all creation, "He is before ALL and in him ALL THINGS hold together" (Colossians 1:17, emphasis added). The use of force in Paul's language in this passage forces the "cult of Jehovah's Witnesses, who subscribe to the ancient Arian heresy that the Son is not preexistent and co-eternal with the Father, have been forced to insert the word other (e.g., "all other things") in their deeply flawed New World Translation of the Bible in order to demote Christ to the status of a created being."** And lastly, for our purposes, as the entirety of Scripture makes quite clear, Jesus is the eternal Creator who spoke and the seemingly infinite galaxies came into being. In the first chapter of John Jesus is blatantly called "God" (v. 1), and in Hebrews 1, we read He is the One who "laid the foundations of the earth" (v. 10). Also, in the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, Christ even refers to Himself as "the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (verse 13; cf. Isaiah 44:6; 48:12). The clear result is, the entirety of Scripture shows it is impossible that the Christ born of a virgin could be anything except for the preexistent Sovereign Creator of the entire universe. *Portion in quotations from an online article by Hank Hanegraaff entitled, "The Preeminent Christ" which can be found on equip.org. **Ibid. Jeff Hagan is the President of True Grace Ministries and Theological Institute. Interested? www.preacherjeff45.wlxsite.com/truegracetheolgical Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |