Pre existence of Christ

Trinitarian belief in the doctrine

The concept of the pre-existence of Christ is a central tenet of the doctrine of the Trinity. Trinitarian Christology explores the nature of Christ's pre-existence as the Divine hypostasis called the Logos or Word, described in the passage John 1:1–18, which begins:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

This "Word" is also called God the Son or the Second Person of the Trinity. Theologian Bernard Ramm noted that "It has been standard teaching in historic Christology that the Logos, the Son, existed before the incarnation. That the Son so existed before the incarnation has been called the pre-existence of Christ."

Other aspects of Christology explore the incarnation of this Divine being as the man Jesus. In the words of the Nicene Creed, Christ "came down from heaven, and was incarnate." Some Protestant theologians believe that God the Son emptied himself of divine attributes in order to become human, in a process called kenosis, while others reject this.

Douglas McCready, in his analysis and defence of the pre-existence of Christ, notes that whereas the preexistence of Christ "is taken for granted by most orthodox Christians, and has been since New Testament times", during the past century the doctrine has been increasingly questioned by less orthodox theologians and scholars.

James Dunn, in his book Christology in the Making, examines the development of this doctrine in early Christianity, noting that it is "beyond dispute" that in John 1:1–18, "the Word is pre-existent, and Christ is the pre-existent Word incarnate," but going on to explore possible sources for the concepts expressed there, such as the writings of Philo.

When the Trinity is depicted in art, the Logos is normally shown with the distinctive appearance, and cruciform halo that identifies Christ; in depictions of the Garden of Eden this looks forward to an Incarnation yet to occur. In some Early Christian sarcophagi, the Logos is distinguished with a beard, "which allows him to appear ancient, even preexistent."

Apart from John 1:1–18 and other New Testament passages, some Trinitarian groups also consider a number of Old Testament texts as supporting or consistent with the doctrine, including Gen. 3:13–15, Gen. 49:10, Job 19:25–29, Num. 24:5–7, Jos. 5:13–15, Ps. 2:7–12, Ps. 22, Ps. 110:1, Pro. 30:1, Isa. 9:6–7, Isa. 53, Dan. 3:24–25, and Dan. 9:24–27. For example, Tertullian in Against Marcion Ch.21 sees a pre-existent appearance of Christ in the fiery furnace of one who is "like the son of man (for he was not yet really son of man)." The identification of specific appearances of Christ is increasingly common in evangelical literature from the 1990s onwards. For example, W. Terry Whalin states that the fourth person in the fiery furnace is Christ, and that "These appearances of Christ in the Old Testament are known as Theophanies or 'appearances of God' ".

Other non-Trinitarian Christians with belief in pre-existence (see Section 2 below) may have different or similar interpretations of such verses.

Personal pre-existence

Orthodox Christian faith believes that Jesus of Nazareth was personally identical with the eternally pre-existent Son of God or Logos. Here Christians hold the pre-existence of a divine person—something distinct from other notions such as the pre-existence of the Jewish Torah or Plato's scheme of pre-existing ideas that provided the pattern for the demiurge in fashioning the world.

The Christological doctrine of pre-existence maintains that Christ's personal existence is that of an external Subject within the oneness of God, and hence cannot be derived from the history of human beings and their world. His personal being did not originate when his visible human history began. He did not come into existence as a new person around 5 BC. He exists personally as the eternal Son of God. To adopt tensed language from Nicaea I ("there never was [a time] when he was not" – DzH 126) and state that Christ "always existed" could easily be misleading. Through sharing in the divine attribute of eternity he exists timelessly, given that eternity is in itself timeless. Even the classical definition of eternity left by Boethius, "interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio" (the all-at-once, complete, and perfect possession of endless life) (Consolatio Philosophiae, 5. 6), could misrepresent matters. "All-at-once" (simul) positively and "endless" (interminabilis) negatively recall time and temporal duration. Eternity and eternal life, however, are not to be reduced to any such temporal duration. The eternal "now" of the divine existence means perfect union and simplicity in unchangeable fullness of life, with no parts and with no relations of before and after, no having-been and no going-to-be.

These considerations also show up some dangers in the very term "pre-existence". To speak of the Son of God as pre-existing his incarnation and even the very creation of the world (when time began) could be (wrongly) taken to imply a "before" and "after" for his personal, divine existence. An addition that Constantinople I made to the Nicene Creed, "begotten from the father before all ages" (DzH 150; ND 12; addition italicized) might mislead one into thinking here of temporal succession as if the Son merely anteceded or "antedated" everything that later began (in/with time). Hence, one strains language (in an anthropomorphic fashion) when one speaks of the Logos personally existing and being active "before" the incarnation. It is another question with the humanity assumed at the virginal conception. This did not antedate the historical event of the incarnation. In the case of the human nature assumed by the Logos, "there was [a time] when this nature was not"—to apply controversial language to the humanity and not (as Arius did) to the person of the Son of God. From this point of view, it would have made perfect sense to have said, at the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews or of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, that "the incarnation has not yet taken place" and "the human nature of the Son of God is not yet operating". His historical humanity began its existence within the temporal order; the person of the Son of God exists eternally and timelessly. As Thomas Aquinas put it, "the humane nature" of Christ was created and began in time, where "the subsistent subject" is both uncreated and eternal.

Pre-existence means rather that Christ personally belongs to an order of being other than the created, temporal one. His personal, divine existence transcends temporal (and spatial) categories; it might be better expressed as trans-existence, meta-existence, or, quite simply, eternal existence. None of this is intended to deny that eternity must have something of time about it and vice versa. After all, Plato could define time as "the eternal image of eternity, moving according to number" (Timaeus, 37d). Eternity transcends time but without being apart from it; eternity and time should be considered together. Through the attribute of eternity God is present immediately and powerfully to all times. Book of Enoch an ancient pre Christian manuscript extant mentions a Christ like person being seen by Enoch standing next to God whom God told Enoch this Divine being would come to the earth.

Non-Trinitarian belief in the doctrine

Some accept the pre-existence of Christ without accepting his full divinity in the Trinitarian sense. For example, it is likely that Arius and most early advocates of Arianism accepted the pre-existence of Christ. However, St. Thomas Aquinas says that Arius "pretended that the Person of the Son of God is a creature, and less than the Father, so he maintained that He began to be, saying 'there was a time when He was not.'"

John Locke, William Ellery Channing and Isaac Newton appear to have maintained belief in the pre-existence of Christ despite their rejection of the Trinity.

Today, several nontrinitarian denominations also share belief in some form of the pre-existence of Christ, including the Church of God (7th Day) and the Jehovah's Witnesses, the latter group identifying Jesus as the archangel Michael, interpreting John 1:1 by translating with the phrase "a god," rather than "God". Mormonism teaches Christ's pre-existence as the first and greatest of the spirit children of God the Father.

Among the many churches which separated from the Worldwide Church of God, also referred to as the "Sabbatarian Churches of God" or, more pejoratively, Armstrongites, there is a shared belief in binitarianism, and that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament through whom God the Father created the world (based on Ephesians 3:9 and John 1:1–3), and that it was Jesus Christ who personally interacted with Adam and Eve, Noah, the patriarchs, ancient Israel, and the kings and prophets of the Old Testament. It is held that in his carnation, Jesus was sent to reveal the Father who was previously unknown. This is based on an interpretation of John 5:37, Luke 10:22, and by the large number of references Jesus made about the Father in the New Testament compared to the very few, almost figural references to God as Father in the Old Testament. This belief is also based on an interpretation of verses where Christ is believed to be discussing his personal presence in the Old Testament and interaction with ancient Israel, and on a Christological interpretation of Melchizedek.

Oneness Pentecostals

Oneness Pentecostals are non-Trinitarian Pentecostal Christians who do not accept the pre-existence of Christ as distinguished from God the Father, believing that, prior to the Incarnation, only "the timeless Spirit of God (the Father)" existed. Afterwards God "simultaneously dwelt in heaven as a timeless Spirit, and inside of the Son of Man on this earth." However, the UPCI, a large Oneness denomination, says in their statement of faith that "The one God existed as Father, Word, and Spirit" prior to the incarnation.

Although Oneness Pentecostals accept that "Christ is the same person as God," they also believe that "The 'Son' was 'born,' which means that he had a beginning." In other words, "Oneness adherents understand the term [Son] to be applicable to God only after the incarnation." They have consequently been described as holding an essentially unitarian position on the doctrine, and of denying the pre-existence of Christ. However, some members of the movement deny this interpretation of their beliefs.

Denial of the doctrine

Throughout history there have been various groups and individuals believing that Jesus' existence began when he was conceived. Those who consider themselves Christians while denying the pre-existence of Christ can be broadly divided into two streams.

First, there are those who nevertheless accept the virgin birth. This includes Socinians, and early Unitarians such as John Biddle, and Nathaniel Lardner. Today the view is primarily held by Christadelphians. These groups typically consider that Christ is prophesied and foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but did not exist prior to his birth.

Second, there are those who also deny the virgin birth. This includes Ebionites and later Unitarians, such as Joseph Priestley, and Thomas Jefferson. This view is often described as adoptionism, and in the 19th century was also called psilanthropism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge described himself as having once been a psilanthropist, believing Jesus to be the "real son of Joseph." Friedrich Schleiermacher, sometimes called "the father of liberal theology", was one of many German theologians who departed from the idea of personal ontological pre-existence of Christ, teaching that "Christ was not God but was created as the ideal and perfect man whose sinlessness constituted his divinity." Similarly, Albrecht Ritschl rejected the pre-existence of Christ, asserting that Christ was the "Son of God" only in the sense that "God had revealed himself in Christ" and Christ "accomplished a religious and ethical work in us which only God could have done." Later, Rudolf Bultmann described the pre-existence of Christ as "not only irrational but utterly meaningless."