Apart from the debate between trinitarianism and unitarianism, which I have covered in my last five posts, another important debate exists among unitarians about whether Jesus existed as a conscious being prior to His conception and birth. According to Arianism, Jesus was a spirit being who was created at the beginning and was the conduit through which God created the rest of the universe; He then lowered Himself to become a human for a time, after which He was glorified again to become a spirit being. In contrast, Socinians (and other various minority groups) believe that Jesus first existed at His conception. In this article, I will explain why I believe that Jesus did not exist prior to His conception.
The beginning of Jesus Christ
If you ask a trinitarian, “when was the beginning of Jesus Christ?” they will probably look at you funny and respond that Christ had no beginning, that He has always existed as the eternal Son and Word of God, a co-eternal member of the triune ‘Godhead’. If you ask an Arian (such as a Jehovah’s Witness), they will respond that the beginning of Jesus Christ occurred when He was brought into existence at the beginning of creation. But what is the biblical answer?
And of Jesus Christ, the beginning was thus: For his mother Mary having been betrothed to Joseph, before their coming together she was found to have conceived from the Holy Spirit, and Joseph her husband being righteous, and not willing to make her an example, did wish privately to send her away. And on his thinking of these things, lo, an angel of the Lord in a dream appeared to him, saying, “Joseph, son of David, thou mayest not fear to receive Mary thy wife, for that which in her was begotten [is] of the Holy Spirit, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:18-21)
According to this passage, the conception of Jesus within the womb of His mother, Mary, is considered “the beginning of Jesus Christ”. The word here translated as “beginning” is γενεσις (genesis), which literally means the origin or creation of a thing, and by implication the conception or birth of a human being. This means that, according to Matthew, the origin of the person known as “Jesus” and who is the Messiah occurred at His conception (and not before that).
Similarly, Matthew tells us that when Jesus was conceived in Mary, He was begotten at that time. The word used here, γενναω, literally describes the coming into existence of a human being. Matthew had just used this exact word dozens of times in the past few verses to describe the birth of all of Jesus’ ancestors, from Abraham to Joseph (vv. 1-16); it would be incredibly inconsistent to think that he used this word differently in relation to Jesus than he had in the previous verses.
This fact, that Jesus was begotten (given existence) in Mary’s womb, is confirmed by the gospel account of Luke:
And the angel answering said to her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also the begotten holy one shall be called Son of God” (Lk. 1:35)
Here, we are told not only that Jesus was begotten by Mary, but also that His being called “the Son of God” is intimately tied to His miraculous conception. This means that, prior to His conception, He cannot have been the Son of God, nor ‘God the Son’, because He was not the Son until He was fathered by God in the womb of His mother Mary.
Trinitarians and Arians will argue that these passages are simply referring to the origin of the human nature of Jesus; but there is no indication of this in the text itself, it must be read into the text, which is very clearly eisegesis. Both the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah and the synoptic gospel accounts clearly present Jesus as a human being whose conscious origin began at His conception and/or birth.
And in fact, even if some conscious being that would later become Jesus did pre-exist His conception and birth, this being would not be Jesus, or the Christ, or even the Son of God, because as noted already, these are names and titles that are said to have originated at His conception, not prior to that. Neither was He the Logos, or word of God, prior to His conception, because as argued in a previous post of mine, the “word of God” refers to the impersonal divine word and wisdom that was embodied in Jesus, not a conscious being.
All of this goes to show that, if a conscious being that would later become Jesus existed prior to the conception of Jesus in His mother Mary, this being would not be recognizable as the later Jesus Christ in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it would be entirely logical to conclude based on these passages which say that Jesus was begotten (given existence) at His conception that He did not pre-exist in any conscious form at all.
Is Jesus a human being?
The Bible repeatedly and emphatically presents Jesus as a human being - in fact, it states several times that this fact is necessary for our salvation. Jesus could not have fully accomplished His salvific work on the cross if He were not a human, as the following passages demonstrate:
even as through one man [Adam] the sin did enter into the world... the free gift in grace of the one man Jesus Christ, abound[ed] to the many... for as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam], the many were constituted sinners: so also through the obedience of the one [Adam], shall the many be constituted righteous. (Rom. 5:12-19)
And now, Christ hath risen out of the dead — the first-fruits of those sleeping he became, for since through man [is] the death, also through man [is] a rising again of the dead, for even as in Adam all die, so also in the Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)
so also it hath been written, “The first man Adam became a living creature,” the last Adam [is] for a life-giving spirit, but that which is spiritual [is] not first, but that which [was] soulish, afterwards that which [is] spiritual. The first man [is] out of the earth, earthy; the second man [is] the Lord out of heaven (1 Cor. 15:45-47)
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself [Jesus] likewise also partook of the same, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death... in all things he had to be made like his brothers so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Heb. 2:14, 17 NASB)
According to these writers, Jesus needed to be a human being like Adam in order to undo the effects of the sin of Adam. However, according to both trinitarians and Arians, Jesus was not truly a human being.
Trinitarians believe that Jesus is a divine person with merely a human nature [1], whereas Arians believe that Jesus is a divine and/or angelic person. To affirm that Jesus existed at all prior to His conception, in some non-human form, requires that He is not truly a human being - He was not raised up from among humanity, contra Deut. 18:15 and other Messianic prophecies, but raised up from among the heavenly, angelic hosts, and neither was He “in all things like His brethren” (Heb. 2:17).
If Jesus existed consciously prior to His conception in a non-human form [2], whether in a divine or angelic body, He would not truly be a human being, but instead an angel controlling the body of a human (in the same way that trinitarians believe Jesus to be a divine Person with a human nature). This means that, if He pre-existed, Jesus could not have been an effective sacrifice to revert the effects of Adam’s sin.
Furthermore, Arians believe that Jesus was a spirit being prior to being a human, and that after His resurrection He went back to being an angelic spirit being. However, this goes against several passages that clearly state that Jesus remains a human being, with a resurrected immortal body, in heaven at the right hand of God.
for one [is] God, one also [is] mediator of God and of men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5)
because [God] did set a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness, by a man [Jesus] whom He did ordain, having given assurance to all, having raised him out of the dead. (Acts 17:31)
According to these statements by Paul, Jesus presently occupies His mediatorial position as a human being in heaven, and will remain a human being even after His second coming when He returns to judge the world. This shows that Jesus cannot have become a spirit being again following His resurrection, contra Arian beliefs.
When was Jesus “sent”?
Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus repeatedly claims to have been “sent by God” (Matt. 10:40; John 5:30; 17:3; etc.), something that is also affirmed by Paul and other New Testament writers (Rom. 8:3; Gal. 4:4; 1 John 4:9-14). Those who believe in the pre-existence of Christ take this as proof of this doctrine, because if Jesus was sent, He must have literally come down from heaven to live on the earth.
However, is this really a legitimate argument? Those who believe in the pre-existence of Christ must understand these passages with a wooden literalness, taking it to mean that Christ was once with God, and then was physically sent down from heaven to the earth by God. But every other time that the Bible says someone was “sent by God”, it refers to their being commissioned by God to carry out some purpose, certainly not that they existed prior to their births and were incarnated to carry out that purpose. Consider the following passages:
God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. (Gen. 19:29 NASB)
Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’” (Exod. 3:13 NASB)
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel” (1 Sam. 15:1 NASB)
“Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again.” (Jer. 7:25 NASB)
There came a man — having been sent from God — whose name [is] John (Jn. 1:6)
This is only a small selection of dozens of passages describing regular human beings being sent by God. Obviously, none of these people who were sent by God had a heavenly pre-existence before they were born. There is no reason to interpret Jesus’ statements that He was “sent” as anything more than the fact that He was commissioned by God for the purpose of salvation, as His perfect representative agent on earth (the “image of the invisible God”).
Furthermore, it can be shown from scripture that Jesus was sent after His birth, which is actually evidence against His pre-existence (because if He pre-existed, His “sending” or commissioning would have occurred at the moment of His conception). Consider the following passages:
“I have given to them Thy word, and the world did hate them, because they [Jesus’ disciples] are not of the world, as I am not of the world... as Thou didst send me to the world, I also did send them to the world” (Jn. 17:14, 18)
According to Jesus, His disciples are not of the world in the same way that Jesus is not of the world, and He is sending them into the world in the same way that God sent Jesus into the world. This shows that Jesus’ statements about being “not of this world” (Jn. 8:23) and having “come into the world” (Jn. 16:28) should not be understood with wooden literalness, as those who believe in Christ’s pre-existence interpret them, but as referring to Jesus’ commissioning at the beginning of His ministry.
“God, having raised up His child Jesus, did send him, blessing you, in the turning away of each one from your evil ways.” (Acts 3:26)
According to this passage, God sent Jesus only after raising Him up (not referring to His resurrection, but to His being ‘put on the scene’; cf. Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22).
And when the fullness of time did come, God sent forth His Son, having come of a woman, having come under law (Gal. 4:4)
The word translated “having come” is in the aorist tense and the middle voice, thus referring to an event that occurred prior to the “sending forth” of the Son. This means that Jesus’ commissioning, or being sent by God, is almost certainly something that happened after His “having come of a woman... under law”.
Therefore, based on these passages, we should not understand Jesus’ being “sent” as referring to His having been literally sent from heaven to earth at His conception, but rather at His commissioning at the beginning of His ministry (Matt. 3:16-17). To be sure, this does not mean that Jesus wasn’t the Son of God prior to His ministry. He was the sinless Son of God throughout His entire life, from the moment of His birth (Lk. 1:35; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 Jn. 3:5), and He began doing the work of God early in His life (Lk. 2:42-49). However, the point at which He was commissioned by God (after which He could say, “I have been sent by God”) occurred after His birth, very likely at the time of His baptism.
Did Jesus create the world?
According to Arianism, Jesus was the first being to be created, and He was the conduit through which God created the rest of the world. This belief is based on a few passages that they think support this doctrine, specifically John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; and Hebrews 1:2. However, apart from these passages, the overwhelming testimony of scripture is that Jesus did not create the universe - rather, Yahweh created the universe entirely by Himself, with no help from anyone else. This is most clearly seen in the book of Isaiah:
This is what Yahweh says, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: “I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth - who was with Me?” (Isa. 44:24)
“It is I who made the earth, and created mankind upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands, and I ordained all their lights.” (Isa. 45:12 NASB)
“Listen to Me, Jacob, Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. Assuredly My hand founded the earth, and My right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand together.” (Isa. 48:12-13 NASB)
This is what Yahweh says: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is the footstool for My feet. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, so all these things came into being,” declares Yahweh. (Isa. 66:1-2 NASB)
There can be no clearer assertion that Yahweh alone created the heavens and the earth. The answer to the rhetorical question, “who was with Me?” can only be “nobody”; Jesus cannot have been created before the world began, because no one was with God then.
The fact that God created the heavens and earth alone is even supported by Jesus Himself, who asserted throughout His ministry that it was God (not Himself) that created the world:
And he [Jesus] answering said to them, “Did ye not read, that He who made [them], from the beginning a male and a female made them?” (Matt. 19:4)
Because Jesus speaks of the creator of the world - God - in the third person, not only here but in Mark 10:6 and 13:19 as well, even He Himself testifies to the fact that God created the world apart from the help of any “pre-incarnate Christ”.
Another strong testimony that God created the world without any assistance from the man Jesus Christ can be found in Paul’s apologetic sermon to the Athenians in Acts 17:
“God, who did make the world, and all things in it, this One, of heaven and of earth being Lord, in temples made with hands doth not dwell... because He did set a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom He did ordain, having given assurance to all, having raised him out of the dead.” (Acts 17:24, 31)
If Jesus is the One who created the world, as trinitarians (and Arians) assume, then we should be able to substitute “Jesus” for “God” in this passage. But that creates an absurdity, because in that case v. 31 would read like so:
Because Jesus did set a day in which He is about to judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus whom Jesus did ordain, having given assurance to all, Jesus having raised Jesus out of the dead.
Unless we are to accept this rather extreme version of modalism, two separate people are being referred to in this passage: God, who created the world and all things in it, and Jesus, the man whom God ordained as Lord and Messiah by raising Him from the dead (Acts 2:32-36). Another passage that is, if possible, even more clear than Acts 17:24-31 is Hebrews 2:10:
For it was fitting for Him [God], for whom are the all things, and through whom are the all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the originator of their salvation through sufferings. (NASB)
This passage clearly distinguishes between God, who created all things through Himself and for Himself, and the originator of our salvation (Jesus Christ). And yet, this is exactly what Arians claim Jesus did, based on their interpretation of Colossians 1:16: that Jesus created all things through Himself and for Himself. But this necessarily means, in line with the statements by Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul, that Jesus is not the One who created the world; rather, God (the Father) created the world by Himself. This removes a major pillar of evidence for the pre-existence of Christ.
When was Jesus glorified?
Both trinitarians and Arians believe that Jesus had glory, and was already at the right hand of God, prior to His “incarnation” in Mary’s womb (largely based on a single verse, John 17:5). However, this actually goes against many passages that state that the reason Christ received glory is because of His obedience to God unto death:
“Was it not behoving the Christ these things to suffer, and to enter into his glory?” (Lk. 24:26)
For because of this Christ both died and rose again, and lived again, that both of dead and of living he may be Lord. (Rom. 14:9)
And in fashion having been found as a man, [Jesus] humbled himself, having become obedient unto death — death even of a cross, wherefore, also, God did highly exalt him, and gave to him a name that [is] above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee may bow — of heavenlies, and earthlies, and what are under the earth — and every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Php. 2:8-11)
Jesus — because of the suffering of the death, with glory and honour [was] crowned (Heb. 2:9)
From these passages it is easy to see that there is a causal relationship between Jesus’ death and His subsequent glorification. It is not merely that Jesus regained His glory after dying and being resurrected, but the very reason that He even has glory is because He died and was resurrected. As Paul puts it in Romans 14:9, the reason that Christ died and rose again is so that He may be Lord of the dead and the living, which implies that Jesus could not have been Lord prior to His death and resurrection.
Based on this fact alone, it would be logical to conclude that Jesus did not have (and indeed could not have had) glory prior to His resurrection. But there is actually even more evidence from scripture that Jesus did not have glory before His resurrection - an explicit statement from the gospel of John:
But this he said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (Jn. 7:39 NASB)
John cannot have been clearer than he was here. Jesus’ glorification was still a future event at the time of His ministry, and He did not have glory prior to His ministry. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to believe that Jesus had any existence prior to His life on earth, let alone an existence as the infinitely glorious God (or even at the right hand of God).
Conclusion
Throughout this article, I have attempted to prove from scripture alone that Jesus could not have existed prior to His birth and life on earth. I have shown that Jesus was begotten, or given existence, only at the moment of His conception; that He could not have been called Jesus, Christ, or Son of God prior to His birth; that, if He pre-existed, Jesus would not have been a human being (and therefore unable to provide an effective sacrifice for sins); that He was only sent after His birth, thereby precluding any pre-birth “sending”; that God alone created the world apart from Jesus; and that Jesus could not have had any glory prior to His resurrection. Any one of these facts would be enough to cast significant doubt on the doctrine of “pre-existence of Christ”, but all of them together make it virtually impossible to affirm such a position.
In the next installment of this series on the pre-existence of Christ, I will grapple with some of the proof-texts used to support this position, especially the prologue of John 1 and other passages from the gospel of John thought to prove His heavenly “pre-incarnate existence”.
Part 2: https://universalistheretic.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-pre-existence-of-christ-prologue-of.html
[1] This may be a surprising fact to many Christians who are unaware of the fact that orthodox Christianity actually denies that Jesus was a human person. According to the council of Chalcedon in 451, two natures - human and divine (such that He can still be affirmed as “fully God and fully man”) - were combined into one person, who was not human, but remained divine as “God the Son”. This idea is also affirmed by virtually all Protestant churches as well.
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