Rather than argue, I find it better to post the truth and let it fall on the ears of those who the Lord intends it to fall..
That's a great idea KG. Let's share our interpretations and let truth fall on the eyes on whom the Lord intends....
WAS JESUS CREATED OR WAS HE THE FIRSTBORN OF ALL CREATION?
Not one time do the scriptures say the words, "Jesus lived forever in the past" EVER! This is the assumption of Binitarians, Trinitiarians, and other Traditionalists.
The claim of Christ being created is supported by many passages that have been misinterpreted for millennia. The main three are Isa 43:10-11,
Colossians 1:15,
Revelation 3:14.
"You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God [H410”EL”-singular] formed, Nor shall there be after Me.11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior.
The verb "formed"[H3335], in vs 10, is in the nifal stem, perfect tense, third person. The nifal stem gives the verb a nuance of the subject being created. It also gives the verb a passive form making the subject (Christ) the recipient of the action. The perfect tense implies a completed past action. The third person simply means the subject (Christ) is referring to someone other than himself as the producer of the creative action.
Putting the grammatical pieces together we have the subject (EL/Christ) telling us the Father (third person) has (perfect tense--completed action) created (nifal stem/passive) no other "God" like Him (Christ) nor shall He create One like Him in the future. In other words, Christ was the only One created/formed of His kind—a one of a kind subordinate God! Isaiah repeats this distinctiveness of a “one of a kind created God” in 44:8; 45:5-6; 46:9.
We also see this “one of a kind created God” expression in the term “monogenes”, literally meaning "only/one of a kind generated/made" . Utilized to describe Christ in the New Testament (Joh 1:18). Perform a simple search of the two Greek words which make up the one term monogenes ("mono"-G3441 and "ginomai"-G1096) and see for yourself.
Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:15
The Greek word for "firstborn" is "prōtotokos". Strong's tells us it was derived from two words: " protos" [G4413] which means " foremost (in time, place, order or importance)..."Interestingly enough,
this is the root of our English word "prototype". The second term, "tikto" [G5088], is defined as: to produce (from seed, as a mother, a plant, the earth, etc.), literal or figurative: - bear,
be born, bring forth, be delivered, be in travail.
The announcement "the firstborn of" occurs over 30 times in the Bible and in every instance the acceptation is the same-- the firstborn is the very first allotment of the group. The "firstborn of the sheep" is a sheep who was born or existed before the others from one sheep (Gen 4:4), the "firstborn of the animals" is an animal born or in essence first created before all the others, etc. (Neh.10:36).
Verse 18 from this same chapter describes Jesus as being the firstborn from the dead. Meaning He was the first human being to die and be raised to immortality. What opponents do not realize is that
just as Christ could not be literally called “Firstborn from the dead” had He not been the first human being to die and be raised to immortality and gain pre-eminence, so also could He not be called “the Firstborn of all creation” had He not been the first created being of all creation!. In other words, Firstborn refers to both His position and His status in the created order!
Rev 3:14: "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:
̓
ρχή
archē
Thayer Definition:
1) beginning, origin
2) the person or thing that commences,
the first person or thing in a series, the leader
3) that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause
4) the extremity of a thing
4a) of the corners of a sail
5) the first place, principality, rule, magistracy
5a) of angels and demons
Jesus was the first creative act by The Father (Isa 43:10-11; Col 1:15; Rev 3:14). Christ, with the Father's help, was the origin or active cause of the rest of creation (Joh 1:3). Had John wanted to reflect Jesus as
only the origin or cause of creation, there were several words He could have used [ruler-archon-G758] [cause-poieo-G4160] [author-aitios-G159]. Instead He used a term that includes all of the definitions of these terms
plus the first thing created in a series! The grammar also supports this interpretation.
The phrase “creation of God” in Rev 3:14 is considered by Daniel Wallace, New Testament Scholar and Grammarian, a Subjective Genitive. In an SG, the verbal noun to which the genitive is related is converted into a verbal form and the genitive turns into its subject. Mr. Wallace uses Gal 1:12 as an example: “the revelation of Jesus Christ …” becomes “[What/the fact that] Jesus Christ reveals …”
Mr. Wallace has Rev 3:14 listed as an example of an SG. Utilizing this example for Rev 3:14, we get: “[What/the fact that] God-The Father- creates. The immediate context in our passage actually tells us what The Father has created in the beginning—The Amen, Faithful and True Witness---Christ!
The verses cited by those who uphold a self-existent Jesus have nothing to do with the topic of Jesus past eternal existence.. They cherry pick definitions in the Hebrew and Greek and ignore/overlook the text and its grammar to perpetuate their beliefs.
