In Isaiah
9:6, we read the prophetic words: "For to us a child is
born, to us a son is given". This
messianic prophecy informs us that the coming Messiah will not just be a
child born into the world, but a "son given" to the world. "To us a
son is given" means that God gives us His Son; He gives us one who is
already a Son. So Jesus is the Son of God before His Incarnation!
The New Testament confirms this:
- "For God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten Son" (John 3:16). This
favorite verse of Evangelicals tells us that the One Whom God "gave" to
the world was "His only begotten Son". Jesus was already
the begotten Son of
God when the Father gave Him to us in the Incarnation!
jt: We've
addressed all of this already Bill; so you are aware that there is
nothing new under the sun? The prophecy in Isaiah is just that,
prophecy and it becomes impossible to read the above analysis in
context when scripture (see Hebrews 1:5) clearly states: "thou art
My Son this day have I
begotten thee" which verse (in context) confirms that He
(Jesus) is a uniquely different kind of son, different from all of the
angels and that he was begotten on a certain day in time.
- The next verse adds:
"For God sent the
Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the
world might be saved through him" (John 3:17).
This clearly states that Jesus was the Son of
God when He was sent "into the world", i.e.. the Incarnation!
jt: It
doesn't clearly state anything like that because John 3:17 follows John 1:1
which clearly states how it was before the foundation of the world
ie "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God" (John 1:1) then we see (in context that the Son was sent,
made flesh, and dwelt amongst us?) Wrong... (see John 1:14) It
was The Word who was made flesh (begotten that day) and dwelt among us (and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the ONLY begotten of the Father) full
of grace and truth.
- "But
when the time had fully come, God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born
under the law" (Galatians 4:4). Jesus was
God's Son when He was "sent forth" from the Father to be born of woman.
Christ did not become God's Son at His human birth, He already was
God's Son!
jt: By the
time Paul the apostle wrote to the Church at Galatia the above was
history - God's "only begotten Son" had been born and/or sent "in the
fullness of time" (on that certain day), under the law of Moses - by way of
the woman (Mary). Note: He is also called "the seed of the woman"
(Genesis 3:15) long before He is called a Son by God - which should mean
something.
- "In
this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the
world, so that we might live through him" (I John 4:9).
Again, Jesus is God's only Son before being sent into the world.
jt: 1
John 4:9 which was written circa AD90 by John the Beloved reveals no "time
factor" and is written with the focus upon the love of God being
made manifest among men. Just because John uses the word "sent" does not
transpose this into a preincarnate fact.
- The next verse reiterates
this point: "In this is love,
not that we loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the
expiation for our sins" (I John 4:10)
jt: We are really
straining here because once more John the Beloved writing in AD90 refers to
God's love as the "lamb slain before the foundation of
the world" the One who "when the time had fully come and on a
certain day He (the Son) was begotten of God in the womb of the woman, and
born under the law - full of grace and truth"(John
1:17)
- And
yet again, four verses later: "And we have seen and testify that the
Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the
world" (I John 4:14).
jt: Yes. In
the fullness of time He became the Savior of the world and in the mind of
God it was so before the foundation of the world. What more is there to
say?
As for
whoever wrote this doctrine, he appears to be obsessed with the word
SENT when combined with God and Son.
