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“Preexistence” here means that there was a pre-human stage in the man Jesus’s life. Such a thing is never clearly and directly asserted anywhere in the New Testament, although following a long-established traditions of interpretation, many readers claim to find this idea in a few famous passages. It is a doctrine of inference. And those inferences can be questioned.
In this presentation, I first distinguish between several related theses about Jesus’s alleged pre-human career. I then discuss how various people try to deal with perceived differences between the various NT book on these issues.
I briefly argue that in the NT, it is the Father, not Jesus who is the creator of the heavens and the earth. Thus, one can’t show that Jesus had a pre-human career by showing that he is a (or the) creator.
I then discuss several well-known, observable linguistic phenomena in the NT which give rise to preexistence “fool’s gold.” I briefly engage here with Simon Gathercole’s The Preexistent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
I finish explaining why things we all know about human beings, when combined with clear and explicit NT teaching about Jesus, should push us to look for plausible, contextual readings of the various NT texts which don’t involve literal pre-human existence for the man Jesus. I think that there are the needed readings, but I don’t go much into those here.
Because of my 50+ slides, I recommend this YouTube version:
Links for this episode:
- Restoration Fellowship YouTube channel
- Clarifying Catholic Christologies
- podcast 119 – The Son of God 3 – Dr. Dustin Smith’s “Socinian” view of Jesus
- podcast 118 – The Son of God 2 – Mr. Danny Andre Dixon’s “Arian” view of Jesus
- podcast 117 – The Son of God 1 – Dr. Lee Irons’s trinitarian view of Jesus
- Proverbs 18:17, Mark 10:6, Mark 13:19, Romans 1:20, Acts 4:24, Acts 14:15, Acts 17:24, Acts 17:26, Hebrews 11:3, Ephesians 3:9, 1 Timothy 4:3-4, Revelation 4:11, 10:6, 14:7, Genesis 1:24, John 1:3, John 1:10, Hebrews 1:2, Revelation 3:14, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:15-18, Ephesians 3:9, John 17:5, John 17:22-26, Luke 1:19, Luke 1:26; Acts 12:11, Revelation 5:6, Revelation 22:6, Revelation 22:16, Galatians 4:6, Mark 1:38, Luke 4:43, James 1:17, Matthew 21:24-26, John 1:6, John 1:33, John 3:28; John 8:42, John 17:8, John 17:23, John 17:25, John 20:31, John 10:36, Matthew 1:1, Matthew 9:27, Matthew 12:23, Matthew 15:22, Matthew 20:30-31, Matthew 21:9,15, Matthew 22:42-45, John 1:9, John 1:14, Philippians 2, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 1 Timothy 3:16.
- This week’s thinking music is “Global Warming” by Kai Engel.
