did the Son of God exist prior to the Incarnation was Jesus Christ present at the creation of the world stay tuned to hear Dr David K Bernard answer this important question welcome to Apostolic life in the 21st century a podcast dedicated to helping modern-day Believers live out the teachings of the first century church this podcast is part of the Teaching Ministry of Dr David K Bernard Dr Bernard has dedicated his life to studying the Bible and helping Believers apply its message to their daily lives in Apostolic life in the 21st century Dr Bernard answers your
questions about what the Bible teaches and how those teachings apply to Everyday Life Hebrews 1:1 and2 says God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds I'm reading that verse to you because some people have argued that this verse presents a problem for oness Pentecostal theology because it Oneness theology holds that the Son of God did not exist prior to the
Incarnation so my question is how do you explain this passage which seems to indicate that the Son of God was involved in creation how can that be possible if the Son of God didn't come into existence until Jesus was born to answer this question we first need to understand what is the biblical definition of the Son of God and simply put the son is God as he has manifested in the flesh it refers to the Incarnation so the trinitarian concept of Eternal son is not scriptural that phrase is never found in scripture uh it's not
the Eternal son but the only begotten son not God the son but the Son of God so so son is not a title of Eternal deity it's a son it's a title referring to the Incarnation you can see this briefly uh Luke 1:35 when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive and have a son the holy spirit will overshadow you cause you to conceive therefore because you're conceiving by the power of God therefore the Holy One who will be born of you will be called The Son of God so Jesus is specifically called
the Son of God because God supernaturally caused his conception so he's not the son of Joseph or any other Earthly father because no human causes conception but he was conceived by a miracle therefore he's the son of Mary his biological and birth mother but he's the son of God because God caused him uh to be conceived and born and God was in Christ uh as we see in 2 Corinthians 5:19 Colossians 2:9 God was in Christ so Jesus Christ is God manifest In the Flesh you also see Galatians 4:4 when the fullness of time was
come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law so the son is not Eternal but born of a woman the son is not Eternal but born under the time of the law in the fullness of time so once we get that in mind you can't think of the son as a secondary being sitting side by side with God and helping God create in fact um you find that God created everything alone and by himself uh Isaiah 44:24 I stretched forth the heavens alone I created the Earth by myself so whatever
Hebrews 1 means it can't mean here's God and then here's somebody who's not God but who's called son sitting by him and God says hey I need your help would you go create that has problems on multiple levels it violates the Oneness of God Deuteronomy 6:4 it violates what we've already said of God is the so Creator Isaiah 44:24 and also trinitarians would like to make the sun part of God but actually if they the text they would use put the son outside of God so that's another problem no so once we eliminate that that
concept what do we have here in Hebrews God is Hebrews just trying to say God revealed himself to humans in different ways he spoke he gave manifestations he gave Revelations but in these last days he's given the Supreme Revelation Jesus Christ the son of God fully reveals God he's God manifest In the Flesh the Incarnation is much greater than any prior manifestation because it complete the fullness of the godhead Colossians 2:9 and so in order to underscore the uniqueness and supremacy of this last Revelation not just representing God but being God uh I will also
go to verse three he's the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person so the son is not a second person but is the the brightness of God's glory so it's God being revealed uh that reminds us of 2 Corinthians 46 the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ and then the express image of his person so the son is not a second person but the Revelation or visible image of the invisible God again Colossians 1:15 uh 2 Corinthians 4:4 Christ is the image of God so God is
invisible but Christ is the visible image of that invisible God he's the express image of his person now the King James and new King James use person other translations may use others like substance but but I think it's interesting because the underling Greek word is hypostasis which is the very same Greek word when the doctrine of the Trinity was formed in the 4th Century they said God is three persons they said God is three hypotheses so this term of scripture directly contradicts the original formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity whether in English or in
Greek by saying no the sun is not a second person the sun is the express image of God's one person God's own person so if you're going to use the term person for God God is one person not multiple persons and the son is the Revelation or expression or visible image of God's one person not a second person okay so with that bigger context in mind what does it mean to say through whom he is a uh through whom he made the worlds again knowing the Greek is very helpful ionus from which we get the
English word Eon literally meaning ages so it's not talking about by which he created Jupiter and Mars and Earth worlds like that but by which she created the ages uh so that helps give a different perspective so let's go back to the beginning to Creation God created humans in his own image there was one God he did it alone he did it by himself he created humans to have fellowship with him so he created them innocence they had a relationship in the Garden of Eden sadly they sinned they broke that Fellowship so you might say
from that perspective God's plan for Fellowship has been thwarted uh what what's going on did God not know that did did God's plan get messed up well God is has for knowledge he knows what will happen so then you ask well knowing it would be a failure his plan wouldn't work why would he even go through with the plan and then you realize his plan included Redemption and you see this of course in Revelation 13 the lamb slain from the foundation of the world you see this in 1 Peter 1 the lamb was for ordained
before the foundation of the world but manifested in these times so there wasn't a lamb back there there wasn't uh a second person there wasn't a human Jesus who was born of of a pre-existent mother um there wasn't actuality but in God's plan Jesus was born and actually crucified before the foundation World in other words it was predestined it was certain and so God depended upon that so we could argue if there hadn't been a Plan of Salvation in God's mind he wouldn't have proceeded with creation so the creation was dependent that even though his
plan would initially be thwarted it would ultimately be fulfilled through Jesus Christ through the birth Ministry death baral Resurrection Ascension of Jesus Christ as the Son of God that human being that Incarnation so you you could say then God proceeded with creation because he already had the son in view he already had the Plan of Redemption in View and that might even be the Fuller explanation of the the term Genesis 1126 let us make man which we've discussed in another podcast but uh it could be a simple plural of deliberation and planning but if it
is more it's looking forward to the sun being born and uh recreating humans you know redeeming humans fulfilling God's original purpose in creation so I think the best way to understand this God created the worlds through the Sun God created all the ages with the sun in view the son was not actually born before creation the son was born in the fullness of time so there wasn't a second person there wasn't a human being there wasn't an eternal Mo mother there wasn't an eternal law all that took place in time but every age was created
in dependence on the future arrival of the Son of God you actually see this in uh in Romans chapter 3 verse I think it's verse 25 where uh the the the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Vindicated God in the people who are saved before the cross so you have to ask in the age of Abraham how did God save Abraham he wasn't saved by works he sa by faith but what was the sacrifice Jesus Christ Noah was saved the age of Noah Noah was saved in dependence on Jesus Christ Moses was saved inde dependence on Jesus
Christ so you could say people of every age were saved by by grace through faith as they obeyed God's plan but the actual price wasn't paid until Jesus died on the cross and rose again so God created the ages with the sun in view uh he although he did not pick up his Humanity until the fullness of time he relied upon it from creation onward and so from that perspective it it fits Hebrews 1 very well the whole book of Hebrews is talking about Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins We Must Believe on
Jesus to be saved we can't go back to Judaism to be our savior but Jesus is our sacrifice Jesus is our high priest so what it's saying is God worked and revealed himself and spoke to people many different ways but in these last days he's given Supreme Revelation that's greater than all prior revelations in fact all of creation was based on this Revelation every age as it developed was created by God the age of Noah the age of Abraham the age of Moses our age is all created with the son in view in Reliance upon
the Son of God so it's actually a beautiful expression not of multiple gods or multiple Divine persons but the whole creation is dependent on the Redemption in Christ Jesus thank you for listening to this episode of apostolic life in the 21st century if you enjoy this podcast please take a moment to give us a review on Apple podcasts Spotify or your favorite podcast app we also appreciate it when you share Apostolic life in the 21st century with a friend or family member and make plans to join us again next time as we look at how
the Bible applies to Everyday Life
