One argument is that if the Messiah pre-existed as a fully developed personality, that does not allow for human development and therefore compromises his being human.

Luke claims Yeshua had a normal human development. He says of Yeshua's childhood, "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him" (Luke 2:40). Notice that Luke also distinguishes the child Yeshua from YEHOVAH God, which always indicates that the Messiah was not God. Then Luke adds, "And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (v. 52). How could the Messiah have increased in favor with God if he was God? William Barclay therefore states, "one of the most difficult of all ideas [is] the idea of the preexistence of Jesus."

Christians claim that they base their beliefs on the Bible. While the first three gospels of the New Testament (NT) contain nothing about Yeshua having pre-existed, the Gospel of John seems to have several important passages that do so. And there are notable texts in the Apostle Paul's letters and the book of Hebrews that do, which we will now consider.

Paul does not state explicitly anywhere in his New Testament letters that the Messiah pre-existed. Thus, Karl-Josef Kuschel asserts, "there is no sign of any unambiguous and explicit statement about pre-existence in the Christology outlined by Paul."

But most scholars have thought that Paul states it implicitly. And Gerhard Kittel observes, "Christological pre-existence sayings are a constituent part of the whole of Paulinism."

James Dunn contends, "There is no good evidence that Jesus thought of himself as a pre-existent being" or that Paul thought Yeshua either pre-existed or possessed deity. Dunn claims that much of Paul's language of pre-existence is personified Wisdom language, as in "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), and that Paul never intended for it to be understood as literal pre-existence. Dunn maintains that by the time Paul wrote Romans, in the mid-50s, "there is no evidence that Christian thought had so far evolved the idea of incarnation, or that the language of pre-existence when referred to Christ (1 Corinthians 8:6) would as yet be taken to imply his personal preexistence, or that talk of his being 'sent' (Romans 8:3) was as yet understood to imply a descent from heaven." Dunn concludes, "Paul was not seeking to win men to belief in a pre-existent being."

Regardless of whether or not the Messiah pre-existed, D. A. Carson logically states, "preexistence does not entail deity." Indeed, Second Temple Judaism regarded certain pious men as having pre-existed, yet Jews did not think this compromised their monotheism.

John Knox warns, "the more fully the logic of preexistence is allowed to work itself out in the story [of the Messiah], the less important the [his] resurrection is bound to become."

Karl-Josef Kuschel observes, "Traditional exegesis has always interpreted this passage in terms of preexistence Christology and incarnation, as have present day exegetes right across all confessional camps."

Until the Messiah was thirty years old, he probably had an emotionally rich and fulfilling life as the eldest of four brothers and several sisters (Mark 6:3). And he must have had a good reputation as the carpenter of Nazareth and its vicinity. But in a most profound and untold single act of self-denial, he laid aside this comfortable lifestyle, left home, and undertook an itinerant, public ministry of financial poverty and even forfeiture of his life.

He once told his disciples about himself, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matthew 8:20/Luke 9:58).

Many Christians have thought that the author of the New Testament letter of Hebrews presents the Messiah as having pre-existed. For example, he says God "through" Yeshua "made the world" (Hebrews 1:2). And he further explains of Yeshua, "He comes into the world" by YEHOVAH God giving him "a body" (10:5). Yet this author also relates that at the Messiah's heavenly ascension, "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty [YEHOVAH God] on high; having become much better than the angels" (1:3-4). But if the Messiah pre-existed as God, he always was better than the angels and therefore could not later have become so.

Dunn concludes that "the author of Hebrews has no place in his thinking for pre-existence as an ontological concept."

One thing seems to rule out the actual pre-existence of the Messiah in this letter of Hebrews. For him to be Savior and High Priest, he had to be like us in every way except sin. The author of Hebrews explains concerning the Messiah, "He had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest" (Hebrews 2:17). Again, this requires that Yeshua did not literally pre-exist, since the rest of us humans did not.

It thus seems that YEHOVAH God created the world "through" the Messiah simply by having him in mind.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah!

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