“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5)

In this chapter, we will address another worldly influenced idea that needs to be overcome by believing Jesus is the “son of God” (as defined by God). And that is the false, worldly imagination that Jesus literally “preexisted” his birth in Bethlehem. What we are going to show is that literal “preexistence” is a pagan concept, but “foreknowledge” is a Biblical concept taught by the God-breathed scriptures. 

Let’s look at the scriptures that explain to us the way God’s foreknowledge works.

“Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass…” (Isaiah 37:26)

“Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? Now have I brought it to pass…” (2 Kings 19:25)

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure… I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:10-11)

“Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Isaiah 14:24)

“Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)

“But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” (Acts 3:18)

“All his works are known to God from eternity.” (Acts 15:18)

“²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)

“God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew…” (Romans 11:2)

“¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones… ²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” (1 Peter 1:1-2)

“²⁴When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them… ²⁷“For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together ²⁸to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.” (Acts 4:24-28)

“For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.” (Hebrews 4:3)

“⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; ⁵having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire.” (Ephesians 1:4-5)

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).

“…as it is written, ‘I have made you [past tense] a father of many nations’…God…calls those things which do not exist as though they did…” (Romans 4:17; NKJV)

These scriptures explain how God’s foreknowledge works and how God speaks of things He has planned as if they had already come about. But Incarnationists negate these biblical explanations of how God speaks of things as though they already were but aren’t. Instead, Incarnationists take the opportunity to redefine God’s position and create the false dilemma that if “God calls things that appear to be as though they are, that can only mean they literally are.” But that is the opposite of what God’s word explains! So, the Incarnation view, yet again, is an example of redefining what God explains in order to elevate man’s opinions above the authority of God’s explanations thereby aligning yet again with the long running Tradition of Defiance.

Here’s what was written that prompted Paul to write Romans 4:17 above:

“Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:5)

God said that when Abraham’s first son Ishmael was only about four years old! But rather than allow God to “call things that are not as though they were,” Incarnationists insist that anything that is spoken of before coming to earth must have literally preexisted or God would be a liar in saying it existed when it didn’t (yet). So, using this false dilemma as their reasoning, they adopt the biblically uninformed, pagan, worldly idea of literal preexistence and thereby interpret the scriptures through the pagan lens of… “gods have come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14:11).

Now let’s look at the scriptures that show that Jesus was “foreknown” before his birth. Keep in mind that “foreknown” and “preexistence” are contradictory concepts. The former is biblical, the latter is not biblical, and is actually an oxymoron.

“²²Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know, ²³him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed.” (Acts 2:22-23)

Here we have Peter explaining that the crucifixion of Jesus was part of God’s foreknown, predetermined plan. Now let’s read Revelation with that in mind.

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8; NKJV)

Does anyone believe that Jesus was literally slain before the foundation of the world? I mean, that’s what the Bible says! Is the Bible lying here? Of course not. But that is the kind of reasoning and statements the Incarnationists use to claim that such “foreknowledge” statements must only be understood as “literal preexistence” language or else God is lying.

Here is a graphic representation of God’s foreknowledge of Jesus and his following reality on earth:

Revelation 13:8 and its immediate context gives no indication that it is speaking of God’s foreknowledge, even though it obviously is. To be sure, we simply search for what the Bible explicitly says in other places in order to understand it that way. That is how Jesus countered Satan’s misapplications of Scriptures. Once we understand, through Hebrews 9–10, that there can have only been one slaying of the Lamb, then it becomes nearly impossible to interpret Revelation 13:8 to mean an actual preexistent slaying of the Lamb other than in God’s foreknowledge.

“²⁵Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, ²⁶or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, ²⁸so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation. (Hebrews 9:25–28)

“¹⁰by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹Every priest indeed stands day by day ministering and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, ¹²but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; ¹³from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. ¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified…” (Hebrews 10:10–14)

So then, it was through the human bodily temple of flesh that Christ could perfect forever those who are sanctified. This was by one offering. If there was a lamb slain before this time, it obviously was of no avail. For it is very clear that Christ was sacrificed one time, and it was that one time that obtained eternal salvation. It was the resurrected Christ who became the high priest. Thus, it was that same Christ, who was born of Mary and died on Calvary, who obtained this great salvation.

Therefore, in another place, the apostle Paul clearly and explicitly defines and explains Christ as the second man and last Adam. And, therefore, he explains, the spiritual person of Jesus Christ, very explicitly, did not come first! In this way, Paul explicitly refutes a preexistent, spiritual Son of God that existed before the human one born of Mary.

“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:45–47)

Jesus explained what is meant by being “from heaven” when he asked if the baptism of John was from heaven or men? (Matthew 21:25). As should be obvious, John’s baptism didn’t preexist in heaven, other than in God’s foreknowledge of His plan. 

In another place, Jesus explained his coming from heaven as being like the manna…

“⁴⁷Most assuredly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ (John 6:35, 41–42, 47–51)

Here we have Jesus clearly explaining to us how it is that he has “come down out of heaven.” He explains that he is the bread of life that came down out of heaven just like the manna that the Israelites ate in the wilderness. That bread also came down out of heaven. Did the manna literally and physically exist in heaven before coming down out of heaven? Absolutely not. So also is the case with the Son of Man that was in heaven but came down out of heaven, not to do his own will but the will of the Father. Saying that he came down from heaven does not mean, biblically, that he preexisted in the spiritual realm and eventually “came to earth in the likeness of man” in the pagan sense of incarnation. It means that God in heaven directed it to be so; thus, “out of heaven.”

So then, 1 Corinthians stands in saying that, “The last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual.” (1 Corinthians 15:45–47)

Jesus did not literally preexist; Paul explicitly explains that he came after Adam. Thus, Jesus only “conceptually” preexisted. In the Bible, this is called foreknowledge, and it is a thoroughly biblical teaching, in direct opposition to the worldly, pagan doctrine of gods literally preexisting and robing themselves in flesh to come to earth. 

Adolf von Harnack, a highly acclaimed historian of Christian dogma, explained the difference between the Biblical doctrine of foreknowledge versus the pagan view of preexistence (which Trinitarians and Onenessians have adopted for themselves). Here he explains the ancient Jewish and Semitic view:

“According to the theory held by the ancient Jews and by the whole of the Semitic nations, everything of real value that from time to time appears on earth has its existence in heaven. In other words, it exists with God, that is God possesses a knowledge of it; and for that reason it has a real being…” Adolf von Harnack, “On the Conception of Pre-Existence,” in History of Dogma, Vol. I, Appendix I. The entire text of von Harnack’s History of Dogma is available at: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack /dogma1.ii.iv.i.html

Von Harnack echoes precisely what we learned from the scriptures in the Bible about the way God perceives His creation. We are simply talking about how real God’s foreknowledge is to God. 

The Pagan View of Preexistence

Now let’s look at the “pagan” or worldly view that needs to be “overcome” by believing “Jesus is the son of God.”

“According to the [pagan] Hellenic conception, which has become associated with Platonism, the idea of pre-existence is… based on the conception of the contrast between spirit and matter… In the case of all spiritual beings, life in the body or flesh is at bottom an inadequate and unsuitable condition, for the spirit is eternal, the flesh perishable… In the case of the higher and purer (spirits)… if they resolved for some reason or other to appear in this finite world, they cannot simply become visible, for they have no ‘visible form.’ They must rather ‘assume flesh,’ whether they throw it about them as a covering, or really make it their own by a process of transformation or mixture.” Adolf von Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. I, Appendix I, 320.

In pagan philosophy, spirit beings were, of course, believed to be invisible to us. Therefore, if they wanted to show themselves, they would have to do one of two things. They either would have to “robe themselves in flesh” (which is a common, unbiblical “Oneness” description for God in Christ), or somehow mix with flesh. If you ever wondered where the saying, “God robed Himself in flesh” originated, here we have it. The Oneness doctrine of Jesus being “God incarnate” who “robed Himself in flesh” has its basis, not in the Bible, but in pagan mythology, just as the concept of the Trinity of three persons in the godhead does. They both originate from ultimately the same source, they have just reached slightly different conclusions, neither of which is spelled out or explained in the Bible.

This is the pagan concept of “gods come to earth in the form of man” that we are told about in Acts 14:11.

The key takeaway point is, in the pagan view these spiritual entities, or gods, preexisted in one form and then had to change form in order to become visible in our world.

This idea of a preexistent being “taking on a change” is one of the big reasons it is the opposite of the biblical concept of God’s foreknowledge, because God sees, in His foreknowledge, that which is to be on earth exactly as it is to be without any change. Again, Harnack explains the Jewish/Semitic view…

“Earthly occurrences and objects are not only regarded as ‘foreknown’ by God before being seen in this world, but the latter manifestation is frequently considered as the copy of the existence and nature which they possess in heaven, and which remains unalterably the same, whether they appear upon earth or not. That which is before God experiences no change…so the Tabernacle and its furniture, the Temple, Jerusalem, etc., are before God and continue to exist before him in heaven, even during their appearance on earth and after it… Moses is to fashion the Temple and its furniture according to the pattern he saw on the Mount (Exod. XXV. 9. 40: XXVI. 30: XXVII. 8: Num. VIII. 4). The Temple and Jerusalem exist in heaven, and they are to be distinguished from the earthly Temple and the earthly Jerusalem…” ibid.

In other words, God always “foreknew” what would ultimately appear on earth. This view of God’s foreknowledge comes from biblically influenced Judaic thought. God’s foreknowledge includes the temple and its furnishings, and Jerusalem, earthly and heavenly. These are all symbols of the body of believers, which is Christ’s bride (see Hebrews, especially 12:18, 22–24; 8:5; 9:1–10:22). But it also includes “the son of God.” Jesus clearly confirmed what Harnack just explained when he said,

“No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” (John 3:13)

Here Jesus was, the son of man, standing in front of them, telling them he is in heaven, present tense. This matches exactly with what Harnack said, “the copy of the existence and nature which they possess in heaven, and which remains unalterably the same…which is before God experiences no change… are before God and continue to exist before him in heaven, even during their appearance on earth and after it.” This is why Jesus could say that he was “in heaven” even while he was on earth. He was using typical “foreknowledge” language that would have been readily understood by the Jews listening, but easily misinterpreted by later incarnationists who came into the church from pagan backgrounds.

So, this is a very important distinction that betrays the pagan influence or not of the two views. In the pagan view, the preexistent entity has to change forms somehow; in the biblical view, what appears on earth is exactly as it was in God’s foreknowledge. In the Oneness view, as with the pagan view, God had to robe Himself in flesh to appear to be something He really isn’t. That fact of a “change” betrays the pagan influence on Onenessianism. Think of the idea of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” as a method of deception. That analogy of deception is very fitting here also for what we’ve just described for Incarnation views.

And now you have a little fuller understanding of what Paul was concerned about when they encountered the pagan idea of “…The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” in Acts 14:11.

 In other words, Onenessians and Trinitarians need to learn to “overcome the world” and reject the pagan idea of preexistence. And they can do that by believing in the “son of God” doctrine, that Jesus was and is a man who was the offspring of David according to God’s sworn oath, and just as importantly, part of God’s plan from before Jesus was ever born.

“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5).

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