For some reason, the understanding of Christ pre-incarnate is very controversial, as people get confused with the "Title" which refers to Jesus. Now, Jesus is NOT a created Angel. He is fully Man, fully God, the Messiah, the Christ, and Lord and Saviour. Jesus is Eternal. Jesus was never created. Jesus is Eternal as the Father and Holy Spirit are Eternal. Jesus has always been and always will be.
Matthew 1:23
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Here it is clear that Christ is God.
Did the Father create or "procreate" another "God?" If He did, This would mean it would be a SIN to worship Jesus, because it would violate the first commandment!!!
"Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."Isaiah 43:10
The first commandment says,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
"Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that do we make a god." Patriarch's and Prophets p. 305
Christ was not brought into existence, rather He ALWAYS existed as one with the Father.
"Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God.... In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him."Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900.
Q. What did this term Son of God mean in the mind of the Jews?
A. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.(Joh 5:18 AV)
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"(Php 2:6 AV)
In the resurrection men that are saved are equal to angels. "Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."(Luke 20:36 AV) Jesus was not equal to the angels He was equal to God.
"He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.... He is the eternal, self-existent Son."Manuscript 101, 1897.
"4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."(Heb 1:4-8 AV).
The above verse said, "let all the angels of God worship him." This would be blaspheme if Christ was not YHVH (Jehovah). "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."(Mt 4:10 AV) The Father told all the angels to worship Christ because He was equal to Himself and was, 'the Lord thy God' who only was to be worshipped.
It is not permitted to worship angels "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,"(Col 2:18 AV).
"And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."(Rev 19:10 AV)
"8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God."(Rev 22:8-9 AV)
It is not permitted to worship the likeness of anything God has created. The second commandment forbids this. The Bible condemns in clear language those who, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."(Rom 1:25 AV)
For any creature to claim the right to be worshipped is blaspheme. In fact the Jews falsely accused Jesus of this. "The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."(Joh 10:33 AV) Notice these scriptures that show Jesus was worshipped.
Mt 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Mt 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mr 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
Lu 24:52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
Joh 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."(Mt 4:10 AV)
The preincarnate existence of Christ, and His preincarnate works, is important for several reasons. First, His preexistence is a necessary attribute to show who He was when He came as flesh. If Christ did not exist prior to His incarnation, then He cannot be God. Second, it is important that we have a firunderstanding of the preincarnate Christ in order to discern what is false doctrine and what is the truth. Third, it gives the Christian a tremendous suriety in whom their faith is and the Bible. So it is essential that the preexistence of Christ be proven in order to prove His deity. Jesus is the angel of the LORD, the angel of God, the Archangel Michael, who appeared time and again in the Old Testament to speak directly to His people, prior to the incarnation.
Michael is just another "Title" to refer to Jesus just as Lamb and Lion is. Michael is not a created Angel. Michael the Archangel is only a name or title, but it shows us that Christ has always been there with the Father implementing the plan of salvation.
In many places in the Old Testament it refers to the evelasting attribute of God, we see this with Abraham when he called upon the Lord.
Genesis 21:33
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
God is constantly refered to and His protection, and law, along with His existence is shown as eternal.
Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Proverbs 8:23
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
Then we see how the prophecy of Christ as the Messiah describe Him as everlasting and points to His existence from eternity past.
Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
And many verses confirme the everlasting God as the Creator.
Isaiah 40:28
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding
Then prophecy states that Messiah would come from Bethlehem, and He is described as He "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
Micah 5:2
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
This states not only His preexistence but the fact that He has existed from eternity. So then we look at the appearance of God in a physical form and see that it was none other than Christ Himself. If He appeared before His incarnation, then He obviously existed before His incarnation.
In John 1:14, it is written that "the Word became flesh." Now that He became flesh implies that He was not always flesh, i.e., that He existed before His incarnation. In John 3:13, Jesus said that He came down from heaven. Mortal men do not come down from heaven! This implies a previous existence. In John 17:18, we see that the Father sent Him into the world. In Hebrews 2:14 we read that He partook of flesh and blood. All of these things imply that He existed prior to His incarnation.
Christ as the angel of the Lord appears on numerous occasions throughout the Old Testament. And yet it is clear that He is something more than other angels.The Angel of the LORD is often identified as Jehovah. We can see this in Gen. 16:7-13, when He spoke with Hagar, and in Gen. 22:11-18, when, after the offering of Issac, He confirmed His covenant with Abraham. We see Him again identified as Jehovah in Judges 6:11-24. And here we'll notice something else which is significant. We see the Angel of the LORD accepting worship, which an ordinary angel wouldn't do. Only Jehovah is to be worshipped.
While the Angel of the LORD is identified as Jehovah, He is also distinguished from Jehovah. In Gen. 24:7, we read of Jehovah sending his angel. Zech. 1:12-13 is the clearest revelation of the distinction, for there we see the Angel of the LORD speaking with Jehovah.
Scripture presents that the Angel of the LORD is identified as Jehovah and yet distinct from Him. This would mean that He is one of the members of the Trinity. Here are reasons why the Angel of the LORD should be identified as the second person of the Trinity.
First, the second person is the visible God of the New Testament. The Father has been heard, but never seen. The Spirit has been seen only in the form of a dove, and only in one instance. But Christ, indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead, walked among men, visible and touchable. It therefore seems logical to conclude that the Angel of the LORD would be the second person of the Godhead.
Second, the Angel of the LORD no longer appears after the incarnation of Christ. It seems logical to conclude that the reason why He appears no longer is because in the New Testament He appears as the incarnate Christ.
Third, both the Angel of the LORD and Jesus Christ were sent by the Father. In the Trinitarian relationship, it is the Father Who sends the other two persons.
Fourth, the Angel of the LORD could not be either the Father or the Spirit. He could not be the Father because John 1:18 tells us that "No man hath seen God at any time." He could not be the Spirit, since the Spirit is immaterial. Therefore, He must be the Son. Some of these same arguments apply to the other theophanies which scripture gives us.
In Genesis 18, three men appear to Abraham. It is apparent that one of them is Jehovah (the other two are probably angels), since the text actually says so (v. 13). Furthermore, He knows of Sarah's laughter within herself, and we see Abraham praying to Him. Like the Angel of the LORD, this is a physical manifestation of Jehovah, and must therefore be a preincarnate appearance of Christ.
In Joshua 5:13-15, we read of a man whom Joshua meets near Jericho. The man identified Himself as "captain of the host of the LORD." He accepted Joshua's worship, and told Joshua to remove his shoes because he was on holy ground, just as Moses had to do when the Angel of the LORD spoke to him from the burning bush (Ex. 3). This demonstrates the deity of the Captain, which leads us to the conclusion that this is another preincarnate appearance of Christ. As the Angel of the LORD, He stopped Abraham when He was about to slay Issac. Also as the Angel of the LORD, He stood between the camp of Egypt and that of Israel while the Red Sea was parting. He was with Israel in the wilderness, and provided water from out of a rock on two occasions (Ex. 17, Num. 20, cp. I Cor. 10:4). Christ, in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, guided the children of Israel in the wilderness.
The scripture in the New Testament also has direct assertions of Christ's preexistence. The first is John 1:1-4,14. In v.1 we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It was later that "the Word became flesh (v. 14)." If the Word was with God before He became flesh, than He obviously existed before His incarnation. The second is John 6:33-62. There is no need to examine this whole passage. For our purposes, it will suffice just to look at v. 62, where Jesus said to His disciples, "What if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" The third is John 8:58, where Jesus said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am." Jesus is obviously stating here that He existed before Abraham. The fourth is John 17:5, where Jesus was praying to the Father and said, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." This, too, is an obvious assertion of Christ's preexistence. The fifth is Phil. 2:6, where Paul, speaking of our Lord, says, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." This passage is one of the most difficult to interpret, but for our purposes all we need see is that there was a time, before He took on the form of a man, that Christ existed in the form of God. This, too, is an obvious assertion of Christ's preexistence.
Christ's works as scripture shows, include Creation, the preservation of the universe, and the sustaining of the children of Israel in the wilderness. In order for Christ to have done these things, which happened prior to His incarnation, He had to have existed. Christ's work in creation is plainly revealed in the New Testament. In John 1:3 we read, "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." In Col. 1:16, we read, "By him were all things created," and in Heb. 1:10, "And, Tnou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." Therefore, His work in creation is obvious.
As the Angel of the LORD, Christ was frequently involved in bearing messages to men. He was also involved in Revelation in other physical appearances.
Christ was involved, even before His incarnation, with man's salvation. Scripture does not give us a great amount of detail as to the nature of His saving ministry before the incarnation, but we are told in 2 Cor. 5:19 that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."
On the basis of the evidence from both Old and New Testaments, anybody who honors the testimony of Scripture must conclude that Jesus Christ has existed from "the beginning" along with God the Father.
Matthew 1:23
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Here it is clear that Christ is God.
Did the Father create or "procreate" another "God?" If He did, This would mean it would be a SIN to worship Jesus, because it would violate the first commandment!!!
"Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."Isaiah 43:10
The first commandment says,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
"Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that do we make a god." Patriarch's and Prophets p. 305
Christ was not brought into existence, rather He ALWAYS existed as one with the Father.
"Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God.... In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him."Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900.
Q. What did this term Son of God mean in the mind of the Jews?
A. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.(Joh 5:18 AV)
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:"(Php 2:6 AV)
In the resurrection men that are saved are equal to angels. "Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."(Luke 20:36 AV) Jesus was not equal to the angels He was equal to God.
"He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.... He is the eternal, self-existent Son."Manuscript 101, 1897.
"4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. 7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."(Heb 1:4-8 AV).
The above verse said, "let all the angels of God worship him." This would be blaspheme if Christ was not YHVH (Jehovah). "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."(Mt 4:10 AV) The Father told all the angels to worship Christ because He was equal to Himself and was, 'the Lord thy God' who only was to be worshipped.
It is not permitted to worship angels "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,"(Col 2:18 AV).
"And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."(Rev 19:10 AV)
"8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God."(Rev 22:8-9 AV)
It is not permitted to worship the likeness of anything God has created. The second commandment forbids this. The Bible condemns in clear language those who, "Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."(Rom 1:25 AV)
For any creature to claim the right to be worshipped is blaspheme. In fact the Jews falsely accused Jesus of this. "The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."(Joh 10:33 AV) Notice these scriptures that show Jesus was worshipped.
Mt 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Mt 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mr 5:6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
Lu 24:52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:
Joh 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
"Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."(Mt 4:10 AV)
The preincarnate existence of Christ, and His preincarnate works, is important for several reasons. First, His preexistence is a necessary attribute to show who He was when He came as flesh. If Christ did not exist prior to His incarnation, then He cannot be God. Second, it is important that we have a firunderstanding of the preincarnate Christ in order to discern what is false doctrine and what is the truth. Third, it gives the Christian a tremendous suriety in whom their faith is and the Bible. So it is essential that the preexistence of Christ be proven in order to prove His deity. Jesus is the angel of the LORD, the angel of God, the Archangel Michael, who appeared time and again in the Old Testament to speak directly to His people, prior to the incarnation.
Michael is just another "Title" to refer to Jesus just as Lamb and Lion is. Michael is not a created Angel. Michael the Archangel is only a name or title, but it shows us that Christ has always been there with the Father implementing the plan of salvation.
In many places in the Old Testament it refers to the evelasting attribute of God, we see this with Abraham when he called upon the Lord.
Genesis 21:33
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
God is constantly refered to and His protection, and law, along with His existence is shown as eternal.
Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Proverbs 8:23
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
Then we see how the prophecy of Christ as the Messiah describe Him as everlasting and points to His existence from eternity past.
Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
And many verses confirme the everlasting God as the Creator.
Isaiah 40:28
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding
Then prophecy states that Messiah would come from Bethlehem, and He is described as He "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
Micah 5:2
But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
This states not only His preexistence but the fact that He has existed from eternity. So then we look at the appearance of God in a physical form and see that it was none other than Christ Himself. If He appeared before His incarnation, then He obviously existed before His incarnation.
In John 1:14, it is written that "the Word became flesh." Now that He became flesh implies that He was not always flesh, i.e., that He existed before His incarnation. In John 3:13, Jesus said that He came down from heaven. Mortal men do not come down from heaven! This implies a previous existence. In John 17:18, we see that the Father sent Him into the world. In Hebrews 2:14 we read that He partook of flesh and blood. All of these things imply that He existed prior to His incarnation.
Christ as the angel of the Lord appears on numerous occasions throughout the Old Testament. And yet it is clear that He is something more than other angels.The Angel of the LORD is often identified as Jehovah. We can see this in Gen. 16:7-13, when He spoke with Hagar, and in Gen. 22:11-18, when, after the offering of Issac, He confirmed His covenant with Abraham. We see Him again identified as Jehovah in Judges 6:11-24. And here we'll notice something else which is significant. We see the Angel of the LORD accepting worship, which an ordinary angel wouldn't do. Only Jehovah is to be worshipped.
While the Angel of the LORD is identified as Jehovah, He is also distinguished from Jehovah. In Gen. 24:7, we read of Jehovah sending his angel. Zech. 1:12-13 is the clearest revelation of the distinction, for there we see the Angel of the LORD speaking with Jehovah.
Scripture presents that the Angel of the LORD is identified as Jehovah and yet distinct from Him. This would mean that He is one of the members of the Trinity. Here are reasons why the Angel of the LORD should be identified as the second person of the Trinity.
First, the second person is the visible God of the New Testament. The Father has been heard, but never seen. The Spirit has been seen only in the form of a dove, and only in one instance. But Christ, indwelt by the fullness of the Godhead, walked among men, visible and touchable. It therefore seems logical to conclude that the Angel of the LORD would be the second person of the Godhead.
Second, the Angel of the LORD no longer appears after the incarnation of Christ. It seems logical to conclude that the reason why He appears no longer is because in the New Testament He appears as the incarnate Christ.
Third, both the Angel of the LORD and Jesus Christ were sent by the Father. In the Trinitarian relationship, it is the Father Who sends the other two persons.
Fourth, the Angel of the LORD could not be either the Father or the Spirit. He could not be the Father because John 1:18 tells us that "No man hath seen God at any time." He could not be the Spirit, since the Spirit is immaterial. Therefore, He must be the Son. Some of these same arguments apply to the other theophanies which scripture gives us.
In Genesis 18, three men appear to Abraham. It is apparent that one of them is Jehovah (the other two are probably angels), since the text actually says so (v. 13). Furthermore, He knows of Sarah's laughter within herself, and we see Abraham praying to Him. Like the Angel of the LORD, this is a physical manifestation of Jehovah, and must therefore be a preincarnate appearance of Christ.
In Joshua 5:13-15, we read of a man whom Joshua meets near Jericho. The man identified Himself as "captain of the host of the LORD." He accepted Joshua's worship, and told Joshua to remove his shoes because he was on holy ground, just as Moses had to do when the Angel of the LORD spoke to him from the burning bush (Ex. 3). This demonstrates the deity of the Captain, which leads us to the conclusion that this is another preincarnate appearance of Christ. As the Angel of the LORD, He stopped Abraham when He was about to slay Issac. Also as the Angel of the LORD, He stood between the camp of Egypt and that of Israel while the Red Sea was parting. He was with Israel in the wilderness, and provided water from out of a rock on two occasions (Ex. 17, Num. 20, cp. I Cor. 10:4). Christ, in the form of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, guided the children of Israel in the wilderness.
The scripture in the New Testament also has direct assertions of Christ's preexistence. The first is John 1:1-4,14. In v.1 we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It was later that "the Word became flesh (v. 14)." If the Word was with God before He became flesh, than He obviously existed before His incarnation. The second is John 6:33-62. There is no need to examine this whole passage. For our purposes, it will suffice just to look at v. 62, where Jesus said to His disciples, "What if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" The third is John 8:58, where Jesus said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am." Jesus is obviously stating here that He existed before Abraham. The fourth is John 17:5, where Jesus was praying to the Father and said, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." This, too, is an obvious assertion of Christ's preexistence. The fifth is Phil. 2:6, where Paul, speaking of our Lord, says, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." This passage is one of the most difficult to interpret, but for our purposes all we need see is that there was a time, before He took on the form of a man, that Christ existed in the form of God. This, too, is an obvious assertion of Christ's preexistence.
Christ's works as scripture shows, include Creation, the preservation of the universe, and the sustaining of the children of Israel in the wilderness. In order for Christ to have done these things, which happened prior to His incarnation, He had to have existed. Christ's work in creation is plainly revealed in the New Testament. In John 1:3 we read, "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." In Col. 1:16, we read, "By him were all things created," and in Heb. 1:10, "And, Tnou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." Therefore, His work in creation is obvious.
As the Angel of the LORD, Christ was frequently involved in bearing messages to men. He was also involved in Revelation in other physical appearances.
Christ was involved, even before His incarnation, with man's salvation. Scripture does not give us a great amount of detail as to the nature of His saving ministry before the incarnation, but we are told in 2 Cor. 5:19 that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."
On the basis of the evidence from both Old and New Testaments, anybody who honors the testimony of Scripture must conclude that Jesus Christ has existed from "the beginning" along with God the Father.
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