I'm glad you responded!
Not all unitarians think that John 1:1 says Jesus is, "a god." At least not me.
According to Greek Grammar John 1:1c could be read to say that the "word" was God Himself ("...and the word was God"). Since we know from many other verses that only the Father is God, John 1:1 says nothing about Jesus being God since Jesus is the son and not the Father.
The Greek grammar of "the Word was God" (John 1:1) decisively states that "the Word" is being referred to as "God", so your writing 'the "word" was God Himself' reflects accuracy.
John chapter 1 is a cohesive whole, so the Apostle John does identify Jesus as the "Word" with "the Word manifested flesh" (John 1:14).
Since John chapter 1 is a whole passage, then John 1:14 makes the "Word" in John 1:1 refer to Jesus.
Luke refers to the "Word" as Jesus in Luke 1:1-2, so Luke's writing makes the "Word" in John 1:1 refer to Jesus.
Jesus is God according to the Apostle John; therefore, you deny Apostolic testimony.
You cannot point at a single scripture that states that the Father is the "Word"; on the other hand, the Apostle John clearly says that Jesus is the Word with "the Word manifested flesh" (John 1:14, the same passage as John 1:1).
The usual Trinitarian view actually is guilty of making two gods out of John 1:1. How else could the word be "with" God if there is only one god? So long as we accept the normal meaning of words, to be "with" another automatically means there are two things. As such it contradicts John 1:1c which is clearly talking about one person, not two or more. Someone can't be "with" someone else and "be" that something at the same time.
The Word being God is clear, see "the Word was God" (John 1:1), and you wrote 'the "word" was God Himself' accurately, earlier.
As to "the Word was with God", since the Word refers to Jesus Himself, then we have an equivalency with the clause "Jesus was with God", so John reveals One True God existing in the person of the Word as well as the person of the Father (John 10:30) as well as the person of the Holy Spirit (John 16).
Truly, that is One True God revealed in three persons, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit of God.
It appears you forgot our earlier dialog about the words "in" and "with" -
you desperately tried to change the Word of God into "that they also may be one with us" in John 17:21-22, so you are making yourself out to be greater than the Word of God (as shown in Truth [John 14:6] post #1003 in another thread), so you nullify the Word of God, Jesus (John 1:1, John 1:14) in your heart by exalting your thoughts above God's thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
We continued about "in" and "with" when
you foolishly claimed the Greek "en" can mean "with", yet "en" truly means "in", and your foolishness targets your thoughts that Jesus does not mean "one" when Jesus says "one" both in John 10:30 and John 17:21-22 (as shown in Truth [John 14:6] post #1213 in another thread), so you are under the delusion that. Jesus is not one with the Father despite Jesus truthfully declaring of the Father and Himself "We are One" (John 17:22). You are fixated on the temporal instead of the eternal.
Now, it's time to bring the "in" and "with" dialog into the current "the Word was with God" (John 1:1) dialog.
Just like
the Word of God DOES NOT say "that they also may be one with us" in John 17:21-22 which would linguistically result in the children of God becoming God, so John DID NOT write "the Word was in God" which could result in Jesus being separate from God.
Truly, just as the Word of God DOES say "that they also may be one in us" in John 17:21-22 which linguistically results in God's children being one with this "one" being inside God, so John DID write "the Word was with God" which linguistically results in Jesus being God.
The Apostle John proclaims that Jesus is One Person with the One True God (Deuteronomy 6:4), and John accomplished this with "the Word was with God" (John 1:1), so Jesus is securely God.
Your heart's convolution that this says "the Word was with the Father" is NOT what the Apostle John wrote, so you adulterate John's writing to satisfy your own lusts.
You also appear to have forgotten another earlier correspondence about Jesus Christ that Jesus is truly Man (Luke 1:26-33) - the Son of Man, and Jesus Christ is truly God (Luke 1:34-35, John 8:58, John 20:28, John 5:18, John 10:30-31) - the Son of God.
Based on this Truth (John 14:6), Jesus Christ can refer to Himself as Man at his discretion and when He deems it is appropriate.
Furthermore. Jesus Christ can refer to Himself as God at his discretion and when He deems it is appropriate.
Here is an instance of Jesus, truly God, saying "I and the Father are One" (John 10:30) in which Jesus speaks in His capacity of God thus including both the person of Jesus and the person of the Father in the One True God.
Here is another instance, this time of Jesus, truly Man, saying "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'" (John 20:17) in which Jesus speaks in His capacity of Man thus including the person of Jesus and His brothers in one (John 17:21). See, the Son of Man being the firstborn of the born of God persons (Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15, John 3:3-8).
We, children of God, can also refer to Jesus in his capacity as truly God as well as His capacity as truly Man. We can use context to make the distinction.
We, born of the Holy Spirit of God persons (John 3:3-8), are one in God (John 17:21) because of the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17), thus God is One. We are the blessed beneficiaries of the Holy Spirit of God's work in us.
John does exactly this with "the Word was with God" (John 1:1).
I proclaim Spiritual matters to you, but you do not understand Spiritual matters because you live in the temporal (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Trinitarians avoid this by making God, not a person, but an essence, a grotesque "thing" supposedly composed of three persons. It's an absurd idea, a way of getting around the obvious meaning of John 1:1 so as to keep the false trinity doctrine alive.
You are very insulting against God because in your state as a natural man, you wickedly adulterate the Word of God.
"The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because spiritually they are discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Finally, the word "with" in John 1:1b is the Greek word "pros" and it doesn't usually mean "with" anyway. It means "to," "towards," "with reference to," or pointing towards." If translated that way there is no contradiction with John 1:1c.
I'm applying your thoughts on the Greek word "pros" to John 1:1.
The result of your thought is "the Word was to God", yet the result is linguistically broken as a clause - the preposition "to" is grammatically improper, even illegal mechanics.
Do recall, you wrote 'the "word" was God Himself' accurately earlier regarding "the Word was God" (John 1:1), so I don't know your objective in mentioning a contradiction with "the Word was with God" (John 1:1) or your "the Word was to God" in relation to "the Word was God" (John 1:1).
The Greek preposition "pros" includes the meaning of the English preposition "with". The Greek lexicon and concordance illumines this fact.
The Greek word "pros" properly translated is "with" in "the Word was with God" in John 1:1; therefore, John proclaims that God includes the person of Jesus.
Immanuel (Matthew 1:23 "God with us"), Jesus, is truly Almighty God, YHWH, with us (Revelation 1:8) (see
see the Truth [John 14:6] that God had me compose in post #283 to expose the deception of tigger 2 and Rich R).