I thought I would share a question given in another forum. It was asked, "So what is your view was Jesus the Word (LOGOS) made flesh, incarnation that He became the Son of God on His birth in this world/or death and Resurrection as a few Protestant churches teach (before this He existed as the LOGOS) which is my view? Or do you believe Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God? If the latter could you show some Scriptures to support the Eternal Sonship?"
I've found the language to be the greatest impediment on this issue. If we say Jesus' Sonship began with his birth we appear to deny his preexistence as Deity. If we say Jesus has been the Son of God eternally then we seem to claim he was eternally a human, which is absurd.
So Jesus, as a Person, existed from eternity. Jesus, who is *now* called the Son of God, eternally existed. But obviously Jesus was not always called the Son of God in the sense of his being a man eternally.
God exists in an eternal relationship between Himself as Source and His expression as Logos/Word. It would be like saying I as a manufacturer am distinct from the things I manufacture, or that I as an orator am distinct from the speeches I've made.
God and His expression are of the same essential substance. However, the substance obtains new substances and forms when God expresses Himself beyond the Source of that expression.
God created an expression of His own person in a new substance of flesh, in the form of a man. This was an additional substance and a new form beyond the source of this revelation.
And so, God as Father and God as Son took on a distinction when the Word became flesh or God became a Man. This reflects the eternal relationship God has had between Himself as Source and His expression in His Word.
When we say the Son of God existed from eternity "with God," we're not saying that the Son of God was in the form of the man Jesus from eternity. Nor are we even describing what that Person's form was before it took expression as a man. We are simply saying that God and His Word existed as an eternal distinction in an eternal relationship before God revealed Himself in the form of a man.
Describing the "Son of God" as a "person" before his formation as Jesus is a pure absurdity unless we are simply saying that he existed in essence from eternity. The Word of God from eternity was potentially the person Jesus and is potentially many more persons in other forms--we just don't know of them other than through theophanies.
To say Jesus *became the Son of God* in the sense of putting Deity upon a purely human Jesus is a heresy. This is Adoptionism, such as was held by the Jewish Ebionites.
I've found the language to be the greatest impediment on this issue. If we say Jesus' Sonship began with his birth we appear to deny his preexistence as Deity. If we say Jesus has been the Son of God eternally then we seem to claim he was eternally a human, which is absurd.
So Jesus, as a Person, existed from eternity. Jesus, who is *now* called the Son of God, eternally existed. But obviously Jesus was not always called the Son of God in the sense of his being a man eternally.
God exists in an eternal relationship between Himself as Source and His expression as Logos/Word. It would be like saying I as a manufacturer am distinct from the things I manufacture, or that I as an orator am distinct from the speeches I've made.
God and His expression are of the same essential substance. However, the substance obtains new substances and forms when God expresses Himself beyond the Source of that expression.
God created an expression of His own person in a new substance of flesh, in the form of a man. This was an additional substance and a new form beyond the source of this revelation.
And so, God as Father and God as Son took on a distinction when the Word became flesh or God became a Man. This reflects the eternal relationship God has had between Himself as Source and His expression in His Word.
When we say the Son of God existed from eternity "with God," we're not saying that the Son of God was in the form of the man Jesus from eternity. Nor are we even describing what that Person's form was before it took expression as a man. We are simply saying that God and His Word existed as an eternal distinction in an eternal relationship before God revealed Himself in the form of a man.
Describing the "Son of God" as a "person" before his formation as Jesus is a pure absurdity unless we are simply saying that he existed in essence from eternity. The Word of God from eternity was potentially the person Jesus and is potentially many more persons in other forms--we just don't know of them other than through theophanies.
To say Jesus *became the Son of God* in the sense of putting Deity upon a purely human Jesus is a heresy. This is Adoptionism, such as was held by the Jewish Ebionites.
