Luke 1:30–33 (KJV): 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Acts 2:29–32 (KJV): 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Romans 1:1–4 (KJV): 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
Jesus had the full list of credentials in order to claim his Messiahship. He was to be born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem and his lineage had to connect to King David….both of his earthly parents were of David’s lineage. Joseph adopted Mary’s child as his own, so legally he qualified by both parents.
Mary supplied the female portion of the embryo. She was not a surrogate mother.
Since Scripture does not say by what process God created the child in Mary’s womb, we have no way to confirm or deny that statement. All we know is that Jesus said he ‘came down from heaven’ and that he had a glorious existence in heaven with his Father, before the world was. (John 17:5)
You are alluding to the unique JW doctrine that Jesus' body was not resurrected, but somehow preserved.
No, I am sticking to what Scripture says…..there was no body preserved…..it was sacrificed, and God himself saw to its disposal, thereby preventing what took place later in Roman Catholicism and its disgusting relic worship. Christ’s body would never see corruption in the grave, nor be tampered with in any way by humans.
Like the body of Moses, concealed from human interference.
You are also hinting at the unique JW view of the 144,000 who go to heaven and the majority staying on the earth after Armageddon.
It’s the Bible’s view….twice in Revelation we see 144,000 chosen from the earth, as “first fruits” to God, and these alone are God’s ‘elect’….’chosen’ to be rulers and priests with Christ in his Kingdom. They are said to be “resurrected first”. (Rev 20:6)
Rev 7:2-4, 9-10; 13-14…..
“And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:”
So these are the ones “sealed“ or chosen for a special purpose. This is spiritual Israel, not fleshly Israel because they rejected Jesus as Messiah….and lost their place.
But then another group are seen….
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,“Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them.” (NASB)
In this Scripture, it specifically mentions a numbered group….but they are contrasted with a great multitude who were unnumbered.
Rev 14:1, 3-5….also speaks of these chosen ones….
“Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And they *sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.” (NASB)
Where are the 144,000 chosen from? And what does it mean that they are “first fruits“?
It seems pretty clear to me that 144000 are seen with Christ in heaven, whilst the majority remain on earth where God put us in the first place. The earth was not created to be a training ground for heaven….it was supposed to be our permanent home. The purpose of the Kingdom is to bring sinful mankind back to God in reconciliation, so that his first purpose for us can do ahead on earth as he planned all along. (Isa 55:11)
The great multitude are said to “come out of the great tribulation”, which occurs on earth…..so they are the faithful survivors of that awful event…..they will be “few” by comparison to the many who will perish at Armageddon.
I consider that "only begotten" refers to the conception mentioned in Mathew 1:20-21, Luke 1:34-35.
You are free to consider whatever you wish Trevor….but “only begotten” isn’t just related to Jesus’ human birth…he was God’s “only begotten son” long before the creation of anything else…..he is God’s “firstborn” in a very different way to Adam, who was also a created “son of God” (Luke 3:38)