THEOLOGY & APOLOGETICS

Is the doctrine of eternal Sonship biblical?

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We find the same type of example in Titus 2:13:

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

This passage should read, "The Great God even our Savior Jesus Christ," which then supports the claims that Jesus is the Great God.

Cults use these vagaries of the translations to say that Jesus is not the same as God the Father, and so we need to understand the context of the original language and its correct translation. It is a fact that no translation that we have available to us today is perfect because they were all done by fallible men, and so going back to the original language is necessary. Therefore, when we see two nouns joined together by "and" or "even" (Greek "kai"), and those two nouns are the same class, and a definite article before them is the same class as the nouns, then the latter noun relates to the same person. Example: Ephesians 4:11 "pastors and teachers" should read, "pastor teacher." Therefore, the very original language of the Word, in context, supports the truth of the eternal Sonship of Christ.

Eternal Sonship and Jesus' Words

Did the Son exist before He was born of Mary? I would ask you to turn to John, whose gospel presents the LORD Jesus Christ in His deity. The first two verses tell us Jesus was "In the beginning" and was "God." Then in John 1:3 we see that Jesus was there at creation, for nothing that was made was made without Him. Also in John, we have the record of Jesus' words "I AM." In His conflict with the Pharisees in John 8:12-59, Jesus states five times He is the "I AM," and the Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus was claiming to be because they knew the Scriptures and sought to kill Him because of His claim to be God. And in the last verse of John 8, Jesus says, "Before Abraham was I AM." In Exodus 3:13-15, when Moses asked God who to say sent him, God answered, "I AM THAT I AM." It is interesting to note that the word used for God here is the Hebrew word Elohim, again, the plural form of God. God did not say, I AM as I was, or I AM as I will be, but I AM as I AM! God declares His eternal identification over and over in the Old Testament. This phrase means that God is eternal, from vanishing point to vanishing point, and the LORD Jesus, Who is the Son, the Christ, used that phrase to claim that He is the "I AM" or the eternal Almighty God.

Therefore, the truth of the eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ is a doctrine clearly taught in Scripture. We may not understand the fullness of this doctrine, for God's ways and thoughts are far above our own. But just as we must take by faith that Christ's death, burial and resurrection freed the believer from sin and death, and when we trust in Him we are positionally placed in Him and all the resources of His Life are ours, and that we may know, reckon to be true, and believe this reality by faith, so we must know, reckon to be true, and believe by faith that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one in the same; a Triunity. However, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), and it is in His Word that the "Word" of God declares His eternal Spirit.

God bless you.

Image Credit: NASA; "Sunset Over Earth"; Creative Commons

Tags: Biblical-Truth | False-Teaching | Jesus-Christ | Theological-Beliefs

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Published 10-8-2014