Defense of the Eternal Preexistence of Jesus Christ Throughout church history, the Christian Church has always maintained faith in the Doctrine of the Triune nature of Almighty God, affirming the essential Biblical truth that within the one true and living God exists three distinct persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that Jesus Christ preexisted before His incarnation.

One of the egregious errors of the Unitarian position regarding the Trinity pertains to the Preexistence and deity of Jesus Christ.

By Pre-existence we mean, that the body of Jesus Christ, began with it's conception in the Womb, however, the mind and soul of Jesus existed before the conception of His earthly body. Jesus is unique in that He alone possesses a soul that pre-existed His conception in the womb of His mother. Whereas, all other humans begin to exist at conception, the Son of God pre-existed His entrance into the World. The Deity of Christ and eternal preexistence is openly denied by the Unitarians.

The Unitarians believe that God is only one person and that Jesus Christ is not God, the second person of the Trinity who is co-equal with the Father and deny the personhood and deity of the Holy Spirit as well. They argue that Christ did not actually physically exist as a person before the incarnation, rather he existed in the foreknowledge and plan of God. Anthony Buzzard, one of the leading modern Unitarian scholars argues in his book says that the Prexistence statements in the NT really have to do with predestination and foreordination and not that Christ pre-existed in eternity past.
On Page 176 of this same work, Buzzard writes, the view of Jesus as uncreated" is not derived from scripture; rather, it has been handed down through post-biblical tradition."

Again, on Page 181 and 182 Buzzard writes,
"Talk of Jesus preexistence [in Scripture] ought probably in most, perhaps in all cases, to be understood, on the analogy of the preexistence of the Torah, to indicate the eternal divine purpose being achieved through him rather than preexistence of a fully personal kind. " On Page 184 Buzzard quotes James Dunn in stating,

"Outside of John's gospel, there is no doctrine of a literal preexistence."However, this Unitarian denial of the eternal pre-existence of the Lord Jesus Christ is easily refuted by Holy Scripture. The Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ is God and that he personally existed in eternity past before His Incarnation via the virgin Birth. It must be noted that the entire Unitarian line of argumentation against the doctrine of the Trinity and its denial of the deity and pre-existence of Christ can be demonstrated to be in absolute error if it can be shown from Scripture and the original languages of the Bible, that Jesus Christ personally existed at least one day before His incarnation. The following Scriptures clearly demonstrate that Jesus Christ did personally pre-exist before His incarnation and easily refute the heretical errors of Unitarianism argued for by own opponents in this debate. Micah 5:2 2"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity." German Old Testament scholars Kiel & Delitzsch in their 10 volume commentary on the OT clearly demonstrate that this passage, a prophecy concerning the Messiah refers to Jesus Christ’s pre-existence when they write, that: “the future Ruler of Israel, whose goings forth reach back into eternity, is to bring forth from the insignificant Bethlehem, like his ancestor David. The descent of David from Bethlehem forms the substratum not only for the prophetic announcement of the fact that the Messiah would come forth this small town, but also for the divine appointment that Christ was born in Bethlehem, the city of David.” Dr. Thomas McComiskey, esteemed professor of OT & Semitic languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity school states in the Expositor’s Bible commentary that the Hebrew grammar & syntax of Micah 5:2, in the terms “Old (qedem) & (yeme olam) denote great antiquity as well as eternity in the strictest sense. He argues that, Christ pre-existed in eternity past & only in Jesus Christ does this prophecy find fulfillment. (p427). Dr. Pocock, the highly respected English Arabic & Hebrew scholar, who occupied both the chairs of Arabic & Hebrew at Oxford argued that the term “of old, from everlasting” signals a description of Christ’s eternal generation, or His going forth as the Son of God, begotten of His father before all worlds” John 1:1-3 we find these Words,

In the beginning was the Word, & the Word was with God, & the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, & apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

This is a VERY simple statement of pure-and-simple plurality-in-unity.

John 1:14 the Apostle John writes, “& the Word became flesh & dwelt amongst us & we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace & truth”

I am well aware of the fact that Buzzard & the Unitarians argue that the Logos mentioned here by the Apostle John is not referring to a person, however, taken in context, when you view John 1:1-14 as a literary unit, the Logos can only refer to Jesus Christ who had a pre-existence & ultimately became flesh.

If these verses do not refer to Jesus Christ who became flesh, what in the World does He mean when He says, “The Word became flesh & dwelt amongst us & we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father” who then, if not Jesus, is the Only begotten of the Father? The context of these passages conclusively demonstrate that:

1. The Logos existed from the beginning with God.

2. The Logos is Himself God. The lit. Greek renders it ‘& God was the Word”

3. The Logos had preexistence as God.

4. All things came into being through the Logos.

5. The Logos became flesh.

6. The Logos is Himself Jesus Christ as evidenced by the fact that the Logos becomes flesh & is called the only begotten of the Father.

It is clear from the writings of the Apostle John that the only begotten of the Father refers to Jesus.

John the Baptist argues for Christ’s preexistence when he says in John 1:15 “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.” He even says it again in 1:27

John wasn’t influenced so much by the Greek philosophers as our opponents might think, he was well schooled in the Targums of which we saw taught that the Meemra’, THE WORD was YHWH.

John 8:58, Jesus Christ once again exerts His pre-existence when he stated, “Before Abraham was, I am” conclusively demonstrating that Jesus believed that He existed before Abraham.”

Dr. AT Robertson, the most renowned Greek scholar & Grammarian of the 20th century makes some interesting points here:

1. Greek is clearly saying that "before Abraham came into existence or was born"
2. Jesus is undoubtedly claiming, “eternal existence with the absolute phrase used of God.” ego eimi
3. The contrast between genesthai, which is Abraham’s entrance into existence & eimi (Jesus as a timeless being) is complete.

Did they not want to stone him because he was claiming to be deity? Well The "I am" phrase is how the OT Septuagint translators render the Hebrew "I AM" of Ex 3:14. This "I am" statement of Jesus is immediately understood by the Jews, who pick up stones to execute the proper sentence for blasphemy (Lev 24.16).

John 17:5, another devastating verse against the Unitarian argument against the Pre-existence of Christ, Jesus said,

5"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Hey here is a question for you, how can Jesus have glory with the Father before the world began if he didn’t pre-exist?

It is clear from that Jesus pre-existed before His incarnation & claimed that He enjoyed fellowship with the Father before the foundation of the world.

Again Dr. A.T. Robertson writing on the Greek Grammatical construction writes,

“Jesus prays for full restoration to the pre-incarnate glory & fellowship (cf. Mat 1:1) enjoyed before the Incarnation (John 1:14). This is not just ideal pre-existence, but actual & conscious existence at the Father's side…It is small wonder that those who deny or reject the deity of Jesus Christ have trouble with the Johannine authorship of this book & with the genuineness of these words. But even Harnack admits that the words here and in verse John 24 are "undoubtedly the reflection of the certainty with which Jesus himself spoke" (What Is Christianity, Engl. Tr., p. 132). But Paul, as clearly as John, believes in the actual pre-existence and deity of Jesus Christ (Phil 2:5-11).

The Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:15-16 also clearly argues for the Pre-existence of Jesus Christ, when he writes,

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens & on earth, visible & invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him & for Him. 17He is before all things, & in Him all things hold together.

When looking at the prepositions used in the Greek en-in; dia-through, & eis, scholars point out that these not only prove supreme deity but also his preexistence. It is absolutely obvious & inescapable from that Jesus Christ is God & that He preexisted before the world, evidenced by the fact Paul says here that Christ is before all things & in Him all things are held together.
No amount of Iesegesis & grammatical gymnastics can allow the Unitarians to escape from the obvious fact that Paul believed Jesus Christ pre-existed before His virgin Birth, to say otherwise is to go against the grammatical construction of the text & to lapse into a Presuppositional bias against Christ’s pre-existence based on previously held views against the Deity of Christ & the Trinity.

Lastly Hebrews 1:1-3 clearly demonstrates that Jesus has preexistence before His physical birth in this world, when the author of Hebrews states;
1God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions & in many ways, 2in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Verse two clearly states that God the Father made the world through Jesus Christ.
A.T. Robertson writes,
“Through whom The Son as Heir is also the Intermediate Agent (dia) in the work of creation as we have it in Col 1:16; John 1:3….the Scriptural evidence for the Pre-existence of Jesus Christ, conclusively demonstrating His deity is abundant, to argue otherwise is to go against the context of these verses, to lapse into esiegeis and a Presuppositional bias against the Trinity, not because the Scriptures actually teach your Unitarian position.”

In verse 3 the literal Greek reads that the Son is the exact character & nature of God. The word for character or representation when used in extra biblical literature refers to an exact copy, like an impression in clay or a stamping on a coin. Jesus nature is an exact copy of the nature of the Father.

But this is what Trinitarians expect…and what Unitarians have problems with.