Friday Q&A: "Jesus was Jehovah's first creation!"
The idea that Jesus is God continues to drive controversy.
V. wrote in, challenging the idea, insisting that Jesus is the first creation of God. She presented many of the verses commonly used to argue for such a position. She made a powerful presentation — powerful, but incomplete.
Here’s our exchange.
V. Wrote:
Jehovah’s first creation was his “only-begotten Son” (Joh 3:16), “the beginning of the creation by God.” (Re 3:14) This one, “the firstborn of all creation,” was used by Jehovah in creating all other things, those in the heavens and those upon the earth, “the things visible and the things invisible.” (Col 1:15-17) John’s inspired testimony concerning this Son, the Word, is that “all things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence,” and the apostle identifies the Word as Jesus Christ, who had become flesh. (Joh 1:1-4, 10, 14, 17) As wisdom personified, this One is represented as saying, “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way,” and he tells of his association with God the Creator as Jehovah’s “master worker.” (Pr 8:12, 22-31) In view of the close association of Jehovah and his only-begotten Son in creative activity and because that Son is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15; 2Co 4:4), it was evidently to His only-begotten Son and master worker that Jehovah spoke in saying, “Let us make man in our image.”—Ge 1:26.
My Response:
Hello V.,
Thanks for taking the time to write.
My friend, in order to make your case, you have to ignore every verse that says Jesus was never created, that He is eternal.
You then twist the remaining verses to try to create the illusion that Jesus was somehow created.
But putting everything back in its context, with nothing ignored, safely proves Jesus is Jehovah God.
You said:
Jehovah’s first creation was his “only-begotten Son” (Joh 3:16),
John 3:16 never says Jesus was created.
“Only-begotten” is monogenes in Greek, meaning “one and only, unique, one of a kind.”
Even if you want to press “begotten” into being born, it would only mean Jesus was born by Mary, but that was not the beginning of His existence.
John 1:1 states the Jesus, the Word was “in the beginning” with God the Father. It doesn’t say that God created Jesus in the beginning. It doesn’t say that God was in the beginning, then made Jesus. Rather, it states that in the beginning, before anything happened, the Word was already with God.
In other words: Jesus has no beginning. He simply already was. Just as the Father is.
John 1:1–3 is clear that Jesus existed before everything that was created, as we’ll explore in a second.
You said:
“the beginning of the creation by God.” (Re 3:14)
The arche of the creation of God, not the beginning.
Jesus wasn’t created. Jesus already was in the beginning with the Father. God didn’t make Jesus; Jesus was with God already.
Jesus is the One through whom all things were created, as John 1:3 makes clear.
That’s what arche means. Jesus began creation. Jesus created creation. Jesus is the One through whom all things were created, and is therefore the beginning of creation — the One through whom they began.
It is not a statement about Jesus’ own beginning, because Jesus has no beginning. He already was.
You said:
This one, “the firstborn of all creation,” was used by Jehovah in creating all other things, those in the heavens and those upon the earth, “the things visible and the things invisible.” (Col 1:15-17)
“Firstborn” means “pre-eminent.” It’s a position someone is appointed to, not a place you’re born into.
King David is referred to as God’s “Firstborn” in Psalm 89:27, yet David was not the first son of his father. He was the eighth born son.
Yet God appoints David as God’s “firstborn,” which means “King.” Pre-eminent in all Israel.
If an eighth-born son can be the “firstborn,” then we have to acknowledge that it does not mean “the first one born.”
You said:
John’s inspired testimony concerning this Son, the Word, is that “all things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence,” and the apostle identifies the Word as Jesus Christ, who had become flesh. (Joh 1:1-4, 10, 14, 17)
This proves Jesus was not created.
As you yourself quoted, “all things came into existence through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into existence.”
That means Jesus never came into existence.
If Jesus did come into existence, then John 1:3 would be a lie. Instead of “not even one thing came into existence” apart from Him, one thing would have come into existence apart from Him — namely, Jesus Himself.
By the verse you just quoted, Jesus always existed. It’s impossible for Jesus to have come into existence and for John 1:3 to be true at the same time.
You said:
As wisdom personified, this One is represented as saying, “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way,” and he tells of his association with God the Creator as Jehovah’s “master worker.” (Pr 8:12, 22-31)
Proverbs 8 has nothing to do with Jesus.
It’s a literary device, with wisdom personified as a woman.
You wouldn’t know this in the New World Translation, as it rips the femininity out of the passage and makes it neuter, so that it can try to force it upon Jesus.
But Proverbs 8 is a literary device, a woman who speaks as wisdom personified.
It has nothing to do with Jesus.
You said:
In view of the close association of Jehovah and his only-begotten Son in creative activity and because that Son is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15; 2Co 4:4), it was evidently to His only-begotten Son and master worker that Jehovah spoke in saying, “Let us make man in our image.”—Ge 1:26.
Again, this proves that Jesus is Jehovah.
God says “let us create humanity in OUR image,” singular. It is one image, not two.
If Jesus wasn’t Jehovah, it would be two images, reflecting two different beings.
But because Jesus is Jehovah, He and the Father share the same one image.
Because Jesus is Jehovah, He and the Father can create in their image — their one, singular image.