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Jesus Christ - His Pre-Existence and Eternality

Paul Enns states, “The eternality and deity of Christ are inseparably linked together. Those who deny His eternality also deny His deity. If the deity of Christ is established, there is no problem accepting His eternality.”[1]

There are many passages both in the Old and New Testament that clearly affirm the eternality of Jesus Christ. This list of passages is not meant to be an exhaustive one:

Old Testament
(1) Micah 5:2 – this verse clearly teaches that although Jesus was physically born in Bethlehem, He existed before that, “…from of old, from everlasting” (NKJV).
(2) Isa. 9:6 – in this passage, Christ is called the “Eternal Father,” not to be understood that Christ is the Father but rather the He also possesses the title of Father, a designation that clearly implies His pre-existence and eternality.

New Testament 
(1) John 1:1 – the word “was” in the Greek stresses continual existence in the past. What John is saying is that as far back as one can possibly go, Jesus was continually existing. John clearly affirms His eternality by simply stating that there was never a time when Christ was not.
(2) John 8:58 – two points to be made here. First, Jesus here claimed to have been existing before Abraham was born. But how could this be when everybody knew that Jesus was in His early thirties? Because Jesus never had a beginning, He has forever existed. Second, notice that the crowds wanted to stone Him, why? Because He used the name of God for Himself, He claimed to be “I AM,” He was claiming to be God, claiming to be Divine.
(3) Heb. 1:8 – the author of this epistle states, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever…,” a clear reference to the eternality of Christ.


[1] Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody, 1989), p. 215.

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