DO YOU REJECT THE PREEXISTENCE OF CHRIST?
The (Socinian) answer given by some to Jesus’ claim in John 8 of existing before even the ancient first ever Hebrew Abraham was born is that Jesus meant not that He existed back in the Bronze Age, thousands of years before His birth but rather, these, typically Unitarians or Socinians say, Jesus was prophesied about way back then. This falls apart if you look at the context.
John 8:54-59 ‘Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
“You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.’
How does seeing Abraham get explained by Jesus being prophesied about before Abraham was born? How does being not yet fifty years old have anything to do with being prophesied about before Abraham was born? Jesus clearly, we should all see from the context, is addressing His having seen Abraham because He existed before Abraham was born, having immense personal experience because of this preexistence.
The most unambiguous scripture in support of this is in the Book of Enoch, a scripture book highly quoted by Jesus and endorsed by Him, much loved in Jesus’ time by those who were neither Pharisees nor Sadducees. In many passages in the Book of Enoch the author describes the Son of Man seen in heaven in Enoch’s time and this is clearly the preexistent Jesus. Some would dispute this by again saying it is prophecy foretelling Jesus Christ (those who do not outright reject the Book of Enoch). Yet in one passage in the Book of Enoch the author describes being taken into heaven “to that Son of Man”, clearly implying the Son of Man being there actually in heaven at the time.
Book of Enoch
[chapter 70]
And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them: and he set me between the two winds, between the North and the West, where the angels took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.
[Chapter 71]
And it came to pass after this that my spirit was translated
And it ascended into the heavens:
And I saw the holy sons of God.
They were stepping on flames of fire:
Their garments were white [and their raiment],
And their faces shone like snow.
By not saying “before Abraham was born, I WAS” but rather “before Abraham was born I AM” Jesus indicates He is the same today as in ancient times and so into the future too. So Peter could later write “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
