In the Beginning, Jesus
What do we know about “in the beginning?” Well, after the beginning, we know that the heavens and the earth were there. Before the beginning, there was only God. But, what existed in between, that is, in the beginning, other than God? As is often the case, where God provides a question in the Old Testament, He provides an answer in the New. In this case, the answer is in John 1:1-3…
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
In the beginning, Jesus was with God. Knowing this, what does it tell us about the beginning of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…”? Well, the word used for God is Elohim, a plural form of the word God. Thought for thousands of years to reflect only upon the majesty and greatness of our Lord, we now see that the plurality implied is a real one. If I may be so bold, “In the beginning, God and Jesus created the heavens and the earth.”
A natural question to ask is whether God really means Genesis 1:1 to be saying this. In other words, was Moses writing of a time before God created the heavens and the earth, a time when there was only God and Jesus? Are we understanding Him, or reading too much into it? I suggest we let Jesus answer our question, as He does in Proverbs 8:22-26 (emphasis added)…
22 The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.
23 I have been established from everlasting,
From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,
Or the primal dust of the world.
Jesus was with God at the beginning (v. 22) and from the beginning (v. 23b). In contrast to Genesis 1:1, which says God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, Proverbs 8:23 says that Jesus was with God “from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”[emphasis mine] In contrast to Genesis 1:2, which tells us God was hovering over the face of the deep, Proverbs 8:24 tells us that God brought Jesus forth “when there were no depths… when there were no fountains abounding with water.”
Normally, when reading the Bible, we Christians start in Genesis 1 to read how God created the earth in 7 days. Normally, we proceed through the torah, the judges, and the prophets, as God sets the stage for the coming of Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry. Normally, we throw up our hands at the mysteries of creation, somehow understanding the fact of God’s creation, without quite grasping the how, yet accepting it in faith all the same. Normally. This time however, we will not proceed as we normally do, that is, waiting for Jesus to enter the story, because now we now know that Jesus was already there. We now know that God wasn’t merely setting the stage for Jesus’ ministry, because Jesus was there setting His own stage. This perspective gives us a surprising and wonderful insight into Creation: we are not simply reading a story, but we are reading Jesus’ story. In fact, as we will see, what Moses wrote down was derived from Jesus’ own perspective!
July 29th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
[…] Though a skeptic will undoubtedly find this entire argument absurd, the skeptic usually finds God’s mere existence absurd, let alone His nature, specifically the Trinity. I have argued elsewhere that Jesus participated in creation and Jesus told Moses what He witnessed at Creation, personally. I have also shown that what He told Moses complements other Biblical accounts of creation, found in Psalms, Job, and Proverbs. Combined with Genesis, they depict a series of events that are verified by mainstream science. It would seem therefore that Jesus was telling the creation story to Moses from His own perspective, leaving out the details He wasn’t present for. […]