(A) JOHN: 14-28:
“MY FATHER IS GREATER THAN I”
QUESTION: “How could Jesus Christ be God, when He states here that the Father is greater than He is?
ANSWER: Note he does not state: ‘JEHOVAH IS BETTER THAN I.” GREATER is a term relative to position, BETTER relative to nature. By position, the Father Is greater than the Son; by nature THEY ARE BOTH ONE. MY SON AND I are both separate persons, but are both one by nature, BOTH HUMAN BY NATURE, AND BOTH COVENEYS BY NATURE. The President of the U.S.A. could stand up on Washington’s hill and say I AM GREATER THAN ALL THESE PEOPLE.” but the last to say “BETTER” (no more human by nature, and no more an American citizen).
JESUS CHRIST TOOK SEVEN STEPS DOWN (Phill.: 2) SEVEN STEPS UP. No reputation. Form of a slave. Likeness of men. Fashion as a man. Humbled Himself. Obedient unto death. Even the death on the cross.
Highly exalted Him. Name above every name. Every Knee should bow. In Heaven. In Earth. Under the Earth. Every tongue confess LORD.
In PHILL. 2:6&7, we read the terms: FORM OF A SERVANT, FORM OF GOD (both times FORM is same In Greek, namely “MORPE”).
C. S. Lewis, commenting upon “ONLY BEGOTTEN SON” (John:3-16) GK “MONOGENES”: A bird builds a nest, but a bird BEGATS BIRDS: a man builds a house, but a man BEGATS MAN: also beaver, likewise: GOD CREATES THE EARTH AND UNIVERSE AND MAN, BUT GOD BEGATS GOD! “If as the SON OF MAN, Jesus Christ was TRULY MAN BY NATURE . . . then, AS THE SON OF GOD, HE WAS ALSO TRULY GOD BY NATURE.
(B) COLL. 1-1 5:
“THE FIRSTBORN OF ALL CREATION”
QUESTION: How could Jesus Christ be God, when here we read that He was the first created being of God’s creation, SO HE S NOT ETERNAL.
ANSWER: The word for “FIRSTBORN” here, is not the same as “FIRSTCREATED”. If Paul wanted, he had a word for FIRSTCREATED, namely “PROTOKTISTOS,” but this word here is “PROTOTOKOS” (Greek) and means the following: “FIRST IN RANK,” as Prime Minister Is. Compare verse 18 (RESSN). As this term meant originally, the one who falls heir to all things, and normally was the literal “FIRSTBORN” so, it came to mean the one who became the heir, the one of prime rank, even though it was transferred from one son to another in the same household. e.g. God states in PSALM 89-27, He would make David His “FIRSTBORN”. Compare GEN. 41: 51 & 52 (MANNASSEH) with JER: 31-9 (EPHRAIM).
According to Dr. William J. Martin of the University of British Columbia: “The word FIRSTBORN had long since ceased to be used exclusively in its literal sense, just a PRIME (from Latin PRIMUS, first) with us. The prime minister is not the first minister England has ever had, he is the most pre-eminent. A man in the prime of his life has long since left the first part of his life behind. Similarly, FIRSTBORN came to denote not priority in time but pre-eminent in rank.”
(C) REV: 3-14:
“THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION (OF BY) GOD” W.T. “BY”
QUESTION: Here again we see that Jesus Christ was the beginning of God’s creation, was not eternal, therefore cannot be God.
ANSWER: Watchtower mistranslates the word “OF” to “BY GOD” (GK. “THEUS”) OF. If true, then GENESIS 1-1 should read: “IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED HIS SON.” The word for “BEGINNING” in Greek is “ARCHE” and means ORIGIN, THE SOURCE OF (same word in John: 1-1. W.T. had “ORIGINALLY” and changed it. This is the word from which we derive the word “ARCHITECT.” Jesus Christ then is the ORIGIN, OR ARCHITECT of God’s creation, not the first created object, as the Watchtower read this verse to mean.
2/25/83 DJ-480