The Pre-Existent Christ

I know I haven't updated for a while but my depression has been been dragging me down and sapping my energy.

Anyway what I wanted to say was that I have just finished reading one of my son's college text books "The Pre-existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark and Luke" - snappy little title isn't it! Why did I read it? Because it looked interesting. Did I understand it all? No way but I did get the general gist of it.

The central argument of the book hinges around Jesus saying "I have come to..." (or occasionally demons asking why her has come) which is a phrase that supposes purpose in coming from one place to another. By using this phrase Jesus makes plain that he has come to earth from heaven therefore he must have existed prior to His incarnation. This pre-existence is, of course, made plain in John's Gospel and in Paul's writing. From what I understand there was no need to spell this out in the earlier Gospels because it would have been already understood by the readers but by the time John wrote his Gospel it had to be said plainly to stop the church wandering into heresy.

What fascinates me wasn't in the book at all. If Christ existed before the incarnation it means that He was in the Godhead during the act of creation. But God is beyond time so in the act of creation He knew that He would have to enter creation and suffer and die. Despite this He still did it because He loves each and every one of us that much.

I feel that I should leave the light reading behind now so the next book I'm going to read is "The Gospel According to the "Simpsons": The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family"

God bless you all.