SavedByGrace
Well-Known Member
In Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says this about Jesus Christ, and Creation:
"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him" (16).
The words, “by Him”, do not represent the Greek. Here the preposition is, “en” (in, within). In Homer it is used for, “the power is in you”, thus showing that “The Creation”, has its “source” in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 17:28, this same preposition used for God, where we read, that, "in (en ) Him we live and move and have our being". That is, our very existence depends on God. John in his Gospel says the same of Jesus, “in (en ) Him was life” (1:4), that is, the “source” of all life, is from the Lord Jesus Christ!
Paul also says in this passage in Colossians, “All things were created through Him (dia, same used in Romans 11:36 for Creation by God) and for (eis) Him". The preposition, dia, is here used as the intermediate and sustaining agent; and eis, the ultimate goal for Creation. There can be no doubt that this passage in Colossians, tells us, that, not only is Jesus Christ THE Creator of the entire universe, “all things” (ta panta), but, that the Jesus also sustains Creation, but that all of it depends on Him! As Paul goes on to say in verse 18, “That in all things He might have the preeminence”. That is, to hold the Highest place in all of Creation.
In Revelation 3:14 John says of Jesus Christ:
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God”
hê archê tês ktiseôs tou theo, Not as some, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have corrupted this to read, “the Beginning of the creation by God”, so as to show that Jesus is the first to have been created by God, according to their demonic heresy! The Greek does not allow for this reading. The Greek lexicon by Drs W Arndt and F Gingrich, have listed the use of archê, here under, “the first cause” (p. 111), which is the “Ultimate Creator”. However, they also go on to say, “but the mng. Beginning = first created is linguistically poss.” (p.112). This remark is unhelpful as it is not contextually and Biblically possible. It would have required John to have written, “hupo tou theo (by God)”, which is what the JW's say in their version. In and of itself, the Greek archê, can be used as the “first in a series”, but here this meaning is not a possibility. The meaning here is as it is found in Greek usage, “origin, first cause”, so used from Homer onwards. Even the Unitarian Greek scholar, Dr Joseph Thayer, says of archê, used in Revelation 3:14, “that by which anything begins to be, the origin, active cause”. Which makes Jesus Christ, not the first among the created things of the universe, but The Actual Creator! Jesus Christ says of Himself, that He is “The beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13), of which Dr Thayer says, “(he) arche kai (to) telos, of God, who by his perpetuity survives all things, i.e. eternal, Rev.i.8; xxi.6; xxii.13" (p.620). Here even a Unitarian, who denies that Jesus Christ is God, admits, that the language of the Bible says that Jesus Christ IS ETERNAL, that is uncreated, as it does for God in Revelation 1:8!
Next, we have the very important passage from Hebrews chapter 1, where God the Father is addressing Jesus Christ, in a series of statements. In verses 10-12, we read:
“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail"
And, in the Greek is “kai”, which is “moreover, furthermore”, following on from what the Father has been saying, of and to Jesus Christ, from verse 5 onwards. These words used by the Father in verse 10-12, to the Lord Jesus Christ, are from the Old Testament Book of Psalm, 102:25-27, where we read:
“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end”
The passage in Hebrews is closer to the Hebrew text that the Greek Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, than the traditional Masoretic Text, with slight variations. In the MT, these words belong to elohim (verse 24), and this is applied to Jesus by the Father, Who addresses Him as “Lord” (Yahweh). In the Psalms passage we have the Creation of the entire universe, as THE act of elohim, as we read in Genesis 1:1. But, elohim, is a plural word, so in Hebrews, we have The First Person in the Trinity, address The Second Person, and declare, that what is true of elohim Creating the universe, is also true of Jesus Christ, as THE Creator. The words of the Father, and the application of them to Jesus Christ, cannot be in any way weakened, so as to take them as meaning that Jesus is merely the “instrument”, through Whom the Father Created. The Father Himself destroys this heresy!
"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him" (16).
The words, “by Him”, do not represent the Greek. Here the preposition is, “en” (in, within). In Homer it is used for, “the power is in you”, thus showing that “The Creation”, has its “source” in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 17:28, this same preposition used for God, where we read, that, "in (en ) Him we live and move and have our being". That is, our very existence depends on God. John in his Gospel says the same of Jesus, “in (en ) Him was life” (1:4), that is, the “source” of all life, is from the Lord Jesus Christ!
Paul also says in this passage in Colossians, “All things were created through Him (dia, same used in Romans 11:36 for Creation by God) and for (eis) Him". The preposition, dia, is here used as the intermediate and sustaining agent; and eis, the ultimate goal for Creation. There can be no doubt that this passage in Colossians, tells us, that, not only is Jesus Christ THE Creator of the entire universe, “all things” (ta panta), but, that the Jesus also sustains Creation, but that all of it depends on Him! As Paul goes on to say in verse 18, “That in all things He might have the preeminence”. That is, to hold the Highest place in all of Creation.
In Revelation 3:14 John says of Jesus Christ:
“And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God”
hê archê tês ktiseôs tou theo, Not as some, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, who have corrupted this to read, “the Beginning of the creation by God”, so as to show that Jesus is the first to have been created by God, according to their demonic heresy! The Greek does not allow for this reading. The Greek lexicon by Drs W Arndt and F Gingrich, have listed the use of archê, here under, “the first cause” (p. 111), which is the “Ultimate Creator”. However, they also go on to say, “but the mng. Beginning = first created is linguistically poss.” (p.112). This remark is unhelpful as it is not contextually and Biblically possible. It would have required John to have written, “hupo tou theo (by God)”, which is what the JW's say in their version. In and of itself, the Greek archê, can be used as the “first in a series”, but here this meaning is not a possibility. The meaning here is as it is found in Greek usage, “origin, first cause”, so used from Homer onwards. Even the Unitarian Greek scholar, Dr Joseph Thayer, says of archê, used in Revelation 3:14, “that by which anything begins to be, the origin, active cause”. Which makes Jesus Christ, not the first among the created things of the universe, but The Actual Creator! Jesus Christ says of Himself, that He is “The beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13), of which Dr Thayer says, “(he) arche kai (to) telos, of God, who by his perpetuity survives all things, i.e. eternal, Rev.i.8; xxi.6; xxii.13" (p.620). Here even a Unitarian, who denies that Jesus Christ is God, admits, that the language of the Bible says that Jesus Christ IS ETERNAL, that is uncreated, as it does for God in Revelation 1:8!
Next, we have the very important passage from Hebrews chapter 1, where God the Father is addressing Jesus Christ, in a series of statements. In verses 10-12, we read:
“And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail"
And, in the Greek is “kai”, which is “moreover, furthermore”, following on from what the Father has been saying, of and to Jesus Christ, from verse 5 onwards. These words used by the Father in verse 10-12, to the Lord Jesus Christ, are from the Old Testament Book of Psalm, 102:25-27, where we read:
“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end”
The passage in Hebrews is closer to the Hebrew text that the Greek Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, than the traditional Masoretic Text, with slight variations. In the MT, these words belong to elohim (verse 24), and this is applied to Jesus by the Father, Who addresses Him as “Lord” (Yahweh). In the Psalms passage we have the Creation of the entire universe, as THE act of elohim, as we read in Genesis 1:1. But, elohim, is a plural word, so in Hebrews, we have The First Person in the Trinity, address The Second Person, and declare, that what is true of elohim Creating the universe, is also true of Jesus Christ, as THE Creator. The words of the Father, and the application of them to Jesus Christ, cannot be in any way weakened, so as to take them as meaning that Jesus is merely the “instrument”, through Whom the Father Created. The Father Himself destroys this heresy!