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Eternal Sonship: Difference between revisions
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O Eternal Father, send the Gospel Light across this city, through this coming week of convention. <ref>ONE.IN.A.MILLION_ LA.CA V-18 N-1 SATURDAY_ 65-0424 </ref> | O Eternal Father, send the Gospel Light across this city, through this coming week of convention. <ref>ONE.IN.A.MILLION_ LA.CA V-18 N-1 SATURDAY_ 65-0424 </ref> | ||
=How can a Father be Eternal?== | ==How can a Father be Eternal?== | ||
Can a father be a father without a son? To use William Branham's own reasoning, how can a father be eternal? How could he be a father before he had a son? However, if the Father is eternal, then why can't the Son be eternal likewise? | Can a father be a father without a son? To use William Branham's own reasoning, how can a father be eternal? How could he be a father before he had a son? However, if the Father is eternal, then why can't the Son be eternal likewise? | ||
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=The Scriptural Reasons for the Church's Historical Position= | =The Scriptural Reasons for the Church's Historical Position= | ||
While William Branham also ridicules those that rely on the Greek language for their understanding of the Bible, the plain truth is that the New Testament was originally written in Greek and, therefore, those that rely on an English translation are relying on the ability of the translators to convey the appropriate meaning of the Greek words in their context. | |||
:''IN THE beginning'' [before all time] ''was the Word'' (Christ), ''and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself''. [Isa. 9:6.] ''He was present originally with God''. <ref>The Amplified Bible, John 1:1–2 (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1987).</ref> | |||
It is critical to understand in this passage the meaning of the simple word "was" (ἤν in the Greek). | |||
There never was a time when the Word was not. There never was a thing that did not depend on him for its existence. The verb “was” is most naturally understood of the eternal existence of the Word: “the Word continually was.”9 We should not press the tense unduly, but certainly the verb denotes neither a completed state nor a coming into being. It is appropriate to eternal, unchanging being. John is affirming that the Word existed before creation, which makes it clear that the Word was not created. It is of the utmost importance to grasp this. Others, particularly among the Jews with their emphasis on the one God as the source of all things, had thought of the Word as of excellent dignity, but as subordinate, as a created being. It is fundamental to John that the Word is not to be included among created things. “In the beginning” (with all the fullness of meaning that these words can hold) the Word “was.” “He is seen as greater than all things, greater than time, changeless as eternity” (Guthrie).<ref>Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, 65-66 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995).</ref> | |||