Pre-existence of Christ

Theologian Bernard Ramm noted that "It has been standard teaching in historic Christology that the Logos, the Son, existed before the incarnation.

[8] James Dunn, in his book Christology in the Making,[9] examines the development of this doctrine in early Christianity, noting that it is "beyond dispute"[10] that in John 1:1–18, "the Word is pre-existent, and Christ is the pre-existent Word incarnate,"[10] but going on to explore possible sources for the concepts expressed there, such as the writings of Philo.

Some Protestant theologians believe that God the Son emptied himself[11] of divine attributes in order to become human.

[14] According to Thomas Aquinas, "the human nature" of Christ was created and began in time, where "the subsistent subject" is both uncreated and eternal.

Considered a divine being, he was believed to have been the entity to lead Adam into eating from the Tree of Knowledge instead of the Devil (AKA Prince of Darkness) who, according to Manichaeism, actually wanted humanity to stay away from it so they would remain trapped in matter and never find gnosis.

[17] However, Thomas Aquinas says that Arius "pretended that the Person of the Son of God is a creature, and less than the Father, so he maintained that He began to be, saying 'there was a time when He was not.

'"[18] John Locke,[19] William Ellery Channing, and Isaac Newton[20] appear to have maintained belief in the pre-existence of Christ despite their rejection of the Trinity.

[22] The Latter Day Saint movement teaches Christ's pre-existence as the first and greatest of the spirit children of God the Father.

Church members believe the appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith in 1820 (known as the First Vision) affirmed this doctrine.

Since that time, the church's prophets who succeeded Smith have taught and testified of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, His mission and role as Savior and Redeemer, including His pre-eminence and Godhood in pre-existence.

This includes Socinians,[34] and early Unitarians such as Ferenc David, Jacobus Palaeologus, John Biddle,[35] and Nathaniel Lardner.

"[44] Friedrich Schleiermacher, sometimes called "the father of liberal theology",[45] was one of many German theologians who departed from the idea of personal ontological pre-existence of Christ, teaching that "Christ was not God but was created as the ideal and perfect man whose sinlessness constituted his divinity.

Most of the eastern Church Fathers who comment on the passage in Daniel (7:9-10, 13–14) interpreted the elderly figure as a prophetic revelation of the Son before his physical incarnation.

This iconography emerged in the 6th century, mostly in the Byzantine Empire with elderly images, although usually not properly or specifically identified as "the Ancient of Days.

God resting after creation – Christ depicted as the creator of the world, Byzantine mosaic in Monreale , Sicily . Depictions of God the Father became prevalent only by the 15th century, and Jesus was often shown as a substitute before then. [ 1 ]
In principio erat verbum , Latin for In the beginning was the Word , from the Clementine Vulgate , Gospel of John , 1:1–18.
The Ancient of Days , a 14th-century fresco from Ubisi , Georgia .