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Thus "pre-existence" statements in the New Testament really have to do with foreordina-
tion and predestination. It was the Greeks who misunderstood Jewish ways of thinking and turned
Jesus into a cosmic figure who entered the earth from outer space. But is such a Jesus a human be-
ing? Is he the true Messiah of Israel?

Many dedicated Christians are currently exercised about the Gnostic and mystical tenden-
cies affecting the church. But many are unaware that philosophical, mystical ideas invaded the
church from the second century onwards via the "Church Fathers," who were steeped in pagan phi-
losophy and laid the foundation of the creeds now called "orthodox." The seed of Trinitarian doc-
trine was planted in the thinking of Justin Martyr, the second century Christian apologist who
"found in Platonism the nearest approach to Christianity and felt that no break was required with
its spirit and principles to pass into the greater light of Christian revelation." "The forces which
operated to change apostolic doctrine were derived from paganism....The habits of thought which
the Gentiles brought into the church are sufficient to explain the corruptions of apostolic doctrine
which began in the post-apostolic age" (G.T. Purves, D.D., The Testimony of Justin Martyr to
Early Christianity. New York: Randolph and Co., 1889, p. 167.).

Intelligent Christians need to be informed of these corruptions and how they are currently
"canonized" as Scripture by many. Discernment means learning the difference between revealed
truth and pagan, philosophical teachings which originated outside the Bible yet affected what is
now called "orthodoxy."

I would ask the reader to consider the disastrous effects of not paying attention to the Jew-
ish ways of thinking found in the Bible, which was written (with the exception of Luke) by Jews.
Clearly if Jews do not mean what we mean by "pre-existence" we are liable to misunderstand them
on basic issues about who Jesus is. There is a huge difference between being predestined or fore-
ordained and actually pre-existing. Greek philosophy believed in a "second God," a non-human in-
termediary between the creator and the world. The true Jesus, however, is the "man Messiah," the
one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). "To us Christians there is one God, the Fa-
ther, and one Lord Messiah" (1 Corinthians 8:4-6). Note carefully Paul's definition of the One
God.

The New Testament is a thoroughly Jewish book. Its writers were all Jews except proba-
bly Luke (who, however, is as Jewish as any of the writers in terms of his obvious delight in the
Jewish salvation [John 4:22] offered in Jesus to both Jew and Gentile). Modern Bible readers ap-
proach basic biblical issues with an entrenched Greek outlook on life. This they have inherited
from the churches and early post-biblical creeds which overlooked the fact that Jesus was a Jew
who thought and taught in Jewish categories.

There is an anti-Semitic tendency in traditional, creedal Christianity which must be
recognized and forsaken. It has dramatically affected Christian doctrine. It has affected the way
we define the person of Jesus, the Messiah.

The idea that the soul separates from the body and survives consciousness apart from the
body is a thoroughly unJewish idea (this is well established in the Old Testament perspective --
and the New Testament teaching about the nature of man is based on the Old). Modern readers of

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