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Gospel about the Kingdom. Jesus of Nazareth is what the Word (God's Wisdom) of John 1:1 be-
came. He is the unique expression, as a human being, of the Wisdom of God. It was the Wisdom of
God which existed from the beginning, and that Wisdom became a person at the conception of Je-
sus. This explanation leaves intact the great cardinal doctrine that the One God is the Father and
that Jesus is the Lord Messiah -- not the Lord God. Note Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29ff; 1 Corin-
thians 8:4-6; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 17:3 and 5:44. It was the early Greek Church Fathers who con-
fused the issue of Jewish/Christian monotheism by introducing the idea of a "numerically second
God."

It is most significant that Paul often speaks of the gospel as having been hidden in the coun-
sels of God from "ages past." See Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:26; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2; cp. 1
Peter 1:20 and Revelation 13:8. He also says that the Son of God "came into existence" from a
woman and from the seed of David (Romans 1:4; Galatians 4:4). It is unimaginable that Paul could
have believed in the preexistence of the Son. It would be untrue to say that the Son came into exis-
tence at his birth, if in fact he had always existed. It is far more reasonable to suppose that Paul
agreed with Peter that the Messiah was hidden in the divine counsels and then revealed in the full-
ness of time. Paul believed that "all things have been created in Jesus" (Colossians 1:15). He did
not say they had been created "by him."

Finally, it is most unreasonable to claim that "Wisdom" in Proverbs (i.e., "Lady Wisdom")
was in fact Jesus, the Son, preexisting. It should not be difficult to discern that "Wisdom" here is a
personification of a divine quality -- not a person. The proof of this is found not only in all major
commentaries but very clearly in the text itself. "I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence...." (Proverbs
8:12). If Wisdom is really a (male) Son of God, then who is Prudence?

Preexisting purposes and personifications are all part of the literature of Judaism. A preex-
istent, non-human Messiah is not. A Messiah who is not a human being approximates much more
closely to the pagan idea of preexisting souls and Gnostic "aions." It was that early invasion of pa-
ganism which unfortunately began to corrupt the faith -- just as Peter and Paul warned in 2 Peter 2
and Acts 20:29-31.

That intrusion of paganism resulted in some very strange language about Jesus. His "pre-
human existence" signals the fact that he is really not a human being. He has existed as an angel be-
fore being born. This is close to the idea of "the gods coming down in the likeness of men." Such a
Jesus sounds like a pagan savior figure. There were many such cosmic saviors in the Graeco-
Roman world. But there was only one Messiah, whose identity was given long in advance of his
birth. He was foreknown (1 Peter 1:20) and would arise from the House of Israel as an Israelite of
the tribe of Judah (Deuteronomy 18:15-18; Acts 3:22; 7:37). That important text in Deuteronomy
actually states that the promised agent of God would not be the Lord God, but His spokesman
(Deuteronomy 18:16, 17). Christians should be careful to claim allegiance to that Savior. To wor-
ship a Savior with wrong ideas about him runs the risk of worshipping another Savior. The creed
of Jesus is the right creed for Christians (Mark 12:28ff). As so many scholars know, that creed
is not a Trinitarian creed. The One God of Israel and of Jesus was and is the Father (John 17:3;
John 5:44; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 8:4-6), "the One and only God" (John 5:44), "the only true
God" (John 17:3).

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