34. Has Christ Always Existed?

Let's now take a bit of time to dissect a few phrases of the Athanasian Creed.

Words in Gold colour are part of the creed.

The Athanasian Creed

the Majesty coeternal 
But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. 

This says that all three persons of the Trinity are eternal; there never was a time when they did not all three exist. 

Christ was begotten before the worlds;  If Christ, as God, has always existed, how could he have a beginning by being begotten?   

Adam Clarke, a well known Bible commentator, and a staunch trinitarian wrote, To say that he was begotten from all eternity, is, in my opinion, absurd; and the phrase eternal Son is a positive self-contradiction. ETERNITY is that which has had no beginning, nor stands in any reference to TIME. SON supposes time, generation, and father; and time also antecedent to such generation. Therefore the conjunction of these two terms, Son and eternity is absolutely impossible, as they imply essentially different and opposite ideas. Adam Clarke on Luke 1:35.

An eminent Biblical scholar, known as "the father of american biblical literature," Moses Stuart, had the following to say on this subject. He spoke as a Trinitarian. "The generation of the son as divine, as God, seems to be out of the question --- unless it be an express doctrine of revelation, which is so far from being the case, that I conceive that the contrary is plainly taught." 

The foundation on which the doctrine of the Trinity rests is that Christ is Eternal. The church itself insists that if Christ is not eternal, he is not God; but out of the other side of their mouth, they say that Christ was begotten. The word, begotten, insists that there must be a starting point. 

The Doctrine of the Trinity. Anthony Buzzard 

the Son Almighty;  Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself. John 5:19.  This is an interesting contrast between the creed and the Bible.  This contradiction itself is enough reason to discard the whole Athanasian Creed!

And in this Trinity, none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another.  Perhaps, before they made this wild statement they should have consulted the Bible, a book which their own ilk had canonized.  Jesus Christ plainly said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. John 14:28.  

It seems so obvious that by the time the Athanasian Creed was designed the Roman Church fathers were so intent on pushing their own viewpoints that they completely ignored what the Bible actually said.

Christ's Throne

But to the Son He says: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Heb. 1:8 KJV.  Here it sounds as if Jehovah Himself is saying that Jesus, His Son, is God.  

The New World Translation has an interesting variation of this verse.  It writes, But with reference to the Son: God is your throne.  In this translation, that verse does not say that Christ is God but rather that God is Christ’s throne.  Many people would reject that meaning because it is from the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  

However, Westcott and Moffet are accepted, by Evangelical Christians, as trustworthy Bible translators; this is what they say about this verse.  It should read, God is thy throne for-ever and ever.  In the Greek text it reads like this, But with regard to the Son: the throne of Thee, God is.       
scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/heb1.pdf  

According to the Bible, Jehovah did not call Jesus, God!  Neither should we!

To Him (Jesus) who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests to His God and Father. Rev. 1:5-6.  Saint John writes that God is Christ's God and Father.  If this is true how is it possible to claim deity for Christ or equality between Christ and His Father?

Christ says I have not found your works perfect before your God. Rev. 3:2.  Christ spoke of God in the second person but He did not claim divinity for Himself.

If we lay aside the imaginative speculations of Greek philosophers and theologians; if we omit arguments from inference in our search for the true God and the real Jesus, and rely on Scriptures plain creedal declarations, the Bible reveals that Jesus was the Messiah, Son of God. This is the New Testaments central "dogma". This is the creed of the earliest Christians, and there is no need to alter their perception of the Saviour by presenting his(m) a(s) a preexistent super-angel or as the eternal God who became man. 

The Doctrine of the Trinity; Christianity's Self-inflicted Wound. Anthony Buzzard.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, ... “I am the Lord, who makes all things, 

Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; Isa. 44:24.  If Christ is the second person of the Trinity and if Christ is the one by whom all things were created how could Jehovah say that He did it all alone?  When two persons are involved in creating something, then one cannot claim credit for it all alone, regardless of how convoluted theologians make the definitions.

Following is a humorous approach to the doctrine of the Trinity:

A ‘squircle’ is ‘a 2D shape that has both a square nature and a circular nature, and it is acknowledged in the two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one shape, not parted or divided into two shapes, but one and the same shape.’ 

Mathematicians have hitherto regarded a square circle as impossible. But we now understand that this impossibility is only ‘merely apparent,’ and that by insisting that the two natures of squareness and circularity are not confused in the squircle, we can arrive at this marvellous figure. It is a shame that nobody yet has been able to draw it, and so its true dimensions must remain for the moment a little mysterious. But mystery or not, here it is, and mathematicians will henceforth be required to believe in it under pain of being cast into the outer darkness (where there are no publishings nor salaries nor tenure).

I think I deserve a Nobel Prize in Mathematics (at least!).” 

From the magazine: Focus on the Kingdom.

For a comprehensive study of the fallacy of the doctrine of the trinity I strongly recommend the book, The Doctrine of the Trinity; Christianity's Self-inflicted Wound by Anthony Buzzard, available at:     
http://focusonthekingdom.org/articles/trinity.htm