“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” (Colossians 1:15)
Colossians 1 is an exposition of the Person and Work of Christ. It is in truth a demonstration of His deity and saving sufficiency. However, among those who would deny His deity verse fifteen provides a term they misuse to remove Him from His eternal existence to that of a created and finite being. To do this they must ignore the definition of the term, both its immediate and larger contexts, and the clear statements, not only in the immediate context, but the larger context of scripture, which proves the very opposite of their contention.
The term they misuse is ‘firstborn’. They define this term as meaning first created. Jehovah’s Witnesses are chief among those currently employing this definition, but another is the Christadelphians, and in the fourth century Arius of Alexandria, one of the early church heretics. Arius position is described in a favorite phrase “There was when he was not”.
Modern Arians also couple with Colossians 1:15 verses like Revelation 3:14 which speak of Jesus as “the beginning of the creation of God” and a phrase in Proverbs 8:22 that describes wisdom (supposedly meaning Jesus) as being “brought forth.”
A summary of the issue is this; if Jesus as the Logos of God had a beginning then He could not be eternal deity. However, if he did exist for all eternity before His birth at Bethlehem then He must be God incarnate and firstborn means other than first created.
The problem for the modern Arians then is that single words in a few verses must force the rest of scripture to bend to its meaning. This is a task too large for an honest mind. It requires some level of either ignorance or dishonesty.
The Modern Arian Argument
Jehovah’s Witnesses, the preeminent modern Arians, say of the term firstborn at Colossians 1:15 “Trinitarians say that ‘first-born’ here means prime, most excellent, most distinguished; thus Christ would be understood to be, not part of creation, but the most distinguished in relation to those who were created. If that is so, and if the Trinity doctrine is true, why are the Father and the holy spirit not also said to be the firstborn of all creation? But the bible applies this expression only to the Son. According to the customary meaning of ‘firstborn’, it indicates that Jesus is the eldest in Jehovah’s family of sons” (Reasoning From the Scriptures, page 408).
In a classic example of bringing their theology to the Bible the New World Translation Committee rendered Colossians 1:16, 17, the immediate context of the ‘firstborn’ statement in verse 15, as,
“because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist.”
They go on in verse 20 to again insert the word [other] in the text. So, five times in the immediate context all ceased to be all so Jesus could be included among the ‘all things’ created.
When you delete the word ‘other’ from the text it is clear that there is a fundamental difference between Jesus and Creation. Jesus, the eternal Creator, created everything that exists in Creation, everything that had a beginning. Therefore, Jesus could not be one of the things created.
The [Other] Proof Texts
One of the texts also used to prove Jesus had a beginning is Revelation 3:14 where He is called “the beginning of the creation of God.” The intent by the Watchtower is that you define beginning as the place where God began His creative work, not the One who began the work. In other words Jehovah created Michael the Archangel (pre-incarnate Jesus), who then created “all [other] things.”
The definition of biblical terms is central to answering Arian arguments. The Greek word translated ‘beginning’ in Revelation 3:14 is ‘arche’. It has been rendered in scripture as ‘chief’, ‘ruler’, ‘beginning’, and ‘origin’. In Revelation 3:14, written by the Apostle John, it has the idea of Jesus as the beginner, or originator and ruler, of creation. To get the idea you need only look at some modern uses of this same term.
Who is the Archbishop but the ‘ruling’ bishop?
Who was your high school arch (chief) rival?
What is anarchy but the absence of a ruler?
What is an architect but the ‘originator’ of a building?
Another ‘prooftext’ Arians use is Proverbs 8:22 which says, “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago” (New World Translation).
The answer to this superficial understanding is the surrounding context of Proverbs. Solomon is using a literary device called personification. It is the attribution of the traits of personality to something that does not have personality. Wisdom is also in the feminine gender
As Rob Bowman says, “…wisdom is personified, not only in Proverbs 8:22-31, but throughout Proverbs 1-9. Nothing in Proverbs 8:22-31 suggests that this is a different ‘wisdom’ than is spoken of in the preceding and following chapters. Therefore, if we take 8:22 to speak literally about Christ, we must also assume that Christ is a woman that cries in the streets (1:20-21), and who lives with someone named ‘Prudence’ (8:12) in a house with seven pillars (9:1)!” (Why You Should Believe in the Trinity, page 60.)
When the Firstborn is Not Born First
In the context of Colossians 1 Jesus is called “the firstborn of all creation” and this is followed by a list of His creative works and concludes with verse 18 which says, “And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” All of the descriptive terms and wonderful works preceding this verse culminate by saying these things are so Jesus will have the pre-eminence, for it pleased His Father that in Him all fullness should dwell (vs. 19). Jesus is the firstborn, which means He is pre-eminent over all creation.
If firstborn means pre-eminent then we should be able to demonstrate that from scripture. But first some background. In the Hebrew culture the first son born was pre-eminent over other sons or daughters born to the family. His double portion of the inheritance demonstrates this. There is no real question about that by any Arians. In the evolution of word meanings first born meant born first in its earliest uses. As the culture recognized the son born first as being pre-eminent among siblings then the term firstborn took on the added meaning of pre-eminent. This is common to the evolution of word meanings in all languages. Then the term was used in relation to things other than sons born first. For instance;
At Genesis 41:51 Manasseh is first born to Joseph and Ephraim is the second born. However, in Jeremiah 31:9 God says, “Ephraim is my firstborn.”
Isaac was born thirteen years after Ishmael but becomes the firstborn because he was the son of God’s promise and therefore was pre-eminent over Ishmael.
David was the last born son of Jesse but became the firstborn in status (Psalms 89:27).
Israel, the nation, was called God’s firstborn at Exodus 4:22. Israel was not the first nation but it was the pre-eminent nation because God chose it.
God prohibited the designation of the second-born son as the first-born. At Deuteronomy 21:15,16 if the son born first is born to a plural wife, a wife not loved as much as another, then the father can not wait till his more loved wife gives birth to a son whom he designates as the first-born. In other words first-born carries the status of pre-eminence over the second-born.
Even a disease is called “the firstborn of death” at Job 18:13. Was this the first disease? Or, was it the pre-eminent disease of that day? Today the “firstborn of death” might be heart disease.
Finally, at Colossians 1:18 Jesus is called “the firstborn from the dead.” Jesus was not the first to rise from the dead. He raised Lazarus and others during His earthly ministry. He was the first to rise from the dead and never die again. That resurrection is part of the basis for our hope of a resurrection to be with Him in glory, so in that sense He is the firstborn from the dead. His resurrection is pre-eminent over all the others because it is the foundation for all others that will follow.
The Watchtower Society also asked the question “why are the Father and the holy spirit not also said to be the firstborn?” The reason is that the Father appointed His “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) to be “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2). As in the culture of the day the firstborn son was to inherit a double portion because of a double responsibility within the surviving family. However, Jesus is the “only begotten” and so has no brother or sister with whom to share the inheritance.
Those [other] Pesky Passages
If the Watchtower were successful in demonstrating that firstborn meant first created they would have succeeded in only one thing. They would have shown that the Bible is fundamentally contradictory. But neither camp holds that view. The definition of firstborn as a term related to pre-eminence, and not first created, is very strongly supported by a number of other clear texts. Here are a few;
John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” Jesus cannot be one of the things made unless He made Himself. But He would have had to do that while He wasn’t even in existence! What logical absurdity.
Isaiah 44:24 “Thus saith the LORD (Jehovah), thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.” This text contradicts the Watchtower which says Jehovah only created Jesus who was the master worker creating all [other] things.
Ephesians 3:9 “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 2:10 “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Conclusion
It can be frustrating to engage in a reasoned discussion with those who would hold the Arian and Watchtower theology. Their mind is so in the grip of their theology that they cannot see the illogic of their position. However, the Holy Spirit is able to open the closed mind and re-order their thinking.
Our goal in a Christian witness is to plant the seed, not to make it grow, or produce fruit. That is God’s responsibility. Some of the tools we can use to plant that seed include logic and evidences from scripture. For instance, ask a Jehovah’s Witness for an example of the exercise of Almighty power. He will certainly include creation in his answer. Ask him if he can grasp the idea that for God the Father to give such almighty power to the Son to create ex nihilo (out of nothing) is to share his glory with another. Also, for those six days in Genesis there would have been two Almighty’s.
The conclusion you want him to see is that the Eternal Son of God and heir of God the Father, is pre-eminent over all creation by virtue of being its Creator and God.
By David Henke
