We’ve Got Work to Do!
Tony Cooke
I often question how accurate certain surveys are, but if the responses cited below even closely reflect reality, it is a reminder that we have a lot to do to make sure that those who hear us have a strong doctrinal foundation.
According to a 2022 survey, among Americans who identify as “Evangelical”
- 26% agree that the Bible is not literally true.
- 56% agree that Jesus is not the only way to God.
- 43% agree that Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God.
- 60% had confusion about the Holy Spirit being a force, not a Person.
In another survey (2021), only 41% of Americans believe that “the Son of God existed before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.”
I want to tackle this last point in this article. I have an entire chapter on the pre-existence of Jesus in my book, Magnificent Jesus: Unmatched, Unrivaled, Unparalleled, but here are just a few Scriptures and quotes to help us appreciate the fact that the Son of God pre-existed eternally with the Father and with the Holy Spirit long before “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14 NKJV).
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2 NKJV).
Notice that even though Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem, his pre-incarnate activities would go back to the days of eternity past.
“In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God… So the Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:1-2, 14 NLT).
“’Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’ Then the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM’” (John 8:56-58 NKJV).
John the Baptist, who was chronologically older than Jesus, made this remarkable statement, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me’” (John 1:15 NLT).
“Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began” (John 17:5 NLT).
“Jesus Christ was with the Father before the ages, and in the end, He was revealed.”
— Ignatius of Antioch (?–117)
“But the Son has been eternally co-existing with the Father. From of old, yes, from the beginning, He always reveals the Father.”
— Irenaeus of Lyon (125–202)
“How astonished I am that there is laid before me a Child who is older than all things!”
— Ephrem the Syrian (306–373)
“His birth in Bethlehem was not His origin, only His incarnation… Christ’s preexistence is not a matter of purely academic interest, it is the foundation on which the whole superstructure of the Christian faith rests. If He is not preexistent, He cannot be God, and if He is not God, He cannot be Creator and Redeemer.”
— Oswald Sanders (1902–1992)
