Land and Bible

Does Paul describe Jesus as the Creator in Colossians 1:15-19? No, rather Paul says that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead of the new creation. To listen to these notes in an expanded podcast, click here : https://anchor.fm/onegodreport-podcast/episodes/Is-Jesus-the-Creator-in-Colossians-115-19--No--but-Jesus-is-the-beginning-of-Gods-new-creation-eavruf 1. Interpreting Colossians 1 as saying that somehow Jesus was involved in the Genesis creation, and is therefore God, contradicts Paul’s other statements about the relation of Jesus to God. The “Genesis creation” interpretation also contradicts many other Scriptures. The Old Testament says nothing about a second god figure who created (cf. Deut. 32:6, Isa. 44:24). Jesus attributed the creation of humanity to “He who made them”, not “they” or “we who made them”.  In the letter to the Colossians, Paul distinguished Jesus  from God. E.g., Colossians 1:1-3. “God our Father” – all of God, not just one person of a...

The Gospel of John and the New Creation: Jesus is the Beginning of God’s New Creation   To hear the podcast of this text, click here . “What about John 1:1?” Ever since I came to understand from the Bible that God (Yehovah, YHVH) is one, and that Jesus is God’s human Messiah (Christ) whom God raised from the dead, people say to me: “What about John 1:1?”. For my friends who believe in the “deity of Christ”, John 1:1 is biblical evidence that Jesus is God. I think they are missing a main point of what John 1:1 and the entire Gospel of John are declaring. That main point is that through the life and ministry of the human person Jesus the Messiah, God is beginning His promised New Creation. Jesus is the Beginning of God’s New Creation. As the words and deeds of Jesus recorded by John are evidence, the ultimate evidence that Jesus is the beginning of God’s New Creation is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (John 20). As John records in another place, Jesus is “the...