Purity,
Way to completely ignore the text itself that explicitly says, "For everything was created by Him...." It doesn't say, everything fall under his control, though not visibly. Gimme a break.
Wormwood,
It was created by him and through him and on behalf of him - you don't need a break you need to demonstrate Christ was literally present when God created the heavens and the earth.
Jesus is the first of Yahweh's spiritual creation as per Col 1:15 (Context is Christ being in the image not the substance - a firstborn!)
Now as a result of him being born of the Spirit which creation has been given life? Wormwood it must be the "New Creation: see 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10; Eph 2:15; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10; Jam 1:18 for what other creation could be the subject of Colossians 1 - you are not suggesting its the material cosmos are you?
Col 1:17 All things spiritual now exist
Col 1:18 Now the head of the church - the firstborn form the dead is the basis of all things now existing!
Col 1:19 It please God to have His fullness dwell in his Son
Col 1:20 Peace "only" came through his sacrifice which now has reconciled "all" things unto himself.
The tense in these verses is not speaking about Gen 1:1 its talking about the spiritual creation which John speaks to in John 1:1.
Now, if you think Jesus pre-existed as a result of these passages you are grossly mistaken, yes he did! only in logos (divine thought) Yahweh's plan of redemption - You ask wormwood "Did Christ pre-exist his natural birth?" Purity answer: Only in the ideal and plan of God, not in tangible form: 1Pe 1:20; 2Ti 1:9-10; Mat 25:34.
Wormwood asks another good question "Did the "church" pre-exist also? No! of course not: see Rom 8:29.
You have to be kidding me. The context has to do with eating and drinking food offered to idols. Paul is saying that idols aren't real gods, it was Jesus who made heaven and earth. Perhaps the worst display if interpretation I have ever seen...and I have seen some doosies.
Yes you have the context right wormwood but you totally ignored 1 Cor 8:6 which is your quotation...
"we by him" - how are we by him? Is the "we by him" not speaking to Col 1:18? The New Creation? Or, do you believe we pre-existed also?
And you are the one "saying gimme a break?"
We shouldn’t really be spending any time at all on I Corinthians 8:6 as it certainly does nothing to defend the trinity, wormwood the passage speaks for itself! Two persons are mentioned, but only one is identified as God. Could it possibly be easier?
If God is more than one person, this would have been the ideal time to mention it wouldn't you think? Yet the Father alone is identified as God, the Son is identified as “Lord Jesus Christ”, and the Holy Spirit is not mentioned at all! This is truly a strange statement for Paul to make if he believed in the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 8:6 is just another in the ever-growing list of verses Trinitarians cannot accept at face value, for the sheer simplicity of its language defies a Trinitarian interpretation. Hence the only option for Trinitarianism is to obscure Paul’s words and blur his terms of reference.
Does Paul draw upon the Shema in I Corinthians 8:6?
Yes, though he does not formally quote it.
But how does he define the “one God” of Israel? He defines the “one God” of Israel as the Father, exclusively, matching the consistent use of this term throughout the NT:
1.Mark 2:7, “who can forgive sins, but the one God?”
2.Mark 10:18, “there is none good but the one God”
3.Mark 12:29, “the Lord God our Lord is one”
4.Mark 12:32, “there is one and none other but him”
5.Luke 18:19, “there is none good but the one God”
6.Romans 3:30, “seeing it is the one God”
7.I Corinthians 8:4, “none other is God but one”
8.I Corinthians 8:6, “but to us there is one God the Father”
9.Galatians 3:20, “but God is one”
10.Ephesians 4:6, “one God and father of all”
11.I Timothy 2:5, “for there is one God”
12.James 2:19, “there is one God”
The Father is also distinguished by the terms “only God” and “only true God”:
1.John 5:44, “the only God”
2.John 17:3, “the only true God”
3.I Timothy 1:17, “to the only God”
4.Jude 25, “the only God our Saviour”
The evidence is mounting upon you and still we are yet to see a shred of evidence for Trinitarian theology.
No, firstborn of all creation and firstborn from the dead are separate concepts found independently in different areas of Scripture (which is why Paul separates them).
-Firstborn of all creation (Ps. 89:27; Rom. 8:29)
-Firstborn form the dead (Acts 26:23; 1 Cor. 15:20; Rev. 1:5)
Ok, you quote Psalm 89:27 which is speaking to the children in God's spiritual family; but Christ is first of them all, "the beginning of the (New) Creation of God" (Col 1:15-18; Rom 8:29; Heb 1:6; Heb 12:23; Rev 1:5).
Did you know Paul alludes to this Psalm 89:27 in 2 Cor 6:18?
I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty." And likewise in Gal 3:29 : " If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Wormwood I am staggered you cannot reconcile Christ being the Firstborn of all creation with him being the firstborn from the dead! Staggered at your lack of spiritual insight.
Psalm 89:27 is all about God spiritual seed! And proves that Jesus was not the "firstborn" prior to the creation of Gen 1:1-31; Gen 2:1-25. But Rather, Jesus was not to be made firstborn until many years after this psalm was written. So, when Paul uses the term, the "firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15) is equivalent to "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18); and the "creation" intended by Paul is the "New Creation" of men and women who believe in Christ (Eph 2:10; Col 3:9-10; Gal 6:15; 2Co 5:17; etc).
You will be forced even by your peers to submit to this truth concerning the context of Psalm 89:27; 2 Cor 6:18; Col 1:15,18 is in fact speaking about the New Creation.
Can you discern the difference between Matt 12:31,32 & Heb 10:29.
I appreciate you are seeking a straight answer but these things are not valued if we do not labour and seek after them in humility.
You have spoken the truth but you are yet to grasp it I feel.
Iforrest
Are you lurking in the background :)
How did you go with this?
Did you manage to work out why it was forgivable to speak against the
Son of Man and not the Holy Spirit?