WWUTT 777 In the Beginning Was the Word?

The Word Was with God and Was God Before Time Began

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There is no truth in the universe that exists, apart from this statement, when we understand the text.

You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back again to our study of the Gospel according to John, chapter 1, and I'll begin by reading verses 1 through 5. The Apostle John wrote, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We see obvious similarities here between John 1 and Genesis 1. The whole Bible begins a very similar way. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, but what we have being described for us there in Genesis 1 is the beginning of time.

As Augustine pointed out in one of his commentaries, I don't remember which one because he actually wrote more than one commentary on the book of Genesis, but in one of those commentaries he says that with the creation of matter was also the beginning of time.

All things that are physical exist on a linear timeline. We cannot repeat those moments that we have already lived. That thing that happened just a few seconds ago, you can't go back and live that moment again.

We're always progressing forward. So when matter was created, when the physical was created, that was also simultaneously the creation or the beginning of time. That's what we have at the start of Genesis 1.

We have a description of the beginning of time. In the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth, and that was the beginning of time. What we're reading about in John 1 is something that precedes the beginning of time.

In the beginning is just really a very crude way of saying before time began. It's because we live in a very finite, linear existence. We cannot grasp the infinite. Now we have a concept of infinity, but it's because God has placed that concept into our hearts.

We read that in Ecclesiastes 3 .11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to the end. So though we're finite creatures, we can conceptualize the infinite and even long for the infinite because God has given us that desire.

But because we're finite, we can't grasp the concept of infinity. Therefore, in our efforts to try to describe it, the language we use just comes out very crude. We're finite creatures. We use finite language to describe an infinite thing.

It's impossible for us to fully grasp or understand the concept, even though we have a concept. So here in John 1, John has to resort to very crude language to describe something that was going on before the beginning of time.

And that's what we have in John 1 .1. In the beginning was the word. And what is this word that we're talking about? Or who is this word? The word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

So clearly the word is a person using pronouns to describe who the word is. Who is this word? And you know, I'm just breaking this down to its most elementary level. But you know who we're talking about.

We're talking about Jesus Christ. As John would go on to describe in Revelation chapter 19, verse 13, the name by which he is called is the word of God. That's Jesus Christ. So Jesus here is the word who is being described in John 1 .1 as being with God from even before time began.

And Jesus will go on to say that himself in his high priestly prayer, which we have in John 17. It's in verse five where he says, and now father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

And that's what's being described for us here in John 1 .1. The glory that the son had with the father before time began. The word was with God. It's a common question that I receive as a pastor and even through the ministry of when we understand the text, what was God doing before we were created?

And there we have a good indication of it. In John 17, five, God was glorifying himself, father, son, and Holy Spirit glorifying in his holiness, in his righteousness, in his perfection. And in no way was this boring.

God was not bored with himself and therefore like, okay, let's mix it up a little bit. Let's create some human beings. Nor was God lonely. And so therefore I'm going to create someone in my image. We are created to further show the fullness of God and his glory, and he will show his glory through us, whether it is rescuing us as objects of his mercy or destroying us as the objects of his wrath.

In us, I'm meaning mankind as a whole, not necessarily believers, because believers in Jesus Christ are those God will show his glory through by rescuing them from the wrath that he will pour out on those who did not believe in his son, Jesus Christ.

And in this way, God is showing the full scope of his glory. And we who are rescued from the wrath and judgment of God, by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, by belief on his name and his finished work, those of us who will enter into his kingdom in the name of Christ, we will get to be part of that glory that God had with himself before time began.

We will get to see that and we get to be part of it. We see that in the book of Revelation. We now enter into that glory and we glorify God for how great and holy and awesome he is. And we'll finally see, we will see with our own eyes because we will be made to be like him.

As it says in 1 John 3, 2, we will see him as he is and we will become partakers in that glory that the father had with the son and the Holy Spirit for from everlasting to everlasting. It's mind-blowing to even think about that, but praise God for his goodness that he has selected us to become part of that glory, which we enter into in eternity.

God has no beginning and no end. We read this over and over again in the scriptures. In Isaiah 57, verse 15, for thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place.

And also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, we get to be with God through our savior, Jesus Christ, who is our reconciliation with God. He is our access to God. That is Jesus Christ, our fellowship with God, who entered into human flesh, who lived the perfect life that we could not live, who died the death we were supposed to die, who was resurrected from the grave and gave us a resurrection like his.

We will one day receive a body like his and will enter into his eternal kingdom, into eternity. Now, the difference between God and us at that point is going to be he is from everlasting to everlasting and we are not.

We will enter into eternity and glorify God in the glory that he has with himself. But we, unlike God, had a definite beginning, whereas God has no beginning. Psalm 90, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting.

You are God. And again, these are even crude terms to describe the eternal nature of God, because it's an eternal concept. We as finite human beings can't wrap our minds around it. So therefore, we describe it the best way that we know that we can.

Everlasting to everlasting. You are God. He has no beginning and no end. Jesus describes himself in the book of Revelation as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Revelation 1 .8 says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, a God with no beginning and no end.

There is no one in all of existence who is worthy of worship but God. He and he alone is worthy of our worship. And so as we worship God, the father who has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ, his son, and we have been filled with the Holy Spirit by the blessing of Christ.

So we glorify God and worship him, practicing that now, as we will be doing for all eternity when our faith becomes sight. So here we have a sort of glimpses into eternity, things that were happening even before the beginning of time and space with what we read in John 1 .1.

In the beginning was the word Jesus Christ with the father. The word was with God. And then the word was God. Now this, of course, is a passage of much debate, especially when it comes to the Jehovah's Witnesses, because in their version of the Bible, which was written by Charles Taze Russell, it's called the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, John 1 .1 doesn't say that the word was God.

It says that the word was a God. So in the New World Translation, you would read it like this. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was a God. And if you have a conversation with a Jehovah's Witness about this, they will tell you that there is no definite article to describe God at the end of verse one, therefore it has to be a God and not the God.

But that's an absurd argument, because that method of translation is not used in the rest of the book of John, only there in John 1 .1, because Charles Taze Russell was anti-Trinitarian. He did not believe in the triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is one God, but three co-equal and co-eternal uncaused persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He did not believe in the Trinity. Therefore, he came up with this new translation of John 1 .1, which he believed had been corrupted, which is why we have the translation that we have today. According to Charles Taze Russell, that was a corrupted translation.

This that we're reading is a corrupted translation. He had the only true accurate translation in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. This Jehovah's Witness religion came out of what was called the Restorationist movement, and Mormonism came out of the exact same movement.

It was this idea that we need to return the church, Christianity, back to an uncorrupted state. We have all these denominations like Baptist and Presbyterian and Methodist. Well, these are corruptions of what the early church was supposed to be.

So Joseph Smith believed he had the true revelation of the original church. Charles Taze Russell believed he had the true revelation of the original church. And so he comes up with this new Bible of his own.

So did Joseph Smith, came up with his own book, the Book of Mormon. And then he also even had the Joseph Smith translation of other books of the Bible. As a matter of fact, there is a Gospel of John Joseph Smith translation.

And in the Joseph Smith translation, also called the JST, John 1 .1 reads like this. In the beginning was the Gospel preached through the Son, and the Gospel was the Word, and the Word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.

Totally different. But anyway, that's Joseph Smith's translation of John 1 .1. Charles Taze Russell added that the Word was a God because there's no definite article. But we here at When We Understand the Text, we're all about understanding the scriptures in context.

And when it comes to understanding John 1 .1 in context, you don't need the definite article to describe God at the end of John 1 .1. You already have the definite article earlier in the passage. In English, the definite article is the word the.

In Greek, it would be the word ho. So we have in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, theon, which is preceded by the definite article ho. Now in English, we don't write that definite article out.

There's not a reason to. We're talking about God. There's not a reason to define which God. There's only one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And there we have that same word theon that appears in a different form theos because it's not preceded by the definite article.

But again, it doesn't have to have the definite article. We already know who we're talking about. It would be like referring to me as Gabriel Hughes and then referring to me again in the same sentence as Gabriel Hughes again.

Well, you have already identified which Gabriel you're talking about. You don't have to add the last name to again, specify the Gabriel that you are referring to. This is the same case. It's understanding it in context.

There's not a reason to have to have the definite article in front of the word God again. Furthermore, the Jehovah's Witnesses themselves or Charles Taze Russell, I guess, does not use that same manner of translation in other places in the Gospel of John where the word God is not preceded by a definite article.

And so therefore he translates it as a God rather than the God. For example, in John 1 6, we read the following there was a man sent from God and there the word God is not preceded by a definite article.

So did Charles Taze Russell translate John 1 6 as there was a man sent from a God? No, here's how it reads in the New World Translation, John 1 6. There came a man who was sent as a representative of God.

His name was John. So Russell was inconsistent in his translation of the Gospel of John. He wanted to deny that God is triune, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He did not know the true Christ of the Bible for he believed that Jesus Christ was actually the Archangel Michael.

And since he never knew Jesus Christ, he also never knew God the Father. As Jesus said to Philip in John 14 9, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. It is Jesus Christ who reveals to us who the Father is and according to 1 John chapter 5, the Holy Spirit testifies to us as the identity of Jesus Christ.

So this is a triune work that happens in our hearts when we go from being a sinner rebellious against God to being one who is a worshipper of God. We know Father Son and Holy Spirit and Russell did not know any of them.

He rejected the true God of the Bible. It is this true God who is being revealed to us in the pages of this Gospel. John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. Now if you ever find yourself witnessing to a Jehovah's Witness and you're trying to remember the argument that I just presented, but you don't know Greek and how can I retain that information?

It isn't necessary for you to know Greek to show a Jehovah's Witness that the traditional translation of John 1 1 is correct. Whereas the Jehovah's Witness translation of John 1 1 is nonsensical and this is simply an exercise in context.

If you were to swap the word with God, you would still be making the same statement. Let me show you in the beginning was God and God was with the word and God was the word that still means exactly the same thing as if you read it the way that it's printed.

However, you take the Jehovah's Witness version where you have the occasion that the word God appears at the end of the verse. It's presented as a God rather than the true God. So swap that with the previous the word and you have a completely different statement in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and a God was the word.

Why has the identity of God changed there all of a sudden in the verse? So you see how the way that the Jehovah's Witnesses have translated this verse doesn't even make sense when it comes to understanding the context both the religions of Jehovah's Witnesses and also the Mormons or the Latter-day Saints collapse under this introduction to the Gospel of John.

I mentioned yesterday that one of the things that John is confronting here is this stoic philosophy that all things came into existence and order through some sort of impersonal cosmic reason and that's not too far off something that the Mormons believe.

They believe that intelligences preceded the existence of God. God himself is not eternal according to the Mormons. He even has a definite beginning but before there was God there were intelligences impersonal intelligences in Doctrine and Covenants 93 verses 29 and 30.

This is what it says in in the Mormon Canon. Man was also in the beginning with God intelligence or the light of truth was not created or made neither indeed can be all truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it to act for itself as all intelligence.

Also, otherwise there is no existence but that doesn't stand up against what we're reading here in John 1. What does it say in verse 3 all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made Jesus is uncaused and eternal the second person of the Triune God.

He's not some impersonal force floating out in the universe that that organized and arranged all things that exist rather. He caused them to exist by the speaking of his very word and the reason why somebody does not know God the father or the son is because it has not been revealed to them to know who he is.

Jesus said in Matthew 1127 all things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him keeping things in context in the Gospel of John.

It's in chapter 5 verse 37 where Jesus said the father who sent me has himself born witness about me his voice. You have never heard his form. You have never seen and you do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

It's not enough to simply know of a figure who is named Jesus Christ. You must know the true Christ of the Bible to be saved. Let's conclude with prayer our great God and Savior we thank you for showing yourself through your word for it is because of our sin that we have been separated from God.

You separated yourself from us because as it is said even through your prophet Habakkuk your eyes are so holy that you cannot even look upon sin yet you considered our need and you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that all who would believe in him will not perish but would have everlasting life.

Keep us humble in our understanding of this belief and may we take the truth of the Gospel to a lost world that they might see the light that shines through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and would turn from sin and believe in you and be saved.

Give us courage strength boldness and wisdom to know how to speak this Gospel to a crooked and depraved generation and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.