December 25, 2000 By ROBERT FIGUEROA Is Jesus the Eternal Son? "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16 One of the most memorized and quoted verses is John 3:16. In a nut shell this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we mainly use this verse to emphasize the love of the father, it also has to do with the birth and starting point of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. Is Jesus the eternal Son? This term “eternal son” is never used in the Bible and totally contradicts the word begotten and many other verses. The word begotten means “to procreate, to father, to sire.” So begotten indicates a specific point in time at which a beginning takes place. Just as our fathers lived before us, so does God live before the begotten Jesus. The Son of God had a beginning. We also see the author of Hebrews write on the same subject in Hebrews 1:5: "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?" God only said this about his only Son - never to any angels or no one for that matter. This verse is declaring the greatness of the Son over the angels. God never said this to the angels but declared that Jesus was begotten on a certain day. If we were to believe that Jesus is the eternal son it would be like a father and a son were born at the same time. That is impossible, there has to be one before the other. The savior was created or thought about in the mind of God before the foundations of the world; just as a man and woman think about having children before they actually come into existence. When was the actual starting point of Jesus? His starting point, was His birth. Announced to Mary in the sixth month during the Law by the Angel Gabriel speaking in the future tense. The announcement was that the virgin Mary was to conceive the Son of God called Jesus. Mary saying, "how can this be?" was instructed by the Angel in Luke 1:35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. The son-father relationship started the day Jesus was born. In other words the relationship between the humanity of Jesus and the divine nature of God started. This all was to happen at the fullness of time, a certain time in the future. So is Jesus the eternal Son? Certainly not, for the Word of God declares that there was a beginning for the Son of God. John 3:16 will help us to understand and to defend our precious doctrine about the love of our Father, but also that Jesus Christ is not the eternal son. Robert Figueroa is the managing editor of the Apostolic Doctrine section of Inspired Christian.org. You can send him your questions to robertfig@inspiredchristian.org. More articles on Apostolic Doctrine Answer our question... We're listening! Send us your comments, staff@inspiredchristian.org. Home | Site News | Reviews | Churches | CyberReading | Bible College Copyright, Inspired Christian.org