I have reserved to myself 144,000 who will not bow to the image
They have tore down thine altars O father, they have built an image of BAAL
John 1:1
John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
“In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.”
Note: Jesus was not the same God he was with!
In other words, the text is not trying to tell us that in the beginning Jesus was with himself.
1. At the beginning Jesus was clearly with someone else, and the person he was with was God.
2. The second time the term God is used is in a descriptive way and not in reference to the person called God.
Ø As an example, let us say that in the beginning Adam was called “the human” and Eve was referred to as “the woman.”
Consider the following and ask yourselves whether John 1:1 is not structured in the same manner:
v In the beginning was the woman, and the woman was with the human, and the woman was human.
1. The first time the word human is used in this example, it is clearly referring to the person the woman is with.
2. The second use of the word human is clearly a description of the nature of the woman, and this is the same way John 1:1 should be understood.
v “In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God [by nature], and Jesus was divine”
v The second verse tells us this: “The same [Jesus] was in the beginning with God [the Father] (John 1:2).”
Note: God and Jesus have the same divine nature. Here we see that Jesus is as fully divine as God, his Father, is divine and that Jesus is not the Father but the Son of the Father.
