Not only do American cults attempt to destroy confidence in the Bible, but they also seek to destroy confidence in Jesus Christ as to His place in the Godhead. For example, one very special translation of the Bible renders John 1:1 in these words, “In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” While to the best of our knowledge, there is not one Bible manuscript that would permit such a translation, these words are designed to prove this cult’s view that Jesus is somehow an inferior being to God. This cult, however, is not the only one in this country to teach that Jesus is some kind of inferior being to God the Father. There is another one, larger we would suspect, that teaches Jesus was a spirit child born by procreation, the offspring of heavenly parents. In a book entitled Gospel Principles (1986 p. 9), this idea is set forth as an explanation of Psalm 2:7, in which David wrote, “I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” Their teaching is that God said He had begotten Jesus, and they cannot imagine “begotten” being connected with anything other than a sex act, so heavenly parents begot a spirit child known as Jesus.
When one looks at the verse and the context in which it is found, he quickly learns that the birth of a child, anywhere, is not under discussion. The Psalmist spoke of the “kings of the earth” who “plot” against God’s Anointed, the Messiah, to rid themselves of Him, or to kill Him. Consequently, the most natural sense of the Christ being begotten here is that He was appointed by God to rule over the nations, as is seen in verses 7-8. Hence, the begetting in the Psalm is the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
In addition to this, we should point out that one of the basic principles of biblical interpretation is that we allow the Bible to interpret itself. It is, therefore, reasonable to allow the Old Testament to be interpreted in the clearer light of the New Testament. In Acts 13:33-34, Paul speaking, said, “God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: I will give you the sure mercies of David.” Notice, dear reader, that Paul quoted Psalm 2:7 and applied it not to Christ’s coming into existence, but to His resurrection from the dead. He clearly said, “God has fulfilled this [Psalm 2:7] for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.” We can only conclude that Psalm 2:7 has absolutely nothing to do with an imagined and alleged procreation of Christ. Eternal Beings are not “procreated,” and Jesus is an eternal Being, as is the Father and the Holy Spirit. In 1 Timothy 1:17, Paul referring to Jesus (v. 16), wrote, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” In this passage, Jesus is not only called “the King eternal,” but He is also called “God.”
Yet, there are other Scriptures that show clearly that Christ never came into existence at some point, but has always been in existence, that is, He is an eternal Being. We have space for only one in this article. If we come to a true translation of John 1:1, we find: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It is really impossible to gainsay such a statement as that, and the translators of The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures knew that or they would not have changed the ancient Greek text adding an article where none existed.
Jesus was neither “begotten” nor “born” of spiritual parents in heaven. His only birth was in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, just as Micah 5:2 says. Oh, yes, and He was not born in Jerusalem as one of the biblical unknowledgeable founders of one of these cults claimed.
