As the European Association for Biblical Studies is meeting in Wuppertal, Germany, I am contributing to the research group “Biblical Theological Investigations into the Attributes of God”.
Early Christianity identified the historical incarnate Jesus with God’s pre-historic agent of creation. He existed as creator God before he came to earth and also became man.
This is reflected in the New Testament (John 1:1-14, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:1-3), but is also a core element of early ecumenical creed, confirmed by the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople.
This doctrine gives a basis for theodicy in its premise that the present natural world should not be identified with original creation. This video argues that the early Christian identification of Jesus with the pre-existent agent of creation is consistent with a direct “Genesis-style” creation, designating present detrimental processes as a post-creation interference.
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