Did the Son of God exist before His incarnation?

Question:

I hope you don’t think I want to stress you out or make fun of you, because I think that through your answers you seek to speak primarily to those who do not know God. And I, who am raised in a family of believers and always seek to maintain a correct relationship with God, now ask you the 3rd or 4th question and I have allowed myself to contradict you when it seemed to me that you didn’t make a correct argument. Trying to understand the Jehovah’s Witnesses and trying to prove the trinity to myself in the first place, I came across several things, and I think that the answer to the following question is not useful only to me. What birth is mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “You are My Son, today I gave birth to You”? And I quote what someone said on a forum: “They established the paradoxical, but totally unbiblical thesis, that the Son already existed in heaven as an individual divine person and that the pre-existing Son was then born on earth. Where is this written in the Bible? Of course, nowhere! [… ..] It is often argued that the Son was sent, without it being understood that the Son was before the Word, the Logos. It is not written: “In the beginning was the Son…”, but: “In the beginning was the Word… And the Word became flesh.”  So it can be said that in a certain sense the Son did not exist before the incarnation? That is, did the Word become the Son only after the birth of the virgin? Thank you and God bless you. 

It is an aberration and impudence for someone to make the false statement that there is nowhere in the Bible that the Lord Jesus Christ existed before He took human flesh and that the Lord Jesus and the Word (Logos) are different persons. Let’s see what the Bible says. 

The Gospel of John 1:1-18 

Read this passage carefully and write down the keyword “Word” and all its synonyms (you will soon see that the word “Jesus Christ” is synonymous with the word “Word”) and then make a list of everything you learn about the Word. 

 “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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it. A man came, one sent from God, and his name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. This was the true Light that, coming into the world, enlightens every person. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and yet the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John *testified about Him and called out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who is coming after me has proved to be my superior, because He existed before me.’” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:1-18 NASB)

Here are two important things we need to learn from this text: 

1. The Word and Jesus Christ are one and the same person. There are not two different people. John the Baptist testified of the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not make two separate confessions, one about the Word and one about Jesus Christ. This Word that became flesh is Jesus Christ. 
2. The word, that is, Jesus Christ, existed before the world was created because all things were made through Him, and nothing that was made was made without Him. There are no exceptions. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews 1 

And in this text God says that Jesus Christ existed before the foundation of the world and that He is the agent of creation: 

 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.  (Hebrews 1:1-2 NASB)

Colossians 1:13-17

This text makes clear the difference between Jesus who was born and the whole creation, that is, the creation whose agent He was. 

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:  for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:13-17 NASB)

Scripture does not say when Jesus Christ was born and we cannot penetrate this divine mystery with our human thinking, but we must receive it by faith as God left it written in the Holy Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creation, and through Him were made all things that are in heaven and on earth. He is (did not appear, but is) before all things. And as we can see, this text is about one Jesus Christ, not two separate individuals, as Jehovah’s Witnesses say. May God keep us from all false teachings and help us cling to the truth of the Holy Scriptures. 

Translated by Nicoleta Vicliuc