The Only Begotten Son

Many texts describe the Son's begetting from the Father

Monogenes
The Greek word for "only begotten" is monogenes.
(monos=one, only; genes=genus, species, race, family, offspring, kind)
hence "one and only species" "one and only offspring" "one and only kind" "an only child"

This word only occurs 9 times in the NT; 5 times in the books of John it pertain to Jesus.
Every usage by John is in reference to Christ's Sonship: He is of the same genus as the Father.
He has the same divine nature. This was the argument made to counter Arianism.
Jerome (c.347-420) translated it to Latin unigenitum "only begotten" (generation, genealogy)

These three define monogenes as a parent's "only child". So does the fourth text:

Heb 11:17___Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac, his only begotten child

But Abraham also begot Ishmael; Isaac wasn't his "only" child in a technical sense.
Yet, God did not consider Ishmael a legitimate child of Abraham.
Isaac was the "only begotten" child of Abraham and Sarah.
Unique, special, a miracle baby? yes, but also literally begotten from Abraham.

Gen 22:2___Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest…

monogenes is translated "only begotten" by
KJV, Revised, American Standard, Douai-Rheims, Geneva, and Wycliffe Bible versions.
"For God louede so the world that He gaf His oon bigetun sone"

monogenes is translated "only" "one and only" "unique" by
NIV, RSV, Good News, International Standard, Jerusalem, Living Bible, Message,
New American, New English, and Tyndale Bible versions as "His only son"

Heb 1:4____[Christ] being made so much better than the angels

Jesus is the only Being ever begotten from God; and uniquely human-divine in nature.
Heb 1 addresses Christ in His divine nature; Heb 2: Christ in His human nature.
Phil 2:5-7 starts with Christ in His divine form, then Christ in His human form.

Our victory over sin is directly linked to our acceptance that Jesus is the Son of God

Was the Son really begotten?
If not, he was either created (the Arian doctrine still held by Jehovah Witnesses)
or assigned the title of Son, a figurative, symbolic metaphor applied to one of the Godhead.

Both alternatives impoverish the Father-Son relationship; both are sons in name only.
Creating a son is a poor substitute for the real thing; a created son is neither divine nor begotten.
The Arian alternative leaves the Son of God simply a divine Pinocchio.
A truly divine deity who plays make-believe Son likewise falls far short
of the intense personal ties held by a real Son and a real Father.
Arians cling to a created son in order to preserve the scriptural demands of monotheism: only one God.
Trinitarians sacrifice a real son in order to insure a co-eternal Godhead.
And belief in a co-equal Trinity forces the Godhead into simply assigning roles and responsibilities.
Some accept this position as was presented during the 1996 Week of Prayer:

"A plan of salvation was encompassed in the covenant made by the Three Persons of the Godhead, who possessed the attributes of Deity equally. In order to eradicate sin and rebellion from the universe and to restore harmony and peace, one of the divine Beings accepted, and entered into the role of the Father, another the role of the Son. The remaining divine Being, the Holy Spirit, was also to participate in effecting the plan of salvation." Gordon Jenson, Adventist Review Week of Prayer readings, Oct. 31, 1996, p. 12.

But the Bible presents much more than simple role-playing by a group of gods.
Scripture places such an emphasis on a real Son begotten by a real Father,
that if such a charade of artificial play acting is all that really exists,
these terms are nothing more than a cruel hoax.

Num 23:19__But "God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent."

Jesus had a lot to say about His Father and His relationship with Him.

This speaks of Christ. He is His Father's servant, His salvation. The second Adam is also the second Israel.
He comes forth out from the Father, called from the womb of the morning of time.
These references to a womb are in reference to time, certainly not God!
Personifying an abstraction makes this womb very much a methaphor
for when the Son was begotten-- at the birth of the dawn of time.
But it does not explain how. Both births, divine and human, are mysteries of Godliness.

John 15:1___I am the true Vine, and my Father is the gardener (husbandman). We are the branches.

We are branches from the Vine, Jesus. He was planted by, is tended to and nurtured by His Father.

Rom 11:16__If the root be holy, so are the branches

Likewise, if the Root (God the Father) be divine, so is the Branch (the Son of God)
The Gardener is greater than the Plant; and the Plant is greater than its branches.

But Jesus also came from the Father before His incarnation, before creation..

Prov 8:25___"Before the hills I was brought forth"

"And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. . . . When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." Proverbs 8:22-30." Patriarchs and Prophets p. 34

Though some reject the application of Proverbs 8 to Christ, Ellen White did not.
It is interesting, however, that she or her editors omitted in the ellipsis verses 24 and 25 "When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth". This remote time "before creation" is exhibited as evidence that God is from everlasting. But Ellen continued to quote Proverbs 8 and apply it to Christ without the ellipses.

Proverbs 8 may be discredited as only a personification of Wisdom, but the Bible indicates that

Two persons were involved in the creation of the world: a Father and Son.

Christ was the Son of God before He came to Earth

Christ, the Stone, comes from the Eternal, from the Divine Quarry of God Himself.

The Rock has a God, who is the God of the Rock

So we, too, are born from the Rock. We must be born again "cut out" from Him.

There exists a hierarchy of cascading relationships.

Christ comes from God; we come from Christ; woman comes from man.
The Rock is cut out of God; we are lively stones cut out of Christ.
Christ is the image of His Father; we are conformed to the Image of Christ.

The Son is the Branch
The Branch is used in Scripture to denote royal descent: Eze 17:6,12; Dan 11:7
Even as Jesus calls His followers "branches" from Him, the Vine, so He is the Branch from His Father.

If the Son truly was begotten, He is a literal Branch of God's own divine substance,
the Rock cut out without hands from the Mountain of God in the sides of the North
to form an express image of the Father, a real Son, just as eternal as the Mountain.

Both an Entitled Son and a Branch Son can be fully divine in nature, fully God.
But the first, the Entitled Son, is a son in name only, by proclamation, nomination, appointment…

The second, the Branch, is a true son, a true Vine, by virtue of His true birthright inheritance.

Heb 1:4___He "obtained a more excellent name by inheritance"

"Who is Christ? He is the only begotten Son of the living God. He is to the Father as a word that expresses the thought-as a thought made audible. Christ is the word of God… Christ was the likeness of God, the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person." Youth Instructor, June 28, 1894

"The Eternal Father, the unchangeable one, gave his only begotten Son, tore from his bosom Him who was made in the express image of his person, and sent him down to earth to reveal how greatly he loved mankind." Review and Herald, July 9, 1895

Heb 1:6 when he brings in the first begotten into the world …let all the angels of God worship him. "The dedication of the first-born had its origin in the earliest times. God had promised to give the First-born of heaven to save the sinner." EGW, Desire of Ages p. 51

When was the Son begotten?
There are several possibilities:

1. "Eternally begotten" The mystical Catholic position.
Desiring to retain both a begotten and an eternal Son, they make the begetting an eternal process.
But these are contradictory ideas: Eternal has no beginning; Begotten must have one.
So they teach "the Father eternally brings forth the Son in a continual birth" or emination.

2. Begotten in eternity. "This day" in the infinitely distant past "In the beginning," before creation.
"from the days of everlasting" before the creation of men and angels...
So far back in time, it is actually before time, i.e., within the confines of eternity past.
Somehow God "brought forth" part of Himself to become a Father and beget a Son.

3. At the incarnation, God's Spirit/Word begat the Son of God from divinity into humanity at Bethlehem
This view eliminates a pre-incarnation Son of God: He "shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35)
Before this Christ was the "Word", "the Angel of the Lord" or Michael, the Archangel

4. At the Resurrection. Begotten from mortality into immortality when God "raised up Jesus again" Acts 13:33 He then became "the first begotten of the dead" Rev 1:4

5. He was never really begotten. This is just an expression to convey an affectionate relationship.
God always existed but at some point decided to form mutualyl assigned relationships for Himself.
Part of God accepted the Father role, another the Son, and yet another the Spirit.

The Father-Son relationship might be diagrammed for each of these like this:

The Son at Bethlehem or Before?
In order to avoid a pre-incarnation begetting and "beginning" for Jesus,
some have solved the problem by not having a Son of God until He is born of Mary in Bethlehem.

Ellen White comments on this "dangerous error" in Great Controversy, 1888 p. 524:

"Another dangerous error, is the doctrine that denies the divinity of Christ, claiming that he had no existence before his advent to this world...it directly contradicts the plainest statements of our Saviour concerning his relationship with the Father, his divine character, and his pre-existence." "Before Christ came in the likeness of men, he existed in the express image of his Father." (reprinted in Youth's Instructor, December 20, 1900)

But this is not a case of "either or". Scripture states that the Son of God was begotten
1. Before the foundation of the world when He came out of and proceeded forth from God
2. As the babe in Bethlehem when the Word became flesh, and
3. From the tomb when God raised Him up, resurrecting Him from the dead.

Christ was already God's begotten Son when He was given and sent to this world.
God had a Son to give.

Born Twice
John 3:6____That which is born of flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again; we must have two births.

John 3:5____Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God

Scripture speaks of two births for man and the Word.
There is both a spiritual and physical aspect to these births.
First, when we enter this world, we are physically born of the flesh (mortal),
then, at the resurrection, we will be physically born of the Spirit (mortal shall put on immortality).
Next, when we accept Christ as Saviour, we are spiritually born into the body of Christ.
Then, at baptism, we die to self and are raised to newness of life, spiritually born of Christ's Spirit.

As we are born twice, the Word was born twice, but in reverse order from us.
Jesus was first physically born of the Spirit, then born of the flesh "made of a woman" (Gal 4:4)

Since our parents are flesh we are naturally born of flesh and we are flesh.
"that which is born of flesh is flesh"
We walk after the flesh, in captivity to the law of sin and death. (Rom 8:1,2; 7:23)

But since the Father is Spirit (John 4:24) Christ was naturally born of the Spirit. Consequently, He is spirit.
And Jesus, who was born of God, knew no sin. (2Cor 5:21)

Then, Jesus, who knew no sin, was born again, "born of a woman" (Gal 4:4) "made flesh" (John 1:14)
that He might "condemn sin in the flesh" (Rom 8:3) and "destroy the works of the devil" (1Jn 3:8)
Thus, He was first born of the Spirit (as the Son of God), then of the flesh (as the Son of man).
This double birth picture of Christ was commonly believed and published in the 1890s.

"As Christ was twice born,--once in eternity, the only begotten of the Father, and again here in the flesh, thus uniting the divine with the human in the second birth." W.W. Prescott RH April 14, 1896, Pg 232.

"He was born of the Holy Ghost. In other word, Jesus Christ was born again. He came from heaven, God's first-born, to the earth, and was born again." A.T. Jones Lessons on Faith, Aug. 1, 1899, Pg. 154.

"In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His incarnation He gained in a new sense the title of the Son of God. Said the angel to Mary, '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' (Luke 1:35). While the Son of a human being, He became the Son of God in a new sense. Thus He stood in our world--the Son of God, yet allied by birth to the human race." EGW, 1SM 226, 227

The Son is Born not Created
A creature is created by a creator from different materials and qualities than those of the creator.
A sculptor creates a piece of art out of clay or marble or bronze, not out of human flesh.

A son is born from a parent and has the same material, the same substance and qualities as the parent.
A human father has human descendents; the divine Father has a divine Son.

The testimony of the Bible is that Jesus was born not created.
He was begotten, He was born of God His Father.
But if He was born, He had a "beginning." How could He then be God?
First of all, as we have already noted, only one Being in the universe is the Supreme God of heaven.

But Jesus is the Son of God; He has the same divine nature as His Father.
He has within him the fullness of the Godhead because he came out of God his Father.
His God nature is no less divine than that of his Father,
as a rock is the same substance as the mountain.

Let's look at John 1:1 again.

John 1:1,2__In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

The italicized "the" shown here before the word "beginning" indicates it is a supplied word.
The KJV doesn't italicize it. But in the Greek there is no definite article:

Greek:

En arche .......en ..ho logos In beginning was the Word

Therefore, John is not speaking of a particular beginning, but a quality of original circumstances,
not a specific time, but some time before anything else or relative to everything else.
Also notice that in the Greek there is a definite "the" before the first occurrence of "God":

Greek

kai ho logos hen pros ton theon, and the Word was with the God

There were two beings at the beginning: "the" Word and "the" God.
The Word was "the eternal life" that later was made manifest, and incarnated in human flesh.

1Jn 1:2___The eternal life that was with the Father was made manifest to us.

The God that the Word was with is the Father.
But in the next phrase there is no definite article before "God."

Greek

kai theos hen ho logos. and God was the Word

Some attempt to capitolize on this to make this "theos" somehow less than the "ton theon".
But the Greek language uses such a construction to indicate not identity but quality.
The wording indicates that here "God" is a quality, "Godness", "divinity", God's nature.
Both the Logos Word and the Theon God have the same divine nature, theos;
theos was the Word, and obviously, so was God

The difference between identity and quality can be illustrated by the situation with Adam and Eve:
In the beginning was the woman, and the woman was with the man, and the woman was man.
Eve was with Adam, but she wasn't Adam, she was human.
So, while Jesus is not ton theon, God the Father, He is theos, the divine Son of God the Father.

Jesus used the same Greek word order without a definite article when referring to Judas.

John 6:70___ Jesus said, "One of you is a devil". The Greek syntax: "devil is one of you"

Jesus wasn't saying that Judas was Satan (if so He would have said "One of you is the devil")
Nor was He saying that Judas was a devil (if so He would have said "One of you is devil")
But Jesus used the same construction here that John does in chapter 1 (and God was the Word)
"Devil is one of you" expresses the idea that Judas was exhibiting the same qualities of the devil himself.

And if Christ was begotten by, born of, brought forth from God,
He is just as divine, has just as much theos Godness as His Father.
This qualifies Him to have the same nature as God, to receive the same honor and worship.

We, too, are children of God, sons and daughters of God.

Fathers and Children
Our inheritance is in Christ; Jesus' inheritance is in His Father.
We will be like Christ, as Christ is like His Father. 1John 3:2
We will sit with Jesus in His throne, as Jesus sits with His Father in His throne. Rev 3:21
Just because the Son of God might not be as old as God the Father, does not make Him any less divine.
Likewise, a human son is no less human than his father just because he is younger.

6th century Greek hymnographer, Romanos the Melodist, wrote a song commemorating the nativity:

"He who was born before dawn, from Father without mother,
today without father, has been made flesh from you"

"The Son of God shared the Father's throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both …Before the assembled inhabitants of heaven the King declared that none but Christ, the Only Begotten of God, could fully enter into His purposes, and to Him it was committed to execute the mighty counsels of His will. The Son of God had wrought the Father's will in the creation of all the hosts of heaven; and to Him, as well as to God, their homage and allegiance were due." Patriarchs and Prophets p. 36

But maybe the Son can be considered just as old as the Father.
In the Bible, a begotten or born son can even be considered to have existed before his birth!

Heb 7:9,10___Levi paid tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him

Levi is given credit for paying tithe even though he was not yet born!
What was Levi's beginning? Before his great grandfather had begotten his grandfather!

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was created from nothing and had a beginning.
Trinitarians believe that Jesus was neither created nor literally born as an event in time
But the Bible teaches that the Son of God was begotten of His Father and, as such, is also eternal.

The KJV says "beginning of the creation of God." This is misleading.
Arche is not first in time sequence, but first in rank and status.as in Archangel, Archbishop, Archenemy.
We use the term "First Lady" to indicate the highest ranking woman in the land;
not that the President's wife was the first woman to come to America.
Jesus was not created; He was begotten, born of God, cut out without hands.
Because He is the only Son begotten from God, He is not only first in rank but also first ever.

"…not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person…" EGW, Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895

Continued: The Eternal Son