"I Was in the Beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn."

     "I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn."  Is not that "Firstborn" incompatible with the idea of the eternity of the Christ-Intelligence?  Who from the beginning was with God, and was God?  Why "Firstborn"?  It can be no other than this:  That mighty, self-existent, Intelligence, which was the "Word," and was in the beginning with God, the Father, was begotten a spirit; and in the order of our earth, and the spirit intelligences connected and associated with it, was the "firstborn" of the spirits the "firstborn" of many brethren; (Romans 8:29) and the Christ illustrates what takes place with all intelligent entities of the divine human species.  Intelligences are begotten spirits, and these spirits no doubt are more definite personalities, and of greater tangibility, and possessed of higher powers than many suppose them to be.  It is written in Hebrews that God had revealed himself to men through the Son, "who was the bightness of his glory, and the express image of this person...by whom also he made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2-3).  This making of worlds, was previous to the earth life of the Christ, and hence was a work accomplished when he was a spirit personage, in which spirit life he was the "Firstborn."  See Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:6; Romans 8:29; Acts 17:26-28

B. H. Roberts

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