JoenB75 wrote: Most of the
watchtower quoted verses are taken out of their context. We would use language
in the same way today. “Everybody” came to the show. If you want to use the same criteria for
creation and salvation be my guest. Matt 10:22 “you will be hated by everyone”
must be limited to those the believer came across and in general the Christians
were hated. But the context shows exceptions to “everyone”, namely the one
being spoken to. Genesis 3:20? Genesis 3:15. Context. Creation is sustained
through Christ (again, Colossians 1:16-20).
The author of Colossians never stated that Jesus is God almighty. He did say however, that "God was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1:3) He added that Christ was "the image of the invisible God" (1:15); that "God was pleased that have all the fullness to dwell in him [Christ]." (Col 1.19) If Christ was God, would he have any need for someone else in the universe fill him up with the immensity of wisdom and divineness? (Compare Col 1.19 with 2:9,10)
Christ is further described to be "seated at the right hand of God."
(3:1) Someone "seated at the right hand of God" cannot be one and the
same as God, who is at the center of it all. Chapter one tells us that "all things [Greek: panta] have been created through Christ and for him." (Col 1.16)
Was the author of these words pushing the idea that Christ is God? Not according to Paul, who wrote both Colossians and the epistles to the Corinthians. Paul, writing as a Jew, knew very well that Christ's gained lofty position would never overtake God's position as Sovereign Lord, as some posters imply here.
Paul wrote: “But when it says that ‘everything’ has been subjected [to Christ], obviously the word [pánta] does not include God, who is himself the one subjecting everything to the Messiah.” (1 Cor. 15:27, Complete Jewish Bible)
Please take notice that the biblical author used the same Greek word in this verse as he did in the controversial passage at Colossians chapter one. What does this mean? Simply that the biblical authors of the Bible frequently assigned to the Greek "panta" the same meaning we moderns give to the word "all" or "everything." In other words, "all" is often used as a hyperbole, an exaggeration. It is like someone saying, "everybody loves football," which is not true, since some individuals want nothing to do with sports. In this example, "everybody" means "many," not "all" individually.
According to Paul, the word "all," when used of Christ, does not include God in the description. God is the ultimate exception to the greatness of Christ. No wonder Christ himself stated that ‘his Father, God, was greater than him.’ (John 14.28)
The rejection of the doctrine of "docetism" (= the belief that his human form on earth was an illusion) can be done entirely without enforcing the concept that Christ is uncreated. Paul does not provide any evidence that the rejection of docetism must require the belief that Christ was uncreated. On the contrary, he makes clear that Christ was "the firstborn of all creation," which in normal language (without seeing this through trinitarian glasses) is taken to mean, like the apostle John did, that he was "the beginning of the creation by God." (Rev 3.14)