When Was God’s Son Born?

Well I’ll give you a clue about this question, from the scriptures: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not" (Jn. 1:10). And again: ” … which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9). And for confirmation we have this: “God, … Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son … by whom also he made the worlds" (Heb. 1:1,2). To be certain that God had a Son before Bethlehem, we have this ancient prophecy ABOUT the birth in Bethlehem: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2). It is clear that if God did not have a Son before the child Jesus was born, he could not have made all things by him, nor could the child born in Bethlehem have been “from everlasting.” The apostle Paul understood that Jesus was begotten by the Father in heaven before anything or anyone else ever existed: “ … Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Col. 1:15-17). And the apostle continued that train of thought with this: "And he is the head of the body, the [congregation]: who IS THE BEGINNING, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18).

This is the same understanding that inspired these famous words from the apostle John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). I might note here that being “the firstborn of every creature” does not signify that the Son was ‘created,’ but rather he is the firstborn in terms of inheritance. ‘Begotten’ means he was always in the Father in terms of substance. ‘Created’ signifies something that simply did not exist in any form until it was ‘made.’ The Son of God is also God because he came forth purely from the Father’s very being and substance, unlike any of the creation. He could be nothing but God in fact. It was God’s Son that he was speaking to when he said, “Let there be light,” etc. And it was the Son to whom he spoke these words: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). Jesus spoke plainly of the reality that his father sent him into the world (Jn. 3:17; Jn. 10:36). Also Jesus is referred to, and referred to himself as "the only begotten Son of God.” What this means is that Jesus is the only being to ever be begotten, or born, directly of God’s substance. In fact everyone and everything else was created by the Son, as we have already seen. And though everyone who has received God’s Spirit is a child of God, there are none who have literally come wholly out of the Father, except for the only begotten Son whom he sent for us. So the answer to the question is that whenever the Son of God was born, one thing is certain: It is before anything or anyone else existed, except of course the Father. God bless.