Rebecca wrote: Medini,
As I understand Philo with regards to 'Logos' ... he speaks in terms of a cosmic, metaphysical influence, rather than a physical, bodily (human) manifestation of any sort. In fact, I thought Philo (as influenced by Plato) was of the opinion that the body was a tomb or sepulchre of the soul.

Malachi's response: Hi Rebecca, I see you nor the other Trinitarians could refute the fact that Paul in Colossians 1:15 said Jesus was created as does John in Revelations 3:14 I have read every anti JW book in our Christian book store here in NY and not one has been able to refute it. As a former Trinitarian I know it cannot be refuted.

Now back to the Church Fathers and history. Where were those who believed similarly to JWs in the late first and early second centuries? The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Macropaediak, Volume 16, page 282 tells us they were there long before Arius arrived. It states:

"Here Arius joined an older tradition of Christology, which had already played a role in Rome in the early 2nd century-namely, the so-called angel-Christology. The descent of the Son to Earth was understood as the descent to Earth of the highest prince of the angels, who became a man in Jesus Christ; he is to some extent identified with the angel prince Michael. In the old angel-Christolog the concern is alread expressed to preserve the oneness of God, the inviolable distinguishing mark of the Jewish and Christian faiths over against all paganism. The Son is not himself God, but as the highest of the created spiritual beings he is moved as close as possible to God: (italics mine)

As the encyclopedia brings out, this belief was already held by those in the first part of the second century, whose lives no doubt crossed the first century Christians. Now we know that persons with similar beliefts to JW's were around in the first and second centuries. We also see that persons who lived during the lifetime of the apostles apparently believed Jesus was the prince of angels, Michael the archangel.

Rebecca, now take a look at Proversbs 8:22 which states

"Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his
way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago.

The writings of such "early Church Fathers," as found in the volumes titled Ante-Nicene Fathers, or ANF, by Alexandre Roberts, D.D. and James Donaldson, LL.D. (1999 reprint) prove conclusively that those early church writers did apply Proverbs 8 to Jesus, and
repeatedly referred to Jesus as both the Word and the Wisdom of G-d.

Therefore, the application of Proverbs 8 to Jesus is not just some "new" teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Apostles also considered Jesus to be the Wisdom of G-d, and the earliest Christian writers picked up and carried forward this same theme.

So to sum things up, Jesus was created thus making it impossible for him to be G-d. After all the Bible tells us that our G-d is the G-d of Jesus.

Regards,
Malachi