How can Jesus have a beginning and still be God?

Answer

We must always keep in mind the consistent Bible testimony that there is only one God:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” Deuteronomy 6:4,

“Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.” Deuteronomy 4:35

“And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he” Mark 12:32

“Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.” Galatians 3:20

This one God is God the Father:

“Father…And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:1, 3

“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” 1 Corinthians 8:6

The Father is God, He is fully divine, and He never had a beginning. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2). He is the One great Source of all things and is above all (Ephesians 4:6).

Jesus is God (possessing the divine nature) by inheritance (Heb.1:4; John 5:26; John 5:18). His Father is the great Source of all, and being His Son Christ inherited all things from His Father (His nature, His character, His name, His Spirit, His life…etc.) Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy tell us that He is divine by inheritance.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?” Hebrews 1:1-5

Commenting on these verses we read from the Spirit of Prophecy:

“God is the Father of Christ; Christ is the Son of God. To Christ has been given an exalted position. He has been made equal with the Father. All the counsels of God are opened to His Son… The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. They are one in purpose, in mind, in character, but not in person. It is thus that God and Christ are one.” {Testimonies Volume 8, p. 268, 269}

“All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father's life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 21.2}

The fact that Christ is the Son of God (being begotten of Him) is the key to understanding Christ’s exalted and equal position with the Father. He is so because this is how He was begotten; possessing all these divine attributes.

“Christ was the Son of God; He had been one with Him before the angels were called into existence. He had ever stood at the right hand of the Father; His supremacy, so full of blessing to all who came under its benignant control, had not heretofore been questioned. The harmony of heaven had never been interrupted; wherefore should there now be discord?” {Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 38, 39}

Elsewhere we are told:

“"God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,"-- 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, and in all the brightness of his majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” {ST, May 30, 1895 par. 3}

Christ not having a beginning does not make Him any more divine, for His divinity is not dependant on time or on His ‘age’, if we can use such terminology. It is dependent on Him being begotten by the only true God. This fact makes Him the divine Son of God; it is this fact that entitles Him to the inheritance He received, which includes His divinity. To insist that Christ had no beginning does not add to His dignity or status. Christ is who He is, not because He has no beginning, but because He was begotten of God.

Both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy are clear on this point. The divine sonship of Christ is what makes Him who He is.

“The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 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:” Proverbs 8:22-25

“Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” John 8:42 (Notice the two separate actions)

“For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.” John 17:8

(Notice the two separate actions)

“And although we may try to reason in regard to our Creator, how long He has had existence, where evil first entered into our world, and all these things, we may reason about them until we fall down faint and exhausted with the research when there is yet an infinity beyond.” {7BC 919.5}

And commenting on John 8:58 we are told:

“Here Christ shows them that, although they might reckon His life to be less than fifty years, yet His divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures.” {ST, May 3, 1899 par. 4}

If Ellen White did not believe Jesus to be born in eternity why would she state such a question as “how long He has had existence”, or why would she say his existence “is not measured by figures”? She simply told us that we will never be able to comprehend the length of His existence. Why? Because He was begotten in eternity, before even time was created.

The Pioneers of the SDA church made some insightful comments regarding this point:

““Every member of the human family, except Adam, has had parents, and every one has had beginning of days; and indeed, with two exceptions, everyone has had end of life. Even the angels of God have all had beginning of days, so that they would be as much excluded by this language as the members of the human family. And as to the Son of God, he would be excluded also, for he had God for his Father, and did, at some point in the eternity of the past, have beginning of days.” {J. N. Andrews, Review & Herald, September 7, 1869}

““God alone is without beginning. At the earliest epoch when a beginning could be, - a period so remote that to finite minds it is essentially eternity, - appeared the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1. This uncreated Word was the Being, who, in the fulness of time, was made flesh, and dwelt among us. His beginning was not like that of any other being in the universe. It is set forth in the mysterious expressions, “his [God’s] only begotten Son” (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14), and, “I proceeded forth and came from God.” John 8:42. Thus it appears that by some divine impulse or process, not creation, known only to Omniscience, and possible only to Omnipotence, the Son of God appeared. And then the Holy Spirit (by an infirmity of translation called “the Holy Ghost”), the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the divine afflatus and medium of their power, representative of them both (Ps. 139:7), was in existence also.” {U. Smith, Looking Unto Jesus, p. 10. 1898}

“In arguing the perfect equality of the Father and the Son, and the fact that Christ is in very nature God, we do not design to be understood as teaching that the Father was not before the Son. It should not be necessary to guard this point, lest some should think that the Son existed as soon as the Father; yet some go to that extreme, which adds nothing to the dignity of Christ, but rather detracts from the honor due him, since many throw the whole thing away rather than accept a theory so obviously out of harmony with the language of Scripture, that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. He was begotten, not created. He is of the substance of the Father, so that in his very nature he is God; and since this is so 'It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.' Col. 1:19...While both are of the same nature, the Father is first in point of time. He is also greater in that he had no beginning, while Christ's personality had a beginning.” {E. J. Waggoner, Signs of the Times, April 8, 1889}

There is a harmony seen here through the Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy and the Pioneer position regarding Christ. They taught that He was fully divine by virtue of His inheritance (being the only begotten Son).