The Greek word for creation ktizó (ktid’-zo) was often used by the ancient Greeks to refer to the “founding” of governing bodies and authorities. This is clearly the meaning of Paul when he addressed the creation of thrones, rulers, authorities, and dominions in Christ before their actual existence in human history (Colossians 1:16).
Wherefore, in God’s miraculous foreknowledge, He founded all thrones, rulers, authorities, and dominions of all human history before the human ages actually began. In Isaiah 37:26, Yahweh spoke His prophetic Word against Senacherib through Isaiah saying, “Have you not heard? LONG AGO I DID IT. NOW HAVE I BROUGHT IT TO PASS that you (Senacherib) should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.”
God clearly said, “I did it”, in that He pre- created Senarcherib (in His predestined plan) to turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. Although God foreknew and foreordained Senacherib’s reign as King, He later “brought it to pass” after Senacherib was born.
This is precisely what God meant in Isaiah 41:4, “Who has performed and accomplished it, CALLING FORTH THE GENERATIONS FROM THE BEGINNING?” The Scriptures clearly state that God already spoke His Word by “calling forth all (human) generations from the beginning (of creation – Ephesians 1:4)” before those human generations actual began.
Isaiah is very clear about the foreordained pre-creation of all things in heaven and earth before heaven and earth was actually created. “I WILL PLACE the Juniper in the desert together with the box tree and the cypress … the hand of Yahweh HAS DONE THIS and the Holy One of Israel HAS CREATED IT.” Isaiah 41:19-20 Notice that God said, “I WILL PLACE” trees in the desert in the future but then God goes on to say that He already “HAS DONE THIS and (already) … HAS CREATED IT” before He actually did it!
The scriptural evidence clearly proves that God preplanned all of His creation just like a human builder first creates a detailed plan through his preconception before he actually builds or creates anything. Since Romans 4:17 states that “God calls the things which be not as though they were,” we can see that in God’s prophetic mind, God is able to speak of things already created and accomplished before they actually came into existence.
In this light we can understand how God already spoke as if God’s elect were already known before they were actually born. Thus God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I KNEW YOU (Jer. 1:5).” For in God’s heavenly blueprint (in His predestined plan,) the names of God’s elect were already written in the Lamb’s book of life before the creation of the world (Rev. 17:8).
The pre-creation of the Son of God and of God’s elect was also known by many of the earliest Christians. Many scholars believe that The Shepherd of Hermas was written within the first century because the book itself says that some of the apostles were still alive when it was written (Hermas Vision 3:5). Hermas of Rome claimed divine revelation when he wrote that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit who became the human Son of God and that the Son of God and God’s elect (the Church) were “CREATED FIRST OF ALL (Vision 2:4).”
The Shepherd of Hermas, Parable 5:6 says, “The pre-existent Holy Spirit which created all things did God make to dwell in a body of flesh chosen by himself. This flesh, in which dwelt the Holy Spirit, served the Spirit well in all purity and all sanctity without ever inflicting the least stain upon it.”
The Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9:1 says, “After I had written down the commandments and similitudes of the Shepherd, the Angel of repentance, he came to me and said, ‘I wish to explain to you what the Holy Spirit that spoke with you in the form of the Church showed you, for that Spirit is the Son of God.’” In Vision 2:4, Hermas also wrote of the church as, “an old woman … because … SHE WAS CREATED FIRST OF ALL. On this account she is old. And for her sake was the world made.” (Vision 2:4).
In Similitude 9:1, Hermas identified the woman who spoke “in the form of the church” as the “Spirit of the Son of God.” “‘I wish to explain to you what the Holy Spirit that spoke with you in the form of the Church showed you, for that Spirit is the Son of God.’”
Similitude 9:1 Since the woman is symbolic of both the church (God’s elect) and the Son of God (Similitude 9:1), Similitude 9:1-12 proves that the Son could not have personally existed as a Son because the woman spoken of in Similitude 9:1-12 was symbolic of both the Son and God’s Church (ecclesia-God’s elect “people”) being “created first”. Since we know that God’s elect were not literally “created first” before they were born, we know that the Son was not literally created as a Son before his literal birth in Bethlehem.
For “He chose us in him (in the Son) before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). Therefore the early Christians believed that the Son of God along with God’s elect (His Church) were “created first of all” in God’s expressed thought (in His Logos) before the Just as God foreknew and preplanned all of His creation before the creation actually took place, so God foreknew that He would send His only begotten Son before His Son was actually born and sent.
Acts 2:23 says, “… this man (Jesus), was delivered over by the predetermined PLAN and FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD …”
“I WILL BE a Father to him, and he WILL BE a son to Me.” Hebrews 1:5 / 2 Samuel 7:14
“He chose us IN HIM (Jesus) before the creation of the world.” Ephesians 1:4
“For IN HIM all things were created …” Colossians 1:16
Since God’s elect were already “chosen in him (Jesus) before the creation of the world,” we know that all things were pre-created in Jesus in God’s predestined plan before the world was actually created.
“We have obtained an inheritance, HAVING BEEN PREDESTINED according to THE PLAN OF HIM who works all things after the council of His own will.” Ephesians 1:11
Creation is not always used in scripture to refer to the creation in the Genesis week of creation. Ephesians 2:10 states that God’s elect are His “workmanship created in Christ Jesus.” To be “in Christ” means that God’s elect are and were already in Christ Jesus before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has passed away behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
2 Corinthians 5:17 proves that God’s elect who are “in Christ” are “new creations.” Ephesians 1:4 states that God’s elect were already chosen in Christ before the creation of the world.
Colossians 1:16 states that “in him (Christ)” all things were already created before all human ages began. It is in this sense that “… in him (Christ) all things were created, in the heavens and on earth, whether thrones, lordships, authorities, or dominions.”
In Colossians 1:16-20, Paul is referring to the reconciliation of “all things whether in heaven or earth,” in and through Christ Jesus rather than the actual creation of the heavens and the earth.
In Ephesians 1:9-10 Paul also wrote, “In all wisdom and insight [God] made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in [Christ] unto the administration of the fullness of the times to the Heading up of all things in Christ, both in the heavens and things on the earth.”
Notice the use of the words for creation in Colossians 1:16 “For in him all things were created: THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH” with the words for creation in Ephesians 1:9-10 “…the administration of the times (ages) to the heading up of all things in Christ, both IN THE HEAVENS AND THINGS ON THE EARTH.”
The only true God the Father purposed to administrate and sum up the “things in the heavens and the things on the earth“, in and through Christ before the world was actually created.
“The hope of eternal life was promised before the world (human ages) began.” Titus 1:2 Ephesians 3:8-11 states, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been HIDDEN IN GOD who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might NOW BE MADE KNOWN … according to THE PURPOSE OF THE AGES which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 3:9-11 proves that God had already accomplished His purpose in Christ before the actual creation took place. For from the very beginning of creation, Jesus was always God’s intended purpose for the existence of all human ages before the ages actually existed. Colossians 1:18 “He himself WILL COME TO HAVE THE FIRST PLACE IN EVERYTHING.”
Paul’s statement in Colossians 1:18 would not make any sense whatsoever in the context of a Genesis act of creation. If Jesus pre-existed his birth as an alleged coequal and coeternal son person then how could he be said to “come to have the first place in everything?” The Creator as the Creator does not “COME TO BE FIRST” among His own creation. This statement only makes sense if Jesus was promoted as a human Son to be the first among all things.
Within the context of this passage, it should be obvious that Jesus will come to be first in all things because He was already “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15) in God prophetic plan. Likewise, Colossians 1:18 says that Jesus is “… the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” in God’s prophetic plan before the ages began. An alleged coequal and coeternal God the Son could not have had a “beginning” if he had always existed as a Son throughout eternity past.
In God’s logos (His expressed thought), Jesus was God’s first conceived thought as “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15) but Jesus will not actually “come to have the first place in everything” until he actually fulfills God intention for him to possess “dominion and glory” over all humanity (Daniel 7:13-14).
Wherefore, it is clear that Colossians 1:15-18 could not be addressing the actual creation of all things through the Son because Jesus as a Son is the one who “will come to be first in all things” in fulfillment of God’s intended purpose before creation. For Jesus as the Son of God could not have created all things as the Son because an alleged God the Son could not have been the Creator while also coming “to be the first in all things.”
Wherefore, the Genesis creation week was not what Paul was addressing in Colossians 1:15- 18. Paul was addressing the foreordained pre-creation of all things in heaven and on earth and God’s eternal purpose that everything would be summed up in Christ Jesus to fulfill God’s purpose and plan for the ages.
NOTE: I am addressing the scriptures dealing with the full and complete humanity of Jesus but I’m not saying that Jesus did not preexist as the “Mighty God” and “Eternal Father (Isaiah 9:6).”
“For this man has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone but HE WHO BUILT ALL THINGS IS GOD.” Heb. 3:3-4
Jesus preexisted his birth as God the Father who created all things but not as a Son! For Hebrews 2:7 cites Psalm 8:5-6 to inform us that God the Father alone created all things to be ruled by Christ.
“You made him a little lower than the angels, You crowned him with glory and honor. You made him TO RULE OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS.” Psalm 8:5-6
Jesus as a Son was “MADE” “TO RULE OVER THE WORKS” of the Father’s “HANDS.” Therefore, Jesus as a Son did not create anything! For He who became the Son was God the Father who alone created all things before He entered into a new existence as a Son. Wherefore, the Father alone created all things by the works of His hands (Isaiah 64:8 / Isaiah 44:24) but the Son as a Son could not have created anything because the Son is the man who was born at Bethlehem.