The idea of the preexistent divine Logos became the concept of the preexistence of the church, which included the view that the world was created for the sake of the church.
Even the New Testament's affirmations of Christ's preexistence had not sufficed to persuade some of his fully divine status (John 1 1 3; 1 Corinthians 8 6; Colossians 1 15 17).
1636 Plymouth, England November 4, 1680 Bath, England Joseph Glanvill, Glanvill also spelled Glanvil (born 1636, Plymouth, Devon, Eng. died Nov. 4, 1680, Bath, Somerset), English self-styled Skeptic and apologist for the Royal Society who defended the reality of witchcraft and ghosts and the preexistence of the soul.
(Origen believed in the preexistence of souls, but not in transmigration nor in the incorporation of rational souls in animal bodies).
Yet, before any theological reflection about the nature of that preexistence had been able to find terms and concepts, the early Christians were worshipping Christ as divine.
Two notions in particular played important roles: logos theology and preexistence.
Belief in the preexistence of Christ is indicated in various letters of the New Testament but particularly in the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, in which the Incarnation is presented as the emptying of Christ Jesus, who was by nature God and equal to God (i.e., the Father) but who took on the nature of a slave and was later glorified by God.
The Wisdom of Solomon, dating from the 1st century bce, shows an acquaintance with the Platonic doctrine of the preexistence of the soul and with a method of argument known as sorites, which was favoured by the Stoics (see Stoicism).
Probably the most-celebrated statement of the preexistence of Christ is the opening verses of the Gospel According to John.
What made the implication of preexistence more prominent in later Christian use of the term Son of God was the clarification of the doctrine of the Trinity, where Son was the name for the eternal Second Person (Matthew 28 19).
There are intimations of the concept of preexistence both in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the thought of Classical antiquity.
